▼ As an insider-action research project, there are really two projects at work in this study (Coghlan & Brannick, 2010)—the core project and the dissertation project. The aim of the core project is to promote organizational change for my organization, the Women’s Center, by facilitating the first iteration of a participatory evaluation with our partners, the department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. The dissertation project aims to contribute to the counseling field by demonstrating the usefulness of an Ecological Counseling Perspective (EP) as a theoretical framework and action research as a methodology in promoting social justice. In order to facilitate a deep contextual analysis, the study focuses on one particular university, the University of Cincinnati, and examines the interrelationships of individuals, organizations, and the institution in making meaning of our specific institutional location in our efforts to create change. Data were collected from my research journal, one-on-one interviews with staff and faculty, and a group reflection. To guide the data analysis, I used grounded theory and draw on the notion of “third space” to make sense of our paradoxical location—situated within the very system we (and here, I mean professional feminists, action researchers, and social justice counselors) seek to change. Using an EP framework, I demonstrate how this third space occupation plays out on individual, organizational, and collective levels and explore the unique implications of this process for our organizations and institution. Data suggest that in our third space location, we are both resistant to and complicit in perpetuating institutional status quo. I argue that all change agents necessarily occupy third space and that to be effective and strategic, this third space occupation must be continuously recognized and activated. This holds true for individual change agents, organizations, and collectives/communities. Promising strategies are suggested for how to engage in such awareness and activation. Advisors/Committee Members: Brydon-Miller, Mary.

▼ The counseling profession continues to make progress in establishing a unified counseling identity, a goal that will lead to multiple benefits for professional counselors and the clients they serve. Counselor educators who train future counselors have a fundamental impact on counseling students’ developing professional identity. However, little research exists regarding the professional identity of counselor educators. Within the fields of nursing, medicine, pharmacy, occupational therapy and dentistry, academic clinical practice has been studied and recognized as an important component in professional identity. Similarly, within psychology, the scientist-practitioner model maintains that an emphasis on both clinical practice and research will result in more effective training of new psychologists, while allowing science to inform their work with clients. The present mixed method study investigated the prevalence of counseling faculty clinical practice and how practicing and non-practicing counselor educators understand and construct their professional identity. Of 138 surveyed counselor educators, 66.7% reported that they have engaged in clinical practice while a faculty member with an average of 8.35 years in practice (SD = 9.49). Participants also indicated that 48.6% currently spend time in clinical practice. Faculty rank (p < .01), holding a PC license (p < .001), and number of years in the mental health field (p < .05) were all significantly related to clinical practice while serving as a faculty member. Holding a psychology license was significantly related (p < .024) to currently occurring clinical practice. Qualitative interview data of six self-selected participants revealed five themes related to counselor educators’ understanding and construction of their professional identities: (a) mentoring and supervisory relationships both during and after master’s and/or doctoral training had a profound impact on the participants’ views of themselves as professionals; (b) counselor educators holding counselor education doctoral degrees articulated a stronger counselor professional identity; (c) counselor educators primarily identified themselves as educators, which they clearly distinguished from practitioners; (d) participants expressed varying types of frustration regarding the counseling profession’s struggle with professional identity issues; and (e) the word, counselor, held very different meanings for each participant. Advisors/Committee Members: Yager, Geoffrey.

