Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Conjecture And Evidence: Discovering The Costs Of Contemporary American Political Ideals, Joseph C. Immormino

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation offers an adaptation of the relative political capacity (RPC) research framework to domestic American politics, enabling a quantitative examination of the relative performance of state governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Theoretically, I examine the notion that more politically capable states will be more effective in their efforts to mitigate mortality rates, and hypothesize that, in the United States, such a relationship is conditional upon the party identification of state leadership. The premise is tested by applying a series of multiplicative interaction models to a unique dataset spanning the first two years of the pandemic. Results confirm that measures …

A Framework For And Design Of A Smart Academic Building Using Sensors, Citizen Participation, And Volunteered Geographic Information, Neelam Raigangar

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Population growth and migration patterns have shown an influx of residents from rural to urban environments. To deal with the problems caused by unprecedented urban influx, cities should plan to use technology in a smart and distinctive way. Tackling at the city scale is hard. But a set of smart buildings that are interconnected by technology will lead to smarter communities which are then interconnected to create a smart city. Smart lobby, building, community, or city is distinguished by its application of integrated software, hardware, and network technologies, along with access to real-time data enabling decision-making, facilitating tracing, tracking and …

Evaluating Los Angeles Homelessness Policy Using System Dynamics Modeling, Dandan Kowarsch

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to advocate policies that can effectively address the challenge of unsheltered homelessness. Using a case study of Los Angeles homelessness, I evaluated policies aimed at easing homelessness using scenario analysis, employing system dynamic (SD) modeling. This study primarily focuses on the evaluation of the Housing First approach and the identification of more effective responses to homelessness. I use a linear regression model to identify key prevention policy levers, including, but not limited to, limits on eviction moratorium, rent stabilization, and affordable housing. Drawing on the information gathered from the regression, the SD model is …

Physiological Synchrony Predicts Cooperative Behavior With High Stakes, Lena Arai

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Can subconscious bodily responses explain our natural tendency to be trusting and trustworthy towards a stranger? I address this question by conducting, to my knowledge, the first study of physiological synchrony (PS) between pairs of partners playing the trust game face-to-face. Participants were given the choice to send $0, $40, $80, or $120 to their partner; these choices were categorized as showing no, low, medium, and high trust, respectively. Participants were endowed with a more considerable sum of money ($120) than many other trust games (Johnson & Mislin, 2011) to encourage participants to perceive their decisions to have significant consequences, …

Cosponsorship Networks In The U.S. Congress: Measuring The Success Of Female Legislators, Brian Jewett

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Previous scholarship has demonstrated that minority group members in the United States Congress generally are more supportive and collaborative within and beyond their respective groups compared to their majority group counterparts (Craig et al., 2015; Rouse, Swers and Parrott, 2013). In some cases, increased levels of collaboration positively influence legislative success and in others they do not, the results often depending on the characteristic of the group itself and the institutional setting within which the group operates. Additionally, prior studies within the domains of social network analysis and legislative behavior have shown that certain social network measures within a legislative …

Attitudes Toward Immigrants As A Function Of National Identity Distinctiveness Threat And Imagined Contact, Alicia S. Davis

CGU Theses & Dissertations

As immigration rises, frequent and positive intergroup interactions with immigrants are increasingly necessary to ensure smooth and harmonious societal and community functioning. However, immigrants are often perceived to threaten the host population’s distinctive national group identity, motivating negative reactions including dehumanization, ethnocentrism, and a shift toward extremism, reducing opportunities for positive intergroup interaction. Researchers have shown that intergroup contact has been effective in improving outgroup attitudes by reducing intergroup anxiety. However, with increasing polarization, more recent research has indicated that contact interventions may not be effective in all cases. Given research identifying social identity-based distinctiveness threat as a driver of …

Critical- Diversity, Belongingness, Inclusion, And Equity Sel, Jeanny Eliana Marroquin

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The social and civil unrest across the United States has ignited a call for more school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) frameworks and practices that are social justice-oriented. The Collaborative for Academic and Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) is one of the organizations that chose to revisit their existing SEL framework and introduced transformative SEL as an attempt to take steps toward creating a more social justice-oriented approach. This critique will review the SEL landscape of some pre-K-12 SEL programs and their methods to highlight gaps and limitations in the fields for future research considerations. Then, a new social and emotional …

Grassroots Organizations Using Social Media As A Lobbying Technique, Samantha Vo

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Grassroots organizations provide a way for communities to interact and form around topics through grassroots lobbying and direct lobbying. As the 21st Century is referred to as the Digital Age, many grassroots organizations have found it necessary to expand on their lobbying techniques. Rather than utilizing methods like traditional media, email, phone calls, or text messages, methods involving social media are becoming more prominent as society continues to advance. Social media is a distinctive part of the Digital Age, and as the usage of social media increases in popularity, it can be used to reach a large population of people. …

