Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Say That Again: The Role Of Multimodal Redundancy In Communication And Context, Brandon Javier Dormes

Cognitive Science Senior Theses

With several modes of expression, such as facial expressions, body language, and speech working together to convey meaning, social communication is rich in redundancy. While typically relegated to signal preservation, this study investigates the role of cross-modal redundancies in establishing performance context, focusing on unaided, solo performances. Drawing on information theory, I operationalize redundancy as predictability and use an array of machine learning models to featurize speakers' facial expressions, body poses, movement speeds, acoustic features, and spoken language from 24 TEDTalks and 16 episodes of Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents. This analysis demonstrates that it is possible to distinguish between these …

Testing The Effects Of Social Exclusion On Emotional Arousal: An Examination Of The Effects Of Psychological Pain And Rumination, Amanda L. Peterson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The examination of social exclusion and its impact on future emotional responding may prove to be a fruitful area of research in the prevention of suicide. Additionally, there may be other factors (such as the experience of psychological pain and rumination) that may influence how one responds to social exclusion. However, little research has explored individual differences in reactions to social exclusion. As such, the present study explored how social exclusion influences emotional responding to other environmental stimuli, as well as examining how a history of psychological pain and rumination affected how one responds to social exclusion. 503 undergraduate students …

Black-White Interracial Contact And Anti-Racist Activism : What Promotes Action In White Americans?, Katheryn Lucille Roberson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Racism is a pervasive form of harm which has been found to contribute to negative outcomes for both individuals and society. Toward a more just society, anti-racist activism can create safer environments, reduce structural inequities, and improve interpersonal relations. To address prejudice, many studies have examined how interracial contact reduces prejudice in White Americans; however, less research has focused on the application of these factors on White American antiracist activist behaviors. This study sought to provide further support for Intergroup Contact Theory and the influence of established mediators of empathy and intergroup anxiety on activist behaviors. Data from 384 White …

Impact Of Inducing Self-Compassion On The Use Of Safety Behaviours In Social Situations, Kamila Szczyglowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Safety behaviours are commonly used in an attempt to decrease anxiety experienced in social settings. These behaviours, however, have been found to maintain anxiety. Self-compassion has shown promise for reducing anxiety and post-event rumination. The aim of the present studies was to examine the impact of a self-compassion induction on safety behaviours. It was hypothesized that inducing self-compassion would lead to lower safety behaviour use compared to control conditions. For the first two studies, participants were randomly assigned to complete self-compassion inductions or control writing prompts in relation to imagining a pre-determined social situation. Study 3 followed a similar procedure …

Changes In Body Image, Eating Behaviors, And Exercise During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Megan Gressley

Honors Projects

The Covid-19 pandemic transformed many different aspects of life as many individuals were sent home from school or work and were confined within their homes. Within restricted life, individuals experienced changes in their social lives, eating habits, and day-to-day routine. Within this research study I chose to examine how individuals' lives changed directly from the year before the Covid-19 pandemic to the first year of domestic shutdown. A sample of BGSU undergraduate students responded to a survey questioning them on their behaviors, feelings, and attitudes among these time periods. Results showed that individuals experienced significantly more disordered eating within the …

The Impact Of Social Distancing And Loneliness On Adolescents' Mental Health During Covid-19, Marielena Barbieri

Masters Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely limited physical interaction (e.g., school closures, 6ft- distances, quarantine) and disrupted the daily lives of adolescents which likely heightened levels of perceived loneliness and internalizing symptomology. Due to the novelty of social distancing regulations caused by COVID-19, little is known about the role that loneliness plays in the association between stress from social distancing regulations and adherence to these regulations, and later difficulties with internalizing symptoms. The current study examined the impact of social distancing regulations on adolescents’ wellbeing through perceived loneliness by using data from a 5-week longitudinal survey-based study conducted on parents and …

Virtual Worlds: Social Interactions Among Online Gamers Through Voice Chat, Omar Bradley Ictech Ii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Online gaming scholarship has rarely focused on the micro sociological aspects of virtual worlds as much of the research on online games is undertaken by psychologists and scholars in other fields. When a sociological lens is employed in analyzing social interactions that occur in virtual worlds, new understandings of social phenomena in virtual worlds can come to light. My research draws upon multiple sociological theories to make sense of data collect via in-depth interviews and participant observations in an attempt to understand how voice chat influences relationship formation and maintenance, gender relations among online gamers, and how online gamers use …

