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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Secondhand Communication Of Risk-Related Information: How Ideology And Relational Motives Affect Interpersonal Risk Communication, Daniel A. Chapman Jul 2016

Secondhand Communication Of Risk-Related Information: How Ideology And Relational Motives Affect Interpersonal Risk Communication, Daniel A. Chapman

Masters Theses

This research provides the first experimental investigation of the ways in which ideological and relational motives influence interpersonal risk communication. Drawing on the literatures in social and cognitive psychology, risk communication, and environmental decision making, this research examined whether individuals expressing concerns about tradeoffs between climate change adaptation and prevention were less likely to share climate change information with others if the information discussed adaptation policies. Participants were presented with an article about climate change framed as either relating to adaptation or prevention. Their willingness to share the article with others was measured, as well as their appraisals of how …


Academic Choices Matter For Collegiate Student-Athletes, Kendra Arielle Berry May 2016

Academic Choices Matter For Collegiate Student-Athletes, Kendra Arielle Berry

Masters Theses

As college athletics has grown during the last two decades, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the governing institution of college athletics in the United States, has renewed its focus on academic reform and the academic performance of student-athletes (Petr & McArdle, 2012). Athletic administrators and academic support units have started to exert a greater amount of control over student-athletes’ academic lives. However, research with general samples of college students has suggested that having some degree of autonomy is important for academic performance. This raises questions about whether increased control (and reduced autonomy) is actually in the best interest of …


Obesity In Society: The Importance Of Perception, Michael Darnell Oliver Ii May 2016

Obesity In Society: The Importance Of Perception, Michael Darnell Oliver Ii

Masters Theses

In the current study, I examined the role of positive and negative media images of obese individuals on attitudes and physiological responding in relation to an actual discrimination incident. Various surveys were administered and Body Mass Index (BMI), salivary Alpha Amylase (sAA), and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) or Skin Conductance (SC) were measured. Participants read a vignette in which an obese individual was discriminated against and further questions were administered to assess attributional blame. My primary hypothesis in this study was that there would be a decrease in stigma due to positive priming, specifically stigma directed at the obese population. …


Alone, Together: The Influence Of Stigmatization On Cultural Relationality, Elizabeth Helen Fles May 2016

Alone, Together: The Influence Of Stigmatization On Cultural Relationality, Elizabeth Helen Fles

Masters Theses

It is no secret that great disparities in wealth and opportunities pervade our society. Psychological research pertaining to resource inequality attributes these disparities a product of social stigmatization, which is the experience of societal rejection due to the negative stereotypes associated with group membership. Social stigma is correlated with adverse effects; the current research explores the possibility that stigma can alter the extent to which others are included in one’s sense of self, also known as cultural relationality. Study 1 investigated this relationship by measuring both stigma and relationality using self-report measures and found relationality to be negatively correlated with …


A Geographic Distribution Analysis And Examination Of Social-Psychological Factors And Their Lmpact On Death Penalty Support In The United States, Katy Moharter Apr 2016

A Geographic Distribution Analysis And Examination Of Social-Psychological Factors And Their Lmpact On Death Penalty Support In The United States, Katy Moharter

Masters Theses

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1977, research has focused on shifting attitudes and waning public support for this institution. Support for the death penalty varies between different temporal, geographic, and demographic boundaries. Research also suggests that social-psychological factors such as attributional style and moral disengagement play a significant role in rationalization of death penalty support, as well as the intensity of the support. Aspects of moral disengagement serve as reliable predictors for death penalty support for a limited sample of participants, which this research intends to evaluate at a greater scale. This research …


Fairness And Social Justice: Distinct Moralities, Prerana Bharadwaj Mar 2016

Fairness And Social Justice: Distinct Moralities, Prerana Bharadwaj

Masters Theses

Individual deservingness and group-based equality as rules of distribution have routinely been conflated in past research. These two studies are an attempt to further establish the differences between these two as moral values named fairness and social justice, respectively. In both studies, participants rated “moral acceptability” of eight real-world scenarios that either upheld fairness and violated social justice or vice versa. Each of these scenarios was presented at two time points: at time 1, the upheld principle was presented and the violation of the other was implied, but at time 2, the violation was made apparent with a second …


A Quantitative Examination Of Alcohol Consumption Motivation Between Fraternity And Non-Fraternity Men, Brinton B. Vincent Jan 2016

A Quantitative Examination Of Alcohol Consumption Motivation Between Fraternity And Non-Fraternity Men, Brinton B. Vincent

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study was to examine the differences in motivation between fraternity and non-fraternity freshmen males. The researcher hypothesized that there would be no significant motivational factor to consume alcohol among the population and no significant difference between fraternity and non-fraternity freshmen males. To better examine differences, a quantitative study was conducted by surveying the population of freshmen males at a mid-sized, Midwestern, 4-year, public institution. The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS) was used to measure four types of motivation: intrinsic motivation, external regulation, identified regulation, and amotivation. Out of the 58 participants, 48 surveys were usable (N = …