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Articles 1 - 24 of 24
Full-Text Articles in Psychology
Relations Between Peer Influence, Perceived Cost Versus Benefits, And Sexual Offending Among Adolescents Aware Of Sex Offender Registration Risk, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Hayley M. D. Cleary, Paige M. Oja
Relations Between Peer Influence, Perceived Cost Versus Benefits, And Sexual Offending Among Adolescents Aware Of Sex Offender Registration Risk, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Hayley M. D. Cleary, Paige M. Oja
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
A policy's general deterrent effect requires would-be offenders to be aware of the policy, yet many adolescents do not know they could be registered as sex offenders, and even adolescents who do know may still commit registerable sexual offenses. We tested whether peer influences shape the perceived costs/benefits of certain sexual offenses and, subsequently, registration policy's general deterrent potential in a sample of policy-aware adolescents. The more adolescents believed their peers approve of sexting of nude images, the more likely they were to have sexted. For forcible touching, having more positive peer expectations about sex and perceiving forcible touching as …
The Neurotic Wandering Mind And Self-Efficacy During Training, Mario L. Arredondo
The Neurotic Wandering Mind And Self-Efficacy During Training, Mario L. Arredondo
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
AbstractPersonality is complex and dynamic, and because this attribute consists of a cluster of different distinctive traits, successfully predicting how personality predisposes individuals to different reactions and feelings during a learning activity is an equally complex and challenging task. For this thesis I will focus on the personality trait of low emotional stability, or neuroticism. Previous research has shown that people with lower emotional stability have a predisposition to be more stringent with self-perceptions across different domains of behaviors and feelings. Self-efficacy influences people’s confidence in their ability to exert control over their own behavior and impact their environment, all …
Caregivers’ Expectations, Reflected Appraisals, And Arrests Among Adolescents Who Experienced Parental Incarceration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Melissa Noel
Caregivers’ Expectations, Reflected Appraisals, And Arrests Among Adolescents Who Experienced Parental Incarceration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Melissa Noel
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
This research sought to identify a potential process by which intergenerational crime occurs, focusing on the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ subsequent arrests. We drew from Matsueda’s work on reflected appraisals as an explanatory mechanism for this effect. Thus, the present research examined whether caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for adolescents’ future incarceration sequentially mediated the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual arrest outcomes. Propensity score matching was used to examine this effect in a sample of 1,735 15- to 16-year-olds using NLSY97 data. Parental incarceration was positively related to caregivers’ expectations of adolescents’ future arrest. Moreover, caregivers’ expectations …
Do Racial Stereotypes Contribute To Medical Misdiagnosis Of Child Abuse? Investigating Tunnel Vision In The Emergency Room, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Kimberly M. Bernstein, Katherine S. Wahrer
Do Racial Stereotypes Contribute To Medical Misdiagnosis Of Child Abuse? Investigating Tunnel Vision In The Emergency Room, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Kimberly M. Bernstein, Katherine S. Wahrer
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Despite growing recognition that misdiagnoses of child abuse can lead to wrongful convictions, little empirical work has examined how the medical community may contribute to these errors. Previous research has documented the existence and content of stereotypes that associate race with child abuse. The current study examines whether emergency medical professionals rely on this stereotype to fill in gaps in ambiguous cases involving Black children, thereby increasing the potential for misdiagnoses of child abuse. Specifically, we tested whether the race-abuse stereotype led participants to attend to more abuse-related details than infection-related details when an infant patient was Black versus White. …
Awareness Of Sex Offender Registration Policies And Self-Reported Sexual Offending In A Community Sample Of Adolescents, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Hayley M. D. Cleary
Awareness Of Sex Offender Registration Policies And Self-Reported Sexual Offending In A Community Sample Of Adolescents, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Hayley M. D. Cleary
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Sex offender registration laws are widely implemented, increasingly restrictive, and intended to serve both specific and general deterrent functions. Most states have some form of policy mechanism to place adolescents on sex offender registries, yet it remains unclear whether adolescents possess the requisite policy awareness to be deterred from sexual offending. This study examined awareness of sex offender registration as a potential sanction and its cross-sectional association with engagement in several registrable sexual behaviors (sexting, indecent exposure, sexual solicitation, and forcible touching) in a community sample of 144 adolescents. Results revealed that many adolescents were unaware that these behaviors could …