Preference For Social Stimuli: A Comparison Of Stimulus Modes Used In Preference Assessments, Shannon Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social stimuli are some of the most commonly used reinforcers in clinical programming(Graff & Karsten, 2012) and previous research shows that preference for social stimuli can be identified using variations of a paired stimulus preference assessment (PSPA; Fisher et al., 1992). Previous studies evaluating preference for social stimuli have employed video stimuli (Wolfe et al., 2018), pictures of the actual social stimuli (Kelly et al., 2014), and pictures of arbitrary shapes (Morris & Vollmer, 2019). To date, no study has evaluated the correspondence in preference for social stimuli across these three stimulus modes. Therefore, the purposes of this study were …

Discerning The Other: Political Prejudice And Intergroup Contact, Matthew Durham

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Increasing political polarization in the United States over the last 60 years has led to an increase in self-segregation by political affiliation. This can be seen at the level of the nation, state, city, and even the neighborhood. In contrast, many data trends suggest that polarization between other groups (e.g., racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation) has decreased during the same time. One of the most studied methods for decreasing intergroup prejudice has been Gordon Allport’s intergroup contact hypothesis. Allport suggested that contact between groups who see themselves as equals with common interests, common goals, and the support of cultural institutions …

The Impact Of Social Interactions On Resettled Refugee Health, Shahjadi Zaman

Political Science ETDs

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effects of social interactions and other factors on the self-reported physical and mental health of former refugees in their host country. Social relationships and interactions consist of different layers extending from individual personal relations, to social networks, to collective activities. Using data from a public opinion survey of newly resettled Bhutanese and Rohingya refugees in Michigan, I find that along with their economic situations, like employment and income, social integration is an important determinant of physical and mental health among resettled refugees. In particular, resettled refugees tend to have better health …

Design Hub: Activating Community By Design, Ed Williams

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION

At the turn of the century, Robert Putnam (2000, 27) wrote “...a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current.” Putnam is describing a loss of “social capital” throughout American society. Research suggests that many of our contemporary issues are the result of a decline in “social capital,” or “community.”

This pervasive lack of community is thought to be detrimental to “educational performance, safe neighborhoods, equitable tax collection, democratic responsiveness, everyday honesty, and even our health …

Staff Perceptions Of Quality Interactions In Dementia Care, Rebecka A. Schultz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The national aging trend suggests that population of those aged 65 and older will reach 83.7 million by the year 2050. With increasing age comes the growing possibility of one getting some form of dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association expects the number of American’s with dementia to triple from the reported 5 million cases in 2014 by 2050. With a rise in this cognitively impaired population there is reason to look closely at the needs of persons with dementia living in residential facilities and whether or not they are being met. The main focus of residential facilities is to provide aid …

Evaluating The Utility Of Theories Of Social Integration In Understanding Areal Suicide Rates In The United States, Nathan Finch Parsons

Dissertations and Theses

Despite over a century's worth of study, areal variations in suicide rate remain largely unexplained. In order to better understand these regional differences, this analysis aggregates county-level National Center for Health Statistics Multiple Cause of Death data with data from the US Census, the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, and the Penn State Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development to test the three leading conceptualizations of social integration (i.e. demographic, compositional, ecological) against US suicide rates. Results of negative binomial regression models indicate that an ecological measure, social capital, is substantially associated with suicide rate, while demographic and …

Agency At The Seams: A Posthuman Approach To Disability In Family Interactions With Communication Technologies, Mary Jean Clinkenbeard

Theses and Dissertations

“Agency at the Seams: A Posthuman Approach to Disability in Family Interactions with Communication Technologies” explores issues of agency, interdependence, and disability for children learning to use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies. In this project I use a conversation analytic methodology to examine how parents, children, and therapists interact with each other as they learn to use AAC technologies. I explore how breakdowns in communication occur and how participants work to negotiate and repair uncertainties in communication. My research findings suggest that communication through AAC is a collaborative process that is shaped by the interactions of assemblages of actors …

Roles Y Características De Las Mujeres Hutus Y Tutsis En El Genocidio Ruandés De 1994, Lady Vanessa Fori Calderón, Milena Mejía Pinzón

