Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Positioned to handle the "peaks and valleys": Narratives of Black and spiritual students attending PWIs(2021) Hall, Terra Nicole; Moore, Candace M.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The interrelatedness of spirituality and race has been understudied in higher education (McGuire et al., 2017; Patton & McClure, 2009; Watson, 2006). Whereas existing scholarship has indicated religion and spirituality have been found to be important for Black college students (Chae et al., 2004), there is a need to distinguish between religion and spirituality (Paredes-Collins & Collins, 2011). Although religion may still be highly significant for some Black college students, growing evidence points to a shift in the general population away from formalized religion to one of individualized spirituality (Streib, 2008). Therefore, the current study sought to explore the intersection of racial and spiritual identities for Black undergraduate students and understand how self-identified Black and spiritual students experience support while attending predominantly white institutions (PWIs). A conceptual framework that included the radical healing framework (French et al., 2020) and Black liberation theology discourse (Cone, 1977) was used to frame the current study. In this critical constructivist narrative study, semistructured interviews and visual data served as data sources. The collected data from 13 Black and spiritual undergraduate students attending PWIs uncovered knowledge about the intersection of racial and spiritual identities. Specifically, findings illuminated Black and spiritual students’ definitions of spirituality, identification of on- and off-campus sources of support, and revelation into the emotions and feelings experienced by Black and spiritual students from encounters with people and spaces. Through an analytical approach of restorying, a parable was created to (re)present participants’ narratives. Findings from this study offer implications for student affairs’ practice and research. Student affairs practitioners are recommended to curate and maintain a list of on- and off-campus spaces, expand curricular and co-curricular opportunities to discuss race and spirituality, and increase agency for faculty and staff to address racial and spiritual identities with students. Future research should seek to study the intersection of racial and spiritual identities among graduate students, explore spirituality without a Christian lens, consider other institutional contexts outside of PWIs, probe into intersections of other marginalized social identities, and attend to these topics outside of an ongoing global health pandemic.Item The Experiences of Religious/Spiritual Jewish Therapists Working with Religious/Spiritual Jewish Clients(2020) Gerstenblith, Judith Ann; Hill, Clara E; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)We used Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR; Hill, 2012) to investigate the experiences of eleven religious/spiritual (R/S) Jewish therapists working with R/S Jewish clients in psychotherapy. R/S concerns involved struggles with Jewish identity, relationships, and the Jewish community. Therapists used R/S and non-R/S interventions to help with R/S concerns, although therapists explicitly discussed Jewish laws, beliefs, and practices more in successful than in unsuccessful cases. Therapists in both cases experienced R/S countertransference, but therapists in unsuccessful cases more often expressed uncertainty and regret regarding their clinical decisions. Therapists perceived that effective therapeutic interventions led to client improvement. Factors associated with success included therapists’ effective use of a shared R/S identity, ability to overcome tensions raised by R/S differences, and countertransference management; and clients’ openness, stability, and motivation. Implications include therapists developing an approach that is sensitive to R/S identity and researchers investigating therapeutic dyads with cultural and value-based similarities and differences.Item Spirituality in the Laboratory: Negotiating the politics of knowledge in the psychedelic sciences(2010) Corbin, Michelle Dawn; Kestnbaum, Meyer; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this study I argue that psychedelic substances served as a doorway through which spirituality entered the scientific laboratory to an unprecedented degree given their traditionally demarcated relationship by making spirituality more amenable to scientific paradigms and accessible to scientific methodologies. I conduct a feminist discourse analysis of the politics of knowledge enacted in this unique intersection of spirituality and science in the psychedelic sciences. I draw on feminist theories of science and knowledge which conceptualize science as a dominant knowledge constituted through and productive of the intersecting and historically hierarchical systems of power of race, class, gender and nation. Using discourse analysis techniques, I analyze a documentary archive I created through a theoretically driven sampling of the psychedelic sciences of spirituality from the 1930's to the present. In Chapter 2, I analyze how spirituality was brought forward and negotiated in these sciences. I argue that psychedelic scientists utilized a range of what I call tactics of legitimation to justify the scientific study of these peculiar substances and the spirituality with which they are associated vis-à-vis dominant scientific knowledges and I analyze the attendant epistemological costs of this assimilation. In Chapter 3, I analyze the efforts to integrate psychedelic substances and the spiritual experiences they induce into western therapeutic assumptions and practices. I argue that their efforts to scientifically determine the mysticality of mystical experiences and their pursuits of scientific liturgical authority over the administration of psychedelic sacraments resulted in the emergence of a would-be psychiatric clerical authority. In Chapter 4, I analyze the efforts to integrate and develop indigenous spiritual psychedelic knowledges and practices across each step of a bioprospecting model from plant identification to the determination of mechanisms of action and finally to drug development studies. I argue that in each step indigenous spiritual knowledges were assimilated into dominant scientific assumptions and practices reifying western scientific authority over indigenous knowledges and practices and reinforcing historically hierarchical colonial relationships despite the `good intentions' of these psychedelic scientists. In the final chapter of this study I discuss future sociological and feminist projects analyzing these peculiar psychedelic sciences and spiritual substances.Item Spiritual Community Experiences of Families of Children with Disabilities(2009) O'Hanlon, Elizabeth Ellen; Beckman, Paula J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This mixed methods investigation examined experiences of families of children with disabilities in their spiritual communities. Using the Spiritual Community Experiences Inventory, fifty-eight parents rated importance of and satisfaction with clergy, various religious activities, and support received from clergy and spiritual community members. Families reported that participation in religious activities and support from clergy and members were important. Moreover, families were highly satisfied with these activities and support. As predicted, a significant relationship was found between frequency of