Psy. D., Antioch University, 2013, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

Individuals living with chronic mental illness experience a host of challenges associated with the symptoms of their illness. In an effort to help restore healthy functioning, mental health treatment for individuals with chronic mental illness thus focuses primarily on symptom reduction and management. Recent research exploring the lived experience of individuals with chronic mental illness suggests that apart from their symptoms, these individuals also encounter existential issues related to the self, relationships with others, temporality, making meaning out of the illness experience, and managing life with the illness. At the same time, however, this research has tended to focus on distinct aspects of chronic mental illness rather than the overall experience of day-to-day living with the illness, resulting in a fragmented view of the phenomenon. Moreover, these studies have been conducted primarily in Europe, as well as North America, Australia, and South Africa, but not in Asia or the islands of the Pacific. The goal of this study was twofold: to gain a comprehensive understanding of the lived experience of chronic mental illness in the Pacific Island of Guam, as well as to examine whether the themes found in the extant literature are applicable to individuals from Pacific Islander and Asian cultures living in Guam. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to guide the research, emphasizing the phenomenological approach to understanding the lived experience of individuals and how they make meaning of their experience. Ten individuals living with chronic mental illness in Guam were interviewed. The interviews were designed to elicit descriptions of the participants' experience of chronic mental illness and its impact on their daily lives. Results suggest that the participants encountered existential concerns regarding defining and knowing the self, navigating relationships with others, trying to understand the illness, managing the illness, des (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patricia L. Linn Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Melissa J. Kennedy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ronald K/ San Nicolas Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Mental Health; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Therapy

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Bioethics

From Aristotle to Engelhardt, philosophers and ethicists have struggled to find epistemic justification for a single set of provable and canonical content-full ethics to guide the moral decision making of the individual and nation-state alike. Where those such as Beauchamp and Childress in their account of Principlism presume something of a Rawlsian ‘common morality,' others such as H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. argue that we may not take for granted even the simplest of presumptions regarding good and right moral action without either begging the question, arbitrarily affirming a particular point of departure, or invoking an infinite regress (Engelhardt ix, Beauchamp and Childress 3-5, 444-457). Herein, I aim to accomplish two purposes. First, I mean to call out the elephant in the room: If there is no God; if there is no creator or creators; if there is no higher transcendent purpose or meaning behind existence or ultimate judgement for our actions, then truly there is no absolute right or wrong. The Enlightenment Project has failed, and will necessarily fail to find a single set of provable canonical content-full ethics (Engelhardt vii). Second, I will propose a conceptual conjecture to assist with the consideration of this dilemma which I call A Priori's Wager. I propose that the human person is necessarily either the product of a creator or creators, and therefore possessing of a priori pre-existent purpose and meaning; or that the human person is the product of mere time and chance, and therefore possessing of only the post hoc purposes and meanings which we arbitrarily apply to ourselves. I argue that either of these premises may be true, but that the current scientific and philosophical methodologies available to us may neither prove nor disprove either premise. Given these competing premises of which one is necessarily true, but neither may be proven, I argue that we find ourselves fixed in something of a superposition of both transcendent obligati (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Matthew Vest (Advisor); Ashley Fernandes (Committee Member); Ryan Nash (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Epistemology; Ethics; Medical Ethics; Metaphysics; Philosophy; Religion

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Counselor Education

Burnout is both an occupational and ethical concern for Disaster Mental Health (DMH) practitioners due to the high trauma exposure associated with disaster response work, yet little research has focused specifically on burnout in this population. Using an existential theoretical framework, relationships between burnout and DMH practitioner demographic variables, meaningful work, gender role attitudes, and growth-fostering relationships were assessed in a survey-based study that included 248 American Red Cross DMH practitioners. Results indicated a moderate to low negative correlation between meaningful work and burnout in the sample. The prevalence of burnout in the sample was also significantly lower than hypothesized.

Committee: Amanda La Guardia Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Giao Tran Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mei Tang Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Counseling Education

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2023, College of Sciences and Health Professions

Prior research suggests that COVID-19 perceived threat and existential isolation (EI) would be associated with an individual's subjective health, levels of anxiety, and feelings of hope relating specifically to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it was unclear whether such concerns might be unique predictors (no interaction, two cumulative main effects) or interact (one effect modifies the other). To learn more about the possible combined effects, I analyzed data gathered via MTurk, during an 11-week period at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-June 2020). Method: This study (N = 2,673) measured perceived COVID19-related threat, EI, anxiety, subjective health, and hope. Results: EI was found to be positively correlated with anxiety and negatively correlated with subjective health and hope. Perceived COVID-19-related threat was negatively correlated with subjective health and positively correlated with anxiety. Greater perceived threat was not found to be negatively correlated with feelings of hope. One outcome interaction was observed such that perceived COVID-19-related threat decreased hope when people felt existentially isolated, but increased hope when people felt a sense of existential connection (e.g., “we're all in this together”). Conclusion: Discussion highlights theoretical considerations, limitations, and practical implications of addressing mental health.

