The dissertation concerns a person's subjective perception of responsibility in the clinical setting: its developmental origins, various aspects of it, and its intra- and interpersonal implications. The motivation behind this project was work in a therapeutic community and the role of work activity which demanded a definition of responsibility as a clinically relevant concept. It is a concept that has been largely overlooked - most of mainstream psychological interventions today focus on changing symptoms, rather than on developing a client's sense of responsibility. I considered different meanings of the term, representing a number of theoretical perspectives: ethical, developmental, legal, socio-psychologicakajid" psychodynamic. I linked Melanie Klein's theory of object relations with common understandings of responsibility, and discovered that a Kleinian approach integrates them into single maturational process. A Kleinian formulation also provides with ideas on how to facilitate the transformation from less mature 'modes' of responsibility into more mature ones, particularly through the process called reparation and through inducing hope. Two main aims of the dissertation are: a) to operationalize the notion of responsibility; and b) to develop a practical way of assessing its dynamics systematically. The dissertation therefore consists of two parts: theoretical - suggesting an integrative model of respon- sibility based on Kleinian theory (I call it the structure of responsibility), and empirical - a proposal and assessment of an instrument measuring three identified dimensions of responsibility: locus, valence and time orientation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:573064 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Cieplinski, J. M. |
| Publisher | University of Essex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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