Digital Commons Network^™

Storying The Body : Women's Narratives Through The Lens Of Breast Cancer, Janet A. Griffin

Theses : Honours

What can women's narratives contribute to our understanding of breast cancer and to feminist theories of the body? This thesis explores the meanings women construct to make sense of embodied experiences of breast cancer, and the profound experience of breast loss. Rich contextual data was elicited from in depth, guided conversations with five premenopausal women who have undergone mastectomy. Adopting feminist methodology, biographic-narrative was used to place the body at the heart of inquiry. This thesis explores the personal and theoretical meanings of mastectomy, embedded in the larger story of how these five women experience their breasts, throughout their lives. …

Attributions Of Criminal Responsibility Of Children : An Exploratory Study Of The Role Of Wrongdoer Age, Victim Harm And Perceptions Of Intent And Consequence, James Mccue

Theses : Honours

Recent cases, such as that of James Bulger, have provided anecdotal evidence of children's capacities to commit illegal acts. Currently however, the public's attributions of children who engage in antisocial and criminal behaviour, and whether they should be held criminally responsible for their actions, has received little attention in terms of empirical research. The aim of the present study was to examine these attributions and establish whether they concur with the guidelines for criminal responsibility set down by the Western Australian criminal justice system. Two independent variables were manipulated using vignettes and included the age of the wrongdoer (7, 10 …

Life After Diagnosis : The Social Experience Of Adolescents Diagnosed With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And How They Manage Their Lives, Georgia L. Carragher

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is the most frequently diagnosed developmental disorder in school-age children in Western Australia today. It concerns and frustrates the children and adolescents who are diagnosed with the disorder, their parents, teachers and the general community. In spite of the plethora of research associated with AD/HD, dissension abounds in the community, literature and the media over its diagnosis and the best treatment and response to the disorder. Notwithstanding the body of research very little is known about adolescents' experiences, opinions, needs and problems associated with the disorder as research and treatment regimes are currently determined by adults. The research …

Researching The Public Opinion Environment By Sherry Devereaux Ferguson, Sage, 2000, Pp 296, Price: $30 (Cloth)., Vijay G Vancheswar

IIMB Management Review

Researching the Public Opinion Environment examines theories, systems, and methods for understanding and managing public perceptions that shape governments and corporations. Ferguson emphasizes environmental intelligence systems, research, and continuous feedback as essential tools for navigating rapid change and media scrutiny. The book critiques reliance on media reports alone, arguing that organizations should validate public opinion through surveys, focus groups, and other research techniques. It explains sampling methods, questionnaire design, and analytical tools such as content analysis, Delphi technique, and Q methodology. Ferguson also explores media influence, highlighting concepts like the spiral of silence and third-person effect in public opinion formation.

Teaching My Son To Be A Father: The Plight Of Unmarried Adolescent African American Fathers, Michael George Till

Dissertations

A quantitative research design was utilized to examine and understand the perceptions of fatherhood and manhood held by unmarried African American adolescent fathers. In face-to-face 60-90 minute interviews using a semistructured interview guide developed by the researcher, participants were asked open-ended questions to provide these young men with a voice and an opportunity to express their needs, support, neglect, understanding, and perception of how society views them and its impact on the functioning of the family unit. Using purposeful sampling, 10 unmarried African American adolescent fathers, located in the southwestern area of Michigan, were interviewed for data collection.

Interviews were …

Artificial Tanning Salon Behaviors, Intentions, And Attitudes In Terms Of Sensuousness And Sensation Seeking., Christopher Jonathan Armes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the Theory of Alternative Behavior (Jaccard, 1981), we examined the relationship of warmth sensuousness, physical sensuousness, and sensation seeking to individuals' tanning salon behaviors, intentions, and attitudes among undergraduates at a Southeastern university.

Females, high sensation seekers, those high in warmth sensuousness, and those with darker skin types were more likely to tan. Females were more likely to intend to tan in the next year. Those higher in warmth sensuousness were more likely to intend to tan more than 10 times in the next year. Females and subjects higher in warmth sensuousness had more positive attitudes toward tanning. Significant …

Public Diplomacy And International Broadcasting As Antiterrorism Weapons: Philosophical Dilemmas, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes problematic assumptions in differentiating public diplomacy from international broadcasting as weapons against terrorism with global reach.