Committee: Kenneth Vail III (Advisor); Eric Allard (Committee Member); Kathleen Reardon (Committee Member); Shereen Naser (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

This study explored the lived experiences of sports retirement among elite, action sport athletes. This study examined participants' retirement experiences, their well-being post-retirement, and recommendations participants had for current athletes about retirement. Interviews were conducted remotely with four participants. Participants identified as Caucasian, in the 25–38 age range, had been involved with their sport competitively for 17.75 years, and had been retired for 3.37 years. Data was collected and analyzed utilizing Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Participants' experiences during retirement illustrated a significant disruption in their lives and the way they lived. This disruption was characterized by significant grief and distress, followed by a prolonged existential crisis and lack of meaning. Given their level of sport involvement and intensity, athletes struggled to relate with others who had typical social development. As a result, participants felt alone and misunderstood, which compounded their grief, loss, and overall existential crisis. Participants navigated their new lifestyles that were characterized by agency over what they wanted to portray and disclose to others and increasingly living by their values. As participants stepped into their new lives, they had accepted themselves more, were more present, and had an increased sense of well-being. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and Ohio Link ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu/etd).

Committee: Christopher Heffner Dr. (Committee Chair); Eric Brymer Dr. (Committee Member); Melissa Kennedy Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Clinical Psychology; Counseling Education; Counseling Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Higher Education; Kinesiology; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Sports Medicine

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Creative Writing/Fiction

There is this guy named Nick. He has a pretty rough life. He tries to solve many issues by fixing and running around on motorcycles. Those issues are masculine issues, relationship issues, father issues, body image issues, fat shaming, violence amongst men and young boys, depression, suicide, religion (particularly Catholicism) and perhaps some existential issues. I think everything works out for him, but I'm not sure yet. I hope it does though.

Committee: Jackson Bliss Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lawrence Coates Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts; Folklore; Gender; Gender Studies; Literature; Philosophy; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2021, Counselor Education and Supervision

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between spiritual well-being and burnout, examining general self-efficacy and resilience as mediators of this relationship among substance use disorder (SUD) counselors. Data were collected in September through October of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven hundred and fourteen SUD counselors across the United States completed a web-based survey including four instruments: the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), the Connor-Davison Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC 10), the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), and a demographic questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the relationships among the variables. Spiritual well-being was a statistically significant predictor of general self-efficacy, resilience, and burnout. General self-efficacy was not a significant predictor of burnout. Resilience was found to be a statistically significant partial mediator of the relationship between spiritual well-being and burnout. Limitations and recommendations for future research on spiritual well-being and burnout among SUD counselors were discussed.

Committee: Varunee Faii Sangganjanavanich (Committee Chair) Subjects: Counseling Education

Masters of Science in Kinesiology and Health, Miami University, 2021, Kinesiology, Nutrition, and Health

The COVID-19 pandemic was a novel event that impacted many lives around the world. This study aimed to examine the lived experiences of international student athletes from Europe who were attending American colleges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using an existential phenomenological approach (Vandermause & Fleming, 2011), six interviews (n = 2 males, n = 4 females) were conducted with NCAA DI white European international student-athletes from a Midwestern university. Participants were aged between 20 and 24 years of age (M = 21.60 years). The sports represented were field hockey, swimming & diving, tennis, and track & field. The nationalities represented were British, Dutch, Hungarian & Austrian, Montenegrin, Serbian, and Spanish. Only one of the participants had previously tested positive for COVID-19 and all had travelled internationally since December 2019. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and lasted an average of 43 minutes. Thematic analysis (Vandermause & Fleming, 2011) consisted of two central themes and eight surrounding themes representing the lived experiences of international student-athletes. Practical recommendations have also been constructed related to the role that support staff (e.g., coaches, parents, athletic administrators, athletic trainers, etc.) and teammates can play in best supporting international student-athletes in times of crisis.

