Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Clinical inquiry'

Loneliness is a human experience that often influences the individual’s mood, perception, self-concept, relationship, and physical heath. The existing body of research on loneliness often associates loneliness with a mental illness (e.g., anxiety or depression) and/or a cognitive deficit. Moreover, although, researchers have identified different types of loneliness, there is limited research on the experience of profound loneliness while in the company of another person with whom one is in a close relationship. Therefore, this study was framed to contribute information in the field by exploring the meaning of this particular type of loneliness as a lived experience. The question this research sought to answer through narrative inquiry was: “What is the meaning of participants’ experience of loneliness while in the company of another person with whom they were in a close relationship?”

The current study examined oral narratives of adult participants. Five participants were recruited and interviewed. The transcribed data was analyzed following Gee’s (1991) structural analysis of oral narrative. Through analysis of the narrative data this study aimed to gain an understanding of subjective, psychological meanings of this particular loneliness experience.

The results of the analysis showed that participants, in relationship with another, characterized as close but not experienced as intimate, was retrospectively experienced as loneliness and was lived with a sense of profound hopelessness in a multidimensional manner, which implied the participant’s desired ideals for intimate relationship.

Many factors appear to influence the loneliness experience while in the company of a close other for adults, including the individual’s desire to avoid experiencing pain and loss. The findings indicate that increasing the individual’s awareness of their multidimensional experience through non-pathologizing reflection in a clinical context could allow him or her to reach a deeper understanding of the experience.

This qualitative study explored the question, What is the experience of Albanian Americans’ bicultural lifestyle? The heuristic research method was utilized to explore and better understand the phenomenon presented, as well as the primary researcher’s personal experience. In this study, literature relevant to the research topic is included which contains information on Albania, reasons why Albanians immigrate, Albanian in the United States, global immigration challenges, acculturation, racism, prejudice, and discrimination, cultural trauma, and mental health and immigration. This study included 12 co-researchers that identified as Albanian-Americans who were willing to share their experience of living a bicultural lifestyle. Individual and detailed portraits of three co-researchers is included as well as a composite description of an Albanian-Americans experience of their bicultural lifestyle integrated with the primary researcher’s personal experience. Five common themes were identified: gratitude, sacrifice and separation, culture clash, discrimination, cultural preservation, and acceptance of the new culture. Finally, in this study is included a creative synthesis of the phenomenon explored as well as a correlation of the research findings with the literature review, trustworthiness, and applications for future studies, as well as the clinical, social, and personal relevance. This study will be beneficial to Albanian-Americans, psychologists, social workers, counselors, doctors, educators, law enforcements, and society in general.

This interpretive phenomenological analysis research study articulates the experiences of 3 Christians who manifest secure attachment to God characteristics. Human infant attachment theory and subsequent attachment to God conceptualizations were the perspectives used in order to explore the phenomenon. Analysis of the data led to 4 emergent themes focused on the psychological implications of having a secure attachment to God: View of God as Kindhearted, View of Self Transformed by God, Theological Exploration without Fear, and Need for Closeness When Suffering. Findings indicated that participants experienced God as a loving parent who fully accepted an authentic self. Across time, participants were able to deconstruct theological concepts incongruent to life experiences and explore new theological ideas and practices without anxiety of experiencing negative responses from God. Participants? need for closeness to God when experiencing painful events, in particular when feeling powerless to fix the circumstances, was described as needing authentic conversation with God. These findings suggest that secure attachment to God may have psychological benefit and encourages clinicians to validate and explore attachment to God dynamics with clients who indicate having a relationship with God.

A qualitative inquiry was conducted on the experiences of nine participants who attended an emotion-focused, experiential program, Tri-Life Leadership Training (TLT). The purpose of the TLT program is the development of self-leadership via improved emotional functioning, defined as affective well-being. The program structure is an 8-day workshop in two segments composed of psychoeducation, experiential group exercises, and individually tailored, emotion-focused work. Participants were referred adults who met program selection/exclusion criteria. Participants were individually interviewed one week after the program about their experiences (process) and if any changes (outcome) resulted. Outcome was assessed based on participants’ experience of emotional resolutions, diminution of negative core beliefs, positive behavioral changes, and improved relationships. Self-report questionnaires (Outcome Questionnaire-45.2, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and PANAS-X), used in a descriptive manner, were administered pre- and post-program. Interviews were coded using Thematic Analysis to determine patterns across the data set. Themes were derived theoretically based on Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT), and results discussed in light of program interventions and outcomes to elucidate EFT theory and process. The value of the TLT program and the EFT model appeared to be supported by the data. The findings suggested that the TLT program had a positive impact on perceived affective well-being. The participants attributed process and outcome changes to both relationship and task factors. The findings showed that an empathic therapeutic and working relationship along with experiential tasks designed to arouse and process emotional material may explain the high level of experienced change. Results confirmed the value of an emotion-focused perspective, and further that experiential work can be successfully conducted in a group format.