Preference And Perceived Danger In Field/Forest Settings, Thomas R. Herzog, Glenn E. Kutzli

Peer Reviewed Articles

The authors investigated preference, perceived danger, and fear for a sample of 70 field/forest settings. Predictor variables included perception-based variables (visual access, penetration,movement ease), information-based variables (mystery, concealment, refuge), and variables thought to intervene between concealment and danger (entrapment, rearview concern). All variables were rated by independent groups. Danger and fear were strongly positively correlated for these settings, but preference and danger had a more modest negative correlation. Factor analysis of the strongly inter-correlated predictor variables yielded two factors, interpreted as Visibility and Locomotor Access. Both factors were positive predictors of preference and negative predictors of danger. Further analyses suggested …

The Black And White Of Profiling: Sniping On The Sniper Case, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article analyzes the construct of profiling in the aftermath of the arrest of two suspects in the recent sniper attacks perpetrated in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

The Influence Of Warning Label Presentation In Memory Recognition Of Aging Adults, Brian J. Call

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Research indicates that hundreds of thousands of people are injured each year as a result of poor communication between medical personnel, warning label information, and consumers when taking over the counter or prescription medication. Typically, as adults age, they are increasingly responsible for remembering the hazards of taking medications. If inadequate information exists in memory in regards to side effects, dosage, and other warnings, the likelihood of improper usage will increase. Because aging adults typically have a reduction in cognitive resources, it was hypothesized that older adults would require the aid of additional warning information to assist in the retrieval …

The Effectiveness Of An Augmented Reality Learning Paradigm, Brian Valimont

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

For decades the learning and training community has searched for a means that will incorporate the ever-growing body of research into everyday practice. While simulation and virtual reality dominate the community, the lack of real world cues in some systems and expense of others has imposed many limitations on these methods. Augmented reality (AR) incorporates computer-generated images overlaid onto real world objects. Although this technology seems to present distinct advantages over present mediums, it has yet to be determined if AR is effective for intentions of knowledge acquisition. The purpose of this study is to determine if augmented reality is …

An Empirical Analysis Of The Effect Of The Need For Closure On Materiality Thresholds Of Auditors, Cynthia M. Daily

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify the strengths of a specific motivator for judgment and decision-making, referred to as “need for closure” and determine how the strength of that motivator affects materiality judgments of auditors.

The extent to which auditors seek and process information prior to forming a judgment can have important consequences in the conduct of an audit. In this regard, psychology researchers have identified a personality characteristic—a motive for judgment and decision making—that influences the decision making process. This motive, referred to as the need for closure, pertains to the desire of individuals to clear …

The Role Of Trust, Leader-Member Exchange, And Organizational Justice In Employee Attitudes And Behaviors: A Laboratory And Field Investigation, Rudolph Joseph Sanchez

Dissertations and Theses

The study of interpersonal relationships continues to be a major focus of theory and research in a wide array of disciplines. The present research examined one of the most prevalent and significant interpersonal relationships in the workplace context—the dyadic relationship between a supervisor and a subordinate. This research examined the relationships between trust, quality of the leader-member exchange relationship (LMX; a measure of the quality of the dyadic relationship), perceived organizational justice, and several employee attitudes and behaviors that are important to individual workers and the organizations in which they work.

Data were collected in both laboratory and field settings. …

The Effects Of Communication Modality On Teamwork Processes, Thomas D. Fletcher

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Since the onset of the digital age, organizations have been able to make use of teams of individuals distributed geographically to remain competitive. While strides have been made to understand the effectiveness of collocated teams, research has yet to sufficiently explore the effects of emerging technologies on team processes and effectiveness. A laboratory study, where dyads were asked to create a spreadsheet by following a set of explicit instructions (i.e., a psychomotor task), was conducted to manipulate the communication modalities most commonly used between collaborators (i.e., face-to-face vs. audio) and compare the effects of adding a shared workspace application. The …

Differences In Perception And Number Of Incidents Of Sexual Harassment Among College Students In The United States And The Federal Republic Of Germany, Antonia Von Tobiesen

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to determine the difference between American and German students in perception and frequency of sexual harassment. The participants were female Old Dominion University psychology undergraduates and psychology students from the Universitaet Freiburg. A survey containing the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire {SEQ), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and modified questions from Gutek's (1985) Main Questionnaire (Women's Version) was used. The survey was designed to reveal sexual harassment experiences in the work environment or in the university setting, while measuring the effect of the experiences on self-esteem and the students' reactions to the incidents. The results indicated that …

9/11 Stress About Coping With 9/11 Stress, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies paradoxes and conceptual difficulties with behavioral scientists and expert advice on coping with 9/11-related stress.

