Browsing by Author "de Terte, Ian"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Buffering and facilitative factors for posttraumatic stress and flourishing among New Zealand Defence Force personnel : a longitudinal study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2024-11-01) Bryson (Allen), Daniel
Substantial heterogeneity exists in individual responses to trauma. Reactions to operational deployments by service personnel appear to be no exception. The present research has sought to explore the links that potentially traumatic deployment experiences (PTDEs) have with posttraumatic stress (PTS) and flourishing. Further, the impacts of adaptive health behaviours (physical activity, nutrition, and sleep) and social support (from close others or from military leadership) upon the relationships that PTDEs have with PTS and flourishing were explored. Surveys were conducted 3 years apart with 313 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) postdeployment personnel and reports were analysed. A positive relationship was found between PTDEs and PTS, and a nonsignificant relationship between PTDEs and flourishing. Significant associations were also found between 1) adaptive health behaviours, social support, and leadership support, and 2) PTS and flourishing, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Mixed support was found for the moderating effects of social support and adaptive health behaviours on the relationships that PTDEs had with PTS and flourishing. Finally, PTS was found to moderate the relationship between PTDEs and flourishing. Conclusions on how the present findings converge and build upon past research, and the unique contributions of leadership support, as well as the effects of PTS on the relationship between PTDEs with flourishing, are discussed.
Exploring the Wraparound Process through a decolonising lens : global insights, Māori whānau perspectives, and quantitative outcomes of engagement with Te Kahu Tōī Intensive Wraparound Service : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Doctorate of Clinical Psychology qualification, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa - Massey University, Te Whanganui-a-Tara - Wellington, Aotearoa - New Zealand
(Massey University, 2025-09-03) Lightfoot, Lucy Rose
This thesis investigates the Wraparound Process as a potential framework with which equitable care and positive outcomes can be achieved for diverse populations of children, youth and whānau with high and complex needs (HCN). The main objective was to contribute to the pursuit of equitable wellbeing and service experiences, particularly for children, youth and whānau with HCN in Aotearoa. The project took a decolonising research approach and prioritised obligations and duties conferred by te Tiriti (the Treaty of Waitangi). The global use of the Wraparound Process with underrepresented racial ethnic groups was explored via a scoping review, and multiple methods were utilised to explore experiences and outcomes of the Wraparound Process as delivered by Te Kahu Tōī Intensive Wraparound Service (TKT IWS; a Ministry of Education service) in two separate studies. The first study was a reflexive thematic analysis of Māori whānau experiences of the Wraparound Process. The second study was a quantitative single cohort pre-test post-test outcome analysis. Overall, results demonstrated that the Wraparound Process both generally - and as delivered by TKT IWS in Aotearoa - is an effective service delivery framework that can meet the needs of diverse populations. However, service specific and systemic problems were identified. Consequently, increased investment and provision of the Wraparound Process is recommended with an emphasis on attuned, culturally responsive service design and delivery. In a wider sense, this research project adds to the growing body of evidence that calls for systemic societal reform centring decolonisation and relationality.
The impact of cumulative trauma and self-regulation on posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, and suicidal ideation in a sample of New Zealand firefighters : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2023) Bertram, Jeannette
This thesis presents a research study that aimed to explore the levels of psychological distress in a sample of New Zealand (NZ) firefighters. While there is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of first responders’ psychological distress, there is still a paucity of research, especially on firefighters and in particular firefighters in NZ. A thorough search of literature did not reveal any quantitative research on NZ firefighters and factors contributing to and alleviating psychological distress. This study aimed to build on previous international findings and examine the presence of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), depression, and suicidal ideation (SI) in a sample of NZ firefighters, as well as investigate the impact of potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and self-regulation on this presence. First, a scoping review was undertaken of the existing evidence of the precursors to SI in firefighters. A questionnaire was developed incorporating these factors. Then, data was collected from 220 NZ firefighters through an online survey. As predicted, PTSS, depression, and SI were found to be significantly higher in NZ firefighters than in the general population. While career firefighters were found to be exposed to significantly higher cumulative trauma exposure than volunteer firefighters, no significant differences were found in the levels of psychological distress between the two groups. PTSS and depression showed a significantly positive relationship with SI. Multiple significant positive correlations were found between psychological distress and demographic and occupational characteristics. Lastly, better self-regulation skills were found to be associated with less psychological distress and moderated the relationship between cumulative trauma exposure and psychological distress.