Reactions To Others With Depression: An Investigation Of Responsibility And Deservingness Judgments, Tara Parnitvithikul

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Judgments of responsibility and deservingness are two cognitive appraisals that independently predict other-directed moral emotions and helping judgments. The current research integrated theories of responsibility and deservingness to investigate a novel approach for increasing support to individuals with depression. Study 1 used a correlational design to identify patterns of relationships among the variables of interest. Responsibility and deservingness were positively correlated, and both appraisals were positively associated with anger and negatively associated with sympathy and willingness to help. When responsibility and deservingness were considered as simultaneous antecedents of emotional responses in the same model; however, only responsibility predicted lower levels …

Attracting Applicants With Corporate Social Responsibility: A Social Dilemma Perspective, Shin Han

CGU Theses & Dissertations

There has been a surging interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in society, and business leaders perceive that CSR is essential in business operations. However, CSR can lead to unsatisfactory outcomes when not appropriately understood or practiced. Therefore, I conducted two studies to provide an alternative CSR perspective (Study 1) and empirically test how firms can benefit the most from CSR in applicant attraction (Study 2). In Study 1, I analyzed CSR as an organizational social dilemma (Rockmann & Northcraft, 2018), where the conflicts among stakeholders and between short- and long-term outcomes are inevitable. To minimize these conflicts, firms need …

Excessive Stakeholder Evaluation Anxiety (Xsea): Helping Your Stakeholder Find Their Sea Legs With Program Evaluation, Samantha B. Langan

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Fear of negative evaluation from others is an innate human characteristic. When a program is being evaluated and program staff are involved in evaluation activities, these stakeholders are allowing their services and by extension, themselves, to be examined by evaluators. Consequently, program evaluation can be an anxiety-inducing and uncomfortable experience for program staff. In instances when stakeholders are highly anxious over the prospect of having their program evaluated, they are said to be experiencing excessive stakeholder evaluation anxiety (XSEA). Prior to this study few researchers had empirically examined XSEA, though initial evidence suggested that stakeholders with XSEA employed coping strategies …

Retaining Foster Parents In San Bernardino County: Identifying And Accessing Resources And Support Services Since California’S Continuum Of Care Reform, Charles A. Varadin

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Foster care is a vast social justice issue that impacts nearly every local community. Yet, it receives relatively little attention due, in part, to the low social constructs of many of the most affected groups (Schneider and Ingram 1997). Thus, it should come as no surprise that foster care and the child welfare system in California, and the United States in general, is in a crisis as more children enter the system than there are foster parents to care for them. Retention of quality foster parents reduces the need for recruitment and increases the likelihood of more stable placements with …

The Future Of Plastics Trade: Identifying Determinants And Impacts Of The Shifting Global Plastic Scraps Network, Ana Ortiz Salazar

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Plastic waste management is an area of increasing concern for environmental and public health. Existing research shows that as of 2019, 79% of total generated plastic waste has accumulated in landfills or leaked into the environment, 12% incinerated, and 9% recycled. China’s Operation National Sword, launched in 2017, banned the import of plastic waste and other materials, triggering ripple effects throughout the global plastic scraps trade network. The impacts are cross-sectoral and multi-scalar, cascading across markets, policy, the natural environment, public health, and have increased uncertainty about the future of the global trade of plastics. To understand shifts across the …

Three Essays In Law And Economics: Consequences And Formation Of Legal Rules In Other Markets, Minjae Yun

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, I study the consequences and formation of legal rules in the “non-traditional” markets to show that non-traditional markets are fundamental to a society’s functioning. The first chapter shows how legal participants strategically behave based on judicial disqualification. The second chapter examines the unintended consequence of a decarceration policy in the criminal-justice system by linking the ex-criminal re-entry issue and homelessness. Lastly, the third chapter concentrates on how the tenure of elected law enforcement agents contributes to the jail-crowding environment, leveraging term limits imposed on local county elected officials.

