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Half The Art Of Living: The Influence Of Religion On The Relation Between Interparental Conflict And Childhood Internalizing And Externalizing Behaviors, Alexandra Michelle Wills

Theses and Dissertations

Children are increasingly being raised in environments that threaten healthy development, but there are children who develop well in spite of these threats, and there are factors within children's lives that can ameliorate the negative influence of these threats some of the time (Condly, 2006; Masten, 2001; Werner, 1993). Interparental conflict is one factor that can contribute to threatening healthy development and, indeed, has been linked with a variety of negative outcomes for children, including internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Gonzales, Pitts, Hill, & Roosa, 2000; Ingoldsby, Shaw, Owens, & Winslow, 1999; Rhoades, 2008). Religion has been studied as a contributing …

Predicting Risky Sexual Behavior: The Role Of Family Context Factors And Socioeconomic Status, Kori Daniel

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine the association between family context factors (parental monitoring, family structure, and amount and timing of parent-adolescent communication), socioeconomic status (parental education) and sexual risk taking behaviors in adolescence (age of sexual initiation, number of lifetime partners, condom use, pregnancy prevention, and drug/alcohol use). The participants included 255 students between the ages of 18 and 25 from Illinois State University. The majority of the participants were White/European, heterosexual, women. Students were offered the opportunity to receive extra credit for their participation in the study. Participants were asked to fill out a demographic …

Exploring The Dark Side: Investigating The Relationship Between Creativity And Perceptions Of Dishonesty, Kiera Michelle Dymit

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have reported a connection between creativity and dishonesty (Beaussart, Andrews, & Kaufman, 2013; Gino & Ariely, 2012; Gino & Wiltermuth, 2014). This study attempts to investigate these finding further, and empirically connect the number of justifications provided or produced for a dishonest behavior to the perceived acceptability of the behavior. 203 participants were given two tasks involving evaluating and justifying dishonest behavior. Those who scored high on the Creative Behavior Inventory were able to produce significantly more justifications overall, but not those who scored high on the Creative Personality Scale. The total number of justifications produced was correlated …

Can Non-Haptic Manipulation Of Temperature Influence The Same Emotions As Ostracism?, Rebecca Ann Oglesby

Theses and Dissertations

I explored the possibility that temperature can alter the same variables affected by ostracism (i.e., being ignored and excluded): belonging, control, meaningful existence, and self-esteem need satisfaction, feelings of ostracism, mood, and loneliness. According to the theory of embodied cognition, individuals can associate physical warmth with social intimacy, as well as cold temperatures with social isolation (Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008; IJzerman et al., 2012). Bargh and Shalev (2012) found that participants holding a cold pack reported higher loneliness than participants holding a neutral or warm pack. My study expands upon Bargh and Shalevâ??s (2012) findings by examining more emotions frequently …

"Sing Me A Sad Song And Make Me Feel Better": Exploring Rewards Related To Liking Familiar Sad Music, John D. Hogue

Theses and Dissertations

Hogue (2013) tested some of Levinson's (1997) theoretical ideas about why people like listening to songs that make them sad. Particularly, Hogue tested Levinson's ideas of communion, mediation, savoring feeling, and how absorption interacted with the songs to affect communion and the emotion. Hogue, however, did not use musical stimuli that were familiar to the participants, which is a precursor to Levinson's (1997) theory. This thesis retested Levinson's theory comparing familiar songs against unfamiliar songs and songs from another participant.

Data were collected from 82 participants. Each participant provided songs that induced happiness and songs that induced sadness. Participants listened …

Examining Social Desirability Bias In Measures Of Financial Behavior, Nicole L. Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

Surveys that investigate the financial lives of consumers consist of direct questions about financial behavior, with college students being a heavily surveyed and convenient sample (Gutter 2013). However, the subjective nature of survey data is not bias-free, indicated by the presence of disparities between the respondents' reported and actual behavior. Due to the fact that many students begin to acquire loans, establish credit, and initiate saving behaviors in college, it is important that we have a complete understanding the financial behavior of college students.

