Doctor of Education, Ashland University, 2024, College of Education

This qualitative study investigates how drama education influences the socioemotional learning and leadership development among Black adolescent females. Existing research has highlighted the benefits of drama education for personal and social development, yet there is a lack of focus on the experiences of Black adolescent females within this domain. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the ways in which drama education affects socioemotional learning and leadership development among this demographic. Utilizing a phenomenological approach, participants were selected through convenience and purposeful sampling methods and in-depth interviews, to capture their subjective experiences. Through thematic analysis, four themes emerged from each research question shedding light on the transformative role of drama education in understanding emotions, forming identity, improving mental health, and enhancing socialization and interpersonal skills with peers. It also contributed to their development as leaders by communicating and collaborating with others, working effectively and efficiently on teams, learning organization, planning and time management skills and adaptability. The findings of this study highlight the overall significance of incorporating arts education into the curriculum, particularly Black adolescent females. These insights have important implications for educators, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to promote holistic development and equity in educational settings.

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

Historically, dominant discourse on etiquette in the United States has centered white, patriarchal, and classist ideals, consequently excluding marginalized groups. This dissertation centers the experiences of those who have been historically marginalized using Orbe's (1998; 2023) co-cultural theory as a framework. The two research questions ask how and in what contexts do co-cultural mothers and daughters conform to and oppose dominant etiquette rules. A cohort of 17 mother-daughter dyads completed a demographic questionnaire and in-depth interviews about their experiences with etiquette. Findings from a critical thematic analysis (Lawless & Chen, 2019) revealed how co-cultural mothers and daughters conform to traditional etiquette rules through five themes: (1) being patient with people, (2) letting other people take the lead, (3) code-switching, (4) being nice to servers, and (5) treating elders with respect. Eleven themes revealed how participants resist traditional etiquette rules: (1) safety as a right, (2) children navigate their own dress, (3) standing up for oneself and others in the face of injustice, (4) going above and beyond with courtesy to traditionally marginalized people, (5) emphasizing principled and practical guidelines, (6) relaxing formal rules, (7) not code-switching, (8) asking others to recognize their privilege, (9) pushing back on tipping at restaurants, (10) questioning gender expectations, and (11) using curse words effectively. Collectively, these eleven themes served as the foundation for the creation of critical etiquette, which can be defined as guidelines of social behavior that are highly reflexive and attuned to the differential impact of the application or performance of these guidelines. Created by members of marginalized groups, critical etiquette provides a framework for disrupting unjust notions of traditional etiquette, and it challenges members of the dominant group to educate and enact critical etiquette to make socie (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Psychology

Emotion regulation is a process that involves attempts to modify or sustain emotional experiences and often involves utilizing other people in attempts to effectively do so. Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) has been defined as seeking out other individuals to regulate one's own emotional experience (Zaki & Williams, 2013). While emotion regulation has been extensively examined in psychopathology, the social context and interpersonal nature of emotion regulation have largely been ignored, with the focus of most emotion regulation research being on intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies (e.g., suppression or reappraisal). Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is particularly relevant to the study of emotion regulation and is likely to be an important model to aid in understanding IER in light of the extensive emotional and interpersonal difficulties associated with the disorder. There were two primary aims to the current study: 1) to better characterize IER in the context of current relationships and 2) to characterize the relations among BPD features, IER partner characteristics, and IER effectiveness. Participants, 149 MTurk workers, completed a social network assessment of important relationships in their lives. They also indicated which, if any, of those partners they utilize for IER. IER partners were characterized by greater closeness and centrality in the network compared to partners who do not serve an IER function. Closeness and centrality were positively related to the frequency of going to a partner for IER. Partners with whom participants had greater relationship quality and who were perceived as being more willing to assist in IER were rated as more effective in helping to regulate participants' emotions. Furthermore, BPD features were unrelated to the frequency of using IER but were negatively related to the perceived efficacy of IER and willingness of partners to assist in IER. There was also evidence that those higher in BPD features may mak (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Psychology