Committee: Robin Vealey (Advisor); Matthew Moore (Committee Member); Callie Maddox (Committee Member) Subjects: Kinesiology; Psychology; Sports Management

Hospitality and Tourism, Ohio University, 2021, Hospitality and Tourism, College of Education

Culture has been long identified by numerous marketers and consumer behavioral theorists as an important factor influencing tourists' traveling intentions. Tourist behavioral intention is also a prominent topic of interest for many researchers within the hospitality industry. This paper aim to determine the antecedents of cultural tourists' behavioral intention specifically in the case of Cambodia's cultural heritage site, Angkor Wat temple. Factors including uniqueness, scarcity, longevity, longitudinal consistency, perceived authenticity (object-based and existential), and behavioral intention were examined using Structural Equation Model (SEM). This study offers insights into the factors that affect tourists' intention to visit Angkor Wat. Cambodia's related government body and destination marketers can utilize this knowledge to create effective marketing campaigns as a mean to boost Cambodia's economy through tourism.

Committee: Hyeyoon-Rebecca Choi (Advisor); V. Ann Paulins (Committee Member); Boss David (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences

MA, Kent State University, 2020, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Since the late 1990's, the U.S. has been struggling with an epidemic linked to the use of opiate drugs and their synthetic counterparts. While many have died in this epidemic, many also recover. In this qualitative study, I aim to gain a better understanding of how people with opiate addiction seek out, navigate and sustain recovery. Eighteen in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals in recovery from opiate addiction. Analysis of data suggests that individuals with opiate addiction utilize a wide range of resources to access treatment and engage in recovery. In this paper, I discuss four major themes and four subthemes. Specifically, individuals who suffer from addiction mobilize various forms of recovery capital, including social, economic and cultural capital (e.g. Cloud and Granfield 2008). I also find that in this sample of middle-aged, White individuals in recovery, themes and experiences such as existential pain, hope, and engagement with the criminal justice system figure prominently in narratives about recovery.

Committee: Clare Stacey Ph.D. (Advisor); Susan Roxburgh Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Peralta Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Health; Mental Health; Public Health; Social Research; Sociology

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2019, Computer Science

One hotly debated research topic is, “What is the best approach for modeling ontologies?”. In the earlier stages of modeling ontologies, researchers have favored the usage of description logic to capture knowledge. One such choice is the Web Ontology Language (OWL) that is based on description logic. Many tools were designed around this principle and are still widely being used to model and explore ontologies. However, not all users find description logic to be intuitive, at least not without an extensive background in formal logics. Due to this, researchers have tried to explore other ways that will enable such users to model ontologies intuitively. One such approach was the exploration of rule-based paradigm. For many users rule-based approach was more natural and intuitive way of representing knowledge. Hence, Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) became an extremely popular choice among researchers and naive users. However, one major problem with SWRL is that machines cannot readily process it. Therefore, researchers at Data Semantics Laboratory (DaSe Lab) created an interactive plugin, called ROWLTab, that efficiently converts rules into OWL axioms. This plugin allows a user to create ontologies using SWRL syntax and convert it into OWL axioms. However, the tool does not support translation of rules that contains a disjunction and existential quantifiers in the consequent. In this paper we will discuss the modifications that were successfully made to the existing plugin to support the translation of right-hand existential and disjunction rules. We posit that this modification gives the user the ability to model more realistic and complex ontologies. Lastly, our evaluation shows that the tool can add 89% of the rules that contains an existential quantifier and 65% of the rules that contains a disjunction. We also discuss why we were unable to insert the remaining rules more in detail

Committee: Pascal Hitzler Ph.D. (Advisor); Mateen M. Rizki Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yong Pei Ph.D. (Committee Member); Barry Milligan Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Computer Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1979, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Cleveland State University, 2016, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

