Digital Commons Network^™

Motivated Attention To Social And Nonsocial Reward Images: Examining Relations With Externalizing Risk In Children, Adaeze C. Egwuatu

Doctoral Dissertations

Children that exhibit issues with externalizing behaviors often experience maladaptive outcomes in later life. Externalizing problems during middle childhood (e.g., 6-10 years old) are linked to issues with emotion regulation, which are, in turn, caused by disrupted attention and emotion reactivity to reward. Externalizing problems during this period have also been linked diminished processing of social reward stimuli, suggesting externalizing risk in children may be reflected in contrasting patterns in processing of non-social and social rewards. However, research comparing how differences in affective processing of specific reward content (i.e. social versus non-social) patterns relate to externalizing behavior within normative development …

Beyond The Pearly Gates: White, Low-Income Student Experiences At Elite Colleges, Larissa Hopkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Elite institutions are historically infamous for exclusionary admissions practices that regularly denied people of color and low-income populations access to their ranks (Karabel, 2005). The power of the Civil Rights and Women’s Movements facilitated some changes in these admissions policies, although elite institutions also generated a rhetoric to suggest that low-income students would not benefit from the philosophical and theoretical orientation of an elite education (Soares, 2007). Small, elite institutions have shifted their values toward embracing student diversity and some have increased access to qualified low-income students through need-blind admissions policies. This qualitative study discusses how previously excluded White students …

Examining Social Climate And Youth Social Goals On Extended Wilderness Courses: A Path Toward Improving Participant Experiences, Benjamin J. Mirkin

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examined participants' expectations of the social climate on extended wilderness courses, how students' actually experienced the social climate during their course, and how these expectations, perceptions and the influence of environmental characteristics, impacted their goals for peer interactions. Pre and posttest surveys were used to assess students' expectations and perceptions of their experience and multi level modeling was used to better understand the relationship of social climate to peer interaction. The research was undertaken to improve the practical and theoretical understanding of organizations' and leaders' ability to facilitate a social climate that promotes adaptive forms of social motivation. …

Violent Socialization Processes And Criminal Behavior: An International Perspective On Variations In Social Control During Late Adolescence And Emerging Adulthood, Aimee Delaney Lutz

Doctoral Dissertations

Using Gottfredson and Hirschi's parental socialization thesis as a theoretical framework, the present study explores whether or not violent socialization processes are associated with criminal behavior, both at the micro-level and macro-level, across 32 different nations. Analyses were conducted on data from the International Dating Violence Study (Straus & Members of the International Dating Violence Research Consortium, 2004). Bivariate statistical analyses show that violent socialization tends to be more prevalent among nations with indicators of violence (e.g., laws supporting the death penalty) compared to nations without such indicators. The results of ordinary least squares regression analysis indicate that violent familial …

Three Elements Of Self-Regulated Learning: Metacognitive Functioning, Self-Efficacy, And Study Behavior, Catherine E. Overson

Doctoral Dissertations

Individuals' metacognitive insight regarding their own performances -- what people think they know about what they know -- is often flawed. Students' metacognitive functioning was examined in two studies. In Study 1, exam performance estimates compared with actual scores were assessed across three in-class exams. Results demonstrated a systematic tendency for lower performers to overestimate their exam performances. Top performers underestimated their performance. In Study 2, an incentive to be as accurate as possible in exam performance estimations ($50 gift card) did not reduce estimation miscalculations for either bottom or top performers.