An important goal of nursing education is to produce graduates who are problem solvers and competent clinical practitioners able to practice in a very complicated health care environment; reflection and inquiry are two ways to accomplish this goal. This qualitative study explored how eight senior baccalaureate nursing students developed in their ability to utilize reflection and inquiry at higher stages over time through the use of the online clinical post-conference conducted as an asynchronous discussion board. Transcripts of participant postings were examined weekly to determine the stage of reflection and inquiry displayed and a comparison was done to determine if the stages increased over time. Boud's model of the reflective process and the practical inquiry model of Garrison, Anderson, and Archer provided the theoretical framework for this study.

Findings from this study demonstrated that participants developed in their ability to utilize reflection and inquiry at higher stages over time by engaging in the online clinical post-conference and that the online clinical post-conference was an effective venue that encouraged the use of reflection and inquiry. The social aspect of the online clinical post-conference (reading others' posts, having others read and comment on their posts, and asking each other questions) was seen as promoting learning from peers.

Findings of this study could be used by nurse educators to change their pedagogy to produce nurses who learn from experiences and are lifelong learners. Nurse faculty should consider incorporating the use of reflection, inquiry, and the online clinical post-conference in all clinical courses.

The purpose of this inquiry was to develop an understanding of psychodynamic perspectives, which would serve as a lens for the conceptualization of clinician compassion fatigue. A Gadamerian hermeneutic methodology provided the process, which also paralleled a psychoanalytic psychological stance. A theoretical description of the psychodynamic nature of the experience of the clinician in terms of self and other in the clinical moment emerged through several themes, which referenced the expanded understanding of compassion fatigue. The results offer a new view of psychodynamic psychology with application to the phenomenon of compassion fatigue.

The intersubjective field was investigated through select depth psychological, nursing, medical, and philosophical textual analyses, which revealed implications of the therapist’s subjectivity, empathy, the therapeutic relationship and presence, compassion, countertransference phenomena, and the analytic field. The hermeneutic nature of this qualitative study concurrently brought the lived experience into the process, which both enriched the process itself and ultimately the findings. The rationale for the inquiry included contributing to the development of psychological theory on the psychodynamic nature of compassion fatigue, in particular with clinical relevance to those treating the traumatized or otherwise suffering, and supporting the development and sustainability of a cadre of clinical providers in the field individually, in the nation, or globally.

Implications of conceptual understanding of psychodynamic processes were illustrated in clinical practice and organizational systems. Suggestions for systems policy development extended the findings to the organizational field. Recommendations for areas of further research including methodological considerations were delineated.

Key words: analytic field, compassion, compassion fatigue, countertransference, empathy, intersubjective, embodied presence, psychodynamic, vicarious traumatization

As our war veterans are growing in exponential numbers, so also are their psychic wounds in need of urgent treatment. This qualitative study explores the lives of three war veterans using a narrative-inquiry methodology, informed by their personal creations: a century-old photographic archive, a published novel, a memoire, interview transcripts, military and photography historians' accounts, and recently declassified documents in the National Security Archive of The George Washington University. The researcher addressed the questions: What are the main themes and functions of the coresearchers' self-expressive works? Can the creative process assist in restorying the lives and reconstructing the relationships of individuals? Can such works include those constructed from living memory, as well as those from the past?

Participants included World War II veteran Captain Arthur Enderlin, U.S.N.R, (deceased), former Chief, Office of Telecommunications, National Security Agency; and Vietnam War army veterans, "Harry George," Lieutenant Colonel, retired, former infantry company commander, 6/31 Infantry Battalion/9 ^th Infantry Division; and "Mr. Tu," regulatory policy analyst, Federal Civil Service Grade GS-15, Sergeant (E-5), Delta Company 3/187 Infantry Batallion/101st Airborne Division.

The intensive in-depth research process illuminated the creative healing journey of psyche, coconstructed by both the researcher and the participants. The relational approach and sensibility integrated Jungian analytical psychology, self-psychology, and other contemporary thought in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The outcome supports that creating and expressing "new" life narratives support (a) new self-construction born from fragments, (b) relationship construction, and (c) recovery from trauma. In their interviews and writings, the Vietnam War army veterans echoed themes from their life journeys and healing from trauma, which supported and validated those of the third coresearcher's nonverbal photographic narrative. The researcher employed visual reading and professional curating practices to reach a cohesive understanding of the life narrative of Arthur Enderlin.

The researcher combined approaches in an innovative synthesis which will be valuable to clinical and depth psychotherapists and researchers as avenues for future narrative inquiry using photographic images, writings, and creative modalities with patients and their families. The results and implications will also be accessible to individuals and groups tending to victims of diverse trauma, visual-literacy scholars, archivists, and historians.