Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Psychology

Current longitudinal research in developmental science has shown that during college, students generally experience a progressive decline in psychosocial adjustment. First-generation college students (FGCS) encounter unique adjustment difficulties that impact their academic success. Yet, no current research tracks these students' progress based on key factors (i.e., socioemotional competence, psychosocial adjustment, and perceived academic control) that are critical to academic success. To fill this research gap, this short-term longitudinal study is the first to examine how these variables affect academic outcomes among emerging adult college freshmen at two timepoints, as they take one of their first college courses during their first semester of college. Findings show that the associations between most of these study variables are statistically significant and indicative of unique differences between FGCS and continuing-generation college students (CGCS) as academic learners. Perceived academic control was the only key predictor of academic performance. Despite reporting higher levels of psychological distress than CGCS across both timepoints, FGCS only showed significant differences in depression levels by the end of their first semester of college. Academic enrichment program participation did not impact academic performance. These study findings are used to expand FGCS research and offer practitioners relevant insights to support these students' positive adjustment to college upon entry.

Committee: Stephen Petrill (Committee Chair); Kelly Purtell (Committee Member); Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Education; Educational Psychology; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Media and Communication

This dissertation looks at the coping strategies used by Nigerian women amid a health crisis. The study assesses women's lived experiences in Nigeria during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak and the imposition of lockdown. In times of crisis, whether political, religious, or health-related, Nigerian women, like other African women, are invariably depicted as victims. The current study describes suffrage ideology and the difficulties that Nigerian women face because of patriarchy and marginalization. The study explored complicated identities to critically appraise women in Nigeria based on their lived experiences. This study demonstrates how recognizing oppressive policies during the lockdown assisted women in developing coping skills and navigating a crisis. During the lockdown, when movement was severely restricted, the government failed to address women's health concerns, gender-based violence, and economic growth. Even though the interviews were centered on African feminism and intersectionality, the data collected and evaluated provided little support for these two theories. The study conducted interviews and examined social media postings and comments using Grounded Theory, Thematic Analysis, and Social Media Analysis as methods. Inductive interviews were done, and emergent themes were found. The inductive in-depth interviews were conducted with a variety of women who lived in Nigeria during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (late 2019 to mid-2020) and the implementation of the lockdown to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Atlas.ti, a qualitative computational analysis tool, was used to code and arrange the data from the interviews into themes. The second batch of data was gathered using keywords influenced by the previous set of data analysis's emergent topics. The data were structured to include female social media postings and comments on YouTube and Twitter. The study discovered that two underlying principles impact the behavior, attit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kerri Knippen Ph.D. (Other); Yanqin Lu Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lara Martin Lengel Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2021, Psychology

Rising rates of mental illness in the college student population are a cause of concern that needs to be addressed to effectively support students. One promising opportunity for intervention is facilitating emotional flexibility and reducing emotional inflexibility among college students. The present study examined the relationships between emotional flexibility and emotional inflexibility, and variables related to well-being and mental illness in a college population. Undergraduate students at Wittenberg University (N = 100) completed a brief online survey measuring emotional flexibility, emotional inflexibility, coping strategies, thriving, anxiety, depression, stress, and burnout. Participants were also invited to complete a follow-up survey four weeks after the original study to explore potential changes in these variables over time. Participants higher in emotional flexibility scored lower on anxiety, stress, depression, and burnout and scored higher in problem-focused coping strategies and thriving. Participants who were higher in emotional inflexibility scored higher in anxiety, stress, depression, and burnout and lower in problem-focused coping strategies. Emotional inflexibility was also positively correlated with emotion-focused coping strategies, avoidant-focused coping strategies, and thriving. These findings support a strong positive relationship between emotional flexibility and well-being in this population. Future experimental studies are needed to establish causal relationships, but the results of this study are consistent with the proposed benefits of interventions that promote emotional flexibility in a college student population.