One way individuals can create social connections is through providing and receiving social support (i.e., enacted support). Although both social support and emotion regulation (ER) have been linked to mental health outcomes, the application of an ER framework to the construct of enacted support is relatively unexplored. The current study advances our understanding by examining dyadic reports of the use of ER strategies on symptoms of psychopathology, relationship closeness, and relationship influence in female friend pairs. 121 pairs of undergraduate female friends (Mage = 19 years, SD = 1.32) completed questionnaires assessing their perception of the habitual use of ER strategies with their friend and their friend's habitual use of ER strategies with them (Gross & John, 2003; Treynor et al., 2003), symptoms of psychopathology (Fairburn & Beglin, 1994; Radloff, 1977; Mattick & Clarke, 1998; Spitzer et al., 2006), relationship closeness (Aron, Aron,& Smollan, 1992), and relationship influence (Berscheid et al., 1989). Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIM; Cook & Kenny, 2005) were conducted, entering provision and receipt of brooding rumination, expressive suppression, and reappraisal as predictors, and a composite psychopathology score, relationship closeness, and relationship influence as outcomes. I found that an individual's perceptions of providing and receiving brooding rumination and suppression were positively associated with her symptoms of psychopathology (β = .14-.39, all ps < .03). Furthermore, an individual providing brooding rumination to her friend was positively associated with her friend's level of psychopathology (β = .14, p =.02). An individual providing (β = -.17, p = .01) and receiving (β = -.21, p <.01) reappraisal was negatively associated with her friend's level of psychopathology. There were significant positive actor and partner effects for receiving reappraisal when predicting relationship closeness (β = .16, p = .01; β =.14, p =.03). (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Leadership Studies

Teacher emotional-social competencies may bare some connection to student perceptions of the quality of relationships with their teachers. Student perceptions of these relationships with teachers may in turn influence student affective and cognitive outcomes in meaningful ways. Teachers with emotional-social deficiencies face challenges in establishing a desirable and productive learning environment for their students. The strength of the relationships between a teacher and the students within their classroom has been identified as being one of the single most influential contributors towards student cognitive and affective outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlations that exist amongst teacher emotional-social competencies using the EQi 2.0 and student perceptions of teacher behavior along two dimensions of the Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behavior (MITB). These dimensions (Influence and Proximity) map student perceptions of their relationships with teachers. This study sought to identify a set of teacher EQi scales that best predict student perceptions of teacher Influence and Proximity. The results of the study indicated that all five EQi composite (Self-Perception, Self-Expression, Interpersonal, Decision Making, and Stress Management) and nine subscales (Self-Regard, Emotional Self-Expression, Assertiveness, Interpersonal Relationships, Social Responsibility, Problem Solving, Flexibility, Stress Tolerance, and Optimism) revealed statistically significant positive relationships with teacher Influence. The EQi composite scale of Interpersonal significantly predicts teacher Influence as did the subscale of Social Responsibility.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2016, Psychology

Compassionate goals are associated with a series of intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits. However, few studies have examined how people can develop high compassionate goals. In three studies, I found that compassionate goals can be increased through the behavior of giving social support. In Study 1, people had more compassionate goals in relationships where they gave more social support. In Study 2, giving social support predicted increases in compassionate goals within weeks, across weeks, and across the first semester of college. Study 3 provided experimental evidence that giving support to a stranger engaged in a stressful task increases compassionate goals compared to control conditions. These results indicated that social support given had both short-term and long-term effects on compassionate goals. I ruled out social support received and responsiveness as alternative explanations. In addition, I found that both trust and positive emotions, such as feeling connected and cooperative, both explained the association between social support given and compassionate goals.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Psychology

