Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Relationship Of Peer Acceptance, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, And Appearance Among Preschoolers, Kora Klaire Stuffelbeam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine preschool children's acceptance of peers. The term peer acceptance is defined as "the degree a child is Socially accepted or rejected by his or her peer group." Johnson et al. (2002) found children between the ages of three and five were able to develop friendships and Social skills that would impact their acceptance among peers. The study determined if children based their choice of peers according to a child's age, gender, ethnicity, appearance, and/or Social skills. The subjects of this study were 31 children whose ages were three-, four-, and five-years-old who …

Motivational Inequality: Prevention Goals Induce More Effort Than Promotion Goals, Jennifer Marie Pattershall-Geide

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Regulatory focus theory describes two motivational strategies--promotion and prevention focus--that may be employed during goal directed action. Although a theory of motivation, there is no research examining differences in effort between promotion and prevention focus. Two studies are presented which test the hypothesis that goals pursued with a prevention focus, with its emphasis on duties, responsibilities, and avoidance of negative outcomes, will induce more effort than goals pursued with a promotion focus, which emphasizes hopes, ideals, and achieving positive outcomes. In addition, several potential mediators and moderators of this effect were examined. In Study 1, students who completed an essay …

Managing Sibling Conflict And The Relation Between Mothers' Emotion Socialization Beliefs And Children's Coping With Peer Victimization, Melissa Anne Faith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the degree to which children's strategies for coping with peer victimization were related to their strategies for coping with sibling victimization. Also examined were the relations among mothers' sibling conflict management strategies, their emotion Socialization beliefs, and children's coping with peer and sibling victimization. Data were obtained from 98 4th grade children and their mothers. Results indicated that children's peer victimization coping strategies were significantly related to their sibling victimization coping strategies. I found that mothers who value and accept children's negative emotions were more likely to coach their children through sibling conflict. Unexpectedly, I found that …

Development And Implementation Of It-Enabled Business Processes: A Knowledge Structure View, Rick Brattin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As competitive pressures mount, organizations must continue to evolve their business processes in order to survive. Increasingly, firms are developing new IT-enabled business processes in response to rising competition, greater customer expectations, and challenging economic conditions. The success rate of these projects remains low despite much industry experience and extensive academic study. Managerial and organizational cognition represents a potentially fruitful lens for studying the design and implementation of IT-enabled business processes. This view assumes that individuals are information workers who spend their days absorbing, processing, and disseminating information as they pursue their goals and objectives. Individuals develop cognitive representations, called …

The Effects Of Symbolic And Realistic Threats On Moral Exclusion From The Scope Of Justice, Dana Charles Leighton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Moral exclusion refers to a psychological process that removes others from our moral community--those whom we treat with fairness and concern for their welfare. The present research is concerned with how perceived symbolic threats (threats to the ingroup's values, morals, and worldview) and realistic threats (threats to the ingroup's well-being and resources) are related to moral exclusion. Perceived symbolic and realistic threats from an outgroup (Mexican immigrants) were measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Study 2) to discover their predictive and causal relationships with moral exclusion. It was found that both symbolic and realistic threats predicted moral exclusion and did so …

Foster Parents' Perceptions Of Their Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities In Relation To The Behavioral Challenges Of Foster Youth, Melissa Hall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The complex, long-term, and prevalent behavioral problems and needs of foster children and youth continue to be documented (Farmer et al., 2010; United States Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2005). However, research indicates that foster parents are not adequately prepared or trained to address these challenging behaviors (e.g. Dorsey et al., 2008; Lee & Holland, 1991; Puddy & Jackson, 2003). Foster parent perspectives and the inclusion of their input concerning foster parenting and the behavioral problems of foster youth are needed to examine this crucial problem area (Park & Helton, 2010). The intent of this multi-case study was …

Fighting The Current: Recalling Specific Self-Relevant Memories, John Walden Ransom

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study was designed to address whether recalling specific autobiographical memories is more difficult when they are self-relevant compared to non-relevant. In recent years, a number of experimental studies have indicated that self-relevant memories are more likely to be recalled without a specific time frame or very much detail. Unfortunately, these findings have not been integrated into the popular executive resources theory of autobiographical memory recall or theories of independent semantic and episodic memory stores. This study tested the hypothesis that self-relevant memories will be accessed in the semantic store and therefore will require more executive resources to generate …

Power Evokes Reluctance For Group-Relevant Advocacy Among Marginalized Groups, John C. Blanchar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marginalized groups face difficulties voicing their interests. They are perceived as more self-interested, biased, and excessive for advocacy relative to majority groups. While such accusations are intimidating in their own right, powerful members of marginalized groups may be especially sensitive to reprisals in response to advocacy. The present research highlights the ironic role of power on group-relevant advocacy among marginalized groups; identity-based pressures dissuade advocacy because it is personally costly. An Internet study and one lab study examined the effect of high and low power primes on women's self-reported and actual willingness for group-relevant advocacy. Data support my hypothesis that …

Disgust Sensitivity, Sexual Trauma History, And Female Sexual Functioning, Tara Mcgahan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sexual dysfunctions are a common problem for women that negatively impact quality of life (Laumann, Paik, & Rosen 1999). A history of sexual trauma is associated with an increase in sexual difficulties (Neumann et al., 1996). One common reaction to unwanted sexual contact is disgust (Whealin & Barnett, 2010). However, the role of disgust in the relationship between sexual trauma and female sexual dysfunction has not been examined. This study explored how disgust and a history of sexual trauma related to different domains of sexual functioning (desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain). Furthermore, this study assessed whether disgust mediated …

