Psychology Commons^™

A Monte Carlo Analysis Of Thorndike's Indirect Range Restriction Correction Equations, Michael Thomas Pelayo

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Employee selection is an important process for organizations. Organizations seek to select the best employees for their available positions. Testing is key to many selection efforts. The results of studies assessing the criterion-related validity of a selection test are affected by a number of statistical artifacts, one of which is range restriction. Range restriction has the effect of attenuating the correlation coefficient. Statistical equations exist to correct for the effects of range restriction, and they enable researchers to obtain a more accurate estimate of the validity coefficient. Thorndike (1949) developed the best known and most frequently used of these correction …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Psy 4185 (Psychology Of Training And Development), Michael Covell

Open Educational Resources

This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of training and development as a tool for improving organizational performance. Topics include (a) understanding the components of a needs analysis; (b) designing training programs to capitalize on our current understanding of how adults learn; (c) understanding training and development within the context of the modern workplace; and (d) understanding how to evaluate the utility of training and development interventions.

The Performance Implication Of Obsessive Work Passion: Unpacking The Moderating And Mediating Mechanisms From A Conservation Of Resources Perspective, Dejun Tony Kong, Violet T. Ho

Management Faculty Publications

Work passion is an important determinant of work performance. While harmonious work passion (HWP) shows its consistent predictive value, obsessive work passion (OWP) appears to have a mixed relationship with work performance. To address this puzzle, we integrate research on OWP and emotional exhaustion with conservation of resources (COR) theory. Specifically, we argue that OWP determines emotional exhaustion, whose relationship with work performance is attenuated by leader-member exchange (LMX). By conducting a field study with a sample of 262 U.S. employees, we found supportive evidence, even when controlling for psychological detachment from work. The findings somewhat reconcile the inconsistent results …

Behavioral Finance And Its Impact On Investing, Jordan Fieger

Senior Honors Theses

The field of behavioral finance has seen incredible growth over the past half century as it has explored the effect that cognitive psychological biases can have on investors’ financial decisions. Behavioral finance stands in stark contrast to the efficient market hypothesis, as it attributes market inefficiencies to investors who are not perfectly rational human beings. It offers a solution to the observed 3.5% gap that active equity investors miss out on in the market compared to passive index funds, which it attributes to their emotions and psychological biases. These common human biases can be grouped into five major categories: heuristics, …

Five Seconds To The Ad: How Program-Induced Mood Affects Ad Countdown Effects, Tiffany Venmahavong

Honors Projects in Marketing

The study examines what effects a five second countdown warning will have on consumer’s attitudes towards the advertisement depending on the main program content. This study builds upon several theoretical models concerning program-induced moods in relation to viewer’s judgment to commercial advertisements. Findings from two studies suggest that program-induced mood systematically influences attitude toward the inserted ad with (vs. without) a five-second countdown: for the negative-affect program, attitude toward the ad was more positive when the ad was preceded by the countdown than when the ad was not preceded by the countdown. However, for the positive-affect program, attitude toward the …

Managing A Large Scale Project: Using Strengthsfinder In The Website Redesign, Laura Edwards, Cristina Tofan

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

After doing a library-wide StrengthsFinder assessment that highlighted the strengths of its individuals, EKU Libraries decided to put this strategy into practice by applying it to one of the most complex projects in the life of an academic library: the website redesign. This decentralized approach allowed project managers to align strengths-based teams with phases of the redesign that would most benefit from that team’s unique strengths.

Estimating The Reproducibility Of Psychological Science, Alexander A. Aarts, Et Al, Stephanie C. Lin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Reproducibility is a defining feature of science, but the extent to which it characterizes current research is unknown. We conducted replications of 100 experimental and correlational studies published in three psychology journals using high-powered designs and original materials when available. Replication effects were half the magnitude of original effects, representing a substantial decline. Ninety-seven percent of original studies had statistically significant results. Thirty-six percent of replications had statistically significant results; 47% of original effect sizes were in the 95% confidence interval of the replication effect size; 39% of effects were subjectively rated to have replicated the original result; and if …

Design, Programming, And User-Experience, Kaila G. Manca

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis is a culmination of my individualized major in Human-Computer Interaction. As such, it showcases my knowledge of design, computer engineering, user-experience research, and puts into practice my background in psychology, com- munications, and neuroscience.