This thesis consists of ten short stories that are structured, formatted and thematically aligned with the yamas and niyamas, the ten moral tenants of yoga philosophy. The yamas and niyamas are the first two limbs of Patinjali's eightfold path, or the path to enlightenment through yogic practices. The yamas account for five principles that guide ethical living and instruct followers on how to interact with others and the world. The yamas consist of: ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (non-excess), and aparigraha (non-possessiveness). The niyamas are guidelines for personal practices that relate to, develop, and enhance one's relationship with self. The niyamas are: saucha (purity), santosha (contentment), tapas (self-discipline), svadhyaya (self-study), and ishvara prandihana (surrender). Each story in this collection loosely correlates with and comments on its assigned yama or niyama. As a collection, the stories function as glimpses of being—fractal pieces of life from inside differing existential or personal crises. The characters face moral, personal and spiritual dilemmas, often grappling with ghosts from the past, striving to make sense of what is through varying tools and coping mechanisms. The highest goal for this thesis is to act as commentary on the modern condition by using the spiritual and existential lens to diagnose and categorize modern afflictions. Some characters reach towards being—towards harmony or enlightenment—as dressing for their wounds. Others merely grapple with their conditions of dis-ease. Still others contribute to, and worsen, the disharmony. Guided by ten moral principles, these stories stand alone and work together to lead readers into the depths of varying states of being, while shedding light on modernity's inherent conflict with ancient spiritual practices.

Committee: Imad Rahman MFA (Committee Chair); Caryl Pagel MFA (Committee Member); Christopher Barzak MFA (Committee Member); David Lardner PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts; Language Arts; Literature; Modern Literature; Religion; Spirituality; Theology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Nursing: Nursing - Doctoral Program

Abstract The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure existential authenticity in adults. Existential authenticity was defined as awareness of the existential givens in the human experience as defined by Irvin Yalom. This construct is theorized as the goal of existential psychotherapy, which is a meaning-centered psychotherapy aligned with the purpose of providing clients with the tools to cope with life's negativities and live a meaningful life. Many diagnostic conditions, including depression, psychological trauma, and anxiety, are conceptualized as amenable to the benefits of existential psychotherapy and the journey towards existential authenticity. A review of the literature revealed that an instrument for measuring existential authenticity did not exist. An initial pool of test items was developed using Yalom's definitions. Content validity was determined by expert input and the resulting 49-item survey was administered online to 222 test subjects. Recruitment was conducted via post card mailed to a random sample of the Greater Cincinnati Geographic Region. Participants were predominantly female (77.5%), Caucasian (81.5%), married (56.7%), well educated (23.9% with a graduate or professional degree), and with a mean age of 45.3. Factor analysis revealed one factor consistent with the theoretical underpinnings of the work, captured in a 12-item index. Internal consistency reliability in the current sample was good (a = .871). Evaluation of the psychometric properties demonstrated a promising index although further development is required. The data are consistent with an instrument in the beginning stages of development.

Committee: Denise Gormley Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christine Hovanitz Ph.D. (Committee Member); Elaine Miller Ph.D.R.N. (Committee Member) Subjects: Nursing

M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2008, College-Conservatory of Music : Theory

In the year 2000, Helmuth Rilling, artistic director of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, commissioned the Passion 2000. The project was a commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death by commissioning four musical settings of the Passion narrative. The narrative of the Gospel of Mark was commissioned of Argentina-born composer Osvaldo Golijov. This setting of the passion narrative represents a diversity and combination of musical idioms. La Pasion segun San Marcos is a piece whose musical sources are rooted in the corpus of Latin American popular music, without a specific governing musical style, creating constant shifts in the levels of musical discourse. The concepts of musical collage, pastiche, or quotation are usually evoked when analyzing La Pasion segun San Marcos. However, a semiotic analysis of Golijov's Pasion reveals an interaction of musical and textual elements. This interaction gives rise to an ironic and satiric ethos, which in turn provides the foundation for my analysis of parody and existential irony in the work's musical expression. In this thesis I attempt to explicate how the interaction of musical objects and text signify irony in music; my approach is grounded on theories developed by Robert Hatten, Yayoi Uno Everett, Juan Roque Chattah, and Erin Sheinberg. I consider trans-contextualization, inversion, and conceptual negation of meaning against background referents. I further identify the musical elements that act as signals negating the meaning of the text through structural appropriation, gender characterization, and stylistic transformation and ambiguity. Three movements will be treated to analytical scrutiny. First is “Judas y El Cordero Pascual” (Judas and the Paschal Lamb), which represents the Afro-Cuban musical genre son montuno. The Last Supper scene unfolds in this movement, including within it the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, and the apostolic question of culpability among Jesus' disciples. The s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Miguel Roig-Francoli Dr (Committee Chair); Robert Zierolf Dr (Advisor); David Carson Berry Dr (Advisor) Subjects: Music; Religion

