Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses
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ItemEducational and cultural challenges for refugee young people in Australia( 2013)This research investigated the everyday and cultural challenges for refugee young people, using computer-assisted interviews. Patterns of everyday challenge differed among refugee, immigrant and Australian-born students, in relation to their constructions of bicultural or mono-cultural identities. Refugee young people engaged with English language, money and other challenges in various ways. In four studies, quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed how individual participants with different patterns of bicultural identity specified and engaged with challenges using personal strategies and social support.
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ItemThe effects of education, self-regulation, social support and cultural participation on physical activity variety in the Baby Boomer generation( 2013)If there is one principle for well-being, it is that recreational physical activities, such as walking and sports, have wide-ranging health benefits. However, most people are not active enough to realise the benefits, such as the baby boomer generation. A major public health issue is how to develop better ways to encourage the ‘boomers’ to live physically active lives. Research has identified a tendency for the boomers to participate in variety, such as a range of recreational activities (Alderson, Junisbai, & Heacock, 2007). In addition, adult education level is connected to more variety (e.g. van Eijck, 1999). If the boomers have an appetite for variety, it may be a focus for physical activity promotion. However, the potential effects of education on activity variety of this generation is unclear, and it has not been directly investigated whether forms of self-agency such as self-regulation, and seeking social support, intervene education and physical activity variety. By drawing on social-cultural psychology to integrate insights from health psychology, public health, and sociology, the current thesis investigated the potential role of formal education and self-agency in current participation in physical activity variety by the boomer generation. The aim was to establish whether education is a determinant of physical activity variety, and in particular, as a potential precursor to day-to-day agency (e.g. seeking social support to be active). A model of the effects of education on physical activity variety was developed, and investigated through a field study of boomer adults (n = 217) in the general community of Melbourne, Australia. The Model proposed that education leads to activity variety via self-regulation, seeking social support and cultural participation (e.g. visiting museums and cultural festivals). Research participants completed a detailed survey of social and life background, lifestyle patterns, and health, and a measure of cognitive ability – a potentially important capacity for self-regulation and active living. Before the main field study, the survey was developed through two pilot studies (n1 = 218, and n2 = 106), and the ability measure evaluated in the latter pilot. As anticipated, education was found to effect physical activity variety, positively and indirectly, and primarily via: (1) self-regulation and attaining social support, and (2) cultural participation. The strongest direct effect on activity variety was via social support elicitation, and the multiple indirect effects of education on variety took place via this form of adult self-agency. Cognitive ability had a negative effect on self-regulation, and a positive direct effect on social support elicitation. Women were more engaged in cultural participation than men, and less engaged in physical activity variety. The findings of this thesis suggest that physical activity promotion strategies that are focused on increasing multiple types of activity may be a promising public health approach, and may be particularly effective for boomers with higher education. Furthermore, forms of self-agency that are not normally the ‘target’ of public health, such as cultural participation, may foster more health-enhancing physical activity. The baby boomers gravitate to variety in life, and efforts to support this proclivity in the generation may confer additional benefits to their well-being.
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ItemCulturally different and successful?: case studies of gifted Vietnamese secondary students( 1993-01)There is concern in the literature that gifted children from ‘culturally different’ populations, such as Hispanics and Blacks, are underrepresented in special programs due, in part, to the often insensitive traditional methods of identification used that do not detect particular abilities that are valued and promoted within that particular culture. Contrary to these findings, studies indicate that gifted Asians are in profusion. They present themselves as excellent, motivated students and it is almost expected that they will achieve highly in the areas of mathematics and science. The focus of this paper is a study of seven highly capable secondary school boys of Vietnamese background. In several of these cases the children have had huge hurdles to overcome including the death of a mother, escape by boat, life in a refugee camp, parents whose skills are not being utilised as well as being ‘different’. Despite this they have been successful. A case study approach was adopted to look at the nature of these students, the role of the parents and the attitudes towards giftedness. The aim is to present a holistic view of the child rather than obscure their unique characteristics in a muddle of statistics of a large scale study. This paper takes the position that it is dangerous to make such generalisations and that although gifted from the same cultural group will have certain similar traits, the assumption that common values will automatically apply to them should be curtailed as the particular circumstances of the individual child leads to different manifestations in each.
