Theses and dissertations

This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students. 

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Role of cognitive shift in resilient adaptation to difficult events

Description
Sometimes difficult life events challenge our existing resources in such a way that routinized responses are inadequate to handle the challenge. Some individuals will persist in habitual, automatic behavior, regardless of environmental cues that indicate a mismatch between coping strategy and the demands of the stressor. Other individuals will marshal…

Sometimes difficult life events challenge our existing resources in such a way that routinized responses are inadequate to handle the challenge. Some individuals will persist in habitual, automatic behavior, regardless of environmental cues that indicate a mismatch between coping strategy and the demands of the stressor. Other individuals will marshal adaptive resources to construct new courses of action and reconceptualize the problem, associated goals and/or values. A mixed methods approach was used to describe and operationalize cognitive shift, a relatively unexplored construct in existing literature. The study was conducted using secondary data from a parent multi-year cross-sectional study of resilience with eight hundred mid-aged adults from the Phoenix metro area. Semi-structured telephone interviews were analyzed using a purposive sample (n=136) chosen by type of life event. Participants' beliefs, assumptions, and experiences were examined to understand how they shaped adaptation to adversity. An adaptive mechanism, "cognitive shift," was theorized as the transition from automatic coping to effortful cognitive processes aimed at novel resolution of issues. Aims included understanding when and how cognitive shift emerges and manifests. Cognitive shift was scored as a binary variable and triangulated through correlational and logistic regression analyses. Interaction effects revealed that positive personality attributes influence cognitive shift most when people suffered early adversity. This finding indicates that a certain complexity, self-awareness and flexibility of mind may lead to a greater capacity to find meaning in adversity. This work bridges an acknowledged gap in literature and provides new insights into resilience.
ContributorsRivers, Crystal T (Author) / Zautra, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Kurpius, Sharon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014

The Psychological, Physical, and Behavioral, Effects of Parental Deportation on Children

Description
Migration to the United States, which pertains to the displacement of individuals, has endured across American history. Immigration is an intricate and serious subject that requires careful analysis and assessment to be comprehended. Deportation, an element of immigration, is a legally sanctioned process in which an individual is forcibly removed…

Migration to the United States, which pertains to the displacement of individuals, has endured across American history. Immigration is an intricate and serious subject that requires careful analysis and assessment to be comprehended. Deportation, an element of immigration, is a legally sanctioned process in which an individual is forcibly removed from a particular country. In the vast majority of instances, deportation entails the separation of families. The limited research examining the negative effects of deportation and family separation emphasizes the psychological, physical, and behavioral difficulties experienced by children. This thesis discusses children's consequences as internal and external repercussions. Children’s internal issues in deportation include psychological complications such as post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety, depression, and trauma. Furthermore, children’s external consequences of deportation are discussed as physical, behavioral, and social issues that result in eating disorders, hypervigilance, aggression, and social isolation. With the discussion of family separation in deportation, additional recommendations and guidance are discussed in this thesis for better quality deportations that may lessen children's internal and external effects of family separation.
ContributorsFlor Aguilar, Yoselin (Author) / DeCarolis, Claudine (Thesis director) / Barnhart, Patricia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2024-05