PHD, Kent State University, 2009, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The purpose of this investigation was to build the blueprint of Taiwanese public higher education's fundraising. This study applied three surveys (NSH, NSC, and NSF) to three populations' samples (public universities, corporations, and foundations in Taiwan) as well as qualitative interviews toward these three populations in order to explore Taiwan's private organizations donations to higher education institutions. After fifteen months of data collections, this researcher obtained thirty-five samples out of fifty-five public universities, 151 survey samples and twenty-seven interview participants for Taiwanese corporations, and ninety-nine survey samples and twenty-one interview participants for Taiwanese foundations. The findings in this study suggested that corporations in Taiwan were inclined to give funds to public universities with the capacity to improve or strengthen companies' benefit-obtaining potential; foundations in Taiwan have an affinity for supporting public higher education institutions with the function to enhance or perform social justices and values for them. The investigation data suggested that Taiwanese public universities' fundraising people should balance their institutions in different field developments in order to further extend or outreach funding sources in diversity.

Committee: Mark A. Kretovics PhD (Advisor); Eunsook Hyun PhD (Committee Member); Kenneth Cushner EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Finance; Higher Education; Organizational Behavior; School Administration; School Finance

PHD, Kent State University, 2006, College of Education, Health, and Human Services / Department of Teaching, Leadership and Curriculum Studies

While state report cards and federal assessments evaluate urban schools as failing and their teachers as the least competent and least experienced, the high-quality veteran teacher remains in service in the urban school. In daunting circumstances, the urban teacher teaches where few high-quality teachers choose to stay. Moreover, once at school, this experienced, expert teacher is pressured to conform in practice to the federally-mandated standardization required of students, teachers, and schools. The practitioner of pedagogical tact is “the most personal embodiment of a pedagogical thoughtfulness” (van Manen, 2002, p. 9). Refusing the theory of tabula rasa either for the teacher or the student, the high-quality teacher manifests pedagogical tact in small silent episodes unnoticed, unrecognized, and overlooked by the panoptical eye of the cyberculture (Pinar, 2004). In a revolutionary act of autobiography, this research, centered in currere as both epistemological and research subject (Pinar & Grumet, 1976), will raise the voice of the unvoiced/silent by seeking the essence of the experience of pedagogical tact for the high-quality veteran urban teacher. The research questions are What is the nature of the experience of pedagogical tact for a high-quality veteran urban teacher? and What meaning does a high-quality veteran urban teacher ascribe to the experience? Five high-quality veteran urban teachers identified as practitioners of pedagogical tact were nominated through purposive criterion sampling to this study. In the hermeneutically-spiraling three-part phenomenological interviews, the participant engaged in critical conversation that recognized the past and the future in the present toward an analysis of the teacher and his/her curriculum work in the classroom. The third interview sought a higher level of being, The Synthetical Moment, when public and private spheres are reunited in the prize of intentionality (Pinar & Grumet, 1976). The valuation of the resu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Henderson (Advisor) Subjects:

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2012, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

In modern history, no event has more profoundly symbolized suffering than the Holocaust. This novel “Husserlian-realist” phenomenological dissertation elucidates the meaning of existential trauma through an interdisciplinary and psychologically integrative vantage point. I use the testimony of a select group of Holocaust witnesses who committed suicide decades after that event as a lens to examine what their despair may reveal about an unprecedented existential, moral, and spiritual crisis of humanity that threatens to undermine our faith in human history and reality itself. By distinguishing what they actually saw about our condition from what they merely believed about reality, I show there is a reliable hope that can fulfill the highest reaches of human nature in the worst conditions. This I call a Psychotherapy of Hope. To this end, I provide a broad overview of the four main forces of psychotherapy to evaluate the role each plays in healing this crisis. I then provide an elucidation of empathic understanding within an “I/Thou” altruistic relationship having power to transform human personality. The primary barrier to personal transformation is shown to be no mere value-neutral indifference, but “cold” indifference or opposition to an objective good. No one can avoid a faith commitment, and the only solution to this crisis is our love or reliance on a self-transcendent good or benevolent super-ego worthy of our trust. By means of this love we can find meaning in our suffering to become more than we are, better than we are, and even transform human life as we know it. By love we may heal our wounds.

Committee: Juliet Rohde-Brown PhD (Committee Chair); Sharleen O'Brian-Dolan PsyD (Committee Member); Donna M. Orange PhD, PsyD (Committee Member); Kimberly D. Robbins PsyD (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Cognitive Therapy; Comparative; Comparative Literature; Developmental Psychology; Divinity; Education; Education History; Education Philosophy; Educational Psychology; Epistemology; Ethics; European History; Evolution and Dev