In Study 1, higher levels of students' self-efficacy …

The Effect Of Culture And Self-Construal On Memory Development: Mother-Child Conversations In Eastern Turkey, Western Turkey And The United States, Basak Sahin

Doctoral Dissertations

Eighty-seven mothers and their four-year-old children from Eastern Turkey (N = 32 mother-child pairs), Western Turkey (N =30 mother child pairs) and the United States (N = 25 mother-child pairs) participated in a study of mother-child memory talk, self-construal and parenting goals. Mother-child pairs were audio-recorded while drawing pictures and talking about shared past and anticipated future events. Mothers completed Balanced Integration-Differentiation questionnaires and were scored as high or low on individuation and relatedness orientations. They completed child rearing goals questionnaires that were scored for conformity, self-maximization and power factors. Memory and future talk differed across culture and self-construal groups. …

Sophisticated Credulity: Are Old Beliefs Disguised By New Terminology And Selective Learning?, Matthew A. Ramsey

Doctoral Dissertations

The present research attempted to distinguish between traditional anomalistic belief (TAP) and pseudoscientific anomalistic belief (PSAP). In Study 1, I constructed the PSAP scale and then, to establish construct validity, examined its correlation to other measures related to TAP. In Studies 2 and 3, I examined how high and low TAP and PSAP believers differed in recalling information that either did, or did not support the existence of anomalistic phenomena. Participants read 12 abstracts on paranormal phenomena and were given T/F recall questions either immediately (Study 2) or following a four day delay period (Study 3). As expected, high and …

Emotional Responses To Environmental Messages: Implications For Future Environmentally Responsible Behavioral Intentions, Jeffrey L. Perrin

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study analyzed the role of environmental message characteristics (message modality and message valence) and emotional arousal (positive and negative) in predicting environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. Using an experimental protocol designed to induce emotions in the laboratory, I measured specific emotional responses to gains-framed and losses-framed video and text-only environmental messages, and investigated the relation between intensity of emotional responses to environmental messages and environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. The sample consisted of 161 college students (116 women, 45 men). A hierarchical linear multiple regression was computed to assess the contributions of background variables (environmental knowledge, environmental beliefs, and outdoor …

Understanding Personality Through Preferences In Popular Mass Media: An Archetypal Approach, Michael A. Faber

Doctoral Dissertations

In the Digital Age, it may be possible to assess personality in ways beyond those traditionally employed by psychologists. This work examines individual preferences in popular or mass culture media and what they say about people's psychological processes. For example, knowing that someone likes romantic comedy movies and jazz music arguably paints a more useful picture of personality than saying that one is high in both extraversion and openness. In such cases, a media-based self-description provides a clear and tangible metric of individual interests. Here, we hypothesize that one reason such preferences may reflect personality is because media and the …

Illusory Judgments Under Conditions Of Uncertainty: Reasoning Errors Related To Paranormal And Religious Beliefs, Erin C. Goforth

Doctoral Dissertations

This research examined the predictors of illusory judgments of prediction under conditions of uncertainty. Study 1 investigated the believability of an experimental manipulation that required participants to choose a strategy for target object selection. Study 2 expanded upon Study 1 by giving participants an additional choice strategy (e.g., a computer's selection). In both Study 1 and Study 2, participants relied on the paranormal strategy (e.g., a psychic) to a greater degree under conditions of uncertainty than under conditions of certainty. Study 3 replicated these results using a between subjects design but also expanded upon Study 1 and 2 by examining …

"Coming Out" Stories Of Gay And Lesbian Young Adults: Relation Between Memory Characteristics And Psychological Well-Being, Nicole E. Rossi

Doctoral Dissertations

Gay and lesbian young adults (N = 53) were interviewed in detail about coming out for the first time to each of their parents. Participants also completed an extensive battery of psychological measures, including event centrality related to disclosure to their mother and father, parental attachment, attitudes toward homosexuality, relationship satisfaction, anxiety, and depression. Analyses of memory content and structure (complexity, coherence, descriptiveness) were conducted, and the relation between memory qualities and well-being were analyzed. Hypotheses related to disclosure to parents and peers were largely supported. The majority of participants first disclosed their sexual orientation to a friend. More participants …

Underlying Processes Of Antisocial Decisions: Adolescents Versus Adults, Kathryn L. Modecki

Doctoral Dissertations

The question of adolescent decision maturity holds significant ramifications for today's youth. When adolescents are viewed as competent, rational decision makers, they may be considered mature enough to make decisions in their best interest in criminal court (Grisso, 1997) and are held fully culpable for their crimes. In contrast, when adolescents are viewed as immature decision makers, they may be considered less competent to make criminal decisions, and thus may not be considered fully culpable for their crimes (Woolard, Reppucci, & Redding, 1996). The present study is based on responses to hypothetical vignettes and measures maturity of judgment (Scott, Reppucci, …