I provided full-service design and development for a web application to be used by the Digital Media and Design Department and their students.This process involved several iterations of user-experience research, testing, concepting, branding and strategy, ideation, and design. It lead to two products.

The first product is full-scale development and optimization of the web appli- cation.The web application adheres to best practices. It was …

Effects Of Online Sponsored Advertising On Consumer Attitudes, Cassidy Maksy

Honors Projects in Marketing

Effectively utilizing persuasion techniques in advertising is essential for businesses to master in order to stay ahead of its competitors. This research project investigates the ways in which marketers advertise brands and products in the online environment, specifically on the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. More specifically, the implementation of different techniques and credibility of sources will be examined to help gauge the effectiveness of advertisements. By utilizing the constructs of the Persuasion Knowledge Model and source credibility, the attitudes toward brands and advertisements within the online environment was tested. The goal of this research is to evaluate the …

Shoes, Sabrina Morelli

Common Reading Essay Contest Winners

First Place

Essay Prompt: In Justice, Sandel discusses a number of contemporary political issues (e.g. price gouging during the 2004 Hurricane, the 2008-9 financial meltdown, the volunteer army, pregnancy surrogates, executive pay, slavery reparations, immigration, and gay marriage). Take a position on one of the issues discussed in the book and make the best case that you can for why this position is the most just. You may include evidence from the book, your prior studies, your own experience, and/or outside research. (Outside research is not required.)

Predicting Attitude Toward Organizational Change, Antonio Manibusan, Sarah Moore

Summer Research

This study examined specific components that influence employee attitude toward organizational change. Prior research tested the effects of organizational identity, cultural readiness to change, age, and tenure as variables that predict attitude toward organizational change. While perception of the change is discussed in past research as another potential variable, it has yet to be examined as a mediating variable between the various components and attitude toward organizational change. In this study, we predicted that the mediating variable, perception of organizational change, affects the relation between organizational identity, cultural readiness to change, age, and tenure, and attitude toward organizational change.

To …

The Image Of Psychology Programs: The Value Of The Instrumental-Symbolic Framework, Greet Van Hoye, Filip Lievens, Britt De Soete, Nele Libbrecht, Eveline Schollaert, Dimphna Baligant

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

As competition for funding and students intensifies, it becomes increasingly important for psychology programs to have an image that is attractive and makes them stand out from other programs. The current study uses the instrumental-symbolic framework from the marketing domain to determine the image of different master's programs in psychology and examines how these image dimensions relate to student attraction and competitor differentiation. The samples consist of both potential students (N = 114) and current students (N = 68) of three psychology programs at a Belgian university: industrial and organizational psychology, clinical psychology, and experimental psychology. The results demonstrate that …

Professional Hurt: The Untold Stories, Ruby Macksine Brown

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine professional hurt across the public services of the Commonwealth Caribbean with a view toward creating what could probably be the first body of knowledge that will offer insights into its nature and relationship with the practice of leadership. The study also sought to explore an understanding of professional hurt that could inform the design of leadership development programs to help develop leaders who can navigate or avoid hurt. I utilized the biographical research approach to access the lived experiences of 20 public sector leaders across 9 independent Commonwealth Caribbean islands. Narrative thematic …

Behavioral Lab For Conducting Experiments In Marketing And Psychology, Vishal Lala, Richard Velayo, Stephen Salbod, Weihua Niu

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Chronic Regulatory Focus And Product Type On Internet Purchase Decisions, Chad Ryan

