Gregory Scott Sparrow

Overcoming Personal and Academic Challenges: Perspectives From Latina/o College Students:

Eleven Latina/o college students were interviewed to provide insight into what kind of coping responses they used to overcome challenges and when such responses were employed. The following responses emerged: positive reframing, acceptance, self-talk, maintaining focus on final goals, using low expectations as motivation, self-reflection, taking action, and seeking support. A discussion regarding the importance of these findings is provided and implications for practice are presented.

The Role of Character Strengths and Family Importance on Mexican American College Students’ Life Satisfaction

We examined how character strengths and family importance influenced Mexican American college students’ life satisfaction. Using multiple regression analysis, findings indicated that optimism, grit, and gratitude were significant predictors of life satisfaction. We provide a discussion regarding the importance of these findings as well as recommendations for future research.

Using a Positive Psychology and Family Framework to Understand Mexican American Adolescents' College-Going Beliefs.

Positive psychology is a useful framework to understand Mexican American adolescents’ academic experiences. We used a quantitative, predictive design to explore how presence of meaning in life, search for meaning in life, subjective happiness, hope, and family importance influenced 131 Mexican American adolescents’ college-going beliefs. We used the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Subjective Happiness Scale, Hope Scale, Pan-Hispanic Familism Scale, and College-Going Self-Efficacy Scale to measure the aforementioned factors. Using multiple regression analysis, findings indicated that hope and familism were significant predictors of college-going beliefs. Higher levels of hope and familism positively predicted college-going beliefs. We provide a discussion regarding the importance of these findings as well as recommendations for future research.

A Model of Sustainability for Professional Organizations: Using a Learning Management System to Offer Continuing Education:

Professional membership organizations have long maintained their exposure and revenue stream through a variety of traditional avenues, most notably memberships, sponsored conferences, and professional journals. The synergy of this three-tiered model has depended on a certain enhanced status derived from membership benefits and proprietary information that can be marketed separately to non-members. Given the recent threats to this model due to the advent of the Internet, I present an example of an organization—International Association for the Study of Dream (IASD)—which has harnessed its annual conference assets to create an online continuing education program with the help of a learning management system, Moodle. I chose this organization not only because I have been involved in this project but also because I believe IASD is one of the first membership organizations to successfully create this fourth tier of outreach and revenue generation.

Informed love as a curative factor

Research concerning the curative factors in psychotherapy has thus far overlooked reports of religious experiences as a potential source of hypotheses. The author examines a variety of anecdotal encounters with personifications of higher power for the presence of therapeutic factors. He finds that the attitude expressed by the being, as perceived by the recipients, reflects unconditional positive regard (UCR) in the context of a thorough and intimate knowledge of the person. He thus hypothesizes that the curative factor operating in such experiences is “informed love”, defined as the twofold experience of feeling completely loved and completely known. The author discusses the differences between informed love and UCR, and the implications of informed love in modern psychotherapy practice.

Progressive triangulation in psychotherapy and the spiritual journey

Relationship triangles are usually considered symptomatic of family dysfunction in systems-oriented therapy, but they may also serve a progressive, transitional role in relationships. The author examines the phenomenon and function of “progressive” triangles in East and West spiritual traditions, and suggests that triangles comprising seeker, mediator, and higher power are common in both traditions, regardless of differing views of human nature. A progressive triangle in the therapeutic setting can be seen as a function of teleological transference, in which a seekers spiritual aspirations are projected onto a mediator, who provides support and direction for its further realization. The implications of progressive triangulation and teleological transference in contemporary practice are discussed.