Searching Under Stress: Anxiety And Selective Information Exposure, Melissa K. Surawski

Doctoral Dissertations

For centuries, political philosophers have argued that emotion clouds rational judgment and should be avoided at all costs. In light of advances made in the fields of social cognition, political science, and social psychology, however, the question of how affective states work in conjunction with cognitive processes has been approached anew, and interesting patterns have emerged in the data. They theory of affective intelligence (Marcus, Neuman, & MacKuen, 2000) posits that emotional arousal, particularly anxiety, alerts organisms to gather and evaluate information from the environment that can be useful for self-protection. On the other hand, terror management theory (Solomon, Greenberg, …

Responses To Terrorism Scenarios: Event Features, Individual Characteristics, And Subjective Evaluations, Clinton Michael Jenkin

Doctoral Dissertations

The extensive research into responses to terrorism has focused on the effects of individual characteristics on reactions to past terrorism events. This literature has largely omitted two issues: the impact of terrorism event features, and reactions to possible future terrorism events. The first purpose of this dissertation was to account for the effects of event features as well as subjective evaluations on responses to terrorism events. The second purpose of this dissertation was to compare reactions to past and future terrorism scenarios.

A series of actual and hypothetical written scenarios were presented to undergraduate psychology students, and various responses measured. …

Conflict And Threat Between Pre-Existing Groups: An Application Of Identity To Bias, Persuasion And Belief Perseverance, Brian R. Laythe

Doctoral Dissertations

The current research examines the role of identity in the context of threat towards further understanding bias, persuasion, and belief perseverance in what is defined as IRT (Immediately Relevant Threat) conditions. Using pre, middle, and post measurements, four groups of differing ideological student organizations across 4 university or college campuses were presented critical messages that were varied by the source being either an in-group or out-group presenter of the message. Messages were also varied by either presenting a message that criticized the entire group or only a few of its members. With the use of hierarchical linear modeling and conventional …

College Students' Development Of Social Support And Its Relationship To Pre -Orientation Experiences, Brent J. Bell

Doctoral Dissertations

The work of any life transition involves specific tasks, often including the re-establishment of social support in a variety of forms (Weiss, 1974). College students are particularly affected by transition, often disrupting established support systems while transitioning into adulthood. To assist with this transition, campuses offer a number of services (e.g., admissions/alumni programs, campus visits, pre-orientation programs, first-year orientation, first-year seminars). Such services are defined in this study as Comprehensive Transitional Programs (CTP). Little is known about how CTP impact social support. This study focused on adapting the Campus Focused Social Provisions Scale (CF-SPS), as an instrument to measure social …

Gender Differences In Coping: Implications For Depression And Crime, Amanda Howerton

Doctoral Dissertations

It is a common cultural belief that women employ emotion and passive focused coping methods more frequently than men. Likewise, most empirical evidence supports the idea that women are more likely to cope by modifying their emotional responses to stress, whereas males most often use and are more proficient with the problem solving approach (Billings and Moos 1984; Endler and Parker 1990; Milkie and Thoits 1993; Pearlin and Schooler 1978; Stone and Neale 1984). Despite considerable theoretical and empirical attention to these issues, there are still several gaps that remain in our understanding of the ways in which gender and …

Creativity Or Creativities: A Study Of Domain Generality And Specificity, Zorana Ivcevic

Doctoral Dissertations

A series of studies investigated domain generality and specificity in creativity. Preliminary studies developed behavior report measures based on act-frequency and life-space approaches. The main studies examined two aspects of generality and specificity in creativity. A first group of studies analyzed the structure of creative behavior and the second group of studies concerned personality correlates of creativity. Dimensions of creative behavior were identified in a factor analysis of behavior reports and referred to creative life-style, arts, and intellectual achievement. Moreover, these dimensions were replicated in college students and professional adults. Groups of individuals with similar patterns of behavior were identified …

Mental Accounting Psychology And Life Cycle Economics: Who Saves, Who Doesn't And How To Tell The Difference, Thomas James Van De Water Iv.

