Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1976

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Educational Psychology

Major Professor

Lawrence DeRidder

Committee Members

Kathy Davis, Mark Hector, Ken Newton, Stan Lusby

Abstract

The study was designed to discern the possible effects of Integral Hatha Yoga administered five times a week for four weeks to drug users at "Freedom House," a drug rehabilitation community at Eastern Psychiatric Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Experimental data were to provide sufficient information to reveal the differences in self-actualization, anxiety, body-cathexis and behavioral progress through the overall rehabilitation program, between a treatment and a control group.

In August of 1975, 11 patients at the drug unit received a lecture and demonstration of Integral Hatha Yoga. Eight of the patients agreed to take part in the study and took the Personal Orientation Inventory, IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire and Body-Cathexis Scale. After four weeks of Integral Hatha Yoga they were posttested on the same measures and given a structured interview. Three participants dropped out of the study during the first week of treatment. Staff and patient evaluations of behavioral progress through the overall drug program for the participants were recorded during the four weeks of experimental treatment.

In December of 1975, after total patient turnover at the unit, the lecture and demonstration of Integral Hatha Yoga was again presented. Ten of the 15 patients on the unit agreed to participate and were assigned to the control group. They were given the same pretest measures as the treatment group and after a control period of four weeks during which time they received only the standard "reality" based treatment of the community, were posttested on the same measures. Staff and patient evaluations of their overall behavioral progress through the program were recorded during the four weeks between the pre and posttests.

Using an analysis of covariance procedure, there were no significant differences between the groups for self-actualization, and significant differences for anxiety and body-cathexis. The behavioral progress through the overall drug program was greater for the experimental group. Probably reasons for the significant and nonsignificant results were discussed and a number of directions for future research were considered.

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