Committee: William Davis (Advisor); Nona Moskowitz (Committee Member); Stephanie Little (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Mental Health; Psychology

Doctor of Healthcare Administration (D.H.A.), Franklin University, 2021, Health Programs

Daughter caregivers for mothers with dementia lived experiences were explored in this dissertation study. The purpose of this research was to address a gap in existing literature concerning the lived experiences of daughters who formerly provided home care for their mothers with dementia and identify ways they improved their experiences. Dementia home care requires a high demand of attention, time, and resources which can negatively impact caregivers mentally, physically, and financially. It is important to identify ways to cope with aspects of dementia care to help families improve their caregiving experience. This study used a qualitative descriptive approach to address the research question and two sub-research questions. The concepts of Caregiver Identity Theory and coping strategies was used as a guide for this study. A convenience and snowball sample of 13 daughters who provided primary home care for their mothers with dementia participated in open-ended Zoom interviews and provided in-depth responses on their lived experiences with dementia caregiving. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed for major themes. ATLAS.ti Cloud software was used for coding analysis of the collected data. Four major themes and eight sub-themes resulted from the interviews to inform the research. Insights on coping strategies and advice on how to improve the caregiving experience were revealed from each participant. The insightful findings contributed to research by providing future caregivers with helpful advice to cope with caring for a relative with dementia and informed the development of effective dementia care interventions for healthcare professionals.

Committee: Gail Frankle (Committee Chair); David Meckstroth (Committee Member); Karen Lankisch (Committee Member) Subjects: Aging; Families and Family Life; Health Care; Individual and Family Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, EDU Teaching and Learning

The largest population of second language learners in educational settings in the United States is adolescents. Adolescent immigrant students, the focus of the current study, have had at least some education in another country and know a language other than English. They also have experiences and an identity associated with their native country. As such, they may encounter a number of challenges as they attempt to navigate the new social and educational settings in the U.S. An important issue for anyone facing challenging conditions is the resources available to them and that they choose to use to cope with the demands they face. However, little research has explored the use of resources during the movement across different cultures, languages, and educational settings, and in response to both personal and academic needs. This study examined a Korean immigrant high school student, Sooji, with respect to her strategic use of in- and out-of-school resources in the movement between her personal and academic lives. I employed an ethnographic, longitudinal single-case study design in a Midwestern city in the U.S. for one year and looked closely at her personal and academic lives as well as her movement across those lives. Multiple sources of data were collected and then analyzed inductively, with a particular interest in 1) the kinds of in- and out-of-school resources Sooji used in the movement between her personal and academic lives, 2) the notable features of her use of resources as she moved across her personal and academic lives, and 3) the factors that influenced her use of in- and out-of-school resources within her personal and academic lives. The findings revealed that Sooji had various personal and academic problems and issues, often related to her immigrant student status, and she drew upon a wide array of resources to resolve them as she navigated across her academic and personal lives. The kinds of in-school resources she used for her personal life include (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Hirvela (Advisor); Youngjoo Yi (Committee Member); George Newell (Committee Member) Subjects: English As A Second Language; Literacy

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2017, Psychology

Undergraduates are at risk for experiencing losses during college, and it is important that they cope adaptively. This study examined predictors of engagement coping strategies among undergraduates in loss-related situations. Seventy-nine undergraduates who reported a recent loss completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Daily Stress Inventory, the Coping Strategies Inventory, and a demographic questionnaire. Standard multiple regression analysis indicated that the combination of positive affect, negative affect, and the impact of daily stress (log transformed) accounted for 10% of the variance in the use of engagement coping strategies. Positive affect and negative affect did not independently predict the use of engagement coping strategies. The impact of daily stress (log transformed) made the strongest unique and significant contribution. Results indicated that high levels of impact of daily stress (log transformed) predicted greater use of engagement coping strategies. This information can be used to inform university-based wellness and prevention strategies for students at risk of experiencing loss.

Committee: Cynthia Dulaney Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christine Dacey Ph.D. (Committee Member); Renee Zucchero Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2016, Geography

A dominant narrative of rangeland degradation in western China is that degradation is caused by overstocking and poor land use practices. Consequently, the state has designed and implemented a series of grassland policies (e.g., privatizing common grazing land, depopulating livestock, and relocating herders) in pastoral regions of China. Although the government sees communal rangeland management as inefficient and unsustainable, collective rangeland management persists. Using Machu County in Gansu Province as a case study, I examined the differences between de jure and de facto land tenure on eastern Tibetan Plateau. This study employed semi-structured interviews and extensive participant observation with 43 Amdo Tibetan herders in Machu County, Gansu province, Western China. I also triangulated the first-hand empirical data with the secondary data I obtained from Bureau of Poverty Alleviation and Bureau of Animal Husbandry in Machu. Research findings show that instead of herding individually and maximizing the economic benefit, the majority of herders are pooling resources communally in kin-based encampments in order to avoid risks. Because of the spatio-temporal variation of precipitation, certain encampments perceive themselves more vulnerable to water shortage and topography-related hazards. Renting pastures and seeking alternative livelihoods then become the key strategies for herders to restore mobility and flexibility.

