Browsing by Subject "Psychotherapy"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 21
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A study of the effects of aggression and reaction to frustration upon the evaluations of therapists given by a group of adolescents(Texas Tech University, 1969-05) Owre, Martha LeonoraNot availableItem Acceptability of alternative treatments for adults(Texas Tech University, 1987-05) Shaw, David BrianTreatment acceptability of various psychotherapies was examined in this study. The responses of clients undergoing psychotherapy were compared to practicing psychologists and community representatives. In order to investigate treatment acceptability, all subjects were presented with a case description of a distressed adult. Four treatment approaches were evaluated: cognitive behavioral, client-centered, family systems, and psychodynamic therapy. Treatments were randomly presented in a 2(Case) X 3(Sample) X 4(Psychotherapy) split plot factorial design. Results indicate that cognitive behavior therapy and client-centered therapy were rated more positively by all three subject groups on at least one of the treatment acceptability measures. Clients rated all treatments more favorably than did practicing psychologists. Methodological limitations are discussed, and future research directions in this area are presented. Description of the development and validation of two treatment acceptability measures are included in Appendices.Item An investigation of microtraining in experiential focusing for psychiatric outpatients(Texas Tech University, 1977-05) Swanson, Greg SwanNot availableItem Changing pictures of social science theory and practice : a Wittgensteinian approach to human mind and experience(2010-05) Jones, Donald Earl, 1957-; Schallert, Diane L.; Richardson, Frank C.; Wicker, Frank W.; Slife, Brent D.; Jarmon, Leslie H.This dissertation argues that there is a set of assumptions--or a picture, in Wittgenstein's language--that influences our thinking about who we are as human beings and our relationships to the rest of the world. These assumptions have their origins in Cartesianism and function as unrecognized, unacknowledged foundations on which all of the rest of our thinking and acting takes place. My argument is that these assumptions are deeply problematic and that we need to both examine the impact of those assumptions and beginning building alternative perspectives. I draw primarily from scholars who build upon a Wittgensteinian perspective that draws upon the Philosophical investigations, On certainty, and other volumes of Wittgenstein's work that have been published since the Philosophical Investigations. These scholars include Taylor (2007), Williams (2002), Mulhall (2007), Canfield (2004, 2007), Moyal-Sharrock (2004), Travis (2006, 2007), Schatzki (1996, 2001), and Stroll (2002, 2004). Of particular interest to me is the inner-outer distinction--or in Taylor's terms, dualist sorting--of Cartesian dualism, whereby all mental processes are contained within individual human minds that are separate and distinct from the rest of the reality. Taylor, Williams, Schatzki, and other Wittgensteinian scholars argue that this assumption continues to be relatively unacknowledged and unchallenged despite a long history of philosophical challenges to the Cartesian perspective. These scholars argue that the inner-outer distinction is deeply mistaken and yet continues to have an impact on contemporary life that is both pervasive and negative. A key part of my approach builds on Taylor's (2007) argument about the connection between ontology and epistemology within the Cartesian picture. Taylor argues that we get to a new picture only by carefully investigating the influences of the Cartesian picture and then building a new perspective out of alternatives to each piece of the Cartesian picture. Canfield (2004) argues similarly, referring to this as a bottom-up approach. In this work, I look at both theoretical and applied issues within the social sciences. I investigate how a few concrete practices play out within specific contexts when considered from an alternative perspective that takes unmediated knowledge and embodied practices (Taylor, 2007), a social conception of mind (Williams, 2002), and a relational ontology (Slife, 2004) as foundational. And finally, I present specific examples drawn from the applied practices of the social sciences with a focus on the delivery of psychological services (including psychology, psychotherapy, and counseling) and the teaching of communication (including writing, speaking, and interpersonal communication). The purpose of these examples is to bring out some of the contradictions and problems that occur because of the unacknowledged assumptions of the Cartesian picture and to show the kinds