The goal of this study was to investigate the role of socially desirable responding (SDR) in …

Children's Responses To Cooperative And Competitive Games: A Person X Situation Analysis, Thomas David Mulderink

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined the relations between goal structure, task-completion order, time, and individual differences in agreeableness for school-aged children completing a tower building task. The tower building task (Graziano et al., 1997) allows for the study of in-game behavior during competitive and cooperative tasks with a similar structure. Children completed a total of 13-trials (six per goal structure) under two different goal structures in order to observe changes both prosocial and destructive behaviors over time. Results revealed that children engage in more destructive behaviors over time under contrient goal structure conditions after working together relative to groups that completed contrient …

Examining Possible Perceptual Proxies Of Flow State, Devin Michael Gill

Theses and Dissertations

Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi (2002) define flow as an individual's deep engagement in an intrinsically rewarding activity. McGonigal (2011) suggests that video games are flow elicitors. If video games are flow elicitors, then spatial, agentic, and temporal perception required for game play may relate to flow in predictable manners. Over two experiments, a simple video game with contextual (i.e., implied friction) and conceptual (i.e., ambiguous stimulus labeled either bullet-train or house) manipulations was used to elicit flow. Effects of the manipulations were assessed trial-by-trial on two dimensions of flow (i.e., agency and temporal perception) and spatial planning, as well as an …

Longitudinal Effects Of School Climate On Middle-School Students' Academic, Social-Emotional And Behavioral Outcomes, Jennifer Lynn Engelland-Schultz

Theses and Dissertations

Millions of youth are at risk for low academic achievement, school dropout, risky behavior, bullying, and mental health concerns, especially those living in rural areas. Protective factors can reduce the likelihood of children and adolescents experiencing these negative outcomes. Research shows that positive school climate is a powerful protective factor for youth. The present study investigated the longitudinal relations between middle school students' school climate perceptions and their academic, social-emotional, and behavioral development over two years. Specifically, 510 students in grades 5-9 from six rural schools rated their support and influence at school as well as their internalizing problems, personal …

Middle-School Girls' Behavioral Responses To Ostracism: How Much Does Inclusion Cost?, Ashley Leja

Theses and Dissertations

Bullying among school-aged children is problematic in the U.S., with 22% of students aged 12-18 years reporting experiences with bullying at school (Zhang, Musu-Gillette, & Oudekerk, 2016). Whereas early bullying research focused heavily on the physical bullying common among boys, more recent studies have included examinations of bullying using relational aggression. Defined as removing or threatening to remove relationships to cause harm to another, relational aggression includes behaviors such as spreading lies, gossiping, or ignoring a peer and has been found to be more common among girls (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995; Cullerton-Sen & Crick, 2005; Murray-Close et al., 2007). A …

Developing & Describing The Use & Learning Of Conceptual Models For Integer Addition And Subtraction Of Grade 5 Students, Nicole Marie Wessman-Enzinger

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports the results of a teaching experiment, which explored student thinking about integer addition and subtraction. Through the lens of commognitive theory (Sfard, 2008), interpreting negative integers as secondary intuitions (Fischbein, 1987), and employing teaching experiment methodology (Steffe & Thompson, 2000), this study was a first step in developing more robust descriptions of students' conceptual models for integer addition and subtraction. I investigated: (a) the conceptual models that students exhibited, (b) the various ways that students utilized conceptual models while learning about the addition and subtraction of integers, and (c), the ways that students' conceptions evolved over the …

Perceived And Actual Similarity As Predictors Of Self-Disclosure And Perceived Understanding At Zero Acquaintance, Rebecca A. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

When people interact, there are general guidelines that direct the conversation. When two humans interact for the first time, however, there seem to be different factors at play that either allow for the relationship to continue and grow or that end any further interactions. One of the main factors in beginning relationships is the amount self-disclosure that is occurring between the people. Because social relationships are so important for humans, it is important to examine variables that may affect the amount people disclose when they first meet. This study looks at how perceived and actual similarity predict perceived understanding and …

Task-Switching In Bilinguals: Further Investigation Of The Bilingual Advantage, Jennifer M. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research has suggested that speaking more than one language may lead to benefits across a variety of different cognitive tasks (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009). This effect has been dubbed the Bilingual Advantage. It has been suggested that this advantage relates to more the development of greater efficiency with processes involved in task-switching. The current study used a task-switching task to investigate three of these processes: reconfiguration, monitoring, and inhibitory control processes.