Juror Gender And Confession Evidence: An Exploratory Study Of Effects On Empathy And Trial Outcomes For Juvenile Defendants, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jennifer N. Weintraub
Juror Gender And Confession Evidence: An Exploratory Study Of Effects On Empathy And Trial Outcomes For Juvenile Defendants, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jennifer N. Weintraub
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Objectives: We explored how relations among juror gender, confession evidence, and empathy impacted verdicts for a juvenile defendant accused of a serious crime. Methods: Jury-eligible women and men (N = 128) participated in a mock trial involving a girl defendant who had either maintained her innocence, confessed voluntarily, or confessed under coercion. Participants reviewed case materials, received juror instructions, and reported their verdict and empathy for the girl defendant. A manipulation check ensured participants attended to details surrounding the confession and participants were grouped by whether they perceived the confession as voluntary or coerced. A logistic regression analysis examined main …
Race, Social Class, And Child Abuse: Content And Strength Of Medical Professionals’ Stereotypes, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Kimberly M. Bernstein
Race, Social Class, And Child Abuse: Content And Strength Of Medical Professionals’ Stereotypes, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Kimberly M. Bernstein
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Black and poor children are overrepresented at every stage of the child welfare system, from suspicion of abuse to substantiation. Focusing on stereotypes as a source of bias that leads to these disparities, the current study examines the content and strength of stereotypes relating race and social class to child abuse as viewed by medical professionals. Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals (Study 1: N = 53; Study 2: N = 40) were recruited in local hospitals and online through snowball sampling. Study 1 identified stereotype content by asking participants to list words associated with the stereotype that …
Legal Responses To Nonconsensual Pornography: Current Policy In The United States And Future Directions For Research, Cynthia J. Najdowski
Legal Responses To Nonconsensual Pornography: Current Policy In The United States And Future Directions For Research, Cynthia J. Najdowski
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Technological advances have created new avenues for the perpetration of sexual violence. The widespread availability of cameras has made it easier to take covert recordings of an individual’s intimate body parts, and whether sexually explicit images are recorded with or without an individual’s consent, growing access to the Internet has facilitated the nonconsensual dissemination of those images. Yet criminal laws have not kept pace with technology in most jurisdictions across the United States, and victims of nonconsensual pornography typically have no avenue by which to seek justice. There have been efforts to reform laws in a variety of jurisdictions, some …
Excusing Murder? Conservative Jurors’ Acceptance Of The Gay Panic Defense, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica Salerno, Bette L. Bottoms, B. L. Harrington, Dave Kemner
Excusing Murder? Conservative Jurors’ Acceptance Of The Gay Panic Defense, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica Salerno, Bette L. Bottoms, B. L. Harrington, Dave Kemner
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
We conducted a simulated trial study to investigate the effectiveness of a “gay-panic” provocation defense as a function of jurors’ political orientation. Mock jurors read about a murder case in which a male defendant claimed a victim provoked the killing by starting a fight, which either included or did not include the male victim making an unwanted sexual advance that triggered a state of panic in the defendant. Conservative jurors were significantly less punitive when the defendant claimed to have acted out of gay panic as compared to when this element was not part of the defense. In contrast, liberal …
The Influence Of A Juvenile's Abuse History On Support For Sex Offender Registration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, M. C. Stevenson, J. M. Salerno, T. R. A. Wiley, B. L. Bottoms, K. M. Farnum
The Influence Of A Juvenile's Abuse History On Support For Sex Offender Registration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, M. C. Stevenson, J. M. Salerno, T. R. A. Wiley, B. L. Bottoms, K. M. Farnum
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
We investigated whether and how a juvenile’s history of experiencing sexual abuse affects public perceptions of juvenile sex offenders in a series of 5 studies. When asked about juvenile sex offenders in an abstract manner (Studies 1 and 2), the more participants (community members and undergraduates) believed that a history of being sexually abused as a child causes later sexually abusive behavior, the less likely they were to support sex offender registration for juveniles. Yet when participants considered specific sexual offenses, a juvenile’s history of sexual abuse was not considered to be a mitigating factor. This was true when participants …
Stereotype Threat And Racial Differences In Citizens’ Experiences Of Police Encounters, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Phillip Atiba Goff
Stereotype Threat And Racial Differences In Citizens’ Experiences Of Police Encounters, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Phillip Atiba Goff