of solutions that an alternative perspective can provide. My goal is to provide concrete suggestions for thinking and acting within the context of particular practices using psychotherapy and teaching as the primary sources for examples.Item Eating disorders: a multiple-case investigation of the Internet e-mail correspondence of women's lived experience(Texas Tech University, 1999-12) Collins, Perry L.This study examines the lived experiences of women with eating disorders. The data consists of several (n=4) participants' written correspondence on a weekly basis over four months via electronic mail. Using an interpretive paradigm, the data from this multiple-case study was analyzed using a constant comparative method that employed thematic analysis and axial coding. Any themes that emerged were explicated and explored further. Accounts of the participants' lived experiences indicated that many women with eating disorders perceive that precipitating events in their childhood such as sexual abuse, perfectionism and rigidity in the family, poor communication styles in the family, and extemal influences such as peer and societal values and beliefs have lead to the development of disordered eating patterns in their lives. Furthermore, the participants believe that since the development of their eating disorder, there are certain factors such as feelings of guilt, shame, and low self-esteem that continue to perpetuate their disordered eating patterns. The participants' writings further indicated that their eating disorders affect every aspect of their lives including their relationships with family and friends, their behavior in work and school settings, their emotions and cognitions, their sexuality, spirituality, and body image. These women explored their daily routines in great detail, discussing the binge experience, purging through the use of laxatives, diuretics, and excessive exercise, and environmental cues that trigger disordered eating behaviors. The participants addressed their attempts at "getting better" and described the various strategies that have employed. Overall, the participants indicate that participating in this intemet-based study via electronic mail correspondence was a positive experience for them. The results of this study provide a better understanding of the daily lived experiences of women with eating disorders. The implications of this study are emancipating for these women and should lead to more sensitive treatment approaches with those who have eating disorders. Further research is needed in gaining a better understanding of women with eating disorders. Finally, future research should continue to explore the viability of the Intemet as a medium for data collection.Item Effects of meeting or failing to meet subject preference for therapist response style in a psychotherapy interview analogue(Texas Tech University, 1977-08) Duckro, Paul NicholasNot availableItem An examination of self-compassion in relation to process group psychotherapy(2009-08) Jannazzo, Eric Stephen; Neff, Kristin; Ainslie, Ricardo C.Recent reviewers of the group psychotherapy literature have called for the introduction of new constructs that may contribute to a deeper understanding of what it is about process groups that make them effective in eliciting change. To this end, this study investigates the potential of a newly defined and operationalized construct known as self-compassion. Drawing on the writings of various scholars of Buddhism, Neff has theorized that self-compassion consists of three main, mutually influential components: self-kindness (the act of being gentle with oneself in instance of pain or failure); mindfulness (holding painful thoughts and feelings in balanced awareness, without over-identifying with them); and common humanity (the perception of one’s experiences as part of the larger human experience). This paper argues that there are strong parallels between each of these three components and existing theory on the mechanisms of change in group psychotherapy. The study was motivated by the belief that preliminary quantitative support for the role of self-compassion in change through groups may highlight the importance of the construct and help orient both group practitioners and group researchers towards a new theoretical lens through which the power of groups may be better understood. 