Psychiatry - Theses
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ItemMasculinities in local contexts: structural, individual and cultural interdependencies( 2006-06)Knowledge of the terms sex and gender has important political, health and equity considerations. This thesis investigates the macrostructural assertions of Connell’s social theory of gender which is fundamentally concerned with demonstrating the relational and hierarchical nature of gender. A major criticism of the theory has been its lack of account of the individual and the ways in which gender is performed in local settings. Therefore, investigation primarily concerns whether Connell’s macrostructural theory is explicable in local social contexts. A theoretical critique and reframing of the theory lead to articulating the interdependency between structural, cultural and individual factors. By explicitly stating Connell’s implicit assertions, what becomes evident is that people’s gendered relations are interrelated with beliefs which are held personally and shared culturally. Specifically, a major theoretical impasse is overcome when recognising that the “ideology of supremacy” of a dominative masculinity is necessarily interdependent with the structural relations of power. From here I have suggested that there are particular patterns of these structures and beliefs which can be seen in macrostructural terms, but also in local settings. These hypotheses are reframed into social network terms for an empirical investigation of Connell’s theory in local contexts. To determine whether the predicted hypotheses for Connell’s theory occur at greater than chance levels, a particular type of statistical model for social networks, called exponential random graph (p*) models, is employed. Importantly, such models utilize a methodological approach which specifically acknowledges the interdependency of structural, individual and cultural factors, thus aligning Connell’s theory with the method of investigation. Primarily, Connell’s theory is concerned with differing configurations of masculinity, and for this reason my focus is predominantly on males and their relations with one another. To this end, two general local settings were chosen to explore these issues – secondary schools and all-male elite-level (AFL) sporting teams. Social network models were used to examine the relations between masculinities in six schools and four AFL clubs. Importantly, Connell has suggested that local contexts are likely to differ from one another in the degree to which they support gendered relations of power. Results for schools and clubs vary considerably from one another in the ways in which they provide local level support for Connell’s theory. Significantly though, there are some contexts which do show support for Connell’s theory. That such evidence can be found to endorse specifically defined local-level predictions for Connell’s theory, even when controlling for complex micro-level social structures, and also for other individual level effects, and still produce statistically significant effects supporting these predictions suggests that support is not trivial. There is strong evidence that attitudes towards masculinity can be an important organising principle in the emergence of hierarchy, not universally, but in some contexts. It can be concluded that gender relations tend to operate in ways predicted by Connell’s theory, though local context is particularly important. The specific findings from local social contexts do have wider implications for Connell’s theory, including how hierarchy in gender can be tied to other structures of power, where femininities fit into the theory, a more precise account of hegemony and an exploration of the impact culture has in local settings.
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ItemThe effects of immigration and resettlement on the mental health of South-Asian communities in Melbourne( 2006-02)This research explores the relationship between immigration experiences and psychological well-being within the Indian and Bangladeshi communities in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. The researcher conducted individual in-depth interviews with thirty-eight adult Australian permanent residents/citizens born in India and Bangladesh with the aim of examining personal post-migration accounts of adjustment, acculturation and coping in a foreign society and the effect on their mental health. Through qualitative analysis, the personal experiences and stories of South-Asian migrants and the psychological consequences of resettlement in Australia are explored. The study investigated coping strategies and psychosocial protective mechanisms and explored factors relevant to both successful and unsuccessful resettlement, and their relationship to psychological well-being. The results indicated that social and emotional disconnection, isolation and alienation, lack of recognition of professional skills, experiences of racism and discrimination, cultural incongruity, feelings of cultural uprooting and inadequate English language competency, all may contribute to psychological distress, difficulties in adjustment to life in Australia and in some cases, repatriation to the country of origin.
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ItemThe experience of depression: women's perspectives( 2002-12)Reports from epidemiological survey data identify that twice as many women than men suffer with depression over the life cycle. From reviewing the broad research literature, it appears that many studies focus on only one aspect of a bio-psychosocial model and, do not consider how these aspects interact. (For complete abstract open document)
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ItemHuman steady-state visually evoked potential topography and attention( 2004-12)This work began with a review of visual spatial selective attention, from a behavioural perspective with particular emphasis placed upon the spotlight model. To complement the behavioural review, the physiological aspects of the visual system were studied to find possible loci of the spotlight. The literature pointed to the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus, interacting with the parietal and frontal cortices. Some experimental work examined relationships between visual spatial selective attention and event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded from the scalp. The second section of this thesis reviewed the ERP measures relating specifically to the visual modality for their possible application in a visual attentional task. This yielded two independent findings. First, the Probe-ERP paradigm comprising an attentional task being performed by the subject, with a separate stimulus to probe the unused resources within the system. Second, the steady-state evoked response, with the stimulus presented as a small sinusoidal variation around a mean level of contrast. The combination of the Probe-ERP paradigm and the steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) warranted experimental evaluation.
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ItemThe creative process: A phenomenological and psychometric investigation of artistic creativity( 2005-08)Although a variety of approaches have been adopted to researching creativity, the phenomenology of creativity has not been well-represented in the literature. This constitutes a significant obstacle to achieving a comprehensive, satisfactory model of the creative process. The current thesis aimed to provide a systematic analysis of the phenomenology of artistic creativity. The thesis also attempted to integrate the analysis of phenomenological aspects of artistic creativity with the more established approaches of creativity-personality and creativity-psychopathology research. Specifically, the research investigated whether the phenomenology of artistic creativity varies in relation to features of personality and psychopathology.
