The sexual offender in treatment : an analysis of the cognitive-affective meaning-making process /
This qualitative study explored the narratives of 10 incarcerated male sex offenders who had recently completed an 18-month sex offender treatment program in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. An analysis of the data revealed several significant findings: (1) the power of peer group interac...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2001.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=728889571&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | This qualitative study explored the narratives of 10 incarcerated male sex offenders who had recently completed an 18-month sex offender treatment program in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. An analysis of the data revealed several significant findings: (1) the power of peer group interactions to facilitate the dialectical synthesis of meaning and cognitive-affective transformations, (2) the importance of reconnecting with the emotional dimension of the self as a necessary aspect of empathic reorganization of internal meaning-making functions for sexual offenders, and (3) an understanding of the process of group-guided change that progresses in cyclical stages, modulated by resistance, to facilitate cognitive-affective transformation. This study found that change for these men involved becoming critically aware of the thoughts, emotions, values, and actions that formed their worldview, life choices, and experiences. The learning process was ultimately an integration of the rational and nonrational ways of knowing. The participants expressed a confidence that the transformations experienced were becoming an integral aspect of their emerging identities and perceptual frame of reference. Fundamental to the learning process was resistance to the unfamiliar in response to a cognitive conflict caused by the exchange of contradictory ideas, which led to tension between retaining and relinquishing personal patterns of meaning. Making sense of the contradictions through dialogue with peers resulted in gradual cognitive-affective transformations and, ultimately, identity reconstruction. The theoretical underpinnings of the change process expressed in the narratives are similar to those described by Mezirow's transformational learning theory. However, a comparison of Mezirow's theory to the process described by these participants reveals that the level of transformation desired for sex offenders in a rehabilitation program must include the integration of affective as well as cognitive ways of making sense of the world. The nonrational or affective aspects of meaning-making must be seen as equally important to the nature of this type of change, and the change for sexual offenders must be lasting. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Educational Human Resource Development". |
| Physical Description: | xiii, 205 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-200). |