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
We conducted 2 studies to investigate how cultural stereotypes that depict Blacks as criminals affect the way Blacks experience encounters with police officers, expecting that such encounters induce Blacks to feel stereotype threat (i.e., concern about being judged and treated unfairly by police because of the stereotype). In Study 1, we asked Black and White participants to report how they feel when interacting with police officers in general. As predicted, Blacks, but not Whites, reported concern that police officers stereotype them as criminals simply because of their race. In addition, this effect was found for Black men but not Black …
Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Support For Juvenile Sex Offender Registry Laws: Prototypes, Moral Outrage, And Perceived Threat, Margaret C. Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica M. Salerno, Tisha R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms, Katlyn S. Farum
Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Support For Juvenile Sex Offender Registry Laws: Prototypes, Moral Outrage, And Perceived Threat, Margaret C. Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica M. Salerno, Tisha R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms, Katlyn S. Farum
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
We investigated whether and how a juvenile’s history of experiencing sexual abuse affects public perceptions of juvenile sex offenders in a series of 5 studies. When asked about juvenile sex offenders in an abstract manner (Studies 1 and 2), the more participants (community members and undergraduates) believed that a history of being sexually abused as a child causes later sexually abusive behavior, the less likely they were to support sex offender registration for juveniles. Yet when participants considered specific sexual offenses, a juvenile’s history of sexual abuse was not considered to be a mitigating factor. This was true when participants …
Effects Of Jurors’ Gender And Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability On Judgments For Disabled Juvenile Defendants, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms
Effects Of Jurors’ Gender And Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability On Judgments For Disabled Juvenile Defendants, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Because many juvenile offenders are intellectually disabled and have their cases tried by jurors in adult criminal court, it is important to understand factors that influence jurors’ judgments in such cases. Using a mock trial methodology, we explored the relations among jurors’ gender, attitudes toward intellectual disability, and judgments in a criminal case involving an intellectually disabled 15-year-old girl accused of murder. Men mock jurors’ judgments were not influenced by their preexisting biases, but women's were: the more women favored special treatment for disabled offenders, the less likely they were to suspect the disabled juvenile was guilty and the less …
Applying Sex Offender Registry Laws To Juvenile Offenders: Biases Against Adolescents From Stigmatized Groups, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Tisha R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms, Liana Peter-Hagene
Applying Sex Offender Registry Laws To Juvenile Offenders: Biases Against Adolescents From Stigmatized Groups, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Tisha R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms, Liana Peter-Hagene
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
The need to protect children from dangerous sex offenders has led to policies that require juvenile sex offenders to register on public online registries. It is important to determine the implications of these laws for the wellbeing of child victims and also for juvenile offenders on these registries. Is the application of these laws—designed for adult offenders—to juveniles appropriate, necessary, and supported by public sentiment? The chapter reviews current sex offender registration policies and psychological research addressing whether the assumptions underlying these laws are supported by research, public sentiment toward these laws, factors that might drive biases against stigmatized youth …
African American Families' Expectations And Intentions For Mental Health Services, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Richard Thompson, Barbara L. Dancy, Tisha R. A. Wiley, Sylvia P. Perry, Jason Wallis, Yara Mekawi, Kathleen Knafl
African American Families' Expectations And Intentions For Mental Health Services, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Richard Thompson, Barbara L. Dancy, Tisha R. A. Wiley, Sylvia P. Perry, Jason Wallis, Yara Mekawi, Kathleen Knafl
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
A cross-sectional qualitative descriptive design was used to examine the links among expectations about, experiences with, and intentions toward mental health services. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 32 African American youth/mothers dyads. Content analysis revealed that positive expectations were linked to positive experiences and intentions, that negative expectations were not consistently linked to negative experiences or intentions, nor were ambivalent expectations linked to ambivalent experiences or intentions. Youth were concerned about privacy breeches and mothers about the harmfulness of psychotropic medication. Addressing these concerns may promote African Americans’ engagement in mental health services.