Monolingual and bilingual participants were presented blocks of trials in which they had to either categorize words as either abstract or concrete, or pictures as human-made …

Stigma-By-Association: The Effect Of Parent Disengagement On Head Start Teacher Attitudes Toward Their Students, Rachael Antonette Levine

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine the relationship between parents, teachers, and teacher perceptions of students in a Head Start setting. Specifically, this study explored the impact of parent engagement on teacher perceptions for student kindergarten readiness. Head Start operates under the goal of involving the entire family, suggesting that parent involvement, or engagement, is beneficial for the student. This also suggests that a lack of involvement may be detrimental. Following social psychology theories examining stigma, and stigma-by-association, this student attempted to determine whether parent disengagement from the childâ??s education is a stigmatizing factor, and if that stigma carried over to …

Childhood Sexual Abuse And Identity Development: The Role Of Attachment And Self-Esteeem, Joel David Dukett

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine how childhood sexual abuse (CSA) influences identity development along with attachment and self-esteem. The participants included 208 first-year female undergraduate students from Illinois State University. Students were afforded the opportunity to receive extra credit for their participation and could enter into a random prize drawing. Participants completed a demographics questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, The Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire, Dimensions of Identity Development Scale, and the Hot Topics Questionnaire which assesses history of CSA. Of the participants, 145 (69.7%) were in the non-abuse group and 63 (30.3%) were in the abuse group. …

Antecedents And Correlates Of Work Engagement In Adolescents, Nichoals James Strong

Theses and Dissertations

An introduction to the experience of part-time work during adolescence is a key developmental and learning milestone during the lifespan. However, work engagement is an often overlooked construct during this time period as it relates to adolescent development. Specifically, this study examined the antecedents and correlates of work engagement. A sample of working adolescents included 97 participants from four high schools who completed an online survey. Work engagement, school engagement, work-school conflict, job type, job characteristics, hours worked per week, and job satisfaction was measured using self-report questionnaires. Support was found for job satisfaction correlating with work engagement. Task significance …

Comparing Time And Event Based Prospective Memory: Effects Of Delay, Angela Conte

Theses and Dissertations

Prospective memory (PM) is the act of remembering to perform a future intention (Einstein & McDaniel, 2005). Time-based PM is remembering to retrieve that future intention at or after a specific time has elapsed. Event-based PM is remembering to retrieve the future intention when a specific cue or event is encountered (Sellen et al., 1997). The current project was designed to compare time- and event-based PM performance within a laboratory context. Previous research suggests that time-based tasks are more difficult to carry out because a decrease in performance (or PM cost) is often found compared with event-based tasks (e.g., Sellen …

Live Like You Were Dying: How Transitions Affect Decisions Of Undergraduate University Students, Danielle N. Freund

Theses and Dissertations

The current study explored differences in university students' affect, time-selectivity, and deliberation based on year at the university and random assignment to a graduation salience or non-graduation salience condition. Senior participants reported a significant difference between the proportion of time they intended to spend in academic and social activities. There was a main effect for time on positive and negative affect, but no other main effects or interactions were found. Implications for SST and TMT are discussed as are directions for future research.

Personality Test Faking: Detection And Selection Rates, David J. Wolfe

Theses and Dissertations

This study will examine the utility of Kuncel & Borneman's (2007) novel approach to faking detection using unusual item responses, after having addressed several limitations of their previous study. Their approach will be applied to a group of Romanian professionals that took a personality test (the NEO-PI-R) on two occasions 12-24 months apart. This within-subjects design using real job applicants will allow for evaluation of faking at real-world individual levels, as well as offer the ability to analyze Kuncel and Borneman's (2007) proposed technique with a prevalent selection tool that uses a more conventional five-option response set. Following the theory …