attendance, amount of support, and satisfaction with activities and support. Only in the case of formal ceremonies was frequency/satisfaction relationship not significant. Parents described a variety of factors that influenced their level of satisfaction with spiritual community experiences. Families reported that participation was influenced by: (1) amount and quality of social interactions with other children and adults, (2) level of knowledge, training and understanding of staff and volunteers, (3) level and appropriateness of accommodations provided, and (4) degree to which their child's disability interfered with participation. Additionally, parents reported that their experiences were affected by availability of emotional and practical support targeted to their unique needs, existence of social support networks, level of acceptance and knowledge of community members and clergy about disability, and the value the religious community places on parental knowledge of disability. Parents did elaborate on negative experiences and lack of support, which led to their non-participation and in some instances to switching communities. Further testing and refining of the instrument is required to strengthen its reliability and validity, clarify ambiguities, and identify factors families believe are important to participation. Additionally, leaders of spiritual communities must identify needs of families of children with disabilities. By tapping families as "experts" and networking with other religious communities, disability groups, and agencies, they can better meet these families' needs.Item Having Their Say: Eight High-Achieving African-American Undergraduate Mathematics Majors Discuss Their Success and Persistence in Mathematics(2006-07-26) Ellington, Roni; Fries-Britt, Sharon L.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to identify and understand the factors that influence high-achieving African American mathematics majors to persist and succeed in mathematics. The major research question guiding this study was: What perceived factors contribute to high achieving African-American junior and senior mathematics majors' decision to persist and succeed in mathematics through college? This study also sought to answer the following sub questions: 1. In what ways do African- American high achievers perceive the role of the family, educational institutions, and the community in their success and persistence in mathematics? 2. How do they perceive their own role in their success and persistence in mathematics? This study sought to understand which factors shaped the participants' decision to persist and succeed in mathematics. This study employed interpretive case study methodology in which interview data from eight high-achieving African-American mathematics majors were collected, transcribed and analyzed. The study employed elements from social, cultural, and personal factors identified in mathematics education research and factors from the college persistence literature relating to African-American students. Findings indicate that parents played an essential role in providing these high achievers with early learning experiences and advocating for them in school environments. By doing this, the students were placed in advanced academic programs by third grade that gave them access to caring teachers who held high expectations for them and provided them with challenging mathematics experiences. Participating in accelerated academic programs, having access to advanced mathematics coursework, and having peer support and teacher encouragement were factors that shaped their mathematics success in high school. Participants were involved in college scholarship programs that provided them with a variety of resources, particularly faculty and peer support that were key factors to their success and persistence as mathematics majors. The participants' social consciousness and spirituality were key factors underlying their success and persistence in mathematics, particularly in college. Implications for practice, policy and research are presented.Item A SURVEY OF UNIVERSITY COUNSELING CENTER THERAPISTS: WORKING WITH CLIENTS WHO HAVE RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL ISSUES(2005-08-04) Kellems, Ian Stuart; Hill, Clara E.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)University counseling center therapists (n = 220) completed an internet survey about one of their recent therapy cases in which the clients' issues involved religion/spirituality (RS). Responses were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Common RS issues for clients involved questioning one's childhood religion, exploring RS beliefs, and using client's RS as a source of strength. The similarity of therapist and client RS values is not related to the strength of the therapeutic relationship. A therapist's religious commitment is related to both the goals that therapist considers important when working with RS issues and to how frequently the therapist uses religiously/spiritually-oriented interventions. Regarding training, therapist self-efficacy in working with RS issues is positively related to the amount of training the therapist has engaged in about how to work with RS issues. Implications for practice, research, and training are discussed.Item Internal and Environmental Buffers of Terrorism-Related Anxiety(2005-03-31) Spiegel, Eric Baron; Gelso, Charles J.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study focuses on the adjustment of Washingtonians to living under the threat of terrorism. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships of six predictor variables - resilience, spirituality, perceived social support, perceived controllability, denial, and previous trauma - with terrorism-related anxiety. The author hypothesized that resilience, spirituality, and perceived social support would all be negatively associated with terrorism-related anxiety. Furthermore, it was posited that spirituality would moderate the relationship between previous trauma and terrorism-related anxiety, and that perceived controllability would moderate the relationship between denial and terrorism-related anxiety. A cross-sectional design utilizing correlation and regression analyses was selected to assess the relationships between the predictor and dependent variables, as well as a series of demographic variables. A total of 154 individuals completed a questionnaire packet containing reliable and valid self-report items, which was posted on a secure web site accessible only to study participants. Of the three main effect hypotheses, only the hypothesis involving resilience and terrorism-related anxiety was partially supported. Resilience was significantly and negatively correlated with one of two measures terrorism-related anxiety; it also had significant negative relationships with both measures of terrorism-related anxiety in separate regression analyses. In addition, the interaction effect involving spirituality and previous trauma was partially supported. For one of two measures of terrorism-related anxiety, the spirituality-previous trauma interaction term had a negative relationship with the criterion. Based on the results of this regression, we see that for those who reported high levels of spirituality, higher amounts of trauma were associated with less terrorism anxiety. For people low in spirituality, the level of anxiety stays roughly the same, regardless of the amount of trauma. The significant and non-significant findings for the present study provide tentative directions for future research into terrorism-related anxiety.