Digital Commons Network^™

Moral Objections To Pornography: Does The Reason For Opposition Affect Consumption?, Grant Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent literature has suggested a link between self-described “problematic” pornography usage or pornography addiction and moral incongruence (Grubbs et al., 2022; Guidry et al., 2019). That is, when someone is morally opposed to pornography, they feel worse about their use of it. As of yet, however, no link has been established between specific reasons for objecting to pornography and their effects on consumption. Participants were 54 adults selected randomly using Amazon’s MTurk survey distribution platform. Respondents completed demographic questions and 6 scales measuring frequency of pornography use, objections to pornography, self-perceived problematic porn use, external and internal shame, God representations, …

Examining The Impact Of Discrimination, Shame, And Acculturation On Psychological Wellbeing Of East Asian International Students, Shao-Jung Stella Ko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the impact of discrimination, shame, and acculturation on the psychological wellbeing of East Asian international students in the U.S. Using the Minority Stress Theory as a framework, discrimination and shame were hypothesized to have a significant negative relationship with wellbeing while acculturation was hypothesized to moderate these relationships. A sample (N = 281) of East Asian international undergraduate students completed a web-based survey with measures of perceived discrimination, interpersonal shame, acculturation, and mental health outcomes. Regression analyses containing wellbeing (outcome), acculturation (moderator), discrimination (predictor), and shame (predictor) were performed to test the hypotheses using SPSS PROCESS macro …

Exploring The Impact Of The Achievement Gap On Shame And Resilience In African American College Students, Brittany R. Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The achievement gap refers to the stark difference that occurs between racial or gender groups, as one group performs significantly higher than the other. An achievement gap has the propensity to produce psychological distress, as well as buffering techniques that are necessary for survival and success. Growing research shows that African American college students experience unique levels of trauma, shame, hardship, macro, and micro-aggressions, suggesting that these students learn to self-preserve as early as 10 years old. This study used a Pearson correlation, Independent T-Test, and a Moderated Multiple Regression to explore the impact of the achievement gap on shame …

Self-Compassion And Suicide Risk In Veterans: Serial Effects Of Shame, Guilt, And Ptsd, Jessica Mckinney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is a significant public health concern and ranks as the 10^th leading cause of death in the U.S. Veterans are at a disproportionately higher risk for suicide, due to risk factors such as exposure to trauma and its negative cognitive-emotional sequalae, such as PTSD, shame, and guilt. However, not all veterans exposed to traumatic events, or who experience shame and guilt, die by suicide, perhaps as a result of the presence of individual-level protective factors such as self-compassion. Conceptualized as self-kindness, mindfulness and common humanity, self-compassion is beneficially associated with mental and physical health, including reduced suicide risk. …

Self-Compassion Versus Self-Esteem For An Experience Of Ostracism, Russell S. Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-compassion refers to an adaptive way of responding to the self when in distress and consists of three main components: mindfulness, common humanity, and self-kindness. Self-compassion offers a promising alternative to the construct of self-esteem for predicting and influencing responses to ostracism, a specific type of social exclusion in which an individual is ignored for unknown reasons. The present study examined the differential associations of trait self-compassion and trait self-esteem with attribution, emotion regulation, shame, and prosocial responses following an experience of ostracism using the Cyberball ostracism paradigm. Undergraduate participants (n = 219) completed trait self-esteem and trait self-compassion …

Understanding The Relationship Between Anti-Transgender Bias, Non-Affirmation, And Post-Traumatic Stress: A Model Of Internalized Transphobia-Mediated Post-Traumatic Stress., Sebastian Mitchell Barr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transgender people’s increased risk for negative mental health outcomes, when compared to cisgender peers or the general public, has been well documented in the psychological literature. Researchers have begun to establish empirical support for a relationship between anti-transgender bias, non-affirmation of gender identity, internalized transphobia, and other transgender-specific minority stressors. Although little work has explored the mechanisms of this relationship, some psychologists have proposed conceptualizing these factors as potentially traumatic experiences and understanding the poor mental health outcomes as manifestations of complex post-traumatic stress. In this dissertation, I examine whether there is empirical support for this framework by evaluating the …

Self-Compassion And Self-Forgiveness As Mediated By Rumination, Shame-Proneness, And Experiential Avoidance: Implications For Mental And Physical Health, Elizabeth Conway Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-compassion and self-forgiveness appear to have much in common, as both relate to one’s self-regard during challenging circumstances; however, their empirical relationship is largely yet to be explored. The present study examines theoretical and empirical areas of overlap and proposes a theory of their relationship, including its possible impact on health. Self-compassion and self-forgiveness were proposed to have a direct relationship that may be mediated by reduction in rumination, shame, and experiential avoidance. These factors together were also hypothesized to have a positive impact on health functioning. The current study tested these models in a sample of undergraduate students (n …

The Humiliation Experience: Causes, Emotional Correlates, And Behavioral Consequences, Kendall Elyse Mccarley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to provide a comprehensive investigation of the emotional experience of humiliation by examining: (1) the direct effects of self-esteem and narcissism on emotional responses to potentially humiliating events; (2) the direct effects of the emotional correlates of humiliating experiences (i.e. sadness, humiliation, and anger) on the related behavioral reactions to such events (i.e., withdrawal, retaliation, and minimization); and (3) a process model to determine whether or not the emotional correlates of potentially humiliating events mediated the predicted effects of self-esteem and narcissism on the behavioral consequences on those events.

Participants, ranging in age from …

Humiliation And Its Relationship To Embarrassment And Shame, Danielle Jean Pulham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to expand our knowledge of humiliation by examining the cognitive correlates of this emotion. Since norm violations may often elicit this emotion, attributions of blame and perceived devaluation of the self from others were investigated as possible cognitions that may both link and distinguish this emotion from close emotion relatives, namely embarrassment and shame.

Participants were presented with vignettes that described a social versus moral norm violation. Blame for the event was manipulated by varying who/what caused the norm violation. Perceived devaluation was manipulated by varying what the observing audience knew about the cause of the norm …

The Emergence Of The Capacity For Guilt In Preschoolers: The Role Of Personal Responsibility In Differentiating Shame From Guilt, Jamie L. Walter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the development of guilt and shame in preschool children, as well as individual differences related to the expression of these emotions. Sixty-one children in three age groups were videotaped in a mishap paradigm in which an experimentally manipulated doll's arm fell off during play. Children were randomly assigned to either an ambiguous or a personal responsibility condition. Videotapes were coded for behavioral (e.g., latency to repair, avoidance) and affective (e.g., joy, tensionlwony) reactions. Individual differences were assessed through parental reports using the My Child (Kochanska, DeVet, Goldman, Murray, & Putman, 1994) and teacher ratings using the …