Committee: Stanley Toops (Advisor); Kimberly Medley (Committee Member); Roxanne Ornelas (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2016, College of Education and Human Services

Bullying has become a worldwide problem of pandemic proportion and degree. (Thomas, Bolen, Heister & Hyde, 2010). In the United States over thirty-five percent of school-aged students were directly involved in bullying incidents. Tragic news stories about suicides and school violence raised awareness about the importance of addressing this global issue (Van Der Zande, 2010). To date reports further indicate that more females are involved in indirect relational bullying than males. Unfortunately, as technology becomes more and more accessible, relational bullying has become one of the fastest growing epidemics (Brinson, 2005; Rigby & Smith, 2011). Current research explanations were limited as to how female seniors who are victims of bullying showed resilience to academically succeed despite incidences of bullying throughout their high school experiences. Therefore, the purpose of this mixed method study was to explore the coping strategies utilized by12th grade female urban high school seniors who have experienced school success despite their involvement as victims of bullying. In this study, 32 high school female seniors completed the online Olweus' Bullying Questionnaire which included self-reported attendance, discipline referrals, grade point average, and participation in extracurricular activities as it related to their bullying experiences. Additionally, the researcher randomly selected eight focus group participants were involved in two focus group sessions to provide rich descriptions of their experiences as victims of bullying. These victims expressed the coping strategies used to successfully defeat the negative connotations associated with bullying, and specifically acknowledged their personal triumphs. When students understood the intricacies of bullying, and were empowered to use effective coping strategies, their experience of school success should increase as the prevalence of bullying decreases. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to decrease (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Frederick Hampton Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Brian Harper Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ralph Mawdsley Ph.D. (Committee Member); Paul Williams Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mittie Davis Jones Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Elementary Education; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gender Studies; Health Education; Individual and Family Studies; Law; Legal Studies; Multicultural Education; Personal Relationships; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Public Policy; School Administration; School Counseling; Secondary Education; Social Psychology; Social Structure; Social Work; Sociology; Teacher Education; Urban Planning

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2016, Communication

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between positive self-disclosure posts on Facebook, episodic envy, life satisfaction, self-esteem and time spent on Facebook. In addition, this study examined if feelings of envy, level of life satisfaction self-esteem and time spent on Facebook predict the use of coping strategies used on Facebook. Participants viewed a Facebook page, developed for the study, then completed a survey with a series of questions regarding episodic envy, life satisfaction, coping with envy, self-esteem and demographic information. Overall, this study found that when individuals are faced with feelings of envy as a result of positive self-disclosure posts on Facebook, he or she also feels less satisfied with life. Envy was also found to be a predictor of deactivating ones' Facebook profile to eliminate the stressor.

Committee: Elizabeth Graham Dr. (Advisor); Tang Tang Dr. (Committee Member); Andrew Rancer Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2015, College of Education and Human Services

Students come to school each day to learn, socialize, and grow as individuals. Unfortunately, these basic reasons for attending school are disrupted when the student is threatened and/or bullied. Edmondson and Dreuth-Zeman (2011) tell us that, “School districts have a responsibility to provide education in a safe and effectual climate that minimally threatens students' rights (p. 36)”. Schools have started to acknowledge bullying as a growing issue, and have implemented anti-bullying policies. Simply acknowledging the existence of bullying in school and addressing the perpetrator is not enough. Multiple studies have been conducted on the behaviors of those involved in bullying (Cross et. al, 2009; Olweus, 1993; Rigby, 1996; Salmivali, 2001) and the long-term affects the involvement with bullying can have on the individual (Sourander et al. 2010; Vanderbilt & Augustyn, 2010; Salmivalli, Kaukiainen, & Lagerspetz, 2000; and Smokowski and Kopasz, 2005). Based on the review of literature, seldom have their been studies conducted to learn how victims cope with bullying, so that schools can educate and support future generations of students. In order to address the purpose of this study, the researcher developed the Student Utilized and Perceived Strategies (SUPS) scale designed to measure the coping strategies utilized by victimized students, the effectiveness of these strategies by victimized students, and the perceived effectiveness of other coping strategies. The level of data received from the participants in this study will determine which statistical models the researcher will employ to address each of the three research questions. The statistical models that will most likely be considered are the Chi-Square test, the Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, and a One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The three research questions that drive this study are as follows: • Is there a statistically significant relationship between students from suburban and urban s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Frederick Hampton Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jonathan Messemer Ed.D. (Committee Member); Ralph Mawdsley Ph.D. (Committee Member); Paul Williams Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mittie Davis Jones Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Early Childhood Education; Education; Education Policy; Educational Sociology; Gender Studies; Psychology; School Counseling; Social Psychology; Social Structure; Sociology

