Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

The Influence Of Spatial Distance Priming On Test Anxiety And Judgments, Eric R Raap

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This paper examined the effects of distance priming on test anxiety and judgment. Research suggests that individuals’ perceived distance can impact their affect and judgments, which sheds light on the principle of “distance equals safety” (Williams & Bargh, 2008). Taking an exam invokes both cognitive and emotional anxiety, such as worry, panic, and tension. It is hypothesized that the distance priming may reduce test anxiety—particularly, the emotionality aspect—as well as perceived test difficulty. The results showed that, counter to the hypotheses, there was no significant difference among the three priming groups in their emotional test anxiety or perceived test difficulty. …

Exploration Of The Relationship Between Moral Judgment Development And Attention, Lauren I. Clark

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research in moral psychology has focused on understanding what factors assist in the development of moral action and decision making. The purpose of this study was to address whether variability in attention relates to moral judgment development. The reason for exploring moral judgment development was to further explore the research of Thoma and Bebeau (2008) who documented that the moral development scores of college and graduate students has been declining over time, with more college-aged students scoring in the lower levels of moral reasoning. Attention was chosen as a viable topic of research, based on the writings of Carr (2008a) …

The Relationship Between Goal Orientation And Gender Roles, Amanda Michelle Hutchins

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study was designed to examine the relationship between a person’s goal orientation and the gender roles that they adopt. The relationship between gender and goal orientation has been studied for years, but the results have been inconclusive. Some studies find a gender difference and some studies do not. For this reason, this study examined if there was another factor that was influencing goal orientations that was related to gender.

Goal orientations are perceptual-cognitive frameworks for how individuals approach, interpret, and respond to achievement situations. Gender roles are the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions that are considered acceptable and appropriate for …

Children's Use Of Race In Drawing Inferences Based On Their Understanding Of Race Constancy, Casey A. Dawson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Children’s understanding of race constancy and their subsequent use of race as a means of drawing inductive inferences were investigated. Race constancy was determined by children’s tendency to say that people could change category membership by changing their outside appearance. A second phase of the study measured how many race-based inferences children made relative to other social categories such as age or sex. The results indicated that children who had a better understanding of race constancy were also more likely to use race as a means of drawing inductive inferences. These findings support a developmental progression of race constancy and …

The Role Of Extraversion & Intraversion On The Performance Of An Abstract Reasoning Task, Clarkie Farley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research compares the performance of a group of extraverts to a group of intraverts on a cognitive reasoning task. According to the theory of Hans J. Eysenck, one would expect that the intraverts would perform better than the extraverts on a task of massed reasoning. On the basis of scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Otis Lennon Mental Ability Test, a sample of 72 Ss were drawn from two undergraduate classes, Principles of Applied Learning and Human Development, at Western Kentucky University. Only Ss with extreme scores on the Extraversion scale E were selected, with each extravert …