The Arduous Path To Brand Loyalty, B S Bhatia, Anupam Bawa

IIMB Management Review

Brand loyalty is a highly sought after goal. But how do some of the commonly used marketing strategies fare vis-à-vis this goal? B S Bhatia and Anupam Bawa explored the relationship of nine elements of marketing strategy — market share, competitive strategy, pricing strategy, promotion scheme, advertisement, perceived level of advertising, media used for advertising, factors influencing first purchase and type of distribution outlet used — to brand loyalty. Data was collected from 300 households, both rural and urban, belonging to all income groups, in two districts of Punjab and in Chandigarh. The products included in the scope of the …

Celibacy And The Child Sexual Abuse Crisis, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Celibacy has received a great deal of media attention recently due to the well-publicized sexual abuse crisis in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. The Boston Globe reported in January 2002 that a Roman Catholic priest had sexually abused 138 children over 30 years as a parish priest and that religious superiors including Cardinal Bernard Law knew about the sexual abuse allegations and did nothing to stop them. After national and international media began to investigate these and other allegations of child sexual abuse committed by priests, within just a few months approximately 255 American priests including several bishops were accused …

The Nature And Scope Of Intra-Cultural Variation On Psychological Dimensions, Anu Realo, Jüri Allik

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Much of the research in cross-cultural psychology is done using countries (national cultures) as main units of comparison, disregarding other important characteristics of the participants such as their ethnicity, language, religious or territorial affiliation. Thus, despite the fact that there exist clearly distinguishable sub-cultures within many countries or national cultures, they are often regarded as uniform and homogenous entities in cross-cultural research. In many cases, as we will argue in this paper, such approach is rather justifiable. In doing so, however, one should always be aware of large intra-cultural diversity which can be found in many countries all around the …

Special Article: Recommendations For Optimal Personnel Security In The Cyberworld, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article considers the social construction of recommendations for personnel security in the context of a global cyberworld.

The Ahimsa Acculturation Scale: A New Measure Of Acculturation For Adolescents In A Multicultural Society, C. Anderson Johnson, Paula Palmer, Jennifer B. Unger, Peggy Gallaher, Sohaila Shakib, Anamara Ritt-Olson

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Acculturation has been associated with adolescent health-risk behaviors. Most acculturation scales are inappropriate for adolescent surveys because they are too long, are not applicable to differing ethnic groups, or are language-based only. A brief, multidimensional, multicultural acculturation measure for adolescents was developed. Sixthgrade students (N = 317) in Los Angeles completed that scale and other measures of acculturation. The Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA) generates four subscores: United States Orientation (Assimilation), Other Country Orientation (Separation), Both Countries Orientation (Integration), and Neither Country Orientation (Marginalization). Three of the subscales were correlated with the subscales of a modified …

Social Intelligence: Social Skills Competence And Emotional Intelligence In Gifted Adolescents, Lisa Corso

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Two schools of thought diverge into an ongoing debate as regards to the social intelligence of gifted youth. One view holds that the gifted are often maladjusted (Chronbach, 1960; Hollingworth, 1942). The contrary view is that they are more likely to be well adjusted, with overall above average social and emotional intelligence (Allen, 2000; Chesser, 2001; Kihlstrom & Cantor, 2000; Neihart, 1999). The current research is consistent with views supporting enhanced overall social and emotional intelligence of gifted youth. Some researchers have argued that emotional intelligence and social skills competence are subsets of social intelligence (Chesser, 2000; Greenspan, 1979; Kihlstrom …

