Matching Items (3)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Resilience
- Creators: Homer, Judith
Description
Generativity was first described by Erikson (1963) as an adult's concern for and commitment to promoting the welfare and development of future generations. Generativity is juxtaposed by stagnation in Erikson's stage of midlife (35-65 years old). The developmental hurdle faced at this point in the developmental cycle is whether a person will produce something of real value, both in the present and impacting future generations. Generative adults seek to give something back to society, generally behaving in a way to make the world a better place for others with no personal gain attached. The goal of the current study was to assess differences in levels of generativity at the final stage of adult life, and the potential functions that generativity can serve individuals. Results suggest that lowly generative individuals in older adult life tend to experience doubts about the impact they have had on the world and the lack of legacy they are leaving behind. Themes of highly generative participants included having felt they lived a purposeful and meaningful life, along with feeling fortunate and lucky in their lives. Also highly generative participants seemed to feel confident in the legacy they will leave behind after death. Results are discussed in light of the theories and findings of Erikson and McAdams.
ContributorsHauser, David (Author) / Kinnier, Richard T. (Thesis advisor) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Arciniega, Guillermo M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Using a sample of 931 undergraduate students, the current study examined the influential factors on undergraduate students' academic performance, satisfaction, and intentions to persist in their enrolled major. Specifically, the current study investigated the salience of interest-major match in predicting academic success. Interest-major match has been found to be one of the most influential determinants of academic and occupational success. However, support for this relationship has been equivocal and modest at best. The present study was designed to improve upon the current understanding of this relation by examining the moderating effect of gender and employing a longitudinal design to investigate the reciprocal relation between interest-major match and academic outcomes. Correlational results suggested that women reported greater interest-major match and results of the path analyses demonstrated a moderating effect of gender. Although a reciprocal relation was not supported, the findings indicated that a student’s level of academic satisfaction may influence the degree of fit between his or her interest and academic major. The results also highlight the tendency for students further along in their academic tenure to persist to graduation despite poor fit. Implications for educators and administrators are discussed.
ContributorsWilkins, Kerrie G (Author) / Tracey, Terence J. G. (Thesis advisor) / Bernstein, Bianca (Committee member) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Positive psychology focuses on the promotion of well-being (Seligman, & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Positive psychology interventions (PPIs) have been developed to help facilitate the development of skills needed to flourish and current research suggests that PPIs can help individuals improve their happiness, reduce stress, and become more resilient (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). National surveys highlight that students in higher education are in dire need of interventions aimed at helping them cope with the negative impact of stress (Douce & Keeling, 2014; Marks & Wade, 2015). Research among the graduate student population is scant even though they report high levels of stress and work even more hours than undergraduate students (Wyatt & Oswalt, 2013). PPIs implemented in the graduate student population focus heavily on psychologically-based programs, like psychology and social work, whose students may already be receiving assistance in self-care (Botta, Cadet, & Maramaldi, 2015; Burkhart, 2014; Nelson, Dell'Oliver, Koch, & Buckler, 2001). Thus, this current study is a randomized controlled trial testing an online PPI, adapted from Achor's work in the business industry (2012, 2014), compared with an online informative stress group and a wait list control group among graduate students from various disciplines at a large, public university in the Southwest. Participants were administered pre-, post-, and three-month follow-up tests to determine the impact of the interventions on their levels of perceived stress, happiness, and resilience. A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used with covariates of age, gender, race, program of study, and graduate level of study (masters versus doctoral). The main findings of the study included: the students in the PPI group reported significantly higher resilience at the end of the three weeks than did the students in the informative stress or wait list control groups, even though measures of happiness or perceived stress were not impacted; and students from psychologically based programs received the most benefit from treatment, especially from the PPI intervention. All findings, implications, and suggestions for future directions are discussed.
ContributorsVenieris, Pauline (Author) / Kinnier, Richard (Thesis advisor) / Rund, James (Committee member) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017