Honors Projects in Marketing

This study draws on Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT; Higgins 1987) to explore factors that affect a consumer’s online purchase attitudes and intentions. According to RFT, consumers tend to be either chronically promotion- or prevention-focused. Promotion-focused consumers are concerned with positive outcomes. Conversely, prevention-focused consumers are concerned with avoiding negative outcomes. Promotion-focused consumers are more willing to take risks than prevention-focused consumers (Higgins 1997). Promotion-focused consumers also prefer hedonic shopping experiences (i.e., pleasurable), whereas prevention-focused consumers prefer utilitarian shopping experiences (i.e., task-oriented) (Arnold & Reynolds 2009). Because products that are purchased on the Internet cannot be seen or touched prior to …

Exploring Touch As A Positive Workplace Behavior, Bryan Fuller, Marcia J. Simmering, Laura E. Marler, Susie S. Cox, Rebecca J. Bennett, Robin A. Cheramie

Faculty and Research Publications

Whereas most research has focused on the negative aspects of touch in the workplace (i.e. sexual harassment), this study focuses upon the positive use of touch. In an effort to explain individual differences in the use of workplace touch, three sequential studies are used to introduce the concepts of workplace touch self-efficacy and workplace touch initiation anxiety. In Study 1 we develop scales to assess the constructs. Study 2 provides an initial examination of the construct validity of the measures developed in Study 1. Results of Study 3 indicate that supervisor reports of touch self-efficacy and physiological touch anxiety are …

Can Leadership Be Developed By Applying Leadership Theories? : An Examination Of Three Theory-Based Approaches To Leadership Development, Joshua C. Laguerre

Honors Projects

Investigates the possibility of leadership development by application of leadership theory. Through a critical literature review, examines empirical studies utilizing three development approaches: Fiedler's Contingency Model, Burns and Bass's Transformational Leadership Theory, and Avolio's Authentic Leadership Theory. Concludes that, while leadership can be generated employing any of these theories, an overall framework for developing leadership is lacking. Presents a possible framework, based on the transformational and authentic leadership models.

A Correlational Study Of The Relationship Between Sense Of Humor And Positive Psychological Capacities, Larry W. Hughes

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

The constructs of sense of humor (Lefcourt, 2002) and positive psychological capacities (PsyCap; Luthans, 2002a) have been heralded as important phenomenon within the growing field of positive psychology, especially within the organizational sciences. Additionally, a sense of humor has been found to be related to positive affective experiences. Leaders can develop followers' confidence, hope, optimism and resiliency for what Avolio and Luthans (2006) called sustainable, veritable performance. The hypotheses presented and tested here will advance the theoretical and empirical discussion of leadership in organizations by linking several emerging constructs of interest, both in academe and practice. This study marks an …

Corporate And Individual Influences On Managers' Social Orientation, Joachim W. Marz, Thomas L. Powers, Thomas Queisser

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper reports research on the influence of corporate and individual characteristics on managers' social orientation in Germany. The results indicate that mid-level managers expressed a significantly lower social orientation than low-level managers, and that job activity did not impact social orientation. Female respondents expressed a higher social orientation than male respondents. No impact of the political system origin (former East Germany versus former West Germany) on social orientation was shown. Overall, corporate position had a significantly higher impact on social orientation than did the characteristics of the individuals surveyed.

Medical Students' Personality Characteristics And Academic Performance: A Five-Factor Model Perspective, Filip Lievens, Pol Coetsier, Filip De Fruyt, Jan De Maeseneer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Objectives: This study investigates: (1) which personality traits are typical of medical students as compared to other students, and (2) which personality traits predict medical student performance in pre-clinical years. Design: This paper reports a cross-sectional inventory study of students in nine academic majors and a prospective longitudinal study of one cohort of medical students assessed by inventory during their first pre-clinical year and by university examination at the end of each pre-clinical year. Subjects and methods: In 1997, a combined total of 785 students entered medical studies courses in five Flemish universities. Of these, 631 (80.4%) completed the NEO-PI-R …

Are America's Top Business Students Steering Clear Of Accounting?, Dana R. Hermanson, Roger H. Hermanson, Susan H. Ivancevich

Faculty and Research Publications

Examines top business students' perceptions of the accountancy profession and how these perceptions may influence the students' career choices. Assertion that students choose accounting for financial reasons; Appeal of accounting work to nonaccounting students; Implications for the recruitment of top business students.