Browsing by Author "Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member"

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The Effect of Ego Assessment Training for School Counselors on the Outcome of Cognitive Behavioral Counseling for Female Adolescents Diagnosed as Clinically Depressed
(2008-07-22) Inscoe, Laura Taylor; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member; Edwin R. Gerler, Jr., Committee Member; Stanley B. Baker, Committee Chair; Janice S. Hall, Committee Member
The purpose of the present study was to examine the relevance of ego development training for school counselors who integrated the knowledge acquired from the training into their treatment plans for female adolescent clients diagnosed as being clinically depressed. The participants were five female middle school counselors who volunteered to participate in the study and their five female middle school student clients diagnosed as clinically depressed who agreed, with the permission of their parents/guardians, to have the data associated with their treatments analyzed. The counselors were employed in several middle schools within a large metropolitan county school system in a southeastern state. The investigator selected the participating school counselors from a pool of volunteers based on their motivation to participate and level of counseling competence. The counselors ranged in age from 30 to 50 years, and all were White. The ages of the student clients covered a range of 11 to 14 years with two being White, two African Americans, and one Central American. An intensive single-subject quantitative design replicated five times was employed in the present study. Following the selection process, the investigator conducted a formal standardized three-session training program for the five counselors. The training included learning how to integrate the results of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Sentence Completion Test (SCT) into treatment plans for counseling clinically depressed clients that addressed symptoms of depression and ego development levels of the clients based on Loevinger's theory. Each of the five counselors passed a knowledge test developed by the investigator at the close of the training and rated the training program high on a measure of confidence in the training itself. Thereafter, the five counselors worked independently in dyads, each matched with one clinically depressed client for five counseling sessions lasting approximately 40 to 45 minutes. The investigator served as a mentor⁄coach to the counselors and monitored their adherence to the treatment plans. During the first counseling sessions, each of the five school counselors administered the BDI and SCT instruments. Thereafter, the BDI was used as a posttest measure of change in depressive symptoms over time, and the SCT data were used to determine if there were issues in the development of the adolescent clients that caused arrested ego development and integrated that information into a variety of cognitive-behavioral counseling strategies chosen to address the clients' presenting symptoms. Each of the clients tracked their symptoms of depression in journals and on weekly self-monitoring forms, providing continuous behavior observation data over the duration of the treatments and the study. Across the five replications, pre-to-posttest BDI data indicated decreases in symptoms of depression for all the clients; behavioral observation data indicated decreases in depressive thoughts and occurrences of presented symptoms; and the school counselors submitted favorable reports about the usefulness of the ego development training in their treatment planning and counseling techniques. Internal validity for the findings was enhanced by the components of the research design that included a standardized training program for the counselors; supervision of the experimental process by the investigator; repeated observations that were planned before the beginning of the data collection; assessment of clearly defined cognitive, behavioral, and affective process and outcome variables, and comparisons across the five replications of the design. Generalization may seem to be restricted to middle school-aged female clients treated by middle-aged female White counselors in large southeastern metropolitan school districts. On the other hand, external validity was enhanced by the five replications of the intensive single-subject design.
The Effectiveness of Media Literacy and Eating Disorder Prevention in Schools: A Controlled Evaluation with 9th Grade Girls
(2008-05-22) Dysart, Millie Maxwell; Rhonda Sutton, Committee Member; Stanley Baker, Committee Member; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member; Edwin Gerler, Committee Chair
Exploring congruity of curriculum and instruction policy positions between the North Carolina Association of Educators and its teacher members
(2009-02-26) Spragley, Kelvin Lamont; John Lee, Committee Chair; Jessica Decuir-Gunby, Committee Co-Chair; Candy Beal, Committee Member; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member
To better understand issues of congruity between the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) and its teacher membership, this study surveyed a sample of NCAEâ€™s membership about issues related to curriculum and instruction. The research reported here utilized a model (exchange theory) that makes a distinction between voluntary membership organizations and non-voluntary membership organizations. The survey sampled 263 NCAE teacher members. Descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, and content analysis addressed three specific questions about congruity of positions taken by NCAE on curriculum and instruction issues and the beliefs of NCAE members. Results suggest NCAE members hold views very congruent with NCAE leadership. The importance of making distinctions between teacher views in non-bargaining states is a major implication of the findings.