Negocios y Relaciones Internacionales

El genocidio ruandés ocurrido en el año 1994 fue uno de los episodios más violentos de la historia cuyos actores principales fueron dos de los grupos más representativos en este territorio - hutus y tutsis -, quienes desde décadas anteriores disputaban las jerarquías culturales impuestas por sus antepasados. El genocidio tuvo como fin el exterminio total de la tribu minoritaria (tutsi) y la imposición económica, política y social por parte de los hutus. En la revisión de la literatura sobre la relación entre género, guerra y genocidio, la mayoría de los estudios destacan a las mujeres en calidad de víctimas …

Student Perceptions Of Vocabualry Gain During Study Abroad, Yuan Sui

Masters Theses

It is well acknowledged that study abroad is an ideal context to achieve high language proficiency. Previous studies show a relatively complex picture of the relationship of social interactions and language gains. On the one hand, students who study abroad experience language gains such as oral proficiency but on the other hand, researchers argue that study abroad does not guarantee language gains. Vocabulary as foundational knowledge of language learning has not received much attention in the context of study abroad, especially vocabulary learning strategies. The present study investigates the change of students’ perceived vocabulary gain via routine social activities with …

Screen Time Versus Face Time: How Social Media Usage Affects Time Spent Face To Face, Kristen Donlevie

Sociology Senior Seminar Papers

How has the recent surge in social media network usage affected in-person social interaction? As the Internet continues to become more integrated in everyday forms of communication and interaction, sociologists disagree about the implications it will have on in-person socialization. Some argue that social media will revolutionize social interactions, while others believe that it will lead to a loss of privacy and an increase in isolation. I propose that the more social media networks an individual is a regular user of, the fewer days they will interact face-to-face with other people. Using 685 responses garnered from computer-assisted interviews in the …

Towards Active Ageing: A Comparative Study Of Experiences Of Older Ghanaians In Australia And Ghana, Daniel Doh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Population ageing has become a central feature of the 21st century, as most countries search for economically viable strategies to support and manage their ageing populations to live in a dignified way. In 2002, the World Health Organisation (WHO) proposed the active ageing policy framework to guide countries to develop policies that promote the quality of life for their older people. However, the interpretation and application of the active ageing model in the literature and policy discussions are inconclusive on the most important elements that promote the quality of life of older people. The discussions have largely focused on health …

Acculturation Stress, Psychological And Sociocultural Adjustment, And Development Of American Adolescents: A Qualitative Study Of Newton High School Exchange Students In China, Binbin Zhu

Doctoral Dissertations

Theories from the extant acculturation literature functioned to categorize international students’ adaptation experiences and predict their acculturation outcomes. Also, relevant studies focused mainly on students at the tertiary level. For adolescent students seeking self-development toward independence and autonomy, how they negotiated their identity challenges and tensions in a cross-cultural context, and how surrounding others in their socialization impacted on their psychosocial adjustment process and transformative experiences have not been actively explored. This qualitative study approached adolescent students’ acculturation as an integrated development and learning process to explore the effects of developmental and cultural factors on their cross-cultural adaptation, especially examined …

Initiating Conversation By A Kindergarten-Aged Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Eliana A. Segal

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have social skill deficits that are often manifested in a failure to achieve normal back-and-forth conversation. They rarely initiate social interactions and often show little responsiveness to others. This can extinguish the social initiations of their peers, leading to great difficulty making friends. The purpose of the present study was to teach a child with ASD at an inter-professional autism clinic how to initiate and reciprocate a social conversation. A prompt fading procedure was implemented during training sessions to build a set of social skills into the child’s repertoire. The intervention provided social attention …

Spectator Attendance Strategies: A Best Practices Examination Of Mls Expansion Franchises, Bryce Schomburg

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

The expansion of Major League Soccer (MLS) has dramatically raised league awareness throughout the nation. This impact was influenced by the additional consideration organizations have paid to the role of spectator attendance within professional sports. The purpose of this study was to examine the best practices for spectator attendance strategies employed by recent MLS expansion franchises. The following organizations were evaluated for the comparative analysis: Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, and New York City FC. These organizations were analyzed through a best practices comparison guide developed by the researcher. Data were collected from the selected teams’ websites, third party organization analysis, …

