An investigation of the potential therapeutic value of an appearance therapy program for a group of female psychiatric hospital residents

Author

Rhetta Sensintaffar Goebel

Date of Award

8-1971

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Textiles and Clothing

Major Professor

Lois E. Dickey

Committee Members

Pauline Eastham, Anna Jean Treece

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the potential therapeutic value of an appearance therapy program for a group of female psychiatric residents and to measure changes in attitudes of student volunteers toward psychiatric hospital residents following short-term contacts with those residents.

Two hypotheses were stated for the study:

1. An appearance therapy program for psychiatric hospital residents will contribute to:
   1. An increase in level of self-esteem and self-concept.
   2. An increase in body satisfaction.
   3. An improved appearance.
2. The attitudes of student volunteers toward psychiatric hospital residents will become more positive following in- tensive, short-term contact with the residents.

An appearance therapy program was developed by the researcher. The program, which included six class meetings twice weekly for three consecutive weeks, was conducted by the researcher and six student volunteers. A group of 16 female residents of a cottage at Eastern State Psychiatric Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee, composed the sample. This group of program participants was considered to be a representative sampling of the hospital population. The mean period of hospitalization was 12.5 years for the group.

Several measures, administered before and after the program, were utilized to test the hypotheses: (1) Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Measure (1965) and the Tennessee Department of Mental Health Self- Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965) were used to determine self-esteem and self- concepts (2) Secord and Jourard's Body Cathexis Measure (1953) and a Draw-A-Person Test determined body satisfaction; (3) a series of photographs of each participating resident was judged to indicate improvements in appearance; (4) the psychiatric aides working with the residents completed an appearance evaluation questionnaire developed by the researcher to evaluate appearance of the residents; (5) the student volunteers completed the Modified Custodial Mental Illness Scale (Meltzer and Smothers, 1967) to measure changes in attitude toward psychiatric hospital residents. A group of students from the Department of Psychology, The University of Tennessee, administered all psychological measures to the residents to prevent biased responses from association of the measures with the program.

Analysis of data concerning the residents indicated the following results: (1) There was no significant increase in level of self-concept or self-esteem as indicated by the differences in the pre-test and post- test scores when t tests were computed. The results indicate that the program had no positive effect upon self-concept or self-esteem of the hospital residents. (2) There was no significant increase in level of body satisfaction when pre-test and post-test scores on the Body Cathexis measure were analyzed. However, improvements were observed in six projective figure drawings (Draw-A-Person Test) completed by 10 of the residents. These results indicate that for some of the residents the program may have had a positively meaningful effect upon the way they viewed their bodies. Significant results (p. < .001) on both the Appearance Evaluation Questionnaire completed by the psychiatric aides in the Cottage and on the evaluations of before and after-program photo- graphs of the residents led to the conclusions that the appearance therapy program resulted in positive improvements in the residents' appearances.

Analysis of the data concerning the student volunteers did not reveal a significant difference between volunteers' mean pre-test and post-test scores on the Modified Custodial Mental Illness Scale. Although the short-term, intensive work with psychiatric hospital residents had no effect on the volunteer group's attitudes toward the residents, it may be noted that the initial scores on the scale for the volunteers indicated a strong humanitarian attitude (as opposed to a custodial one) at the outset of the program.

Recommended Citation

Goebel, Rhetta Sensintaffar, "An investigation of the potential therapeutic value of an appearance therapy program for a group of female psychiatric hospital residents. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1971.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/10747