Browsing by Theses - Programme "Master of Social Sciences in Counselling Psychology"

This study examined the acculturation experience of Mainland Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the context of Hong Kong. The relationship between acculturation stress, acculturation orientation, self-efficacy, major socio-demographic factors such as length of residency in Hong Kong, Cantonese language proficiency, and psychological functioning in the two target immigrant groups. There were a total of 141 participants in the study, with 70 Mainland Chinese immigrants, and 71 Pakistani immigrants. Consistent with past research findings, higher acculturation stress was a significant predictor and positively associated with depression, anxiety, and general stress symptoms for Mainland Chinese group, and with depression and general stress symptoms for Pakistani group. Higher self-efficacy was a significant predictor, and negatively associated with depression and anxiety symptoms in both immigrant groups. In contrary with previous literatures, the endorsement of dominant society immersion did not have a positive impact on immigrants’ psychological functioning. In addition, the endorsement was found to be a protective factor in the reduction of depression symptoms for Pakistani immigrants, and reduction of general stress symptoms in both groups. As for socio-demographic factors, only proficiency in reading Chinese words was a significant predictor associated with a decrease in general stress symptoms for Pakistani immigrants. Implication, limitation and future directions were further discussed.

Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Dept. of Counselling and Psychology.
95 pages

Existing literature has revealed the halo effects of physical attractiveness and age. This dissertation aimed to investigate whether clients’ first impression of therapists influences clients’ self-disclosure. Ninety female and 39 male Chinese young adults (18 - 31 years) completed a self-report inventory of self-disclosure by referring to a scenario and a female photo. Subjective ratings of participants on therapists’ physical attractiveness were used. Results indicated that both male and female participants rated a self-perceived physically more attractive therapist more favourably. Female participants disclosed more to a more attractive therapist. It was suggested that perceived therapists’ physical attractiveness directly or indirectly enhanced participants’ self-disclosure by means of increasing participants’ comfort level and perceptions of therapists’ trustworthiness. The perceived much older therapist was rated less attractive than the slightly older therapist. When attractiveness was controlled, participants disclosed more on some topics to the much older therapist. Effects of therapists’ attractiveness appeared to be stronger among individuals with average self-esteem than individuals with low self-esteem. Moreover, the negative association between female participants’ self-esteem and therapists’ attractiveness scores suggested a possible self-evaluation or comparison of appearance in front of a same-sex therapist. Therapists are recommended to be more aware of how their appearance may influence their clients’ feelings and behaviours (including self-disclosure).

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2013.

This study aimed to compare college students majoring in psychotherapy related fields and college students majoring in other fields in terms of their attitudes toward seeking psychological help, mental health literacy, and self-stigma. Comparisons were also made regarding the patterns of relationships between the three variables. A cross-sectional design was adopted. The results showed that psychotherapist trainees had higher levels of mental health literacy than college students of other majors, but no significant differences were found in help-seeking attitudes and self-stigma. For both groups of students, mental health literacy and self-stigma were significant predictors of help-seeking attitudes. Content analysis was conducted to find out the factors which influenced students’ decision to seek psychological help other than the ones investigated in the questionnaire. Implications to counsellor training and enhancing college students’ help-seeking in general were discussed.

60 pages

The current study investigates the effect of biological birth order and psychological birth order on family satisfaction, parental attachment, interpersonal dependency and self-esteem. The result suggested that the biological birth order failed to predict the family satisfaction, parental attachment, interpersonal dependency and self-esteem of individuals. On the other hand, the psychological birth order was a more adequate predictor on family satisfaction, parental attachment, interpersonal dependency and self-esteem. Current result indicated that over-attention in parenting could lead to child’s depreciation of family satisfaction, parental attachment and self-esteem.
The current study investigates the effect of biological birth order and psychological birth order on family satisfaction, parental attachment, interpersonal dependency and self-esteem. The result suggested that the biological birth order failed to predict the family satisfaction, parental attachment, interpersonal dependency and self-esteem of individuals. On the other hand, the psychological birth order was a more adequate predictor on family satisfaction, parental attachment, interpersonal dependency and self-esteem. Current result indicated that over-attention in parenting could lead to child’s depreciation of family satisfaction, parental attachment and self-esteem.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2012.