92 subjects were enrolled in the study: 57 in a non-treatment Control condition, and 35 in a Treatment condition. The Control group was comprised of undergraduates from the Educational Psychology Department subject pool at the University of Texas at Austin; the Treatment group was formed by UT undergraduate and graduate students who were enrolled in a process psychotherapy group at the UT Counseling and Mental Health Center. A pre-test/post-test design was employed, with subjects taking identical surveys at baseline (beginning of Fall 2007 semester) and follow-up (end of the same semester). A variety of inferential statistical techniques were utilized, and results indicated that there was a significant relationship between participation in process group psychotherapy and positive mental health outcomes as measured by self-report levels of depression, perceived stress, and happiness; that participation in a therapy group was associated with increased levels of self-compassion; and that as a predictor of mental health outcome in relation to therapy groups, self-compassion was on the whole equivalent to one construct (hope) often cited in the group literature as a powerful therapeutic mechanism, and a more powerful predictor than another (altruism). The overall results offer exciting implications for future research and clinical practice, as they suggest that self-compassion may well serve as an important component of a robust theoretical, organizing lens through which the power of group psychotherapy may be more clearly understood.Item Factors influencing self-disclosure in actual therapy sessions(Texas Tech University, 1983-05) Patten, Thomas GeraldNot availableItem Psychotherapy as environment: an investigation of Holland's congruence hypothesis(Texas Tech University, 1984-05) Dailey, Kathlyn ClareNot availableItem Quality therapy: cue utilization and the judgment of effective therapist behavior(Texas Tech University, 1976-05) Stricherz, Mathias ENot availableItem Relationship of counselor assertiveness and therapeutic effectiveness in treating depression(Texas Tech University, 1978-12) Ramirez, JohnNot availableItem The differential effectiveness of two styles of presenting rational-emotive-therapy to internal and external alcoholics(Texas Tech University, 1979-05) Christensen, Phillip WayneNot availableItem The effectiveness of systematic client preparation for psychotherapy on dropout rate(Texas Tech University, 1984-08) Wilson, David OOne of the most difficult problems facing the psychotherapist is that far too many of those entrusted to his/her care drop out of treatment prior to its satisfactory completion. The extent of the problem is reflected in the findings that in outpatient psychiatric clinics 20% to 57% of clients fail to return after the first visit (Blenkner, 1954; Dodd, 1971; Fiester & Rudestam, 1975; Gallagher & Kantner, 1961; Katz & Solomon, 1958; Overall & Aronson, 1963; Rosenthal & Frank, 1958; Weiss & Schaie, 1958), and 31% to 56% attend no more than four treatment sessions (Craig & Huffine, 1976; Frank, 1961; Gallagher & Kantner, 1961; Kurz & Garfield, 1952; Lindsay, 1965). The evidence has suggested that only about 8.5% to 17% of dropouts were doing well whereas the vast majority (83% to 91.5%) could not be classified as doing well (Straker, Devenloo, & Moll, 1967; Yalom, 1966). Further, it appears that those who terminate early from psychotherapy rarely go to seek therapy elsewhere (Garfield, 1963; Riess & Brandt, 1965). With insufficient resources to treat clients needing mental health treatment, research efforts were made to predict those clients likely to prematurely terminate from psychotherapy. These efforts have failed to produce a multiple regression equation that successfully predicts the psychotherapy dropout (Baekeland & Lundwall, 1975). Thus, client preparation for psychotherapy programs have been developed both (a) to optimize the client's continuance in psychotherapy and (b) to enhance the client's utilization of the experience to increase successful outcomes. This study (a) developed a videotape utilizing an informational framework and modeling of desired client behaviors and (b) tested the effectiveness of this videotape on enhancing successful outcomes in psychotherapy. Dependent variables were change in clients' attitudes and expectations about psychotherapy as measured by the inventory Expectations About Counseling-Form B (Tinsley, Workman, & Kass, 1980) and number of sessions attended by clients. The results suggested that the videotape was effective in significantly increasing the number of psychotherapy sessions attended and in significantly reducing the dropout rate in the experimental group over a control group. The videotape had no effect in changing attitudes and expectancies as measured by the EAC-B. In addition, it was found that previous counseling significantly increased attendance over those clients who had no previous counseling. It was concluded that a videotape incorporating modeling and an informational framework of successful psychotherapy behaviors has considerable promise in enhancing successful psychotherapy outcomes by increasing attendance and decreasing dropouts in the early stages of psychotherapy.Item The effects of client nonverbal behaviors