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

Understanding the Unique Experiences of Juvenile Lifers in Navigating Relationships After Prison: Trauma and Posttraumatic Growth

Description

Until the 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, youth under the age of 18 were mandatorily sentenced to death by incarceration for certain acts in 45 states. Adolescence is understood to be an impressionable period for the development of relationship and socialization skills. While a breadth of research has explored…

Until the 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, youth under the age of 18 were mandatorily sentenced to death by incarceration for certain acts in 45 states. Adolescence is understood to be an impressionable period for the development of relationship and socialization skills. While a breadth of research has explored the impact of social ties on the experiences and outcomes of incarcerated adults, less research has examined the impact of relationships for those incarcerated in adult prisons as youths. Following the landmark Montgomery v. Louisiana case, hundreds of individuals originally sentenced as youth to die in prison were released and had to navigate a society and community vastly different from the one they left in their adolescence. The current study explores the impact of long-term incarceration on an individual's ability to navigate relationships with others during and after incarceration. A case study of five re-entered Black men shows how sharing traumatic experiences throughout incarceration forged deep bonds amongst "juvenile lifers" that extend beyond the prison setting and facilitated individual-level posttraumatic growth. Findings suggest revisions to the parole stipulation prohibiting engagement amongst those with felony convictions.
ContributorsMartinez, Grace (Author) / Henson, Abigail (Thesis director) / Bennett, J.Z. (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2022-12