Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Juror's Perceptions Of Evidence-Based Suspicion, Nicholas Welter

Student Theses

Eyewitness misidentification is a leading cause of wrongful conviction. Although the prior probability of guilt (i.e., pre-identification evidence strength) is the most important factor for predicting a defendant’s actual guilt status and the accuracy of any subsequent eyewitness identification, no study has examined whether it affects juror decisions. This oversight is problematic because when officers place suspects in lineups when there is little evidence connecting them to the crime, it falls on jurors to examine the probative value of identification evidence. Participants (N = 357) watched a mock trial depicting an armed robbery that varied pre-identification evidence (strong vs. …

The Case Of The Disappearing Owner: Do Dogs Show Behavioral Evidence Of Violation Of Expectation?, Rita Kanagat

Theses and Dissertations

The What the Fluff challenge became a series of viral YouTube videos that started in 2018. In the videos, a person stood behind a blanket in a doorway in front of their dog and lifted and lowered the blanket revealing and obscuring themselves, and finally disappearing with a final blanket drop. The dogs’ reactions were varied but were suggestive of a violation of expectation response. We conducted a community science study that employed methodologies consistent with the What the Fluff Challenge paradigm that were conducted in the owners’ homes with their dogs. Each owner was required to run a control …

Sex Trafficking And Mental Health Treatments, Maria A. Georgescu

Student Theses

Currently there is no agreement amongst professionals on a specific approach for providing for victims of sex trafficking. A two-part study was conducted in order to screen mental health professionals who have experience providing for victims of sex trafficking to participate in a semi-structured qualitative interview. Through a grounded theory approach, light is shed on what mental health providers experienced with providing for victims of sex trafficking find effective.

The main findings highlight how being forced into sex trafficking young (under 18) is impactful for the course of treatment according to 100 % (n=6) of participants, meeting the patient where …

Information Justice: The Histories And Futures Of Technology And Social Categories, Patrick Sweeney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation examines two controversies related to emergent uses of information from social media in psychological research and application. It focuses on controversies surrounding studies of face-based gaydar and the use of psychographic targeting by Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 US presidential election. Each controversy is analyzed in a case study that explores the issues specific to that study in relation to broader patterns across contexts to identify emergent trends in the use of information from social media in psychological research. Qualitative Content Analysis is used to analyze extant texts relevant to each case. In each study, findings related to …

A Quadratic Analysis Of Trait Anxiety And Heart Rate Variability, Katlyn Schroder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Trait anxiety refers to an individual’s sensitivity to perceived threat. Though it is not itself diagnosable according to the DSM-5, trait anxiety scales are often administered in a clinical context and serve as an indicator for anxiety disorders. High levels of trait anxiety can result in prolonged periods of intense worry and dysfunction, even in those who are not diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Previous studies have attempted to understand the relationship between trait anxiety and reactivity of the autonomic nervous system, especially in relation to vagal tone, but have found inconsistent results. One possible explanation for this inconsistency is …

Pre-Report Review Of Body-Worn Camera Footage: An Examination Of Stakeholder Beliefs, Laypeople’S Judgments Of Officer Credibility, And The Consequences For Memory, Kristyn A. Jones

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Aim: This dissertation examines people’s beliefs about police officer access to body-worn camera footage, people’s judgments of officer credibility as it relates to video footage, and the consequences that review of footage has on reporting accuracy.

Rationale: With escalating police-civilian tensions in 2014, American police departments adopted body-worn camera programs. A majority of departments have policies allowing officers unrestricted access to camera footage. Because officers fear that inconsistencies between reports and videos could result in suspicion of officer deceit, they argue that officers should have access to footage before writing their reports to ensure reports match the footage. Yet, because …

Behavioral Hypervigilance In A Normative Population, Karly Weinreb

Theses and Dissertations

Hypervigilance is conceptualized as a symptom of trauma-related disorders, however it can also occur in a normative population. To distinguish normative hypervigilance from trauma-related hypervigilance, 372 participants (123 trauma-exposed and 249 non-trauma-exposed) completed a questionnaire assessing hypervigilance in contexts. Trauma-exposed participants reported greater levels of hypervigilance in 3 contexts.

Letter To The President: Longitudinal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Academic And Hip Hop Genres In A Rap Narrative Program, Debangshu Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this study was to examine an in-school rap narrative workshop through critical discourse theory (Bamberg, 2012; Daiute, 2014). Twelve youth from a public school serving youth in urban Houston, TX were recruited from an in-school and after-school Hip hop/Rap narrative program to participate in a two-year cohort research study. The primary research question guiding the study was “How do young people participating in a school-based Hip hop/Rap program use a wide range of narrative genres for literacy and psycho-social development over two years in the program?”

The data-intensive study involved assessments of literacy and psycho-social development via …

Cognitive And Affective Aspects Of Personality And Academic Procrastination: The Role Of Personal Agency, Flow, And Executive Function, Marc Graff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Academic procrastination is a prevalent issue that affects school-related and other experiences of many students, with some studies identifying as many as a third of college students sampled as‘severe’ procrastinators. This study investigated some of the factors previous studies have identified as potential contributors to procrastinating in the academic arena. In defining procrastination as a self-regulation issue, it is proposed that distinct executive function processes play a role in one’s efforts at academic task engagement and completion and resisting the tendency to procrastinate on these tasks. It is also proposed that the frequency with which one experiences ‘flow’, a state …

You're Only As Good As You Do In School: Asian American Students And The Mental Risks They Face In Higher Education, Asia C. Ewart

Capstones

Anne Cai always joked that, “one of these days,” school was going to drive her to insanity. A snapshot of her life begged to differ. As the oldest of three daughters in her traditional Chinese­ American family, Anne, 23, was the image of success and achievement, not only for her parents and their peers, but for her sisters Jenny, 19, and Vicky, 13. She excelled in elementary, middle and at all three of her high schools—the high school moves were decided by her parents and she never questioned them, lest she burden the family with what she considered complaining.