In search of healing narratives amongst warriors : exploring the lived experience of New Zealand Defence Force service members seeking mental health support : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2024) Grimm, Carsten James
Narratives of war and of warriors exist throughout recorded human history and society’s support for soldiers in distress reflects the cultural paradigm of the period. Contemporary approaches to supporting military mental health focus on barriers to care and psychotherapy outcomes; however, little is known about the user experiences of personnel as they navigate military healthcare systems. This research project explored the narrative accounts of 21 active duty New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel who had accessed mental health support in order to understand their experiences of accessing care. Participants described their mental health recovery using a better-than-before narrative structure aligned with the hero’s journey, which involved challenges crossing the help seeking threshold and concluded with positive personal transformation. Stories of holistic recovery adopted Māori well-being heuristics to narrate the interconnection of relationships and health behaviours that supported participant healing. Participant accounts of seeking support also reflected paradoxical narratives, as the NZDF mental health system both helped and hindered personnel during their period of distress. Many of the cultural aspects of the NZDF were described as strengths but also as barriers that prevented personnel from connecting to care that was effective and meaningful to them. Narratives in this research contribute important perspectives on military mental healthcare that both celebrate the NZDF mental health system and offer opportunities to develop practices that better support personnel to navigate the many values conflicts and dilemmas they experience during their military service.
Metabolising bigger-than-self distress through nondual enactive wisdom development : a layered autoethnographical study of embodied embedded psychological responses to biospheric and civilisational crises : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2022) Laurence, Nicholas Clyde
The current thesis explores the question of how psychologists and other mental health professionals might assist clients experiencing bigger-than-self distress. Bigger-than-self distress is defined as psychological distress that relates to what I describe as the biospheric-civilisational meta-crisis, which comprises a compounding and interlinked set of social and environmental issues, some of which pose time-bound existential threats to the stability of our civilisation and the biosphere’s capacity to sustain it. The thesis begins with looking at the cognitive behavioural tradition and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and explores what further psychological assistance might be given for those whom these interventions are not enough. The thesis takes an autoethnographic approach, drawing on the author’s own experience of responding to bigger-than-self distress, and blends this with an enactivist theoretical account that seeks to link more closely together mindful understandings of experience with cognitive scientific theory and empirical literature. The author’s experience of engaging in mindfulness training broadened and deepened his perspective on bigger-than-self distress and the seeming necessity of an expanded container within which to hold and process it. This expanded container is expounded in the form of the Big History, Systems View of Life, and Theory of Knowledge perspectives, which provide an evolutionary, scientific, and cosmological account of history within which to situate the biosphere, humanity, and the civilisational-biospheric meta-crisis that is related to bigger-than-self distress. An updated view of cognition is also provided, which views cognition as self-organising, based on principles of relevance realisation, free energy minimisation, predictive processing, and which is profoundly embodied and embedded within its environment. From this expanded base, wisdom traditions from Western, Eastern, and Indigenous cultures are discussed with a view to being able to draw from these for novel interventions within the cognitive behavioural tradition that align with this updated version of cognition and context of cosmos, biosphere, humanity, and biospheric-civilisational meta-crisis. From there, interventions within clinical psychology and coaching (IFS and Aletheia Coaching, primarily) are presented as prototypical novel cognitive behavioural interventions that are aligned with this view of cognition. The novel ways of working with psychological content are applied to bigger-than-self distress via a new term that I label metabolisation. This overall way of working can be understood as enactive nondual wisdom development for bigger-than-self distress and helps to provide a cognitive scientific vocabulary for understanding psychological responses to bigger-than-self distress. Importantly, nondual enactive wisdom development is something that can only be enacted in real-world praxis, and so to guide clients through it requires clinicians to go through it experientially ahead of their clients: a philosophy that overall fits well with the reality of bigger-than-self distress and the meta-crisis being something that clinicians and clients alike are subsumed within.