Determining Multidimensional Gender: Development And Psychometrics Of A Measurement Instrument, Karyl Lounsbery

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gender identity is often thought of only as a binary construct, masculine and feminine, despite the fact that there are many people who do not see themselves as fitting this dichotomy (Rochman, 2006). Within the counseling field, it is likely that every counselor will eventually see someone who will be struggling with issues of gender identity (Ehrensaft, 2011). The introduction of the Arkansas Multidimensional Gender Scale (AMGS) will show there is a much broader scope of gender identity, more in line with the idea that all gender identities are normal and that there are as many gender identities as there …

A Behavioral Test Of Contamination Fear In Excessive Health Anxiety, Robert Edwin Brady

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hypochondriasis and health anxiety are characterized by preoccupation with the fear of currently having a serious physical illness. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders conceptualization of hypochondriasis does not include consideration of the fear of acquiring an illness; however, many individuals with severe health anxiety report concern about contamination, suggesting that the current conceptualization of hypochondriasis may be incomplete. The present study utilized behavior approach tasks (BATs) to examine the degree to which contamination fear is present in severe health anxiety. Additionally, perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD) and disgust were tested as potential mechanisms in health anxiety and …

Individual Resilience, Social Support, And Health Risk Behaviors In Adolescents And Young Adults: Study On Cross-Sectional And Longitudinal Samples, Chuong Hong Nguyen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resilience is considered the ability that a person gains positive achievements despite exposure to significantly adverse life conditions. However, a majority of previous research has focused on human developmental tasks or academic achievements. Evidence of resilience on health risk behaviors has not been comprehensively established yet. The purposes of this dissertation were to extend the existing literature about the stability of resilience through time, to examine how the resilience scale concurrently and prospectively predict resilience statuses, and to explore effects of Social support over a long period of lifetime. The dissertation used a secondary database from the public-use version of …

A Multimodal Approach For The Assessment Of Alexithymia: An Evaluation Of Physiological, Behavioral, And Self-Reported Reactivity To A Traumatic Event-Relevant Video, Sarah Jo Bujarski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Evidence suggests alexithymia is often relatively elevated among people suffering from posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Despite a growing body of research supporting this relation between alexithymia and PTSS, it is unclear whether alexithymia is a unique predictor of emotional reactivity relative to posttraumatic stress symptoms. Furthermore, existing literature is largely limited to retrospective, self-reported symptoms. Therefore, the current study employed a multimodal assessment strategy for measuring emotional reactivity in the context of posttraumatic stress. More specifically, self-report, behavioral, and physiological measures were used to measure emotional responding to a traumatic event-related stimulus among motor vehicle accident victims. It was hypothesized …

Worry Induction Among Adolescents: A Laboratory Evaluation, Jamie Leigh Frala

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Available research indicates that worry is an important process involved in the development and maintenance of both psychological (e.g., Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and physical (e.g., coronary heart disease) problems. However, this process is still in need of further investigation, particularly among adolescents. While a sizable body of literature has examined the nature, prevalence, and correlates of worry in both adults and youth, laboratory investigations of this variable using a real-time worry induction paradigm have previously only been done with adults. The current study aimed to extend the literature by using the controlled laboratory methods well established in the adult literature …

Temporal Shifts In Weapon Focus: Comparing Retrograde And Anterograde Effects, William Blake Erickson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When an eyewitness suffers an impairment of memory for a criminal's face because the criminal used a weapon during the commission of the crime, this impairment is called the weapon focus effect. Literature provides two explanations for how this effect arises: some implicate the narrowing of attentional cues to the weapon during the commission of a crime because arousal of the victim increases, while others claim that the weapon is merely a novel object in most everyday contexts, and novel objects demand more attention than contextually appropriate ones. The current study employed a simulated crime paradigm taking place in a …

An Experimental Test Of Trauma-Relevant Cue Exposure And Desire For Alcohol Among Adolescents, Heidemarie Blumenthal

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A burgeoning literature suggests a linkage between adolescent traumatic event exposure and problematic alcohol use. Research conducted with adults indicates that exposure to trauma-relevant cues elicits a desire to drink; however, no work has examined this association among adolescents. The current study was designed to build upon and extend this line of work. Participants were 72 community-recruited adolescents (Mage = 16.19; 34.7% girls). Trauma-exposed (n = 47) and non-exposed (n = 25) youth were assigned to either a 3-minute experimental (voluntary hyperventilation) or control task (low-arousal picture viewing). Desire to drink was assessed (1) prior to task assignment, and (2) …

A Typology Of Preadolescent Sexual Abusers Based On The Emerging Personality Patterns In The Millon Preadolescent Clinical Inventory, Sam Wallace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop a personality-based typology of preadolescents with sexual behavior problems based the Emerging Personality Patterns in the Millon Preadolescent Clinical Inventory (M-PACI, Millon et al., 2005). Grounding a typology in a theory driven personality system may offer clarity and specificity in understanding preadolescents with sexual behavior problems in a manner that has not yet been explored. A personality and theory driven typology could provide a more comprehensive framework for assessing and treating children who sexually abuse than any of the current taxonomic models.

The study used an ex post facto design with test …