Move, Interact, And Connect Personally Barter Theatre’S Project Real Gets Implicit In Order To Learn, Megan E. Atkinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Body movement, hands-on activity, embodiment, social interaction, emotions, and self-reflection allow teaching artists of Barter’s Theatre’s Project REAL to conduct a lesson with an implicit learning experience as the focus. Barter Theatre’s Project REAL exists as a theatre for education program that collaborates with regular classroom teachers on delivering the curriculum through specific theatre exercises in order to connect the material personally to the students’ lives. Theatre tools provide a human experience that enhances learning for the student by use of kinesthetic movement, social learning, emotions and interpersonal skills. To understand the effects of Barter Theatre’s Project REAL, the director …

Examination Of The Effectiveness Of A One-Week Camp On Social Interaction For Youth With An Autism Spectrum Disorder, Maureen Louise O'Brien

Honors Theses and Capstones

Background. Persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) each have unique abilities and limitations, but all experience challenges interacting with others. Most studies examining intervention approaches to improve social interaction for children with ASD occur in artificial contexts and for short sessions over an extended period of time. Furthermore, effectiveness of intervention typically measures a child’s social competence by parent report (Reichow, Steiner & Volkmar, 2013; Case-Smith & Arbesman, 2008). Purpose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an intense one-week, natural camp designed to promote the quality of social interaction for 15 children with …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Getting To The Heart Of Social And Educational Disadvantage: Exploring The Impact Of Social Interactions Across The Class Divide, Ryan M. Pickering

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Economic inequality between rich and poor in the United States is now at an all- time high. The increasing economic inequality in the United States may have deleterious effects for social interactions across the so-called “class divide.” Individuals from different socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds may find cross-class interactions stressful or intimidating, particularly when they are from a lower-status group.

Across two studies, I examine the impact of cross-class social interactions on cognitive performance and physiological reactivity. In the first study, individuals from lower-SES backgrounds participate in a social interaction with an individual from either a higher or lower-SES background, or …

The Effect Of Peer-Coaching On Social Skills Performance Of Middle School Students With High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder, John Potter Psyd

All Student Scholarship

Students with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often face significant social challenges in the middle school setting. For example, as students move beyond elementary school social interactions between peers typically become more complex and less predictable. When social demands begin to exceed the performance levels of students with autism in middle school, students may become isolated and experience increased behavioral and mental health issues. In middle schools, class-wide interventions are often not individualized enough for students with this condition and adult-mediated, office-based, interventions show low generalization to other settings (Reichow & Volkmar, 2010 ). The current study researched peer-coaching, …

Differences In Attitudes Towards People With Disabilities: Examining The Effects Of The Presence Of An Assistance Dog, Jennifer A. Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with disabilities face various types of social stigma. Research suggests that the presence of an assistance dog leads to an increase in social interactions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether people’s attitudes toward individuals with disabilities differ when pairing that person with an assistance dog. Undergraduate students (N= 244) were randomly assigned to view an individual with a disability either alone or with an assistance dog. Participants rated their attitudes toward the individual, completed a newly developed Implicit Association Test, and answered behavioral intention questions. Results of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that individuals with …

The Influence Of Person Familiarity On Children's Social Information Processing, Andrew J. Cummings

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined the influence person familiarity has on children's social information processing (SIP) choices and emotion recognition. Children in grades 2nd through 5th watch a videotaped expression of a familiar or unfamiliar individual while listening to a hypothetical social interaction. Following the video clip, children responded to open-ended questions and prompted questions designed to assess their strategies and goals in the social interaction. Children also selected from two choices (either `on purpose' or `by accident') for their attribution of the individual's intent. Last, children identified the emotion that they believed the individual in the video was experiencing the most. …

Social Interaction And Youth Smoking, Min Chen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Young people are psychologically immature, and are easy to be influenced by others to engage in risky behaviors. Based on the data from the NLSY79, this dissertation examines how maternal smoking, sibling smoking, and living in urban and rural areas impact on youth smoking decisions.

The Influence Of Positive And Negative Couple Rituals On Satisfaction, Commitment, And Dyadic Adjustment, Timetra Marie Hampton

Theses Digitization Project

The current study predicted that positive couple rituals would be positively associated with relationship satisfaction, commitment, and dyadic adjustment, whereas negative couple rituals were expected to exhibit a negative association with these outcome variables. Data for this study were collected online in 2009. Participants included undergraduate students from California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB), the University of Georgia (UGA), and the University of Connecticut (UNCONN).