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ItemA prospective study of the relationship between stress, coping and the onset of psychosis in a high risk group( 2005-06)The experience of stress and associated coping responses are often described as playing an important role in the onset of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Despite widespread acceptance of this model, there is little empirical evidence to support such a relationship. This is partly due to a lack of well-designed prospective studies of the onset of psychotic disorders that incorporate different aspects of the stress and coping process. The relatively recent development of validated and reliable criteria for identifying young people at high-risk (UHR) of developing psychosis has enabled the process of onset of psychotic illnesses to be studied more closely than was previously possible. It has also opened the way to the development and evaluation of preventive interventions. This longitudinal study aimed to compare the experiences of stress and coping between a UHR cohort (N = 143) and a group of young people without mental health concerns (HC group, N = 32). In addition, the contribution of stress and coping in the development of acute psychosis in a subgroup of the UHR cohort (UHR-P, n = 18) was also investigated.
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ItemSelf-ambivalence in obsessive-compulsive disorder( 2005-01)According to the cognitive model, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is maintained by various belief factors such as an inflated sense of responsibility, perfectionism and an overestimation about the importance of thoughts. Despite much support for this hypothesis, there is a lack of understanding about the role of self-concept in the maintenance or treatment of OCD. Guidano and Liotti (1983) suggest that individuals who are ambivalent about their self-worth, personal morality and lovability use perfectionistic and obsessive compulsive behaviours to continuously restore self-esteem. This thesis develops a model of OCD that integrates self-ambivalence in the cognitive model of OCD. (For complete abstract open document)
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ItemEvaluation of the Bilingual Case Management Program in community mental health services in Melbourne( 2001-06)This thesis describes the evaluation of a program to employ bilingual staff in case management positions in community mental health services in Melbourne, Australia. A literature review showed that no previous research in Australia had investigated the impact of bilingual staff on clients of mental health services. While research conducted in the USA shows that ethnic matching (matching clients and clinicians on the basis of language or ethnic background) increases service use, its impact on outcome domains such as social functioning remains uncertain. (For complete abstract open document)
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ItemThe relationship between anxiety vulnerability and stress in the cognitive processing of threat-related information( 2000-03)In order to clarify the relationship between anxiety vulnerability and clinical anxiety, information-processing models have been employed to examine the cognitive biases of anxious individuals for threat-related information. At the core of these models are research findings indicating that anxiety-linked attentional biases render high trait anxious individuals disproportionately vulnerable to the effects of stress. The current research, following the model of Williams, Watts, MacLeod, and Matthews (1988), tested the hypothesis that attention to threat-related information is due to the interaction of trait anxiety and state anxiety. Five comparable studies employed emotional Stroop and probe-detection paradigms to assess the attentional biases of high and low trait anxious individuals to threat-related words in response to elevations of stress. Four of the studies assessed the preconscious and conscious attentional biases of adults and one study investigated the attentional biases of children. This focus allowed developmental comparisons that had not been undertaken previously. The studies were comparable to each other and to previous research. The studies sought to clarify the effects of different forms of stress on the anxiety-linked attentional biases and to assess the effects of these stressors on domain-specific stimuli. The hypotheses were that, in response to elevations in state anxiety, high trait anxious individuals show increased attention to threat and low trait anxious individuals show avoidance of threat. It was expected that these threat-related attentional biases are identified at both preconscious and conscious levels of processing, and more when the stimuli are related to the individuals’ domain of concern. Contrary to expectations, only one study found the predicted pattern and this result occurred at a conscious level of processing. In addition to the lack of support for the hypotheses, a counter-intuitive alternative pattern that was the converse of predictions was identified in four of the five studies. In this pattern, in response to elevated stress, there was a trend for high trait anxious individuals to show decreased attention to threat and low trait anxious individuals to show increased attention to threat. The pattern was identified, in various studies, at conscious and preconscious levels of processing, and more in response to domain-specific stimuli. Adults and children showed similar levels and types of attentional biases. The results of the current studies show some convergence with previous research. The findings are discussed in the context of a proposed model that incorporated aspects of Williams et al’s theories (1988; Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1977) and Mogg and Bradley’s (1988) theory. This model suggests that high and low trait anxious individuals’ patterns of threat-related attentional biases vary according to their different levels of reactivity to stress, which affects their threat threshold. Due to differences in this threat threshold, high and low trait anxious individuals show divergent attentional responses under the same level of external stress. The model incorporates the avoidance effects identified in previous research and theory. This model may explain both the current counter-intuitive findings and past inconsistencies in the literature. It may also clarify how individuals with different levels of anxiety vulnerability show divergent attentional responses to stress elevations. It is suggested that inclusion of the notion of subjective stimulus threat value into the cognitive processing paradigm may clarify some of the unresolved issues raised in this research.
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ItemThe implementation and evaluation of telecounselling as a treatment modality for problem gambling( 2000-07)There is an extensive range of problems and maladaptive behaviours for which people may seek counselling. One of these is problem gambling. The extent of gambling in the community and the incidence of gambling problems have become issues of great concern to many in the Australian community. Counselling in the face-to-face setting may not be available or appropriate for some individuals with gambling difficulties. Potential barriers to the provision of counselling services for problem gamblers means that innovative techniques for counselling service delivery must be developed and evaluated. Provision of counselling services using modern telecommunications technology is one such innovative strategy. (For complete abstract open document)