Selecting interpersonal behavior that is best suited to a situation relies on identifying and incorporating cues. Among these cues may be the emotion of interaction partners or the intimacy of the relationship. One situation in which it may be particularly important to use information from interpersonal cues may be in the case of interpersonal emotion regulation. Emotion regulation allows us to motivate and organize behavior. Some emotion regulation strategies rely on interactions with others; these are referred to as Interpersonal Emotion Regulation strategies (IER). Use of IER when environmental cues suggest such strategies may be unwelcome or inappropriate may result in unsuccessful attempts at regulation, increased dissatisfaction in relationships, or both. One aim of the current investigation was to understand whether BPD symptoms were related to impaired use of interpersonal cues. In this study, participants (N= 174) were asked to indicate the likelihood of using IER in vignette scenarios which varied by cues of emotion (i.e., anger or neutral emotion) and relationship intimacy (i.e., high intimacy or low intimacy relationship). There was no significant difference in participant ratings of the likelihood of using interpersonal emotional regulations strategies when and anger cue was presented versus when it was not, t(172) = -.88, p = .38. Participants reported that the mean likelihood for using interpersonal emotion regulation strategies was higher when a cue of intimacy was present, when it was not, such that individuals were more likely to use F-IER when intimacy cue was present, t(172) = -2.82, p = .01. There was also a significant difference between groups presented with intimacy cue and not presented with intimacy cue on interpersonal factors like “How good a time is this to talk to this person about how you feel?” t(172) = -4.02, p<.01. This result might mean that cues of intimacy are particularly relevant in the likelihood of engaging function (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD), Wright State University, 2014, School of Professional Psychology

A pilot study was completed to determine the effectiveness of Focused Brief Group Therapy (FBGT; Whittingham, 2008) in a college counseling center. The study focused on individuals with elevated scores on scale 8, also known as the socially uninhibited subtype, of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems. This scale has been described by researchers as potentially problematic in treatment (Burlingame, 2005) and also appeared in high numbers as referrals at a mid-western college counseling center. Pre-existing data from the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-32; Horowitz et al., 2000) and the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS; Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2012) was analyzed prior to and after completion of FBGT. It was hypothesized that upon completion of group therapy there would be statistically significant decreases in the following domains: Scale 8 and Total Interpersonal Distress on the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, as well as the Depression Scale on the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms. Results indicated a total population decrease on Scale 8 and Total Interpersonal Distress scale on the IIP-32 but not on the CCAPS scales. Future research should assess typical patterns of distress and change for this population to optimize treatment outcomes.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1971, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1971, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2024, Clinical Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

Racial/Ethnic Minority (REM) clients often face disparities in mental health outcomes. A proposed solution has been to train culturally competent practitioners. However, no reliable or valid measures of therapist cultural competency exists. This study examined both the reliability and predictive ability for a newly developed performance-based measure of therapist cultural competency, the Facilitative Interpersonal Skills - Cultural Competency (FIS-CC). Twenty-five therapists from two university counseling centers were administered the FIS-CC and standard FIS as well as a self-report measure of cultural competency, the Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised (CCCI-R). The FIS-CC and FIS were found to have acceptable internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. Therapists treated 2,004 clients, who completed symptom measures at each session. A series of 2-level Hierarchical Linear Models (clients nested within therapists) found no effect of FIS-CC or FIS on client outcome, though a marginally significant interaction was found indicating therapists with higher FIS-CC scores trended toward better outcomes with clients who had higher symptoms at intake. Exploratory ANOVAs revealed variation between different FIS-CC stimulus clips as well as FIS-CC items, indicating significant heterogeneity between different skills and simulated clients in the FIS-CC Task. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of a reliable performance based measure of therapist cultural competency. Future use of the measure for predicting client outcomes would benefit from more controlled research designs (e.g., Randomized Control Trials) and inclusion of more diverse client samples are recommended.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2008, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2006, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2024, Counselor Education (Education)

Society and researchers acknowledge that substance use disorders impact the entire family, not just the user. Most research focuses on alcoholism within families and rarely deviates specifically to other substances such as opioids, cocaine, meth, or marijuana. At times, parents with substance use disorders, such as opioids, are not present, whether physically or emotionally, for their children. The parents' absences can impact their children's experiences, such as how they create and maintain interpersonal relationships during childhood and adulthood. Despite this acknowledgment, little research exists on the experiences of children living with parental opioid use disorders from their perspective, instead utilizing the user's perspective of how they believe their substance use disorder impacts their children. To better understand the resulting impact of parental opioid use disorders, the researcher used a phenomenological research design to explore the first-hand experiences of adults who lived with parental opioid use disorders and the different interpersonal relationships experienced during childhood and adolescence. This study identified patterns of shared experiences and encouraged more research related to the long-term effects of parental opioid use disorders in adults, its impact on their interpersonal relationships, and identifying and understanding the counseling needs of clients affected by their parent's opioid use disorder.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1971, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1987, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2005, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School