Growing Up African-American and Female: The Relationship Between Racial Socialization and Self-Esteem of African-AmericanFemale Adolescents.
(2008-10-20) Davis, Carmen R; Marc Grimmett, Committee Member; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member; Stanley Baker, Committee Chair; Edwin Gerler, Committee Member
DAVIS, CARMEN PYLES. Growing up African-American and Female: The Relationship Between Racial Socialization and Self-esteem of African-American Female Adolescents. (Under the direction of Dr. Stanley B. Baker.) Dominant discourse in American society has posed a problem for minority populations because social and identity constructs, such as race, gender, and class, have created a society that has not been fair for less dominant groups. Growing up in the United States as an African-American female adolescent poses particular challenges because these girls contend with typical pre-adolescent and adolescent developmental tasks along with how to negotiate their multiple identities (i.e., being Black and female). For these reasons, developmental issues for African-American adolescent girls are best understood using a multiple-lens paradigm inclusive of gender, race, ethnicity, and social class. Across disciplines, most empirical studies of African-American adolescent girls have emphasized at-risk themes, frequently neglecting normative developmental concerns. The present study explored African-American female adolescents across three socioeconomic (SES) groups to learn how girls from different backgrounds respond to racial socialization as it relates to self-esteem. Ninety-five African-American girls completed questionnaires related to SES, racial socialization experiences, and self-esteem. Correlational (Pearson product-moment) and comparison (ANOVA) statistics indicated no significant relationships between racial socialization and self-esteem, racial socialization and SES, or self-esteem and SES. A significant difference was found in racial socialization frequency scores for the middle SES group compared to the high SES group. Significant differences were also found in racial socialization agreement where the high SES group had lower scores than the low and middle SES group. The finding that more than 85% of the participants in all three SES groups had higher than average self-esteem scores supports those of prior studies that African-American girls do not experience the same declines in self-esteem during adolescence as do girls from other racial/cultural groups. This research adds to existing literature about this population and may assist counseling professionals and others in understanding the normative development of African-American female adolescents and how race, gender, and socioeconomics play a part in this development.
The Healthy Psychosocial Development of Black Males: The Relationship Between Wellness and Racial Identity Development
(2007-11-09) Uzzell, Kamala Latori; Siu-Man Raymond Ting, Committee Chair; Marc Grimmett, Committee Co-Chair; Stanley Baker, Committee Member; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member
The life experiences of Black males are accompanied by a host of social, psychological, economic, and political pressures that affect his wellness and racial identity development, which in turn affects his healthy psychosocial development. The purpose of the study was to research the levels of wellness and racial identity development of Black males to determine if there is a relationship between the two. Two instruments were used to assess the levels of wellness and racial identity development. The instruments were the Black Male Wellness Measure and the Black Racial Identity Attitude Scale. Preliminary analyses were conducted to highlight background characteristics of the sample specific to wellness and to address the research aims of the study. A scree plot test was conducted to assess the actual number of components fro the Black Male Wellness Measure and it was confirmed that six or seven components could be extracted. Internal validity was assessed via exploratory principals components analysis. The study found that the majority (96.6%) of the participants in the study were at medium levels of wellness and 94.5% of the participants were at medium levels of racial identity development. Also, the study found that there is a relationship between wellness and racial identity development at all levels.
The Impact of Social Cognitive Theory and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Interventions on Beliefs, Emotions, and Performance of Teachers.
