Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas Woman's University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 230-242).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1985. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 291-298). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2008. / Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 30, 2013. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-41)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 30, 2013. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-41)

“What does a hug mean in counselling practice?” In this autoethnographic research, I explore the role and implications of physical touch in therapeutic practice. Researchers argue that the use of hugs is controversial, as the fields of counselling and psychotherapy do not provide either a culture in which physical touch is regarded to be an appropriate therapeutic tool or where it is suitably introduced via generalised training that best prepares professionals to appropriately apply touch in practice. Yet, I argue that the reasons behind practitioners' potential struggle with the use of touch are much more complex and involve both the personal and professional spheres. In this qualitative study, I utilise autoethnography as my research method which illuminates the dynamics between my own sociocultural values, my personal relationship with my mother and my professional experience with a counselling client who requested a hug. I also employ poetry and storytelling as I argue that these creative methods assist me to recollect, analyse and present difficult memories, which implies that reflective practice helps to reveal potential issues that may arise in our interaction with therapeutic clients. By doing so, I demonstrate how these interactions formed and deformed my subjective notion of what it means to hug a client in a therapeutic context and show how the meaning and use of touch is significantly influenced by both sociocultural factors and subjective experiences. Thus my research illustrates that a practitioner’s potential struggle with the use of physical touch in practice can be a symptom of dissonance between his/her professional and subjective perceptions of and experience with touch. This autoethnographic study aims to show psychotherapists and counsellors how they may better understand the use of touch in professional practice by reflecting on their own personal and socio-cultural experiences with physical contact in various contexts.

M.Com. (Industrial Psychology) / Traditional experimental psychology and cognitive science have regarded the mind as an abstract information processor that places little importance on the connections to the surrounding environment (Bilda, Candy, & Edmonds, 2007). Contemporary research into the functioning of the mind, however, has discovered the essential role that the body plays in constructing perceptual and mental processes. This is known as embodied cognition, which holds that cognitive processes and even intelligence are deeply embedded in the body’s interactions with the environment, as a result of sensory motor activity (Barsalou, 2008; Jostmann, Lakens, & Schubert, 2009; Smith & Gasser, 2005; Wilson, 2002). As such, even haptic sensations such as touch could have an effect on the way individuals perceive and process information. Touch may even have an effect on the way people judge themselves (Ackerman, Nocera, & Bargh, 2010). This is the focus of the current study. The work of Ackerman and et al. (2010) is a recent and seminal study that also provides the guidance for this particular study, which aims to determine whether haptic sensations (in particular the touch sensation of the physical questionnaire) have an effect on the self-judgements of individuals completing a personality questionnaire. In this chapter the following will be considered: the background and rationale for the study; a problem statement presented in the form of a research question; research objectives; and an overview of the metatheory that forms the basis of the study. The latter will also be linked to the rationale of this study.

No description available.

You can only perceive the location of a touch when you know where your hands are in space. Locating a touch to the body requires the integration of internal (somatotopic) and external (spatial) reference frames. In order to explore the relative contribution of internal versus external information, this thesis employed a crossed-hands tactile temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. This task requires participants to indicate which of two vibrations, one to each hand, occurred first. The magnitude of the deficit observed when the hands are crossed over the midline provides an index into how internal and external reference frames are integrated. This thesis first showed that the crossed-hands tactile TOJ task is a reliable measure, supporting its use as a measure of reference frame integration. Next, this thesis applied a probabilistic model to theoretically estimate the weights placed on the internal and external reference frames. We showed that a bias towards external information results in a larger external weight and vice versa for internal information. Finally, using the model we showed that the crossed-hands deficit is reduced while lying down, supporting an influence of vestibular information on the external reference frame. Taken together, this thesis highlights that we are able to flexibly adapt the weighting of different spatial representations of touch. / Thesis / Doctor of Science (PhD) / Determining the boundary of our body requires we localize the touches to our body. When the body moves and interacts with the world this determination becomes more difficult. Integrating information from other senses can support the localization of touch, and thus knowledge of our body. For example, to locate a touch to your right hand, you must feel the touch on your right hand, but also determine where your right hand is located in space. This thesis shows that the contributions of each sense to locate a touch is consistent within an individual and remains consistent over time. Interestingly, based on the availability of each sense, we flexibly adapt their contributions to ensure that our ability to locate the touch remains unchanged. What we define as our body is constructed based on the information available in the present moment.

No description available.