Other Psychology Commons^™

Connecting Emotions To Behavioral Outcomes, Whitney L. Spears

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The field of positive psychology has emerged within the last decade and focuses on investigating happiness and what constitutes a satisfying life (Seligman, 2011; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). One of the main purposes of positive psychology is to identify resources that can be used to promote psychologically beneficial outcomes (Fredrickson, 2001). Two positive psychological outcomes that can build resources to overcome negative circumstances and lead to a fulfilling life are resilience and well-being. A theory proposed by Fredrickson (1998) that offers a process by which individuals can enhance well-being and resilience is the broaden-and-build theory. Through this theory, it is hypothesized that experiencing positive affect can broaden an individual’s thoughts and actions, which can in turn build lasting personal outcomes (i.e., resilience and well-being; Fredrickson, 2001). The current study draws upon the tenets of the broaden-and-build theory to identify processes that may help clarify the connection between positive affect and positive psychological outcomes. Specifically, the main purpose of the current study was to determine if savoring strategies mediate the relationships between positive affect and positive psychological outcomes. Participants included two hundred and eighty-nine college students who were recruited to complete a series of online surveys. In regard to gender ...

Investigating The Construct Of Psychopathy In Lebanese And American Adults, Marie-Anne Issa

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Psychopathy has been primarily investigated in forensic and psychiatric populations in North America. Cross-cultural studies, mainly conducted in Europe, have shown disparities in psychopathy scores and the measures’ psychometric properties, which raise the issue of cultural factors, such as individualism-collectivism, values, and different ways of emotional expression, and the impact of these cultural factors on the construct and its manifestation. Psychopathy has been rarely explored in Arab populations. This dissertation examines the construct of psychopathy among Lebanese adults, to assess its meaning, relevance, and utility among this population and compares the responses of Lebanese to American adults. The design of ...

Death Priming In Investigations: The Effects On Worldview Threat, Out-Group Derogation, And Stereotyping, Laure Brimbal

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Terror Management Theory (TMT) hypothesizes that thinking about one’s own death creates a need to boost our worldview and our self-esteem in order to cope with this existential threat. Decades of research support the theory’s premises with findings in many different settings (Burke, Martens, & Faucher, 2010). The purpose of this dissertation is to extend the findings of TMT to research on decision making in investigations. In two studies, I evaluated how thinking about one’s death (Mortality Salience, MS) affected mock investigators’ reactions to the outcome of a case they investigated and their perceptions of a suspect, depending on their group memberships.

In Study 1, participants (n = 299) were either death primed or not and asked to provide their assessment of a case as a police investigator. They were then told of the outcome of the case in court (either fair or unfair), asked how they felt about it. They were also asked how they would investigate a similar case in the future to assess for the impact of outcome on motivational bias. Results showed only an effect for outcome, where participants reacted more positively (and less negatively) to the fair outcome then the unfair outcome. Participants also showed a tendency to generally seek out more information in the unfair outcome condition; however, there was no sign of increased confirmation bias.

In Study 2 (n = 403), I either primed participants with MS or not and manipulated what role they took on to investigate the case (police investigator or journalist), and the race of the suspect (either in-group or out-group member of different races (Black, Hispanic, or ...

Organizational Justice And Social Media In The Employee Selection Process, Hayden Hickey

Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This study combines aspects of social media’s role in employee selection and how it relates to potential employee attitudes toward a company. By measuring participants’ attitudes when told that their Facebook profiles would be taken into consideration in determining their job ability, applicant feelings of procedural justice (i.e., fairness of a process; PJ) were assessed and compared to a control group. To measure interactional justice (i.e., fairness regarding interpersonal treatment; IJ), participants were divided into two conditions: participants in the high justice condition were given an explanation of the rationale behind using social media as an evaluation ...

Age Differences In The Effects Of Semantic Context On Speech Perception: The Role Of Uncertainty., John Ryan Morton

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent experiments have shown that semantic context effects on spoken word recognition differ between young and older adults (Rogers, Jacoby & Sommers, 2012; Sommers et. al, in prep). These experiments have shown that older adults provide significantly more incorrect responses than young adults when context predicts a phonological competitor that is semantically more likely than the actual target item. Incorrectly responding with the semantically predicted item rather than the true target item, with high confidence, is referred to as false hearing. The general design used in the studies reported for this dissertation is to compare identification of sentence-final items (presented in noise) in ...

Channeling The River: Using Positive Psychology To Prevent Cultural Helplessness, As Applied To African-American Law Students, Dwayne Allen Thomas

Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects

Helplessness deficits are characterized by an organism’s failure to escape escapable situations after exposure to aversive stimuli. It has recently been learned that helplessness is the mammalian default protective response, and that it is subdued as mammals learn to control their environment. Human helplessness responses are mediated by our ability to think; explanations for adverse stimuli that tend toward the individual’s inability to control a stimulus can cause a person to exhibit helplessness deficits. This paper proposes a theory of cultural helplessness, positing that information and beliefs spread through cultural transmission can provide individuals with automatic explanations, which ...

Exposing The “Shadow Side”: Female-Female Competition In Jane Austen’S Emma, Melissa M. Lyman

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Many critics have examined the shifting nature of female friendship in Jane Austen’s Emma from cultural and historical angles. However, a comprehensive scientific analysis of female-female alliance and competition in the novel remains incomplete. The Literary Darwinist approach considers the motivations of fictional characters from an evolutionary perspective, focusing primarily on human cognition and behaviors linked to reproductive success, social control, and survival. While overt physical displays of male competition are conspicuous in the actions of the human species and those of their closest primate relatives, female aggression is often brandished psychologically and indirectly, which makes for a much ...

I'Ve Got Your Back: Utilizing Improv As A Tool To Enhance Workplace Relationships, Jordana Cole

Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects

As the average American adult spends more time at work than anywhere else, the workplace, and the relationships built therein, plays a key role in overall well-being. With this in mind, many organizations dedicate significant time and resources to improve employee well-being, often in the form of fun, social events. In recent years, improvisational comedy, or improv, has emerged as a popular teambuilding activity due to its foundations in play, spontaneity, and trust. However, improv is more than just fun and laughs. Beyond merely being an energizing teambuilding event, I argue that improv has the ability to generate positive social ...

Music Student Satisfaction: The Relationship Between Learning Style Preferences And Major Satisfaction, Cora Marie Powers

Masters Theses

Based on Holland’s (1997) theory of person-environment fit, the primary purpose of this study was to examine learning style preferences of college music students utilizing the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory and VARK Learning Styles Inventory (Kolb, 1976, 1984 ; Fleming & Mills, 1992). These preferences were also explored relative to music students’satisfaction with their major. A tendency to prefer the Aural, Kinesthetic, and Active Experimentation learning styles was observed in the 134 music majors sampled. Among the music students sampled, those who most prefer the Active Experimentation learning style are most satisfied with their major. Some differences in learning style ...

A Public-Domain Personality Item Bank For Use With The Raymark, Schmit, And Guion (1997) Pprf, Scott Highhouse, Michael J. Zickar, Margaret E. Brooks, Charlie L. Reeve, Shreya T. Sarkar-Barney, Robert M. Guion

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Presented is the development of a repository of work-related personality items that may be used to assess job-related traits identified by the Personality-Related Position Requirements Form (PPRF: Raymark, Schmit, & Guion, 1997). Analyses of the item pool administered to a sample (n = 412) of trade apprentices showed evidence to support the12 work-related Big 5 sub-dimensions identified by the PPRF. A smaller validity study (n = 47) suggested that personality dimensions identified as job-related by the PPRF were related to important job-related outcomes.

Threat Of Technological Unemployment: Are Hiring Managers Discounted For Using Standardized Employee Selection Practices?, Kevin P. Nolan, Nathan T. Carter, Dev K. Dalal

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Two studies were conducted to examine the tenability of Meehl’s (1986) “threat of technological unemployment” explanation for why practitioners of employee selection resist using standardized decision-making practices. The results of Study 1 support the existence of this threat by demonstrating that practitioners received less credit for the outcomes of employment decisions when structured rather than unstructured interviews were used to evaluate candidates and analytical rather than holistic data combination was used to determine candidates’ overall evaluations. The results of Study 2 support the influence of this threat on employee selection by demonstrating that practitioners recognized the effects using the ...

Technology In The Employment Interview: A Meta-Analysis And Future Research Agenda, Nikki Blacksmith, Jon C. Willford, Tara S. Behrend

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

The use of technology such as telephone and video has become common when conducting employment interviews. However, little is known about how technology affects applicant reactions and interviewer ratings. We conducted meta-analyses of twelve studies that resulted in K=13 unique samples and N=1,557. Mean effect sizes for interview medium on ratings (d=-.41) and reactions (d=-.36) were moderate and negative, suggesting that interviewer ratings and applicant reactions are lower in technology-mediated interviews. Generalizing research findings from face-to-face interviews to technology-mediated interviews is inappropriate. Organizations should be especially wary of varying interview mode across applicants, as inconsistency ...

Individual Differences Predicting Impression Management Detection In Job Interviews, Nicolas Roulin

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Applicant impression management (IM), and especially its deceptive side (i.e., faking), has been described as a potential threat to the validity of employment interviews. This threat was confirmed by evidence of interviewers’ inability to detect (deceptive) IM tactics. Previous studies suggested that some interviewers could be better IM detectors than others, but did not examine the reasons explaining higher abilities. Building on interpersonal deception theory, this study explores individual differences in cognitions (i.e., cognitive ability) and social sensitivity (associated with generalized trust and honesty) as predictors of IM detection abilities. Results of a study with 250 individuals suggest ...

"Beyond Words," Yes, But Also Beyond Numbers, Fred L. Bookstein

Animal Sentience: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Animal Feeling

Safina’s fascinating series of fifty separate feuilletons tries to bridge a painful Methodenstreit in contemporary ethology mainly by an accumulation of anecdotes. Some deal with his own dogs, but most derive from reading or conversing with observers of a wider range of social mammals including elephants, wolves, apes, and whales. In spite of the many interruptions by travesties of the academic lifestyle and its literature, there is a point to be made, concerning the centrality of evidence about cooperative behavior styles, especially aspects of child-rearing, for the understanding of “what animals think and feel.” But Safina’s argument would ...

The Field View: An Initial Examination Of An Exploratory Eyewitness Identification Procedure, Melissa Kavetski

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The field view is an identification procedure that was recently acknowledged in a national report assessing eyewitness identifications. However, the field view has not been empirically examined to date. In fact, very little is known regarding the effectiveness of the procedure. Because it is an exploratory procedure - used by police when they do not have a suspect in mind - it is important to determine how the field view fares in comparison to the traditional procedures such as lineups and showups, whereby police do have a suspect. Using a controlled, lab-based methodology, Study 1 examined correct and false identifications elicited from ...

Visual Sexualities: Exploring An Integration Of Art And Sex Therapies, Jillien Kahn

Journal of Clinical Art Therapy

This research explores the potential of integrating art and sex therapies. Three interviews were performed: two with certified art therapists one with a certified sex therapist, in order to understand how each of these professionals approaches issues of sexuality and creative expression within his or her practice. The resulting data was compared within and between each interviewee, resulting three overarching themes through which the challenges regarding this integration can be understood. It was found that there is great potential for an integration of the two therapies, provided clinicians have access to appropriate training, as well as a deeper understanding of ...

Work-Value Profile And Career Success, Chee Wee Koh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Work values, defined as the end states people desire and expect to realize through work, appear to play a role in career success, but the small number of past studies have reported conflicting results, some of which may be attributed to research methodology. Using a person-centered approach to model the conjoint effects of intrinsic and extrinsic work values, the present study inductively investigated the association between work-value profile and career success using a three-panel longitudinal dataset consisting of 905 lawyers from the After the Juris Doctorate (AJD) study. Latent profile analysis identified five work-value profiles: (i) Neither Intrinsic nor Extrinsic ...

Bi-Directional Work-Family Affective Spillover: A Daily Diary Study, Michele Wilk Gazica

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study drew upon the affective events and mood-congruent cognition theories to help explain how one domain influences the other. Affective events are things that happen to which people react emotionally and state affect is a result of those affective experiences. This study proposed that state affect generated in one domain would spillover and influence mood-congruent experiences in the receiving domain. Through an integration of organizational stressor-strain models (e.g., job-resources demand theory) and positive psychology, this study further proposed that positive events are resource-building and will work to prevent or buffer against strain responses to resource-depleting negative events. Finally ...

Open-Minded Religiosity: Investigating The Link Between Religious Commitment And Thinking Style, Carl W. Sallee

Honors Projects

This study examined the relationship between religious commitment and thinking styles. Participants (n = 195) completed self-report measures of religious commitment, contextualism, Authoritarianism-Conservatism-Traditionalism (ACT - conceptualized as social attitudes/beliefs), and Open-Minded Cognition (OMC - conceptualized as a cognitive style). A marginally significant direct link was observed. Furthermore, when controlling for Contextualism, the strength of the negative link between SRF and OMC increased non-significantly. When controlling for ACT, mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between SRF and OMC was more indirect (via shared variance with ACT) than direct. Moderation analyses did not reveal significant results. Results tentatively suggest a negative relationship exists between ...

Beaches, People, And Change: A Political Ecology Of Rockaway Beach After Hurricane Sandy, Bryce B. Dubois

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation uses restoration practices of Rockaway beach post-Hurricane Sandy as a lens to investigate tensions between nature and society on urban coasts. By focusing on this New York City beach, this dissertation aims to examine the interaction between the beach, residents, city and federal agencies, and local environmental grassroots stewards in their response to coastal flooding and erosion. This is an ethnographic case study of Rockaway Beach during the two years (October 2012-October 2014) following Hurricane Sandy. This case study is based on secondary data analysis of interviews with 52 key informants, field-notes from participant observation at community and ...