Parasuicide in Older Adults: Relationship to Interpersonal Problem Solving

Previous surveys of clinical psychologists have found that they have little involvement in research and so are perhaps not functioning within the Scientist-Practitioner model that the profession advocates. However such surveys have used limited outcome variables (eg number of publications) to assess research involvement and have largely neglected to examine variables associated with research involvement. This study used a new questionnaire (the Research Involvement of Psychologists Scale) which comprises 22 items pertaining to involvement in research production, 4 items pertaining to use of research in clinical practice, and 10 items measuring attitudes towards research. The latter were reduced to 8 items following item analysis of the scale. Total scores were computed for each of these 3 sections of the questionnaire. Clinical psychologists working within the Glasgow Directorate were surveyed. A 72% response rate was achieved and, contrary to findings from other surveys, this sample reported current involvement in a wide range of research activities and can therefore be said to be functioning within the Scientist-Practitioner framework. Attitudes towards research were generally positive, and more positive attitudes were associated with greater current involvement in research. Clinical psychologists who held split clinical/academic posts, and those who had a PhD or were registered for a further degree reported significantly more involvement in and significantly more positive attitudes towards research than did their counterparts. Grade Bs reported significantly more involvement in research than did Grade As

Death Attitudes in Institutionalized Ethnically Diverse Asian and Hawai‘ian/Pacific Island Elders

Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2016.Includes bibliographical references.With the exponential growth of the aging population and the rise of ethnic diversity within the U.S. population, there is a need for research to focus on how this population adjusts to the impending end of physical life. More attention is needed on what it means to be dying and what factors affect death attitudes in ethnically diverse geriatric individuals, particularly in those who are facing their own mortality. The present study was a partial replication of a previous study conducted by Daaleman and Dobbs (2010) and investigated potential meaningful relationships between death attitudes with demographic variables, mental and physical health indices, social support, spirituality, and intrinsic religiosity in chronically ill older adults. The present study used archival data from a previous University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa IRB-approved research study conducted by the author from 2012-2013, which included data collected from 69 institutionalized elderly participants from five nursing homes and an assisted care facility on the island of O‘ahu in the State of Hawai‘i, U.S.A. Descriptive analyses indicated significant differences between the community-dwelling participants from the Daaleman and Dobbs (2010) study and the present study’s institutionalized participants. Results from correlational, regression, and ANOVA procedures indicated significant differences in death attitudes based on demographic and health variables and reported levels of spirituality and religiosity. Older adults with greater spirituality and intrinsic religiosity had significantly more positive death attitudes. Additionally, Buddhist, Japanese, married, or male elders reported significantly lower approach acceptance of death compared to Catholics, Filipinos, African Americans, Hispanics, widows, or females. Findings from the present study have important theoretical and practical implications in numerous fields of study and practice. These results indicate that ethnicity, religious/ spiritual affiliation, marital status, and gender are important demographic variables to consider when examining death attitudes within a multi-ethnic elderly population, even among Asian and Hawai‘ian or Pacific Island cultures. Further investigation and exploration into the role of cultural and religious/ spiritual beliefs will undoubtedly be valuable in gaining a better understanding of factors related to death attitudes in ethnic minorities. Potential implications and recommendations for the application of these findings are discussed