The first chapter examines the use and impact of …

Bridging Psychometric And Cognitive Models Of (General) Intelligence: An Investigation Based On Process Overlap Theory, Han Hao

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Human intelligence has been scientifically investigated as a psychological construct for over a century but there has not been a universally accepted definition or theory. One cause of this problem is that traditional theories attempt to explain the robust findings in cognitive ability testing, such as the positive manifold, from two different perspectives: psychometric or cognitive. Both approaches have their own limitations and are sometimes incompatible with each other. Therefore, contemporary theories of intelligence have been developed to provide a more unified perspective by combining both types of approaches, allowing the psychometric structure of cognitive abilities to be represented and …

Evaluation From Both Sides Now: Towards An Epistemology Of Evaluation Practice, Heather D. Codd

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Throughout its history, the evaluation field has developed numerous theories. These theories, or evaluation theory as they are collectively known, are integral to the knowledge of the discipline and represent the field’s collective understanding of how evaluation can and should be practiced. Yet, research suggests that the influence of evaluation theory on evaluation practice is minimal. This finding has left the field questioning what knowledge, if not evaluation theory, guides practitioners? Some theorists propose that evaluation practice is influenced by practical knowledge, a diverse knowledge base inherent to the doing of evaluation. Practical knowledge is a blend of explicit procedural …

The Carceral Death Machine: Savagery, Contamination And Sacrifice In The Contemporary Prison, Timothy Malone

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation, I develop a convict epistemology that interweaves two elements: 1) a deep engagement with the works of particular philosophers and scholars investigating questions of punishment, violence, biopolitics and political philosophy 2) with some specific, publicly-reported incidents within California prisons in the late 20th and 21st centuries and my own detailed narration of events and the structural and quotidian dynamics of the prison yard as I experienced them as inmate #K73299 from 1997 to 2005. Diverging from Foucauldian theories of disciplinarity, I argue that under neoliberalism, the primary punishments that any inmate is subjected to within the carceral …

Governance Practice Between Monarchies And Republics: A Case Study Of The Political Reform In The United Arab Emirates And The Republic Of Tunisia From 1990 To 2021, Zaid Alkdidi

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Political Reform is one of the indicators of the governance process, which can be correctly used to build the state and to support its role at all political, economic, and social levels to achieve good governance. From this, it can be said that political reform is positively linked to governance. Thanks to political reform, governance became an essential method that is applied in public policies within states that attempt to achieve by consolidating participation, democracy, and development.Practically, this study seeks to analyze and determine which of the two regimes, Monarchy or Republic is the most effective and successful to achieve …

Recognize And Accept Me: Consequences Of The Drive For Social Identity Validation, Eunice U. Choi

CGU Theses & Dissertations

According to uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg, 2021a) one of the benefits of group identification is uncertainty-reduction. To reap this benefit fully, it is posited that people also are motivated to have their identities validated, especially if the identity is one that is important to a person’s sense of self. However, people receive various feedback about their identities, and feedback about one’s identity does not come solely from one’s ingroup. While past research has demonstrated that feedback and source of feedback are important factors in social identity validation processes (see Choi & Hogg, 2020b), the current research proposes that uncertainty also may …

The Anatomy Of A Controlling Message And The Impact Of Reactance On Attitude Certainty, Thomas Vincent Staunton Jr.

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Psychological reactance theory (Brehm, 1966) has helped guide research on resistance to persuasion for over a half century. The theory holds that individuals value their freedom to make their own decisions, and when presented with a persuasive message, may perceive threat to their autonomy and react adversely to the message. Impersonal or mass disseminated messages, particularly those in pro-social or health related contexts, often must communicate in a manner that is direct and forceful to get a clear point across as efficiently as possible. Such messages can be characterized as high controlling (HC) and are generally constructed by using explicit …

Essays On Crime And Law, Morgan Elaine Stockham

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Civil law and public policy often are related to crime in complex and interesting ways. The following dissertation explores the intersections of divorce law and public policy with criminal outcomes. Within my first chapter, we attempt to identify the causal effect of wages on a prosecutor’s effort by studying an exogenous salary increase in New York. We measure the performance by the likelihood that a conviction is upheld when appealed. If the efficiency wage theory explains behavior, then the exogenous wage shock should entice better performance. Alternatively, if individuals who hold office are motivated primarily by an intrinsic motivations rather …

Impact Of A Pandemic On Attitudes Towards Immigrants, Jinghui Zhang

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Immigration control is an issue that figures prominently in public policy discussions and election campaigns throughout the world. Immigrants can be perceived as posing both realistic and symbolic threats to the host society. During the current global pandemic, these threats are amplified. This research investigated how attitudes towards immigrants were likely to be more negative when the impact of the pandemic was made salient. Based on intergroup threat theory (Rios et al., 2018) and uncertainty identity theory (Hogg, 2021a), two empirical studies investigated the effect of realistic and symbolic threats from the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s attitudes towards immigrants. Study …

Identity Centrality Influences Group Members’ Self-Uncertainty, Self-Esteem, And Evaluations Of Moral Deviants, Jeff Varun Ramdass