Doctoral Dissertations

Wealth is often associated with status purchases or belonging to a demographic group instead of a cognitive decision process for saving and accumulating wealth. Mental accounting psychology (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Shefrin & Thaler, 1988) and life cycle economics (Modigliani & Brumberg, 1954) describe two different saving processes. Qualitative interviews in Study 1 (adult heads of household, n = 24) and a quantitative analysis in Study 2 (2001 Survey of Consumer Finances, n = 4,332) compared high and low saving people using mental accounting and life cycle variables. Interviews in Study 1 predominantly described saving in terms of short-term, mental …

Power And Consent: Relation To Self-Reported Sexual Assault And Acquaintance Rape, Tracey A. Martin

Doctoral Dissertations

College students think about and act differently with regards to power and consent in their relationships. The purpose of this study was to investigate how those attitudes and behaviors may relate to sexual assault and acquaintance rape. Power was examined at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and socio-cultural levels. In addition, two perspectives on power were studied: power as dominating others and power as a sense of personal empowerment or control. A scale to measure this distinction was created.

Three theories on the relation among power, consent, and sexual assault/rape were examined: (1) consent may moderate a relation between power and sexual …

Living The Stereotype: Connections Between Male Behavior And Male Images, Andrew Paul Smiler

Doctoral Dissertations

This project examined some linkages and discrepancies between theories that describe the acquisition of gender typical attributes in childhood with theories that describe the maintenance of those attributes in adulthood. This perspective included the idea that there are several well known ways of enacting masculinity, related to well known stereotypes (e.g., jock, business, sensitive new age guy), and highlighted within sex variability. Because a distinction between biological sex and gender was made, the sample was not restricted to males despite focusing on the masculine. One focus of the project was the consistency with which an individual enacts a particular stereotypical …

Implementation And Evaluation Of Group -Based Prevention Of Eating Concerns Using Self -Efficacy And Knowledge Enhancement, Lindsey Erin Laplant

Doctoral Dissertations

The project implemented and evaluated a prevention program for eating concerns with first year college women. Two prevention conditions were examined. One condition provided information about eating concerns, from definitions to biopsychosocial risks and consequences. The second condition built self-efficacy and skills in the participants along with presenting information. The evaluation component was unique compared to other evaluations in the eating concerns prevention literature. It used pre and post intervention assessments, a control group, and had a larger sample of participants compared to other similar published programs. Both quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques were used to evaluate participants' experience in …

Gender And Personality In The Stress Process, Daniel David Cervi

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the influence of gender and several personality characteristics in the stress process using a cross-sectional study of 443 university students from a mid-size public New England university, a New England Catholic college, and a mid-size private Florida university. Three models are tested to consider the direct, mediating, and moderating effects of gender and personality on the stress outcomes of drug/alcohol use; non-substance deviant behavior; and depressive symptomatology.

Model 1 tests the antecedent effects of gender and personality to determine their influence on stress outcomes. The main effect of gender explained the largest portion of variance for drug/alcohol …

The Sexual Harassment Paradox In Graduate School: Experiences And Answers, Kimberly Ann Smirles

Doctoral Dissertations

Sexual harassment is a pervasive problem in higher education (Truax, 1996). Graduate students occupy a unique power position in academia as both students and teachers. As such, they are potentially victims and perpetrators of sexual harassment. The purpose of the current research was to (a) understand the dynamics of sexual harassment by examining the experiences and perceptions of graduate students and (b) assess whether a commonly utilized education program was effective in raising awareness and changing the attitudes of graduate students. Graduate students from both the University of New Hampshire (Study 1) and around the country (Study 2) were asked …

The Multidimensionality Of Illusory Judgments: Reexamination Of Illusion Of Control Research, Paul Keith Presson