Posttraumatic growth in people living with HIV : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2020) Chi, Danni
Nowadays, HIV is no longer necessarily terminal but remains a chronic and stigmatising illness. People living with HIV may experience posttraumatic growth (PTG) through processing HIV diagnosis and its associated issues. Two studies were conducted to investigate the processes of PTG among people living with HIV in New Zealand (NZ). Study 1 was quantitative and conducted among 77 people with HIV. It examined the relationships between PTG and its potential correlates: demographics, event centrality, deliberate rumination, active and avoidance coping, sense of coherence, optimism, instrumental and emotional support, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs), and perceived mental and physical health. Study 1 found the relationship between event centrality and PTG was sequentially mediated by deliberate rumination and avoidance coping, and this relationship was enhanced by higher levels of sense of coherence, optimism, and emotional support. Higher levels of PTG were associated with more positive perceptions of physical health in participants who had lived with HIV longer, but not PTSSs or perceived mental health. Study 2 comprised semi-structured interviews with 16 participants which were analysed using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified: challenges, event-related cognitive processing, and rebuilding of assumptions. The findings suggested that PTG might be related to perceived violations of beliefs and goals, coping with events, and rebuilding of assumptions. This process was found to be influenced by personal and social context (support and stigma). Participants who reported PTG could have been wiser but not necessarily happier. The findings of Studies 1 and 2 support current theories of PTG in general, provide a more in-depth picture of cognitive processing and PTG in participants with HIV, and highlight the importance of personal and social contexts in investigating the processes and implications of PTG. Future studies need to be aware that PTG may be a multidimensional construct, occurring on multiple levels.
Psychological resilience in the face of occupational trauma : an evaluation of a multidimensional model : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2012) de Terte, Ian
The occupation of a police officer is considered to be stressful. However, police personnel, like those in a number of other occupations, do not routinely develop pathogenic consequences, such as posttraumatic stress, psychological distress, and poor physical health, when exposed to traumatic events. In fact, when police officers are exposed to traumatic events most are psychologically resilient. For this reason, traumatic events are referred to as potentially traumatic events. This study attempted to answer the question of why some police officers develop pathogenic consequences when exposed to potentially traumatic events and others do not. This study developed a psychological resilience model based on the five-part model, which involves cognitions, emotions, behaviours, physical activities, and an individual's environment. The model, referred to as the 5-PR model, included the constructs of adaptive coping, optimism, emotional competence, adaptive health practices, and social support. A sample of 176 police officers, who had been surveyed at the commencement of training at the Royal New Zealand Police College in 1997 and 1998 and resurveyed 1 year later, were surveyed with a web-based or paper questionnaire to test the 5-PR model. This study involved testing the hypotheses that greater exposure to potentially traumatic events would be related to pathogenic outcomes, that the 5-PR model would be negatively related to pathogenic consequences, that the 5-PR model would moderate the relationship between exposure to potentially traumatic events with pathogenic consequences, the relationship between emotional competence and pathogenic consequences would be mediated by adaptive health practices, and there would be no difference between the levels of pathogenic consequences between those participants who had consulted a psychologist. Multiple regression analyses to test these hypotheses found that the components of 5-PR model that contributed to the psychological resilience of police officers were optimism, adaptive coping, adaptive health practices, and social support from colleagues. These results suggested that the three aspects of the 5-PR model, cognitions, behaviours, and environment, contributed to psychological resilience, and that the model should be redefined as the three part model of psychological resilience (3-PR model). Emotional competence had a minimal contribution to psychological resilience. Additional analyses showed that the psychological support was being sought appropriately by members and whilst current employees had a higher level of exposure to potentially traumatic events in comparison to former employees there were no significant differences regarding pathogenic consequences. From this study, it was found that the components of optimism, adaptive coping, adaptive health practices, and peer social support contributed to the multidimensional nature of psychological resilience. The theoretical framework of psychological resilience was reconceptualised as the 3-PR model.
Wireless and tiredness : investigating interrelated influences of electronic media use, sleep, and fatigue : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Pukeahu, Aotearoa New Zealand
(Massey University, 2025-10-13) Peters, Jonathan Bosco Alexander
This thesis investigates the relationships between electronic media use, sleep, and fatigue. This thesis opens by introducing a conceptual framework for understanding electronic media use and evaluating terminology of sleep and fatigue concepts. The current research field of electronic media use–sleep health in adults is then mapped through an umbrella scoping review. This review revealed a predominance of correlational studies between subjective addiction symptoms and sleep satisfaction through which causal relationships were impossible to delineate. A theoretical perspective is developed on the causal interrelationships between electronic media use, sleep health difficulty, and fatigue through an investigation into experimental and theoretical studies. A novel intervention is then introduced to encourage self-directed use of electronic media in service of sleep health. The intervention is tested using a multiple-baseline single case experimental design study with sailors in active duty with Te Taua Moana O Aotearoa, The Royal New Zealand Navy. Through analysing changes in behavioural and self-report measures of electronic media use, sleep health, sleepiness, vigilance, and fatigue, no immediate effects of the intervention were observed. While longer-term improvements were observed in subjective fatigue at six-month follow-up, these could not be solely attributed to the intervention. Conceptual, theoretical, and practical complications of researching these topics are discussed throughout this thesis and summarised at the end.