Digital Commons Network^™

When Empathy Is Not Enough: A Reflection On The Self-Experience Of Black Boys In Public Spaces, Danjuma Gibson

CTS Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

This project explores the self-experiences of Black boys in public spaces, primarily in Chicago. Given the plethora of negative media attention placed on violence in the city and on violent encounters with law enforcement, this project asks how Black boys can experience themselves in a life-giving way when so many negative images and stereotypes denigrate their humanity. The author introduces the concepts of group-level racial delusion and demonic transference. The former term suggests a psychological split occurring at the societal level that historically has allowed emotional and physical violence to be disproportionately and callously inflicted on Black boys in public …

Understanding The Relationship Between Anti-Transgender Bias, Non-Affirmation, And Post-Traumatic Stress: A Model Of Internalized Transphobia-Mediated Post-Traumatic Stress., Sebastian Mitchell Barr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transgender people’s increased risk for negative mental health outcomes, when compared to cisgender peers or the general public, has been well documented in the psychological literature. Researchers have begun to establish empirical support for a relationship between anti-transgender bias, non-affirmation of gender identity, internalized transphobia, and other transgender-specific minority stressors. Although little work has explored the mechanisms of this relationship, some psychologists have proposed conceptualizing these factors as potentially traumatic experiences and understanding the poor mental health outcomes as manifestations of complex post-traumatic stress. In this dissertation, I examine whether there is empirical support for this framework by evaluating the …

Exploring Temperament In Beluga Whale Calves (Delphinapterus Leucas), Beri Brown

Dissertations

Studies of personality and temperament in humans span many disciplines, although animal research is still relatively undeveloped. Research investigating stable individual differences in marine mammals has been limited, and to date there have not been any studies with beluga whales. As an ongoing longitudinal study, seven beluga calves, housed at SeaWorld San Antonio, were videotaped throughout their first two years of life. Four videos were selected from archived video recordings for each calf from the following nine phases: newborn phase (month 1), Q1 (month 2-3), Q2 (month 4-6), Q3 (month 7-9), Q4 (month 10-12), Q5 (month 13-15), Q6 (month 16-18), …

Bumbling In The Dark: The Effect Of The Dark Triad, Online Dating, And Gender On Risky Sexual Behaviors, Rebecca Boudreau

Student Theses

The Dark Triad is used to describe three distinct yet related personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, which share several characteristics such as manipulation, exploitation, emotional coldness, and lack of empathy. The Dark Triad has been associated with several negative behaviors including infidelity and risky sexual behavior, however most of the current research focuses only on males high on the Dark Triad traits. The present study seeks to expand the literature by studying how the Dark Triad traits and online dating usage relate to the composite score of risky sexual behaviors. Further, we seek to examine if gender moderates this …

Burning Community Integration And Disability, Christopher Shane Brace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with anxiety and depression have always been marginalized and stigmatized. Individuals with “hidden” disabilities are encouraged by society to keep them hidden, or face ridicule and persecution. Society decreases their sense of self-worth, and self-efficacy by destroying any perception of normalcy. Social support resources are vital for individuals with anxiety and depression’s continued mental health. As time goes on the individuals experience a decrease in the amount of available resources, at the same time the need for them increases. These individuals need a way to quickly replenish their social resources and the Burning Man regional network creates a unique …

Exploring Agentic Treatments For Anxiety And Depression, Tyler H. White

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Agency and mental illness are hypothesized to be related. Agency may contribute to mental illness (specifically, anxiety and depression) by impacting the amount of choices in one’s life (LeMoyne & Buchanan, 2011; Schwartz, 2004). Effective treatment for the mentally ill targets causes of mental disorders, so if agency is related to mental illnesses, then it logically should be incorporated in treatment. Agentic treatment, which consists of any form of treatment that explicitly acknowledges the importance and the reality of agency, has been shown to be effective (Myers, 2016; Patterson et al., 2016; Slife, 2004). Effective agentic treatment includes autonomy groups …

The Constituent Women Of Violence Against Women, Wilmer Morales, Jocelyn Martinez, Samantha Amaro

Violence Against Women conference

The Violence against Women Initiative is a very important framework in a time in which women need a platform to be able to discuss the problems and inequality they face in society. Throughout history women have been demonized, abuse, and treated unfairly, which has affected the way women respond to acts of violence. However, recent events have allowed women to gain the courage to stand against acts including verbal, physical, emotional, and psychological abuse. Society, in general, has to be educated and be made aware of how to respond and meticulously act during events that violate the rights of women, …

Fathers’ Cortisol And Testosterone In The Days Around Infants’ Births Predict Later Paternal Involvement, Patty X. Kuo, Julia M. Braungart-Rieker, Jennifer E. Burke Lefever, Mallika S. Sarma, Molly O'Neill, Lee T. Gettler

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Human paternal behavior is multidimensional, and extant research has yet to delineate how hormone patterns may be related to different dimensions of fathering. Further, although studies vary in their measurement of hormones (i.e., basal or reactivity), it remains unclear whether basal and/or reactivity measures are predictive of different aspects of men’s parenting. We examined whether men’s testosterone and cortisol predicted fathers’ involvement in childcare and play with infants and whether fathers’ testosterone and cortisol changed during fathers’ first interaction with their newborn. Participants were 298 fathers whose partners gave birth in a UNICEF-designated “baby-friendly” hospital, which encourages fathers to hold …

Fatherhood And Psychobiology In The Philippines: Perspectives On Joint Profiles And Longitudinal Changes Of Fathers’ Estradiol And Testosterone, Lee T. Gettler, Patty X. Kuo, Sonny Agustin Bechayda

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Research on the psychobiology of partnering and fathering has focused on testosterone (T), oxytocin, and prolactin (PRL) as mechanisms that potentially mediate life history trade-offs related to those roles. Less is known about other hormones that might be responsive to life history transitions and implicated in fathering, such as estradiol (E2). We examined how E2 changed during the transition to marriage and fatherhood, its correlation with fathers’ caregiving, and its joint within-individual production with other hormones (T, PRL). Methods: Data were collected from a total of 913 Filipino men (aged 25.9 years ± 0.3 SD at follow-up) enrolled in …

Cultural Variations And Socio-Ecocultural Understanding On Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Awang Rozaimie

The Qualitative Report

Cross-cultural adaptation is a challenging process while sojourning abroad. The inability to understand cultural variation triggers psychological, physical or behavioral difficulties and maladjustment or misunderstanding. Socio-ecocultural underestimation is the root of intercultural resistance, stereotyping, ethnocentrism and racist sentiments among sojourners. Most of the cross-cultural adjustment studies have quantitatively demonstrated factors and predictors of adaptation success. However, the specific forms of cultural variation that impacted sojourning adaptability is blindly explained. Hence, this phenomenological paper autoethnographically observed the socio-ecocultural environment while sojourning in New Zealand. The findings highlighted that cultural awareness and sensitivity assist sojourner’s cross-cultural adaptability due to the socio-ecocultural variation.

Prison-Based Dog Training Programs: Standard Protocol, Tyler M. Han, Erin Flynn, Joseph Winchell, Emily Gould, Jaci Gandenberger, Dana Barattin, Philip Tedeschi, Kevin N. Morris

Animal Training and Obedience Collection

Across the United States, the number of prison-based dog training programs (PDPs) has increased substantially over the past several years. Currently, there are approximately 255 PDPs across 47 states that operate in a variety of correctional settings; however, there is little information available on how to successfully develop and implement a PDP. As a result, the research team from the Institute for Human-Animal Connection (IHAC) has developed a standard protocol to help guide PDP development and implementation.

This report identifies common practices of PDPs and incorporates both general and context-specific recommendations that were gathered from interviews with PDP staff, relevant …

Demographics Regarding Belief In Non-Human Animal Sentience And Emotional Empathy With Animals: A Pilot Study Among Attendees Of An Animal Welfare Symposium, Amelia Cornish, Bethany Wilson, David Raubenheimer, Paul Mcgreevy

Societal Attitudes Toward Animals Collection

Attitudes to animals are linked to beliefs about their ability to experience pain and suffering, their cognition, and their sentience. Education and awareness-raising play a pivotal role in increasing society’s consideration of non-human animal welfare. The current pilot study explores the attitudes towards animal welfare among a unique population of people who attended an animal welfare symposium at the University of Sydney. It involved administration of a validated questionnaire that assessed attitudes to animals; specifically exploring participants’ (n = 41) beliefs about the sentience of animals and their emotional empathy with animals. The resultant data revealed significant associations between participants’ …

White-Identifying Populations' Perceptions Of Muslims In The United Kingdom And United States, Ashley Gilliam

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Much of Western society is engaging with complex ideas and events such as multiculturalism, immigration, assimilation, and terrorism. The United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) are relevant to this larger discussion considering the 2016 finalization of the ‘Brexit’ decision to leave the European Union and the recent travel restriction policies in the US targeting some countries with Islam as majority religious affiliation. Given these events, my larger research question addresses how majority populations view minority groups. Several studies have provided a view of how Muslims in the West form their own identities (Hopkins, 2011; Modood & Ahmad, 2007; …

Integrated Mental Health Care In Education For Syrian Refugees: An Exploratory Study, Emily Goldstein

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Trauma-inducing experiences during conflict can significantly impede the ability to function and effectively learn in the classroom; thus, it is essential to integrate mental health services into the school setting for refugee populations. This study investigated the state of integrated mental healthcare for Syrian refugees in Jordan by surveying Syrian students on their attitudes towards seeking mental health and interviewing educators on their classroom practices. The scope of the study was extremely limited, as data was collected on only 21 students and 5 educators in one school and a number of biases could have skewed the results. It was found …

Anti-Queer Microaggressions Towards Queer Black Men, Camisha D. Fagan, Anna Smedley-López

McNair Poster Presentations

Microaggressions are reoccurring derogatory messages that degrade and/ or discredit one’s identity. While invisible and unknown to many, they remain visible and apparent to those impacted by them. The research questions for this project are: (1) What microaggressions do Queer Black men experience within larger society? (2) To contrast with larger society, what microaggressions do Queer Black men experience within Black communities? By conducting focus groups, I will examine the intersectional microaggressions that Queer Black males experience in their own community, as well as document microaggression that they experience in larger society. After conducting my focus groups, I will be …

Arriving: Expanding The Personal State Sequence, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Communication

When arriving to a social encounter, how and when can a person show how s/he is doing/feeling? This article answers this question, examining personal state sequences in copresent openings of casual (residential) and institutional (parent-teacher) encounters. Describing a regular way participants constitute – and move to expand – these sequences, this research shows how arrivers display a non-neutral (e.g., negative, humorous, positive) personal state by both (i) deploying interactionally-timed stance-marking embodiments that enact a non-neutral state, and (ii) invoking a selected previous activity/experience positioned as precipitating that non-neutral state. Data demonstrate that arrivers time their non-neutral personal state displays calibrated …

How To Begin, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Communication

This article introduces the special issue of Research on Language and Social Interaction organized around the theme “Opening and Maintaining Face-to-Face Interaction.” The contributions to this special issue collectively consider “how to begin” – either a new encounter, or a new sequence after a lapse in conversation. All articles analyze naturally-occurring, videorecorded episodes of casual and/or institutional copresent interaction using multimodal conversation analytic methods. Though the opening phase of a face-to-face encounter may elapse in a matter of seconds, this article shows it to house a dense universe of phenomena central to sustaining our human sense of self and our …

A Neurotheological Approach To Spiritual Awakening, Andrew B. Newberg, Mark R. Waldman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A neurotheological approach suggests an analysis of spiritual awakening experiences by combining phenomenological data with neuroscience. This paper presents a synthesis combining information on the thoughts, feelings, and experiences associated with spiritual awakening experiences and neurophysiological data, primarily from neuroimaging studies, to help assess which brain structures might be associated with these experiences. Brain structures involved with emotions correlate with emotional responses while areas of the brain associated with the sense of self appear to correlate with the key feature of these experiences in which an individual loses the sense of self and feels intimately connected with God, universal consciousness, …

Rigor In The Multicultural Psychology Of The Whole Person: Embracing The Challenge, Glenn Hartelius, Marie I. Thouin-Savard, Courtenay Richards Crouch

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

n/a

Re-Imagining Embodiment And The Self In People With Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries: A Narrative Approach, Namitha Kumar, Sangeetha Menon

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Traumatic spinal cord injuries from accidents cause physical and social suffering, pain and loss. After an initial period of physical and psychological trauma, the individual begins to cope and successfully crosses over. Crossing over as a term used in the spinal cord injury register refers to positive adaptation—physical, psychological and social. This paper is based on a qualitative narrative study of the lived experiences of individuals negotiating spinal cord injuries in the Indian context wherein the disability is no longer the location of inability, tragedy, pain, and loss, but one of creative possibilities. As individuals re-imagine embodiment and self, a …

Exploring The Links Between Early Life And Young Adulthood Social Experiences And Men’S Later Life Psychobiology As Fathers, Mallika S. Sarma, Patty X. Kuo, Sonny Agustin Bechayda, Christopher W. Kuzawa, Lee T. Gettler

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Early life cues of environmental harshness and unpredictability have been hypothesized to influence within-species variation in the timing of life history transitions and the dynamics of reproductive strategies, such as investments in mating and parenting. It is also believed that adolescence is an influential developmental period for male reproductive strategies, with those who achieve greater social and sexual success during that period maintaining faster life history strategies into adulthood. If correct, such early life and post-pubertal experiences could also help shape the psychobiological pathways that mediate reproductive strategies, including the well-documented physiological shifts that occur when some men become parents. …

Adults’ Perceptions Of Children With Mental Illness Labels Who Tell Truths And Lies, Jessica Lynn Mccurdy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined whether children’s truth- and lie-telling is perceived differently by adults when the children have mental illness labels (MIL). Participants (N= 432) read a vignette and watched a video from each of four veracity/motivation (i.e., prosocial truth, antisocial truth, prosocial lie, antisocial lie) and child label (i.e., control, ADHD, depression, asthma) conditions. After each video/vignette combination, participants rated their impressions of and responses towards the child. Participants also completed measures of their implicit and explicit attitudes towards mental illness. The results indicated participants had more negative perceptions of children they rated higher on dangerousness and lower …

Parents Frame Childhood For The World To See In Digital Media Postings, Aysenur Benevento

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With the wellbeing of children being at the center of contemporary media discourse (Livingstone & Bovill, 2013), developmental studies are ever more challenged to understand both children’s and adults’ behavior in online spaces. Parents and children are involved in the human development process in complementary ways (Johansson, 2010; Uprichards, 2008) while using media platforms. As the development and use of innovative media technology are accelerating at a fast pace, theory and methods for analyzing uses of digital media for human development have lagged behind. This study examines adults’ postings of photos of their children on social media and offers a …

A Closed Mouth Gonna Get You Nothin’: How Conflict Is Handled After Diversity And Inclusion Training, Enrico E. Manalo

Graduate Masters Theses

Diversity and Inclusion training is often used in organizations to engage with the increasing demographic diversity in the United States. However, many organizations continue to base their trainings and initiatives on a paradigm which was primarily motivated to prevent litigation, rather than to ensure economic opportunity for all. Over time, such Diversity efforts failed in many documented instances to ensure such opportunities and in fact, created a host of unwanted side-effects, such as employee turnover, job dissatisfaction, and misconceptions regarding the soundness of Diversity and Inclusion efforts.

However, a number of organizations have undertaken Diversity and Inclusion efforts in earnest. …

Transgender And Racial Identities Negotiation Processes Of Transgender Asians, Asian Americans, And Pacific Islanders : A Transcendental Phenomenological Examination., Jayden Thai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While the field of transgender (trans) research is vastly growing and expanding, little is known about the process in which trans Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) individuals experience, navigate, and negotiate their trans and API cultural identities. The aims of this study were to: 1) examine the navigation and negotiation process for trans API individuals related to their cultural identities and values; 2) enhance, enrich, and diversify existing trans and API literature by generating foundational and complex understanding of trans API identity processes; and 3) challenge hegemonic narratives regarding trans API individuals’ lived experiences. Moustakas’ (1994) transcendental phenomenological qualitative methodology …

Fake News: Is Truth Really Under Attack?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

Attacking fake news may be as fake as fake news. Or so suggests Western epistemology.

The Initiation Of Heroism Science, Scott T. Allison

Heroism Science

In this article I describe the nascent field of heroism science, as part of a broader movement for the promotion of heroism in 21st century societies. I identify several markers of its emergence and offer reasons why the science is now coalescing into an established and autonomous field of inquiry. Moreover, I discuss the importance of maintaining a dynamic symbiotic relationship between the research and activist wings of the heroism movement. The aims and scope of heroism science are discussed, and reasons are offered for producing a science that is inclusive, transdisciplinary, and risk-taking. I examine all these issues within …

From Rock Art To Vertical Forests, Hall, Gill

Journal of Conscious Evolution

No abstract provided.

Expectations For Dog Ownership: Perceived Physical, Mental And Psychosocial Health Consequences Among Prospective Adopters, Lauren Powell, Debbie Chia, Paul Mcgreevy, Anthony L. Podberscek, Kate M. Edwards, Brendon Neilly, Adam J. Guastella, Vanessa Lee, Emmanuel Stamatakis

Human-Companion Animal Relationships Collection

Dog ownership is popular worldwide, with most human-dog dyads forming successful attachment bonds. However, millions of dogs are surrendered to animal shelters annually, possibly due to mismatches between owner expectations and the realities of dog ownership. The aim of the current study was to explore the benefits and challenges people expect from dog ownership and how these expectations vary with previous ownership history. An Australian-wide sample of 3465 prospective adopters completed a self-administered online questionnaire about the physical, mental and psychosocial health benefits and challenges they associated with dog ownership. Among the potential benefits, respondents expected increased walking (89%), happiness …

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: A Tool For Veteran Reassimilation, Gino L. Collura

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates veteran participation in the martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) as a tool of reassimilation for veterans suffering from anxiety, stress and/or combat PTSD associated with military deployment. From the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn, challenges associated with U.S. Veteran assimilation and reintegration have been increasing. Coping with long term displacement, trauma, loss, and making sense of identity shifts between being an active duty service member and civilian can often present challenges when navigating back into civilian life.

By utilizing a neuroanthropological lens, ethnographic inquiry, surveys, semi-structured interviews, and …