Master of Social Work, The Ohio State University, 2012, Social Work

This research project looked at the mental health of Indonesian women affected by the eruption of Mt. Merapi. The purpose was to understand how they were affected by the 2010 eruption, to explore their post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, and also to explore the coping strategies used by women affected by the eruption. The research study used a cross sectional, qualitative descriptive design. The research participants included 12 women aged 18 or older who were affected by the Mt. Merapi eruption through one or more of the following; damage to home, damage to livelihood, and/or death or serious injury to a relative or loved one. An interpreter was present during the interviews to provide verbal translation of the interviewer‟s questions. The results of this study indicate none of the women would meet the full criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. However they did experience an average of 3.6 PTSD symptoms such as frequent distressing thoughts and difficulty getting through their day. The women utilized coping strategies that are commonly viewed as positive, such as prayer and engaging in enjoyable activities. Many women also used coping strategies that are typically viewed as negative such avoiding thoughts about the traumatic event. The interviews reflected literature on the area around Merapi that highlights the culture of disaster that exists in the area. People who live on the slopes of the volcano have a spiritual connection to Merapi, and they regularly honor the volcano for depositing such fertile material onto their fields. This traditional culture has an influence on how they view disaster, their mental health after a disaster, and their feelings about resettlement. Results of this study found a need for macro-level community organizing to rebuild the communities destroyed in the eruption. Psycho education is also needed to teach the use of positive coping strategies after a disaster. The implications of this project include culturally sensitive (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sharvari Karandikar-Chheda PhD (Advisor); Theresa Early PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Work

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Physical Activity and Educational Services

This study examined whether female FM patients with high scores on the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), exhibiting low levels of coping and high levels of anxiety, experienced more trauma and abuse than those who scored lower. Adult females (n=115) completed the FIQ, as well as the Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ), State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (Trait Form), and a demographic questionnaire. The study showed a correlation between high FIQ scores and high anxiety expanding previous findings outlining the significant impact of specific components of abuse and trauma prior to the age of 16 associated with higher impact of FM. The study did not reveal a relationship between the CSQ and FIQ. Longitudinal research of children both with and without documented cases of victimization is recommended to assess the impact of trauma and abuse on FM, and provide healthcare professionals with the tools to empower patients in management of the syndrome.

Committee: Paul Granello (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2010, Environmental Studies (Arts and Sciences)

Over the last decade coffee prices have plummeted to historic lows and smallholder coffee farmers throughout Latin America are struggling to adapt to the low market price. With prices unable to cover the cost of production, some coffee farmers have cut ecologically diverse coffee forests to cultivate other crops. This paper examines coffee producers' reactions to the coffee crisis in Polo, a coffee-dependent village in the Southwest region of the Dominican Republic. Household Interviews were conducted to determine how farmers have been able to weather this economic crisis with coffee forests in tact. Results indicate primarily that availability of arable land in the region has allowed farmers to diversify crops without cutting forests. Further statistical analysis suggests that households with highest and lowest levels of wealth are more likely than households of medium wealth to participate in labor intensive agricultural strategies to weather the crisis. These results provide policy makers a better understanding of the varied response to the global coffee crisis and an illustration of how one rural community of smallholder coffee growers was able to weather the crisis without clearing ecologically diverse coffee forests.

Committee: Brad Jokisch (Advisor); James Dyer (Committee Member); Stephan Scanlan (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Geography

Bachelor of Arts, Miami University, 2008, College of Arts and Sciences - Psychology

Autism is a disorder that impairs a child's communication and social interaction, and causes the development of stereotypic or repetitive behaviors or interests. As autism increases in prevalence, it becomes significantly more important to focus research on how this disorder impacts children and their families. As parents play a key role in a child's development, it is necessary to investigate the unique challenges faced by parents of children with autism, and of additional concern is whether the parents face stigmatization as a result of bearing and raising their child with autism. This thesis seeks to explore the experience of parenting a child with autism, and specifically the possibility that parents are stigmatized because of their child's diagnosis. Examining traditional theories of stigma in the first part of this work will lay a framework with which to evaluate the experience of the population of interest. Part two will seek to apply theory to the particular experience of parents of children with autism. Finally, part three will integrate qualitative data from personal interviews into a broad conceptualization of the manifestation of stigma in parents of children with autism. As an often invisible disability, and one that can incur unwarranted blame on the parents, it appears that autism certainly is stigmatized against in both children and parents. This research will begin to provide recommendations for professionals working with this population, and act as an impetus for future research.

