College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Secrets in Psychotherapy: A Longitudinal Study of Client Concealment and Disclosure
    (2017) Marks, Ellen Christina; Hill, Clara E.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study investigated how secrets unfold over the course of therapy in a naturalistic setting, including identifying longitudinal patterns and investigating relationships with other session-level variables. Participants were 39 client and graduate student therapist dyads in open-ended therapy at a community psychotherapy clinic. Data on concealment, disclosure, working alliance, real relationship, and session evaluation were collected after each session. Data were analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). Results demonstrated that disclosure and concealment of secrets are relatively infrequent occurrences, with disclosure occurring more often than concealment. Over time, clients became less likely to disclose a secret and less likely to conceal a significant secret. Clients rated the working alliance as lower for sessions where secrets were disclosed, but this relationship was less pronounced when the disclosed secret was viewed as significant. Clients rated session quality as higher for sessions in which they both concealed and disclosed secrets, as well as for sessions in which a preoccupying secret was shared. Clients tended to feel neutral or positive about their disclosures and believe that the disclosure had no change on how they were viewed by their therapist. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
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    Client Laughter, Not a Laughing Matter: The Interpersonal Role of Client Laughter in Psychotherapy
    (2017) Gupta, Shudarshana; Hill, Clara E; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of 5 characteristics (cheerfulness, politeness, reflectiveness, nervousness, and contemptuousness) in client laughter, and to examine the relationship between the presence of these 5 laughter characteristics and client attachment styles as observed in psychotherapy. The primary investigator, and 6 undergraduate students coded 813 laughter episodes, which were nested within 33 clients, nested under 16 therapists, in one psychotherapy clinic. Judges rated the intensity of each laughter episode in terms of the presence of these 5 laughter characteristics. Initial client attachment style was measured using a self-report measure. Laughter occurred on average, in 9 out of 10 sessions, and was rated highest on politeness and reflectiveness, followed by cheerfulness and nervousness, and was rated lowest on contemptuous. Initial attachment style of the clients influenced the characteristic observed in client laughter, throughout therapy. As theorized by Nelson (2012) clients seemed to use laughing to both connect and disconnect with the therapist. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
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    Client Concealment and Disclosure of Secrets in Outpatient Psychotherapy
    (2014) Baumann, Ellen Christina; Hill, Clara E; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study investigated client motivations for concealing versus disclosing secrets in therapy as well as how this negotiation process relates to therapeutic process and outcome. About half of the participants had both revealed a secret and were concealing a secret in therapy. Disclosed secrets were most likely to be related to relationships and were disclosed because the clients felt they could trust their therapists and because they thought they could benefit from sharing the secret. Concealed secrets were most likely to be sexual in nature and to be concealed due to shame or embarrassment. Clients initially experienced comparable levels of negative and positive emotions when they first disclosed their secret. However, over time, their feelings about the disclosure became more positive and less negative. Concealment was negatively related to the real relationship.
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    CLIENT ATTACHMENT AS A PREDICTOR OF THERAPIST INTERVENTIONS, THE WORKING ALLIANCE, AND THE REAL RELATIONSHIP IN THE INITIAL, MIDDLE, AND FINAL PHASES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
    (2013) Jackson, John Lawrence; Hill, Clara E; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study investigated client attachment style as a predictor of (a) therapist interventions in an early, middle, and late session of psychotherapy; (b) client and therapist post-session ratings of the working alliance over the course of therapy; and (c) client and therapist post-session ratings of the real relationship over the course of therapy. A total of 41 clients and 14 therapists completed measures prior to and throughout open-term courses of psychotherapy ranging from 8 to 106 sessions. Client attachment style was measured using the anxiety and avoidance subscale scores from the Experiences in Close Relationships scale (ECR; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998). Therapist interventions were coded by trained observers using the Psychotherapy Q-Set (PQS; Jones, 2000). A factor analysis of therapist interventions revealed four factors: Therapist Facilitative Approach (TFA), Therapist Psychodynamic versus Behavioral Interventions (TPB), Therapist Supportive Approach (TSA), and Therapist Process Comments (TPC). Client attachment avoidance was positively associated with Therapist Supportive Approach (TSA), such that therapists were more likely to use directly supportive interventions with clients who endorsed higher levels of attachment avoidance at the outset of therapy. Otherwise, client attachment ratings were not significantly associated to overall levels of therapist interventions or change in therapist interventions over the course of therapy. Neither client attachment anxiety nor avoidance significantly predicted initial levels, mean levels, or patterns of change in client or therapist ratings of the working alliance or the real relationship over the course of psychotherapy. The findings are discussed in the context of findings and methodological differences from other investigations of client attachment, therapist interventions, and client and therapist ratings of the working alliance and the real relationship. Implications for future research and clinical practice are also discussed.
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    Earliest Remembered Dreams versus Recent Remembered Dreams
    (2013) Gupta, Shudarshana; Hill, Clara E; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study is to compare the effects of working with Earliest Remembered Dreams (ERD) of individuals to more recent remembered dreams (RRD). A limited body of research examining the characteristics of ERDs (Bulkeley et al. 2005) suggests that many individuals remember a dream from between the age of 3-12 years, and these dreams very often vivid and intense and therefore might facilitate an exploration of salient aspects of the dreamer's early emotional life. However ERDs have never been compared with RRDs to examine if differences exist in their therapeutic value. Each participant was involved in one session with an ERD and one session with an RRD, using the Hill (1996, 2004) model of dream work. The session outcome of these sessions was compared. The study shows that the ERDs reported were 4 times more likely to be nightmares and 2.6 times more likely to be recurrent dreams when compared to RRDs. In terms of session outcome, working with both ERDs and RRDs were found to be equally effective, however the salience of the dream was a significant predictor of the benefit reported by clients.
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    East Asians' or East Asian Americans' Preferences for Different Types of Psychotherapy
    (2006-05-12) Sim, Wonjin; Hill, Clara E.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    East Asians' or East Asian Americans' preferences for types of therapies were investigated. Fifty East Asian or East Asian Americans in Mid-Atlantic University completed a series of measures related to Asian values, preferences, and psychological/interpersonal characteristics. They then watched the four videotapes of Dr. Raskin (Client-Centered Therapy), Dr. Comas-Diaz (Ethnocentral Psychotherapy), Dr. Lazarus (cognitive behavioral segment in Multimodal Therapy), and Dr. Persons' (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) sessions, evaluated the session quality and the counselor credibility. They ranked the sessions in order of their preferences and were asked the reasons of their preference. The results indicated that Dr. Lazarus' session was most preferred, and Dr. Persons' session was least preferred by the participants. Participants' ratings of counselor credibility of Dr. Lazarus were significantly associated with participants' Interpersonal Dependency, and Preferences for Insight or Action-Oriented Therapy. The reasons of their preference are discussed.