Doctoral Dissertations

The present dissertation examines the well-established research paradigm known as the illusion of control. Until now, researchers have employed one basic paradigm which has addressed the illusion of control as a unidimensional phenomenon. In Study 1, 91 female undergraduates were presented with three induction conditions used by previous researchers. Factor analyses showed that judgments from these tasks did not tap into a single process, but rather fell into two types of illusory judgments--belief- and contingency-based. In Study 2, 182 female undergraduates were exposed to the same three induction conditions used in Study 1 plus two additional contingency tasks. As in …

Psychosocial And Sociostructural Determinants Of Mastery: The Context Of Age And Disability, Scott David Schieman

Doctoral Dissertations

The "active" and "potent" self has held a special interest to philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists since the inception of those disciplines. The present research uses sociological perspectives on social comparison and reference group theory to provide a framework for understanding the various dimensions of self-process in the context of age and disability. Specifically, this research examines associations between age, disability, and social status indicators as they impress upon personal agency or mastery.

This study uses secondary data that includes respondents aged 18 and over who resided in any of ten counties in Southwestern Ontario and were part of a two-wave …

Parallels Between Adolescent-Mother And Adolescent-Best Friend Interactions, Katherine A. Black

Doctoral Dissertations

Forty-two adolescents (13-18 years) along with their mothers and best friends participated in this study. Adolescents participated in videotaped interaction tasks with their mothers and with their best friends, in which unresolved problems between the respective dyads were discussed. Attachment, self-esteem, personality, emotional expressiveness, friendship, and mood were assessed with questionnaires. There were four main findings in this study. First, there were positive associations between adolescents' behavior with their mothers and adolescents' behavior with their best friends. There were also positive associations between mothers' behavior with adolescents and adolescents' behavior with best friends. These associations were sometimes mediated by adolescents' …

The Relation Between Media Exposure And Body Satisfaction: An Examination Of Moderating Variables Derived From Social Comparison Theory, Shelley Rae Strowman

Doctoral Dissertations

The relation between media exposure and body satisfaction was investigated using correlational and experimental approaches. Several variables were examined as potential moderators of this relation (perceived similarity to magazine models, self-relevance of weight, perceived control over weight, tendency to compare to models, and body mass). These variables were derived primarily from past research on Festinger's (1954) social comparison theory. In Study 1, male and female subjects reported the amount of time they spent reading magazines pre-coded as having a body image or non-body image emphasis. Body image magazine exposure was unrelated to body satisfaction and self-esteem when correlations were computed …

The Nation-State And Its Ideology: A Study Of School Children's Views Of Nationalism, Politics, And Enmity, Linda June Olson

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the reproduction and ideological legitimization of the nation-state in the eyes of successive generations. There are two components to this study. The first is a socio-historical analysis of the formation of nation-state ideology, a formation which seems to necessitate creation of "in-groups" and "out-groups." It is a socio-historical analysis of victimization, of the tendency to justify colonialism, expansionism, imperialism, and brutality to outsiders.

The second component of this study is concerned with how the ideology of the nation-state regarding nationalism, patriotism, and especially classification of enemy groups, is reproduced and legitimized for future generations. For this purpose, …

Toward An Understanding Of The Cognitive Etiology Of Depressive Reactions To Life Stressors: An Evaluation Of The Hopelessness Theory Of Depression, Nancy Lynne Asdigian

Doctoral Dissertations

Abramson, Metalsky, and Alloy's (1989) theory of hopelessness depression is the most recent model of depression to emerge from the learned helplessness tradition (Seligman, 1975). Hopelessness theory describes an etiological pathway by which a unique subtype of depression--hopelessness depression--is believed to emerge.

The most proximal cause of hopelessness depression is the formation of a hopelessness expectancy. Experiencing a significant life stressor and either making stable and global causal attributions, anticipating adverse consequences, or inferring derogatory self-attributes is thought to contribute to hopelessness. In turn, generalized tendencies to make stable and global causal attributions, expect negative consequences, or perceive personal deficiencies …