Committee: Kathy McMahon-Klosterman PhD (Advisor); Paul Flaspohler PhD (Committee Member); Julie Rubin PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Psychology; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2010, Psychology

The effect of immigration on children is life-long. Latino immigrant youth represent a rapidly growing segment of the United States population. Few studies have explored the ways in which they experience the process of moving to a new country and adjusting to a new culture. This study examined the immigration and acculturation experiences of 23 immigrant Latino children in order to provide a descriptive understanding and conceptualization of the stress they face in the process of acculturation. Participants completed individual interviews or focus groups. Transcriptions of the interviews were analyzed utilizing content analysis and multiple reading analysis methodologies. The children identified pre-migration factors such as loss and multiple separations as stressful. Challenging post-migration factors included adaptation to new school system, learning a new language, coping with racism, and managing new family dynamics. Results highlight a number of general stressors faced by most participants such as concerns about the health of their parents and siblings, the well being of family members left in the country of origin, and typical conflict with peers. Stressors specific to the acculturation process centered on the acquisition of English language skills, making friends of diverse backgrounds, and worries about deportation. Participants reported using a variety of coping strategies and accessing available resources. The children's stories convey themes of ambivalence surrounding their appraisal of the events they lived through, variability in their evaluation of where their locus of control lies, a highly behavioral definition of the cultural conflict they experience, and a fluid grasp of cultural orientation. Overall, it is evident that the acculturative process faced by immigrant children is complex and stressful, characterized by unremitting conflict and intricate dynamics of coping and adaptation. Though resilient and resourceful, the stressors can exceed their (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Maitland Schilling PhD (Committee Chair); Yvette R. Harris PhD (Committee Member); Margaret O'Dougherty Wright PhD (Committee Member); Peter Magolda PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Bilingual Education; Developmental Psychology; Educational Psychology; Hispanic Americans; Mental Health; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Social Work; Therapy

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2007, Geography

In Sub-Saharan Africa, food production is declining and many people are malnourished. My study asks: (1) what are women doing to meet their household food needs; and (2) how do they perceive opportunities and challenges towards achieving food security. I worked with two women's groups in a semiarid region that is at risk because of low incomes and agricultural potential. Activity schedules and seasonal calendars show how these women rely equally on their farms and purchases. They photographed enterprises that provide food for their homes and small incomes. Venn diagrams show how the role of outside institutions increases during “bad years” but the women emphasize that their security cannot rely on this support. Food security agencies need to focus on women's triple role by working with women's groups to increase the production of crops that can also be sold, and to plan for the distribution of food aid.

Committee: Kimberly Medley (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, 2010, Genetic Counseling

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is characterized by behaviors including hyperphagia, skin picking, obsessive compulsive behaviors and stealing. These behaviors are likely to affect parents' psychological functioning. There were very few studies that examine the impact of these characteristic behaviors on parents. The purpose of this descriptive study was to analyze the relationship between the severity of behaviors (Developmental Behavior Checklist) and parental self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II), marital satisfaction (Quality of Marriage Index) and coping strategies (Coping Strategies Inventory Short-Form). Additionally, two conceptual models, mediation and moderation, were tested to examine which model best describes this relationship. Analysis supported the mediator effect of coping strategies of parents on the association of child behaviors to parental self-esteem and depressive symptoms. Initiating interventions to assist parents to improve coping strategies, may improve parental psychological functioning for families caring for a child with a genetic condition.