The goal of this study was to understand the experiences of bisexual individuals in Hong Kong. A total number of 10 bisexual participants, aged between 21-28 years old, enrolled in this study where semi-structured interviews were conducted. This study adopted the grounded theory approach.
Results showed that bisexual individuals go through a 5-stage model of sexual identity formation, which include obliviousness, encountering critical incidents, recognizing dissonance, introspection, and transformation. Family, religious beliefs, and social norms were found to be the most salient sexual stigmas in the Chinese society. The findings also demonstrated the sexual stigma in Chinese culture serves as an important element in affecting both one’s bisexual identity formation and psychological well-being. It is also suggested that the consistency of ABC model would be the indicator in assessing the bisexual individuals’ psychological well-being as well.
The findings urge counselors and psychotherapists to strive to improve their cultural competence, and hope to raise their awareness of the unique characteristics of bisexual individuals. This study also suggested a therapeutic approach for bisexual clients. It is suggested that therapeutic goals should shift from encouraging disclosure to addressing the concerns of concealment. The psychotherapists should pay more attention to the cultural related stigma in the specific Chinese context.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2013.

Objectives: A number of studies report cultural difference in humour styles. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether differing styles of humour may have effects on counselling processes. This paper addresses the styles of humour of counsellors who practice multicultural counselling. It aims to reveal the empirical relationship between humour styles and empathy. Further, this study investigates the effectiveness of using humour in counselling with clients of different presenting concerns.
Method: This study includes qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The participants of the mixed-methods study included clinical psychologists, educational psychologists, counselling psychologists, organizational psychologists and counsellors who practiced multicultural counselling in Hong Kong. The qualitative study comprised two focus groups of 14 participants in total, who were counselling psychologists or counsellors, to discuss the importance of humour in their multicultural counselling. The data were analyzed by thematic analysis. The quantitative study involved a total of 70 randomly chosen participants, who completed a questionnaire, which combined with two standardized instruments namely, the Humour Styles Questionnaire (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray & Weir, 2003) and the Davis' Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Frias-Navarro, 2009).
Results: Humour is effective in counselling. Participants in the focus groups reflect humor usage leading to a lightened mood, positive climate and relaxed atmosphere in counselling. In addition, affiliative humour and self-enhancing humour styles are more effective than self- defeating and aggressive humour in multicultural counselling. Lastly, those with empathic concern were more likely to use affiliative and self-enhancing humour and less likely to use aggressive humour. Those with personal distress tended to use self-defeating humour.
Conclusion: This study validated the view that the use of humour in counselling is effective. In multicultural counselling, one uses specific humour styles depending on the multicultural factors or background the client presents. Besides, humour is also used differently depending on the presenting concerns clients bring into counselling. Clients and counsellors both use humour in varying manners. The effectiveness of humour application is determined by whether humour is understood and received well by the other individual involved. As such, the appropriateness of the application of humour in multicultural counselling needs to be gauged prior to using it.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2013.

79 pages

Many researchers in the past decades had focused on sexually coupled relationships and had not looked into the relationships for singles, in terms of romantic relationships. Past researchers suggest it is important for individuals to be involved in intimate relationships. Attachment theory influenced adults’ expectations and behaviour in close relationships. “Triangular Theory of Love” explains love experiences in terms of three elements: Intimacy, Commitment & Passion. The perception of one’s relationship satisfaction is connected with how one experienced intimacy, passion and commitment. A person’s attachment style affects their perception of love. This suggests attachment styles have an effect on individual’s perception of elements of triangular theory of love (intimacy, passion and commitment), and relationship satisfaction. From the quantitative study, in terms of attachment styles, there was a statistically significant difference in the individuals with an avoidant attachment style between the two groups, romance and relationship virgin and a marginal statistically significant difference in the individuals with an anxious attachment style between the two groups, romance and relationship virgin. In addition, there is a marginal statistically significant difference in terms of the perception of ideal passion in their partners for the romance and the relationship virgin group. A qualitative study, a consecutive design, was used for the relationship virgin groups and discovered they have high perception of intimacy and commitment, as compared with passion. To conclude, there are significant differences found between the romance and the relationship virgin group, in terms of avoidant attachment style. A marginal statistically significant difference found between the romance and the relationship virgin group, in terms of anxious attachment style and ideal perception of passion. However, there are no significant differences found with the currently not in a relationship group, but have had relationship in the past.

Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Dept. of Counselling and Psychology.

Unpleasant romantic relationship terminations commonly lead to depressive responses or catastrophic interpretations, similar to those recognized in grief. The present research has a two-fold purpose: First, to identify the components of grief in subjects with recent histories of romantic relationship terminations, and second, based on the components identified, to construct a counselling model for people who experience unpleasant romantic relationship terminations. Fourteen key informant interviews, analyzed by a grounded theory framework, showed that the psychological responses appearing after a break-up formulated different emotional positions. These emotional positions, which included denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance, revolved around a classical stages-model of grief. From this, a new grief-counselling model named “Dynamic Positions of Grief” is enunciated in the present research. In order to enhance the dynamics within the emotional positions to reach the state of acceptance, putting experience into words became an essential mourning process for clients. Besides, the provision of acute empathic understandings and non-judgmental therapeutic alliance were central to the emergence of the above counselling model.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2012.

The purpose of the current study was to study the emotional expressivity as a moderator of the effect of locus of control on help-seeking attitudes in Asian and Western countries. 76 Asians and 69 Westerners participants completed the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS; Mackenzie et al., 2004), Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ; Gross and John, 1995), and Rotter’s Internal-External (I–E) Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966) to measure their help-seeking attitudes, emotional expressivity, and locus of control respectively. The result showed that internal locus of control and negative emotional expressivity predicted help-seeking attitudes in both Asian and Western countries. Negative emotional expressivity and internal locus of control at the same time predicted help-seeking attitudes in both Asian countries and Western countries. The only difference is negative emotional expressivity negatively predicted positive help-seeking attitudes in Asian countries but positively predicted positive help-seeking attitudes in Western countries.

Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Dept. of Counselling and Psychology.

Breastfeeding becomes a trend for mothers with newborns and children. Nutritious benefits of breastfeeding are verified by numerous studies, yet limited studies addressed to investigate assumed psychological benefits of breastfeeding. The current study aimed to add empirical evidence to informed practitioners of the association of breastfeeding and early mother-infant attachment, and the role of maternal sensitivity in the relationship. Characteristics of full breastfeeding (i.e. always feed infants with breastfeeding) group were investigated. The sample included 122 mothers with infants less than 1-year-old in a cross-sectional design. Questionnaires about breastfeeding, mother-infant attachment, and maternal sensitivity were included in a web link. Simple and hierarchical regressions were conducted. Path analyses and Sobel test were subsequently performed to test the mediating role of maternal sensitivity. t-tests were conducted to investigate the group comparison of the full breastfeeding group. Results showed that the number of breastfeeding frequency per day predicted one of the attachment scores (β=.22 to .29, p<.05). Significant indirect effects of maternal sensitivity were found (β=.27 to .33, p<.001), suggesting that maternal sensitivity contributes to the relationship of breastfeeding frequency and early attachment. Results of the Sobel test was not significant that maternal sensitivity is not a mediator. In the full breastfeeding group, scores of the higher feeding frequency group were significantly higher than the lower frequency group (t35=-2.17, p=04, d=0.73). The frequency of breastfeeding per day is suggested to predict the strength of mother-infant attachment, indicating that breastfeeding provides psychological benefits besides nutritious values. Mothers with increased breastfeeding frequency are associated with an enhanced maternal sensitivity, which then benefits the strength of positive dyadic attachment during the first postpartum year.

Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Dept. of Counselling and Psychology.

This study examined the role of filial piety and parental psychological control in the effect of family harmony. Types of filial piety (reciprocal & authoritarian) and types of parental psychological control (dependency-oriented & achievement-oriented), were investigated to see its effect to family harmony. A total of 657 young adults (aged 17-25), living with parents (N=351) and living without parents (N=306), participated in the study. Participants were invited to complete an online self-reported survey regarding their demographic information, measures of filial piety, parental psychological control, family harmony, and 7 to 8 open-ended questions. Regression analyses showed that both authoritarian filial piety and reciprocal filial piety positively predicted family harmony whereas achievement-oriented psychological control negatively predicted family harmony. The same pattern was found in both Hong Kong young adults who live with (R2=.241, F(4,346)=27.495, p<.01) and without their parents (R 2 =.339, F(4,301)=38.650, p<.01). Open-ended questions revealed the indigenous practices of filial piety and parental controls in Hong Kong and showed their unique influence on Hong Kong people’s family harmony. This study provided implications for both parenting practice and counselling practice to deal with different personal and environmental characteristics such as filial piety and competitiveness in the local cultural context.

Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Dept. of Counselling and Psychology.

The current research investigated the effect of helping decision on empathy concern. According to the theory of cognitive dissonance Festingered (1987), if people’s behavior is inconsistent with his cognition, they would modify their cognition to reduce the dissonance. Based on that theory, when people decide not to help, they would feel dissonance if they feel high level of empathy concern toward the victim; but, if they decide to help, this would be discrepant if they feel low empathy concern to the victims. To reduce the dissonance, this researcher hypothesized that people would modify their interpretation of the victim’s suffering, thus affecting the level of empathy concern.
Besides, the researcher hypothesized that people would pay more attention to the victim’s information if they are decided to help, than those decided not to help. The rationale is that people tend to seek for more information if the issue is relevant to them; and based on the selective exposure theory, people tend to seek for information to support their standpoint.
Two studies were conducted to investigate the above hypotheses. In study one, the decision of helping was primed by the cost of the suggested helping behavior; in study two, the decision of helping was manipulated by the actual helping behaviors of the participants.
The result indicated that participants’ decision of helping would not affect their empathy concern. This implicated that the participants could reduce the dissonance by holding other beliefs, such as diffusion of responsibility (Wiesenthal, Austrom, and Silverman, 1983), rather than devaluating the suffering of the victims. Regarding the second hypothesis, the result indicated that the participants who did not provide help paid more attention than the participants who had provided help. The cognitive economic model (Fisher, 2011) was adopted to explain the phenomenon. Participants’ attention might be affected by the certainty of their standpoint.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2013.

The current study investigated the effect of Karate training on the stereotypic behaviour, social interaction and communication of the children with ASD. Twenty-six of ASD children aged 6-12 without the experience of Karate training were recruited to participate in the study through the online platform. There were 38.5 % of the ASD participants, 38.5% of the ASD participants occurring with ADHD, and 23.1 % of the ASD participants occurring with intellectual disability. The ASD participants received a total of 8 Karate training sessions during the summer time. The stereotypic behaviour, social interaction and communication of the ASD participants were assessed at pre- and postintervention. 3 months after, a structured phone-interview with the parents was conducted to investigate the effect of Karate on their ASD children. Results showed that Karate intervention is significantly improved the stereotypic behaviour of the ASD children. It is suggested that Karate intervention can be an alternative intervention for the ASD children.

75 pages

The impact of mindfulness was examined in inattention and happiness of school-age children with special educational needs, using a mixed-methods design. In study 1, 8 semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore components of happiness, coping strategies, and mindfulness training from parents’ perspectives, using Qualitative Thematic Analysis. In study 2, a 4-week mindful attention program was used to measure the effect of mindfulness training in levels of inattention and happiness of participants. A total of 20 students were recruited in a special school in Hong Kong. Repeated measure ANOVAs were used to test the effectiveness of mindfulness on participants’ levels of inattention and happiness between the intervention group and control groups. Results showed that, in study 1, several themes related to happiness were found: time spent in interests and play, self-esteem, relationships with others, and autonomy. Two themes regarding coping strategies were found: emotion-focused and giving-up. In relation to teaching mindfulness to children with special educational needs, several themes were found, ability to stay still, intellectual capacities to understand the concepts, and interests in mindfulness. Results in study 2 showed that the mindful attention program had a positive effect in decreasing inattention scores in the intervention group, compared with the scores of the control group. Integrating the findings of study 1 and 2, a mindfulness training program tailored to the needs and abilities of school-aged children with special educational needs can be an effective tool to enhance their attentional regulation. Research implications on mindfulness trainings and children with special educational needs are discussed.

Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Dept. of Counselling and Psychology.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects on parenting styles and play beliefs on parental preferences for play activities in Hong Kong. A total of 101 participants were included in this study. In attempt to test the proposed hypothesis, a questionnaire survey approach was adopted for the present study, Parenting Style Questionnaire (Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen & Hart, 1995) and Parent Play Beliefs Scale (Fogle & Mendez, 2006) were used to measure the parenting scale and their beliefs in play respectively. A weekly record of children’s play was used to measure the average time which the participants’ children spent in structured, unstructured and non-play activities. Significant correlation coefficients were found between: (1) mothers’ time spent with children and non-play activity time; (2) authoritarian parenting and unstructured play time; and, (3) beliefs in play focus and structured play time. Linear Regression Analysis further confirmed that the authoritarian parenting and belief in academic focus could predict unstructured play time. These findings suggested that the quantity and quality of play were dependent on parents’ beliefs. Parents’ support, respect and promotion of the right to play were paramount to children’s holistic development. Further research should be conducted to investigate the long term effects on children’s development through parent-child relationship and their experiences in play.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2012.

The purposes of this study are to evaluate the relationship between self-talk, psychological resilience and psychological distress. There were 111 participants (43 male and 68 female). The results showed that Hong Kong citizens shared similar patterns of self-talk strategies to those used by westerners; and the negative self-talk showed the significant positive relationships with depression, anxiety and stress, and it showed a negative correlation with psychological resilience, while positive self-talk was found to have a positive relationship with psychological resilience capacity. As a result, it seems that it can be concluded that in order to increase psychological resilience and prevent psychological distress, an individual should minimize the use of negative self-talk and increase positive self-talk in their daily life.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2012.

This research was designed to examine the development of self-esteem through Biblical studies in Proverbs and Matthew to initiate personal growth for females. The control group was provided a compulsory psycho-educational course of self-esteem and a Biblical study course for seven weeks for the experimental group, who were mainly catechumens. The experimental group was also required to read the Bible regularly at home. Although showing no significant difference in personal growth scores, both groups’ (N=22) post-test scores were positively increased. After the experimental group had finished two courses for six months, a follow-up qualitative thematic analysis was used to investigate both groups and find out the underlying reasons that might have affected the outcome. Analyses revealed that people require time to digest the Bible and adapt God’s words into their daily life. This affected the follow-up post-test, resulting in significant differences for personal growth. The purpose of this study was to draw people’s attention to Biblical studies as one of the alternative ways to enhance their self-esteem to initiate personal growth.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2012.

Among the development psychology studies, there was not much research work had been done on early adulthood development, while Levinson’s Theory of Adult Development was the dominant study in this field, yet there was no research had been conducted based on Hong Kong culture. Therefore, with reference to the Entry Life Structure for Early Adulthood and the Age 30 Transition stages proposed in Levinson’s theory, this study attempted to investigate the phenomenon and lived experiences of the adulthood development in Hong Kong Chinese young adults who aged within 22 to 33 years old. 15 participants were recruited through criterion-based and snowball sampling and they were interviewed in a semi-structured format. From the findings, the participants provided their definitions of adulthood, transition, awakening experience, and introspection, with seven themes emerged, which these themes were in fact highly correlated to the four ultimate existential givens, including death or loss, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness respectively. Besides, a cyclical and retrospective nature of adulthood development was identified with cultural-specific concerns illustrated by the participants. This study provides preventive and and future-oriented research that could be guidance for future career and life planning of these individuals as well as for potential counselling psychology practices in Hong Kong.

75 pages

Social network site (SNS), Facebook, provides an easily accessible and convenient way in social interaction. Overuse of Facebook leads to an impairment of human’s psychological health. The purpose of this study was to examine the withdrawal influences from Facebook to psychological distress, life satisfaction, loneliness, and perceived social support among young adults in Hong Kong. In order to test the proposed hypothesis, this study consists of two parts: (a) 24-hour experimental deactivation study and (b) Longitudinal case study. There were 30 participants in the 24-hour experimental deactivation study and another 3 participants were invited to join the longitudinal case study. In the experimental study, participants were asked to deactivate their Facebook account for 24 hours. Self-administrated questionnaires were administered before and after the process. The withdrawal from Facebook increases anxiety, loneliness, perceived social support from family and perceived social support from significant others. A follow up case study was conducted to deactivate participants’ Facebook accounts for 72 hours. Self-administrated questionnaires were administered before and after every 24 hours for three times. Structured interviews were conducted afterwards to understand their experiences and impacts during deactivation period. The findings showed that withdrawal from Facebook increased anxiety of being excluded and loneliness. It also increased interaction with family members and significant others. In conclusion, reduction in the usage of Facebook is beneficial to humans’ perceived social support in their daily lives.

Hong Kong Shue Yan University. Dept. of Counselling and Psychology.