THE EFFECTS OF UTILIZING HIGH ELEMENT ROPES COURSES AS A TREATMENT INTERVENTION ON SELF-EFFICACY

Adventure-Based Therapy (ABT) is a treatment intervention in Recreational Therapy (RT) that has the capacity to produce a variety of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social outcomes. While there is research on the potential benefits of ABT and ropes course experiences, there is a lack of research on which course types led to specific results, ultimately resulting in inconsistent programming. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the impact of a static belay high ropes course experience on self-efficacy, and to explore the different parts of the course experience that were beneficial in developing self-efficacy. Assessments reflected a significant increase in self-efficacy following the ropes course experience. Focus groups and follow-up interviews reflected the different factors of ropes course experiences that led to the differences between pre- and post-assessment scores. These results supported that high ropes course programming can impact self-efficacy development, including mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional and physiological arousal. Based on these findings, recreational therapists should consider the use of the high ropes course as a tool to improve self-efficacy. Additional implications for practice and future research are included

Sam Standing Soldier

Sam Standing Soldier is 18 years old and has 5 brothers. He currently lives in Salem, Ohio with his dad and attends high school there. Sam is involved with numerous school-related sports - of which football is his favorite. An important component in his life has been his sense of spirituality. According to Sam, he carries on the traditional practices that have been passed down to him through his family and from the broader Native American community. Thus, as a former Firekeeper and current Sundancer, Sam has a strong sense of self and is aware of his place within the context of his people. This Native American identity is something that Sam wears with pride

The post-postmodern aesthetics of John Fowles

Because a thesis is by definition a proposi­ tion to be argued, I feel some obigation to make strong assertion--either John Fowles is a post­ modernist writer, or John Fowles is not a postmodernist writer. What is immediately problematic about such an either/or proposition is that each side can be argued convincingly by a careful process of selection of examples to support the prospective cases (and omission of those which refute them). I cannot easily dismiss the wisdom of Northrop Frye\u27s statement that, They think of ideas as weapons; they seek the irrefutable argument, which keeps eluding them because all arguments are theses, and all theses are half-truths implying their own opposites. The most honest, if less cold and less anxious-to-label approach is to state and demonstrate that the writing of John Fowles shows evidence of postmodernist influence and makes uses of many of the literary devices and attitudes which have been associated with postmodernism. In comparing the aesthetics of Fowles and postmodernism, I hope to answer Fowles\u27 question, To what extent am I being a coward by writing inside the old tradition? To what extent am I being panicked into avant-gard­ism? To begin, it is necessary to consider the relationship between modernism and postmodernism