and problem severity upon clinical judgments(Texas Tech University, 1980-08) Venzor, EddieNot availableItem The effects of two types of psychotherapy on the self-disclosure and attitude toward seeking professional help of Mexican-Americans(Texas Tech University, 1984-05) Valdes, Luis FelipeNot availableItem The impact of diagnosing on psychologists’ treatment of, attitude towards, and perception of their clients(2016-08) Gaies, Samantha Elizabeth; Rude, Stephanie Sandra; Sherry, Alissa R; Drum, David J; Walker, Lorraine O; Cohen, Barry HIn the current milieu of health care, diagnoses are often a requirement for receiving mental health services. More specifically, insurance companies require diagnoses for reimbursement, and oftentimes a certain threshold of mental illness needs to be met for the insurance company to approve the treatment. Additionally, newer models of health care, such as care management clinics, also prefer clients to be diagnosed to help indicate which evidence-based practice of care should be employed (Unützer et al., 2006). As a result, psychologists have become accustomed to offering more severe diagnoses than a client may warrant (Pomerantz & Segrist, 2006). Due to cognitive errors and biases that are inherent to cognitive processing, such as the negativity bias (Rozin & Royzman, 2001), labeling clients with pathologies may influence psychologists to hold less accurate and more negative views of their clients. In order to better understand the effects of using diagnoses, an experiment was conducted in which psychologists were either required or not required to assign a diagnosis to a hypothetical client based on written simulated therapy vignettes. It was hypothesized that participants required to diagnose would: 1) be more likely to diagnose that client at the end of the experiment; 2) have less of a desire to work with the client; and 3) hold more negative opinions of the client than psychologists who were not required to diagnose. Multiple regression models were run to test these hypotheses, and the results demonstrated that psychologists who were required to diagnose held a more negative opinion of the client, and the more often psychologists were diagnosing in their own practice, the more likely they were to diagnose the client in the study. Supplemental analyses also revealed that participants with Ph.Ds. from Clinical Psychology programs tended to be more likely to diagnose the hypothetical client and to use CBT techniques. All of these findings advance research and practice by demonstrating that the use of diagnoses has an effect on the therapeutic relationship, treatment, and the psychologist over time, and highlight the need for future research to explore the degree to which diagnosing may detrimentally affect client care.Item The psychophysiological correlates of high and low experiencing clients in psychotherapy(Texas Tech University, 1972-08) Kane, Robert LouisNot availableItem The relationship between two ethical decision-making models and counselor trainees' responses to an ethical discrimination task and their perceptions of ethical therapeutic behavior(Texas Tech University, 1997-05) Dinger, Timothy JoelEthics education is considered vital in preparing counselor trainees to be responsible cHnicians. However, the effectiveness of ethics education is debatable. Ethical decision-making models are recommended to counselor educators as effective means to assist trainees and professionals in maintaining ethically defensible behavior. Yet, no published empirical research on the effectiveness of ethical decision-making models exists. The purpose of the present study was to examine two ethical decision-making models, the A-B-C-D-E Worksheet (Sileo & Kopala, 1993) and the Ethical Justification model (Kitchener, 1984) on 52 counselor trainees' responses to the Ethical Discrimination Inventory (EDI, Baldick, 1980; Lipsitz, 1985) and to Borys' (1988) Therapeutic Practices Survey (TPS). In addition, trainees' responses to the EDI and the TPS were evaluated on the basis of 3 individual variables and 2 training variables. The individual variables were idealism, relativism and analytical ability. Idealism and relativism were assessed by the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ, Forsyth, 1980) and analytical ability by the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). The training variables were graduate courses in ethics and practicum. The data were analyzed using a multiple analysis of covariance for a randomized block design at an alpha level of .0167.Item The role induction interview: a platform for influence variables(Texas Tech University, 1974-05) Childress, Robert NeyNot availableItem Therapeutic response styles: client expectancies and preferences.(Texas Tech University, 1975-05) Venzor, EddieNot available