Knowledge Of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Laws As A Predictor Of Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Margaret C. Stevenson, Tisha Ra Wiley
Knowledge Of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Laws As A Predictor Of Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Margaret C. Stevenson, Tisha Ra Wiley
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Because juveniles can now be registered as sex offenders, we conducted a pilot study to investigate awareness of these policies and sexual behavior histories in a convenience sample of 53 young adults (ages 18 to 23, 79% women). These preliminary data revealed that 42% percent of participants were unaware that youth under the age of 18 can be registered as sex offenders, and when informed that they can be, participants were unaware of the breadth of adolescent sexual behavior that warrants registration. Furthermore, those unaware of juvenile registration policies, compared to those who were aware, were marginally more likely to …
Assessing The Relationship Of Career Goal Autonomy And Intrinsic Content On Vocational And General Well-Being, Andrew E. Kerlow-Myers
Assessing The Relationship Of Career Goal Autonomy And Intrinsic Content On Vocational And General Well-Being, Andrew E. Kerlow-Myers
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000) argues that if the goals pursued in a life domain are not congruent with the needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, well-being in that domain will be negatively impacted or at best, stagnant. Goals are an important part of career interventions (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), yet no research to date has assessed the importance of need congruent goals in the career domain. The present study assessed the effect of career goal autonomy (CGA) and career goal intrinsic content (CGIC) on well-being in the career domain (vocational well-being; VWB) and two components of …
Jurors And Social Loafing: Factors That Reduce Participation During Jury Deliberations, Cynthia J. Najdowski
Jurors And Social Loafing: Factors That Reduce Participation During Jury Deliberations, Cynthia J. Najdowski
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
The American jury system rests on the fundamental assumption that jurors will engage in a thorough analysis of facts and robust debate to ensure that verdicts are reliable. Research demonstrates, however, that this expectation is rarely met. All jurors do not participate equally in deliberations. This may be explained in part by social loafing, or the withdrawal of effort that may occur when an individual works in a group relative to when the individual works alone. Despite evidence that jurors do not participate equally during jury deliberations, an analysis of factors contributing to participation, or the lack thereof, has not …
Effects Of Early Developmental Stress On Adult Physiology And Behavior, Michael James Frederick
Effects Of Early Developmental Stress On Adult Physiology And Behavior, Michael James Frederick
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Events during early development can have long-term effects on physiology and behavior. While extreme developmental stress is known to be associated with a variety of behavioral problems, it is less well understood how milder stress may affect behavior, personality, and reproductive success. This research project assessed a variety of behavioral dimensions in a college age sample, while assessing early development using size at birth, fluctuating asymmetry, and retrospective surveys. Maternal stress during pregnancy was found to reduce adolescent growth spurts and adult handgrip strength in the offspring. In males, lower birth weights were associated with higher scores of impulsivity and …
The Effect Of Family Allocentrism And Acculturation On The Tendency To Foreclose In Second Generation Indian College Students, Komal Dutt
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Vocational literature on Asians Indians in America is plagued by such major problems as a severe dearth of theory-driven research to explain career process variables such as the process of committing to a career choice. During this process, individuals should ideally proceed through a sequence of stages or phases in which they progress from a relative absence of commitment to a phase in which their level of commitment to a career choice is strong (Super, 1957). However, individuals from Asian cultures may not progress sequentially through these stages, and might choose a path to career development which entails committing to …
Self-Esteem, Self-Compassion, Defensive Self-Esteem, And Related Features Of Narcissism As Predictors Of Aggression, Cara Pharr Gottheim
Self-Esteem, Self-Compassion, Defensive Self-Esteem, And Related Features Of Narcissism As Predictors Of Aggression, Cara Pharr Gottheim
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This study sought to expand upon existing literature pertaining to feelings toward oneself and aggressive behavior. Specifically, global self-esteem, as well as two specific subsets of self-esteem, defensive self-esteem and narcissistic self-esteem, were examined as predictors of aggressive behavior. Additionally, the relationship between aggression and self-compassion, a recently introduced self-construct moderately correlated with self-esteem, was investigated. College students from a large Northeastern University were invited via email or through a brief classroom presentation to participate in this online study. A total of 181 students completed five surveys that were useable for data analyses: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES; Rosenberg, 1989), Self-compassion …
Public Perceptions Of Registry Laws For Juvenile Sex Offenders, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Maria C. Vargas
Public Perceptions Of Registry Laws For Juvenile Sex Offenders, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Maria C. Vargas
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Understanding jurors’ perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors’ perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile’s crime was motivated by self-defense against …
The Neuroscientific Study Of The Self: Methodological And Theoretical Challenges, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Samuel E. Winer
The Neuroscientific Study Of The Self: Methodological And Theoretical Challenges, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Samuel E. Winer
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Neuroscientific research methods, such as brain imaging techniques, have increasingly been applied to social cognitive research efforts and, in particular, to the study of the self. In this essay we discuss the ability of such research to shed light on the emergent, dynamic psychological phenomenon of self. Although neuroscientific tools can be useful for gaining general knowledge about associated underlying structures, a careful consideration of the methodological and theoretical issues discussed herein is necessary to avoid simplifying or reifying the self.
Revictimization As A Moderator Of Psychosocial Risk Factors For Problem Drinking In Female Sexual Assault Survivors, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Sarah E. Ullman
Revictimization As A Moderator Of Psychosocial Risk Factors For Problem Drinking In Female Sexual Assault Survivors, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Sarah E. Ullman
Psychology Faculty Scholarship
Adult sexual assault (ASA) survivors report greater levels of problem drinking than do other women, and research suggests that their coping strategies, reactions from their social networks, and traumatic life events affect their problem drinking. The links between these factors and problem drinking may be moderated by whether survivors are revictimized, yet research has not examined this possibility. Therefore, the current study examined psychosocial factors, problem drinking, and revictimization in women ASA survivors. Method: Community-dwelling urban women (n = 555) who had experienced an ASA completed a mail survey at Time 1 (T1) and were resurveyed 1 year later …