▼ The current study explored relationships among religiosity, forgiveness, perceived institutional support, and psychological wellness, using positive psychology and the ecological counseling approach as the theoretical framework. There were two hypotheses tested in the current study. The first hypothesis was that there would be differences between a public and religious-affiliated school on measures of character strength, perception of institution, and psychological wellness. The second hypothesis was that religiosity and forgiveness influenced psychological wellness with perceived institutional support as a mediating variable. The Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory (McCullough, Rachal, Sandage, Worthington, Brown, & Hight, 1998) was used to measure the tendency to avoid or seek revenge from a person who has harmed them. The Modified Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiosity/ Spirituality (Fetzer Institute, 1999) was used to measure participants’ active involvement in religious beliefs and practices. A Positive Institution Inventory was created by the researcher to measure participants’ perception of their institution to enable their character strengths. The Psychological Well-Being Scales (Ryff, 1995) were employed to collect participants’ evaluation of their own psychological health, specifically in the following areas: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations, purpose in life, and self acceptance. The instruments were administered to 172 undergraduate students from two Midwestern universities, one public and the other religious-affiliated. Chi-square test results revealed significant gender and class disproportionality between the public and religious-affiliated schools. Therefore, a two-way between groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact of gender and school (i.e. public vs. religious-affiliated) on levels of religiosity, forgiveness, positive institution, and wellness subscales. There were no significant interactions or main effects found significant. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationship among predicting variables (forgiveness & religiosity) and the outcome variable (psychological wellness), with the mediator being positive institution. The results yielded a marginal fit for the hypothesized model. A modified version of the original model was tested, revealing a good fit. However, forgiveness was not found to have any impact on either perception of institutional support or psychological wellness. The findings from this study did not support the hypothesis that perceived institutional support mediated character strengths and psychological wellness. The limitations of this study, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed. Advisors/Committee Members: Tang, Mei.

▼ This study explores interrelationship among social support, demographic factors, mental and physical health and job satisfaction among mental health professionals. Past research of the impact of health in work among mental health professionals has focused on clinicians who directly provide mental health services to clients and focus on burnout (e.g., Farber and Heifetz, 1982). Little attention has been paid to the other mental health professionals who may also work as supervisors and administrators. This study aimed at investigating how different positions, years of experience, gender and social support would impact mental health professionals’ physical health, mental health and job satisfaction. It was hypothesized that job satisfaction would be positively influenced by mental health and physical health which would be influenced by gender, years of experience, position, and social support. Mental health professionals from three local mental health counseling centers in a Midwest state were recruited to participate in the study. Instruments used included the Duke Health Profile (Parkerson, Broadhead, and Tse, 1990), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, and Farley, 1988), an Adapted Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Hackman and Lawler’s (1971) questions assessing job satisfaction, and a demographic questionnaire. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to examine the hypothesized relationship among the demographic factors, social support, mental and physical health and job satisfaction. The results from the study were mixed. Not all of the variables studied affected mental health or physical health. Social support was found to influence both physical and mental health; however years-of- experience was only related to mental health. Neither gender of position was found to have significant relationship to mental and physical health. The study found a strong path from social support to mental health, and ultimately to job satisfaction, suggesting the mediating role of mental health between predicting variables and job satisfaction. It is also noted that physical health, though not having a direct significant relationship to job satisfaction, did have indirect influence to job satisfaction through its significant relationship with mental health. The findings of this study that social support and mental health play an important role in helping professionals’ job satisfaction indicate the importance of maintaining psychological well-being and providing supportive environment to workers in mental health agencies. Counselor educators could apply this finding to incorporate training about self-care and promoting social interaction and support in the curriculum. Advisors/Committee Members: Tang, Mei.

▼ The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the impact of pain catastrophizing on perception of partner response to pain behaviors and relationship satisfaction among injured workers suffering from chronic pain and their partners. The participants were 20 adult married injured workers receiving psychological services in a private practice setting specializing in the treatment of chronic pain and psychological conditions. The partners of these 20 injured workers were also involved in the study. Pain catastrophizing by injured workers was assessed using the Pain Catastrophizing Scale. Perceived partner response to pain behaviors was assessed using the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory. In an effort to validate perceived partner responses to pain, spouses completed the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory For Significant Others. Finally, relationship satisfaction among injured workers and their spouse was assessed using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. A McQuitty Linkage Analysis was used to examine the manifold relationships among scales. Advisors/Committee Members: Wilson, Frederick Robert.