Interpersonal helplessness and the wish for nurturance among conduct disordered Black male adolescents.
Item
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Title
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Interpersonal helplessness and the wish for nurturance among conduct disordered Black male adolescents.
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Identifier
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AAI9304702
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identifier
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9304702
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Creator
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Martin, Beverly Eva.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Vera Paster
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Date
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1992
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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 | Psychology, Personality
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Abstract
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Traditional psychoanalytic theories of acting out conduct disordered adolescents have focused on underlying issues of depression and anger. However, the fact that increasing numbers of black male adolescents in inner-city areas are being incarcerated, involved in violent destructive behaviors, and diagnosed as conduct disordered by the psychiatric community reflects the need to investigate other etiological factors that may explain the maintenance of such destructive lifestyles within this specific population. In the present study, a theoretical construct--interpersonal helplessness--was hypothesized to describe the possible subjective perceptions and unconscious wishes for nurturance as well as the cognitive style that maintains a "moving against others" interpersonal view of the world. Fifteen conduct disordered black male adolescents of low socioeconomic background and single-parent households were compared to fifteen controls on four measures: the short-form of the Children's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory, Attributional Style Questionnaire, Blatt's Assessment of Object Representation, and seven cards from the Thematic Apperception Test series. It was hypothesized that the two groups would differ in their perceptions in three areas: (a) nurturant responses of maternal figures, (b) acknowledging nurturant interactions and behaviors when confronted by stimuli devised to elicit nurturant responses, and (c) cognitive styles of causative factors of events, i.e., internal vs. external attributions. A step-wise logistic regression analysis was used to discriminate between the respondents' perceptions and attributions. Two factors associated with perceptions of nurturance and unstable attributions were significant in differentiating between those black male adolescents who were conduct disordered and the controls. These differentiating factors are discussed as they pertain to the promotion of a psychosocial and cognitive understanding of the processes which may be relevant in devising treatment intervention programs that would address the specific needs of this targeted population.
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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.