(2010-09-22) Warren, Jeffrey; Edwin Gerler, Committee Chair; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member; Stanley Baker, Committee Member; Pamela Martin, Committee Member
Impact of Undergraduates' Stereotypes of Scientists on their Intentions to Pursue a Career in Science
(2010-04-30) Schneider, Jennifer Shields; Mary Wyer, Committee Chair; Denis Gray, Committee Member; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member; Shevaun Neupert , Committee Member
Women remain disproportionately represented in certain science, technology, engineering, and math majors and occupations. Stereotypes of scientists may help expose the reasons for this phenomenon. However, this relationship has not yet been empirically examined. This is partly because of the dearth of literature addressing the stereotypes of scientists and the absence of measures aimed at capturing more current concepts of scientists. This research study investigates whether undergraduatesâ€™ stereotypes of scientists predict their intentions to pursue a career in science. Further, this research examines whether or not science and engineering (S&E) academic majors are likely to have intentions of pursuing a science career and whether or not this relationship varies by gender. A sample of 1639 undergraduates, from diverse universities and academic majors, took a ten-minute online survey assessing their stereotypes of science, academic major, and intention of pursuing a career in a science field. Hierarchical and multiple regression analyses determined undergraduatesâ€™ stereotypes of scientists and their academic major predict oneâ€™s intentions of pursing a science career; however, results did not show that these relationships vary by gender. The strongest predictors of an undergraduateâ€™s intentions of pursuing a science career were their academic major and their stereotypes of scientistsâ€™ Interpersonal Competencies. A one-way ANOVA found undergraduatesâ€™ with S&E majors agreed more than non-S&E majors that scientistsâ€™ have Interpersonal Competencies. Although both males and females perceived scientists as having strong Professional Competencies, females had higher agreement scores for scientistsâ€™ Professional Competencies than males.
Integrative Medical Practice: A Proposed System for Women's Healthcare
(2008-04-02) Powers, Brook Marie; Marc A. Grimmett, Committee Chair; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member; Edwin Gerler, Committee Member
Female health is a complex and dynamic component of the female lifecycle. It is not based on a single entity, rather it is holistic and comprised of several individual facets. Thus, female healthcare should be approached from a wellness perspective and treated in an integrative system. While an integrative approach to healthcare is optimal for all people, this research study explores female development holistically as it relates to wellness and integrated healthcare.
Synthesizing a Comprehensive Definition of Spirituality and Spiritual Development and the Construct Validity of the Optimism Subscale of the Belief Systems Analysis Scale
(2005-04-27) Menke, Carrie Sue Cripe; Craig Brookins, Committee Member; Edwin Gerler, Committee Member; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member; Tracy Robinson, Committee Member
The purpose of this work is two-fold in an effort to narrow the approach to the topics of spirituality, spiritual development and assessment of spirituality. First, a comprehensive review of the literature will accumulate and critique available material on the dimensions that define spirituality and three spiritual development models for similarities, differences, contributions and omissions. Both theoretical and empirical works will be reviewed. Comparisons are made among the definitions of spirituality. The models are critiqued for each one's ability to explain how the concept of spirituality, as comprehensively defined by ASERVIC, develops in the model. Menke's Model of Spiritual Orientation is presented as model that addresses the gaps found in the literature. Second, an investigation of the construct validity of the optimism subscale of the Belief Systems Analysis Scale (BSAS). The BSAS is a measure of Afrocentric worldview which is one of the reviewed constructs embroiled in spirituality and spiritual development in need of further investigation. Two focus groups are conducted to determine the necessity for rewording of items. The focus group data is presented to reflect the insights and ideas provided by the focus group. The reworded items and the entire revised scale are presented. The revised scale is distributed to 67 participants to complete. A factor analysis is conducted on the data from the 67 participants. It is concluded that rewording items in positive direction might improve factor loadings of the optimism subscale items and analysis with a larger population is needed.
Why Bother Blogging? Motivations for Adults in the United States to Maintain a Personal Journal Blog.
(2008-04-21) McKenzie, Heather Marie; Richard Tyler, Committee Member; Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Committee Member; Marc Anderson Grimmett, Committee Chair