Committee: Anne L. Matthews PhD (Committee Chair); Carolyn E. Levers-Landis PhD (Committee Member); Shawn E. McCandless MD (Committee Member); Amanda Hahn MS (Committee Member) Subjects: Genetics; Health Care; Mental Health; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 1994, Psychology

The present study described and compared the stressors and coping strategies of 60 children and adolescents ages 9-18: 20 recently diagnosed subjects with cancer, 20 long-term disease-free survivors of cancer, and 20 healthy subjects without a previous or present diagnosis of cancer. As expected, recently diagnosed subjects identified significantly more cancer-related stressors than survivors on the Children's Stress Inventory (CSI), illustrating the breadth with which cancer affects their lives. Contrary to expectation, newly diagnosed youth did not use more emotion-management coping strategies in response to general stress than healthy youth. Developmental analyses found that, with the exception of survivors coping with cancer-related stress, young children (ages 9-13) and adolescents (ages 15-18) used comparable amounts of emotion-management coping strategies, a form of coping that is conceptualized as requiring higher abstract reasoning skills. While this supported the hypothesis that recently diagnosed children and adolescents would use comparable amounts of emotion-management, it was contrary to the hypothesis that in both the Survivor and Healthy groups, adolescents (ages 15-18) would use more emotion-management than children (ages 9-13). One explanation for the children in this study generally using more emotion-manageme nt than would be expected for their cognitive maturity may be their significantly higher intelligence compared to the adolescents. However, this younger group of children also demonstrated use of another less complex and sophisticated form of emotion-management characterized by denial, which may account for their increased use of emotion-management. As expected, children and adolescents with cancer, for the most part, demonstrated variability (i.e., differences) in the types of coping strategies they used in cancer-related versus non-cancer-related stressful situations. This finding suggests that children with cancer use coping strategies fl (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dennis Drotar (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology, Clinical

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 1992, Organizational Behavior

This inquiry explores the role of individual unconscious coping strategies and phantasy, manifested as personality and defense mechanisms, in the management of organizational culture. It was found that individual methodologies are useful for the discovery of collective reality, and that individual psychological processes have functional outcomes in organizational culture. It was conceptualized that coping strategies could be found that limit the ability of organizational members to understand the organizational culture at conscious and rational levels. Intensity of imagination was found to significantly influence one's perception of the importance that a particular ideology plays in an organization's culture. Those persons who believed that the organization was relatively high in power-orientation were more likely to favorably distort their self-presentation on a personality test. A broad range of personality factors were found to significantly influence the firm members' preference for structure in the firm's culture. It was also conceptualized that cultural norms would be discovered that provide operating space and impose limitations on discussion in order to support individual coping strategies. It was discovered that the firm provided sufficient operating space for certain widespread individual coping strategies that might be neurotic, and that limitations were imposed on the discussion of these coping strategies. Additionally it was conceptualized that unconscious and confused perceptions of authority would be uncovered that distort interpersonal relations and are sustained by coping strategies embedded in the culture. It was ascertained that the founding partner of the firm provided important cues and boundaries for the structure of the organization's culture, and that a distorted view of this leader is maintained through denial of aggression. It was also conceptualized that distorted object relations would be inhibiting of group development. Adequate data abo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Suresh Srivastva (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 1990, Psychology

This study is an investigation of patients' judgments of similarities and differences among coping strategies for chronic pain and seeks to formulate an empirically-based model of a systematic structure (i.e., a classification system) which describes the factors influencing patients' understandings of these coping strategies. The data analytic technique of multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to order data points into salient perceptual dimensions influencing subject's responses to the experimental task. Cluster analysis and multiple regression analysis were used in order to refine and elaborate the results of MDS. Perceptions of coping strategies were studied in a sample derived from two age-matched patient populations seen at the Palo Alto and San Francisco VA Medical Centers. Group A consisted of 60 male veterans who presented for treatment of chronic pain problems to a Psychology Service based pain management clinic. Group B consisted of 30 veterans with chronic but nonpainful medical problems presenting for treatment at a Psychology Service based smoking cessation clinic. Subjects were presented with 31 theoretically-derived coping strategies which they sorted on the basis of their perceived similarities and then ranked along 17 bipolar descriptive ratin g scales. MDS analyses demonstrated both differences and similarities between the two groups. Cognitive and behavioral properties of coping strategies were demonstrated to be the most salient factor guiding both subject groups' differentiations of stimuli. Groups also responded similarly to strategies on the basis of their distractive and suppressive tendencies. These results were confirmed by multiple regression analyses. However, in overall responses, Pain subjects made both more and finer discriminations among strategies than Medical subjects, highlighting the fact that important differences in perceptions do in fact exist between the different groups. Preliminary data using the MDS paradigm suggest that (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Donald Freedheim (Advisor) Subjects: