Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass

Theses and Dissertations Graduate School

2016

Evaluating the Pennebaker Paradigm with Bereaved Emerging Adults: Applications of Text Analysis

Elizabeth A. Collison Virginia Commonwealth University

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EVALUATING THE PENNEBAKER PARADIGM WITH BEREAVED EMERGING ADULTS: APPLICATIONS OF TEXT ANALYSIS

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University

By: ELIZABETH A. COLLISON Master of Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2013 Bachelor of Arts, University of Kansas, 2009

Director: Sandra E. Gramling, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Department of Psychology

Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia July, 2016

Acknowledgement

I wish to give a great deal of thanks to my advisor, Dr. Sandy Gramling, for her guidance and support throughout this project as well as the entirety of my graduate training. In so many ways her opening the doors for me to research was life changing. Not only was I able to work toward becoming a competent and skillful researcher and clinician more generally, but also was enabled to discover my area of as a future psychologist while continuing and enhancing my personal grief journey. For this and so much else, I owe Dr. Gramling my unending . I would also like to thank each and every one of my committee members, with whom I have so enjoyed discussing and developing this project: Drs. Sandy Gramling, Scott Vrana, Wendy Kliewer, Geri Lotze, and Sarah Kye Price. I do not believe that a better committee could have been formed for this particular project. Each individual member’s expertise so beautifully complemented the others’, while truly enhancing the development of the present study and spurring my own throughout. Their crucial and thoughtful contributions helped shape this project into Many thanks to several individuals in particular for their support, assistance, and generosity. To Dr. James W. Pennebaker, for his correspondence, guidance, and encouragement, particularly his warning about LSA, “Elizabeth-- You are walking into a swamp of complexities from which you may never emerge.” To Dr. Scott Vrana, for his generously allowing me to make use of the dataset collected within his lab, walking with me through the swamp, and connecting me with his genius son, Dylan Vrana. To Dylan Vrana, who assisted greatly with the process for Latent Semantic Analysis and development of the R programming code, without which I would have a great deal many more headaches and may never have made it out of the swamp alive. Also, to Dr. Andrea Konig for her relentless work on the project development, data collection and management, for her being so supportive and available for my questions, and for her genuine and excitement regarding my analysis of her dissertation data. More generally, a large thank you to the members of the Good Grief lab, Dr. Lord and Rachel Weiskittle, under the advisement of Dr. Gramling, for their contributions and support to my research and success in the program every step of the way. And finally, to my family and friends, for their support, encouragement, ,