Year of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Clinical Psychology

Department or School/College

Department of Psychology

Committee Co-chair

Duncan Campbell, Paul Silverman

Commitee Members

Bryan Cochran, Rachel Williamson, Aaron Thomas

Keywords

American Indians, clinical psychology, psychological research, psychology, qualitative, quantitative

Abstract

American Indians are a unique population that have been historically understudied in psychology. However, research in this field with this population has been growing and researchers are beginning to explore facets of American Indian mental health. There is a movement for American Indian psychologists themselves to conduct this research and to begin to develop culturally adapted and Indigenous research frameworks. There have been many Native psychologists who have helped push this work forward. One such Native psychologist was Dr. Gyda Swaney (Salish) who was a professor at the in the Psychology Department at the University of Montana and directed and guided qualitative and quantitative research with American Indians through the Indians Into Psychology Program (InPsych). This dissertation is composed of four major components. The first component is the memorial tribute, which introduces Dr. Swaney and gives a brief review of her academic career focusing on her work with the InPsych Program. The second component is the literature review which gives the general context of relevant resilience-based psychological research of American Indians, to situate the research of the InPsych lab. The third component is the narrative review, which introduces, reviews, and analyzes the diverse quantitative, qualitative, and mixedmethods resilience-based research conducted by the InPsych research lab. This study identifies relations within the corpus of selected research projects and identifies any connections or coinciding findings; it explains how and why individual studies fit together, and evaluates the quality of the studies, and discusses gaps in the research. It provides implications for practice and policy and outlines important directions for future research. The fourth component of this dissertation is a qualitative study which illuminates how Dr. Swaney’s focus on resilience influenced the research, clinical work, and other work of colleagues and students. Through her research she saw and encouraged resilience in the communities that she worked with. Through relationship with others, she supported, guided, and strengthened her fellow colleagues and students. Finally, a general discussion will provide a brief overview of the four major components and briefly discuss implications for future research with American Indians, mentoring future Native psychologists, and Dr. Swaney’s legacy.

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