CGU Theses & Dissertations

A person who identifies with a group will gain many psychological benefits from their group identification. These benefits include reduced self-uncertainty (Hogg, 2007, 2021) and increased self-esteem (Tajfel & Turner, 1986; see also Abrams & Hogg, 1988). Group members define and adhere to group norms (Turner et al., 1987) to gain the psychological benefits derived from group identification. However, not all group norms are equal. Moral norms, or norms relating to the group’s morality, are used to help people view themselves as moral people via being moral group members (Ellemers et al., 2013). Moral norms are viewed differently from nonmoral …

Essays In Behavioral Economics And Neuroeconomics, Rana Sulaiman Alogaily

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three unrelated chapters on Behavioral Economics and Neuroeconomics, all of which are on different topics. Chapter 1: Willingness to Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19 and Reasons for Hesitancy Among U.S Residents. Chapter 2: Testosterone Administration Induces A Red Shift in Democrats. Chapter 3: Neurophysiologic Predictors of Mood in the Elderly.

Malcontents In The Middle: Uncertainty-Identity, Extreme Religious Groups And Leader Rhetoric, Jared K. Chapman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Because religious extremism can set people on a path of aggression and violence toward others, sometimes in the form of terrorism (Moghaddam, 2005), identifying factors that increase susceptibility to religious extremism is essential to ending terrorism. One possible factor that acts as a catalyst leading people to religious extremism is uncertainty (Hogg et al., 2010a). To test this possibility, Chapman (2012) conducted an exploratory study assessing the effects of religiosity (defined as group, ritual, extrinsic, or external religiosity), spirituality (defined as individual, spiritual, intrinsic, or internal religiosity), and uncertainty (low, high) on a number of proxies for religious extremism, finding …

Measuring Political Corruption From Population Outcomes: An Alternative To Perception Measures, Glenn-Iain Steinbeck

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The impact of corruption is an increasingly important and visible topic for academics, policy makers, and the public. Yet corruption is exceptionally difficult to directly observe and empirical measurements of corruption remain highly contested. Despite the increasing availability of corruption measures and generally high correlations between them, scholars and practitioners disagree over their applicability, interpretation, and the validity of their methods. With the most frequent complaint being that existing corruption indices are largely based on expert opinion surveys, and therefore potentially open to bias and differences of interpretation. Yet, while corruption itself may be ephemeral its aggregate effects are more …

Political Cultures In Times Of Crisis: Measuring The Effects Of Liberal Values On Interstate Crisis Onset, Timothy Milosch

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The belief that democratic states are less likely to engage in war or initiate conflicts in the international system is deeply embedded in the international relations literature, but also hotly contested. Despite close to two centuries of theoretical presence and decades of empirical analysis, the democratic peace theory project still struggles to explain and measure the role democracy (understood as representative government, liberal culture, or both) plays in interstate relations generally, and the onset of conflict specifically. In the empirical international relations literature, in particular, problems persist surrounding measures for democracy and the modeling of interstate interactions (country level, dyad …

Investigating How Reading Enhances Empathy: A Longitudinal, Diary Study Of Everyday Reading Habits, Caleb H. Mitchell

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Empathy is the social glue that holds people together, and one way to enhance empathy is through reading fiction. Though reading can enhance empathy, there is little understanding of the mechanisms by which it does so. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how time spent reading enhances empathy. I posit that two reading experience variables, narrative transportation and reading flow, mediate the relationship between reading and empathy. This is because transportation, feeling absorbed into a story, helps bring characters to life and increases readers’ emotional connections, and reading flow, a balance between skill and challenge while reading, can …

The Pervert’S Guide To The Museum, Seth Ifor Alt

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation provides a sustained theoretical articulation of core Lacanian psychoanalytic concepts situated within the standing difficulties in the practice and theory of museums. Drawing upon research gathered from site visits, informational interviews, textual analysis, and an extensive engagement with the seminars of Jacques Lacan, I enumerate here a first attempt at what a Lacanian theoretical formation can contribute to museum studies scholarship. Through this research this dissertation shows psychoanalysis to be especially useful for museum studies owing to how the troubles immediately encountered in the everyday material practices of museological work are structurally analogous to the impossibilities experienced on …

“All Men Are Created Equal?”: Insights And Implications Of Intersectional Precarious Manhood, Cleopatre M. Thelus

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Manhood that is characterized in terms of dominant culture in the United States includes strength, power, status, affluence, and occupational success (Vandello et al., 2008). However, men who are not members of dominant culture, such as Black men in the United States, often are excluded from access to characteristics of masculinity framed by dominant culture due to potential negative consequences that can result when they perform behaviors that symbolize strength and power (Bush & Bush, 2018; Katz, 1995; Staples, 1982). Precarious Manhood Theory (PMT) is a social psychological theory that explores the social category of gender (men/manhood/masculinity) as relates to …