Bilingualism, the expression of feelings and the assessment of psychopathology.
Item
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Title
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Bilingualism, the expression of feelings and the assessment of psychopathology.
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Identifier
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AAI9000726
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identifier
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9000726
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Creator
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Quinones, Helen V.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Arietta Slade
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Date
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1989
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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This study investigated the impact of linguistic fluency and early childhood language on the representation of affect during an acute psychiatric crisis. Twenty bilingual (Hispanics) subjects were selected from an acute psychiatric inpatient unit targeted to service this linguistic minority. The subject pool consisted of 55% immigrants and 45% first generational Hispanics the majority from the Caribbean islands (Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo).;The research design consisted of a narrative content analysis of 120 verbal tasks provided by twenty bilingual subjects which were randomized linguistically resulting in 65% of the responses given in the weaker language (Spanish or English) and 35% given in the language of strength. The transcripts of the interviews which consisted of responses to five TAT cards, a monologue and single word associations were scored by three judges for emotional proximity and associative evocativeness using the referential activity scale (Bucci, 1984).;The findings indicate there is a statistically significant correlational relationship between fluency as measured by the English vocabulary (R =.72) and emotional proximity such that the greater the fluency the higher the immediacy index. The language fluency effect was evident only in English vocabulary as most of the subjects demonstrated less variability in the Spanish fluency scores.;The second hypothesis stated that the single word associations provided in the parental language (Spanish) would be more evocative than those associations provided in the non-parental language (English). The findings indicated a nearly significant difference (p.07) between the English and Spanish associations with the those provided in Spanish being more evocative. The evocative quality of the associations also differed significantly (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) according to the level of psychopathology with psychotic subjects being more evocative than non-psychotic subjects.;Based on these findings the staffing patterns of services geared towards linguistic minorities should match both the clinical and language needs of that population. This is especially crucial in crisis oriented services, such as, psychiatric emergency rooms, walk-in clinics and inpatient units where disfluency impairs the ability to express urgency and distorts the expression of both coping skills and psychopathological trends.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