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ItemAdjustment in life after traumatic brain injury: the impact of cognition, employment, and perceived sense of purpose in life( 2013)Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects the most wide-ranging domains of survivors’ lives, markedly reducing emotional health and quality of life. The primary objective of this study was to explore the widely proclaimed therapeutic effect of employment on psychological wellbeing (PWB) and quality of life (QoL) relative to perceived sense of purpose in life (PIL). An additional aim was to examine the influence of factors involving cognitive function, injury severity, age at time of injury, gender, and preinjury education, on survivors’ work ability and return to work (RTW). A mixed methods design was used for an in-depth and comprehensive understanding about adjustment in life post-TBI. Method: Participants (N=40; 10-18 months post-TBI) were grouped according to age: 18-39 years (younger group), 40-55 years (older group) and injury severity (Glasgow Coma Scale scores): mild TBI (n=25), moderate-severe TBI (n=15). Quantitative Component: Neuropsychological testing and questionnaire surveys were performed to evaluate participants’ cognitive function, levels of perceived work gainfulness, PIL, PWB, and QoL. Data was analysed using bivariate and multivariate analyses of variance, aided by SPSS computer software. Qualitative Component: 12 participants (6 from each severity group) were randomly selected for digitally recorded semi-structured interviews, predominantly concerning the impact of work and life meaningfulness on adjustment process. Interviews were analysed using grounded theory methodology, aided by NVivo 10 computer package. Results and Discussion: PIL, in comparison to employment, cognitive function, and injury severity, made the strongest unique contribution in explaining PWB and QoL (p < 0.001). Employment potential was largely affected by memory and injury severity, with increased memory deficits (p < 0.01) and injury severity (p < 0.05) respectively associated with deteriorated employment potential. Main Conclusion: Having a strong sense of life as purposeful, notwithstanding employment, cognitive function, and injury severity, encourages survivors to focus on their lives and important life goals and to ultimately, achieve a promising life with healthy wellbeing.
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ItemRational emotive education: efficacy with non-clinical children in natural setting: considerations for prevention( 1986)The present study investigated the efficacy of Rational Emotive Education (REE) in promoting psychological and emotional adjustment of non-clinical primary school children in a natural setting. This study was introduced subsequent to a two-term pilot study conducted in 1983. The sample studied consisted of two intact Grade 4 classes in a private school for girls, randomly assigned to either REE1, REE2, or attention control conditions. Two counsellors were employed, both staff members at the school where the study was conducted. The effects of the intervention program upon the variables of anxiety, locus of control, and rationality were assessed. All students were pre/post/follow-up tested on the Trait scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Edwards, Montuori & Lushene, 1973), on the Personal Reaction Survey, Locus of Control for Children (Nowicki & . Strickland, 1931), and the Children's Survey of Rational Beliefs (Knaus, 1974). An additional measure, the Analogue Survey (Bernard & Joyce, 1984) was introduced to evaluate REE’s contribution to adaptive coping. It was hypothesized that subjects in the REE groups will show increase in rational thinking and in application of rational principles to events and situations; that subjects in the REE group will demonstrate reduction in anxiety and ability to respond to situations with moderate emotions and that subjects in the REE groups will become more internal in their locus of control orientation after intervention. It was further hypothesized that REE effectiveness will not be associated with subjects' IQ level, initial level of anxiety, rationality, and locus of control, and therefore be suitable for classroom application. Correlations between gains in rationality and changes in other outcome variables were computed in order to assess whether the gains were the specific mechanisms mediating intervention effects. Counsellor effects on intervention outcome were also assessed. Results indicated that the principles of REE taught in class can be acquired by Grade 4 students, and supported REE's efficacy in increasing subjects' rationality and internality of locus of control. No support was found, however, for REE's efficacy in producing a significant decrease in anxiety compared to the attention control condition. On the Analogue Survey, the REE participants demonstrated better adaptive coping than the subjects in the attention control. Although higher rationality at pre-test was found to be associated with a decrease in anxiety from pre-test to post-test, gains in rationality were found to be associated with an increase in anxiety from pre-test to post-test. No association was revealed between program effectiveness and subjects' IQ level, locus of control, and anxiety at pre-test. Differences in intervention outcome due to counsellor effects were revealed particularly after the six months non-intervention period. Implications of the present study are discussed and future recommendations are made based on study outcome.