The Role Of Implicit Racial Attitudes And Universal Orientation In Cross-Racial Face Recognition, Gordon Campbell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The "other-race" effect refers to the common observation that individuals are better at remembering faces of their own race than faces of another race. The relevance of the "other-race" effect to social interaction between people of different races and eyewitness identification of criminal suspects has spurred much research into uncovering the nature of the asymmetry between recognition of own- and otherrace faces. So far, however, many attempts to consistently demonstrate factors that contribute to the "other-race" effect have failed. One of the factors that may play a role in the "other-race" effect, but has yet to be shown to do …

Encouraging Depth Rather Than Surface Processing About Cultural Differences Through Critical Incidents And Role Plays, Richard Brislin

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Intercultural interactions will increase in the future given international business ventures, immigration patterns, recognition of minority group rights in various countries, and other social changes. People can prepare themselves by participating in formal educational and training programs that deal with understanding cultural differences and with communication across cultural boundaries. One approach to education and training is to analyze critical incidents that depict people in intercultural encounters that involve a misunderstanding or a difficulty. In addition to identifying exact reasons for the difficulties, people can also learn about research-based concepts that assist in understanding many other intercultural interactions they are likely …

Effect Of Employment On Generativity In Married Mothers, Tracy Sierra Dern

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Generativity is Erikson's seventh stage of psycho social development in his life cycle theory, but he postulates different ways of achieving generativity for males and females. Erikson proposed that a woman achieves a sense of generativity from raising a family. However over the last twenty years social roles have changed and there is an increasing number of women developing careers. It is important to determine whether the role of employment has an effect on generativity in women. This study had ten women participants: five married with children, homemakers and five married with children, professionals. Using a semi-structured interview, the·participants shared …

What Questions Arise When Studying Cultural Universals In Depression? Lessons From Abnormal Psychology Textbooks, Junko Tanaka-Matsumi, Robert Chang

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

We examined 70 abnormal psychology textbooks published from 1920s to the present to identify consistent cross-cultural themes with regard to human depressive experiences over time and across regions of the world. The cultural and cross-cultural literature on abnormality and depression, in particular, has contributed to widening the scope of abnormal psychology textbooks over time. However, the texts are almost entirely dependent on Western diagnostic categories, particularly with regard to definitions of depression. Within the Western classification framework, authors of abnormal psychology textbooks have increasingly recognized the role of culture in depressive experiences and their communication. On the basis of our …

Culture, Psychology, And Education, David Matsumoto

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

In my view, the study of culture provides three main contributions to our understanding of human behavior and mental processes. First there is great knowledge to impart about cultural similarities and differences in behavior, and these form the basis for improving psychological theories. Second the study of culture is a prime example of critical thinking in the field, as cross-cultural research begs the question about whether our notions of truth and psychological principles are applicable to people beyond those whom were studied. Third research on intercultural adjustment provides us with clues about possible psychological constructs that may be universally necessary …

The Personality Profile Of Al-Qaida Leader Osama Bin Laden, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Osama bin Laden, founder and leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.

Bin Laden’s primary personality patterns were found to be Ambitious/exploitative and Dauntless/dissenting, with a secondary Distrusting/suspicious orientation, and subsidiary Dominant/controlling and Conscientious/dutiful features.

Ambitious individuals are bold, competitive, and self-assured; they easily assume leadership roles, expect others to recognize their special qualities, and often act as though entitled. Dauntless individuals are bold, courageous, and tough; minimally constrained by the norms of society; routinely engage …

The Personality Profile Of September 11 Hijack Ringleader Mohamed Atta, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of a posthumous, indirect assessment of the personality of Mohamed Atta, apparent ringleader in the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Mohamed Atta was collected from media reports in the one-month period following the attack and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the …

Breastfeeding And The Supportive Workplace: Integration Of Women's Productive And Reproductive Lives, Rebekah A. Cardenas

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Although authorities advocate breastfeeding for at least six months as the ideal form of infant nutrition, employed mothers may experience barriers to breastfeeding. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examined the relationship between maternal employment, workplace support, and breastfeeding duration. In general, it was predicted that paid employment following childbirth would have a negative impact on breastfeeding duration. In addition, existence of workplace support such as flexibility, childcare, and/or healthcare benefits was predicted to positively impact breastfeeding durations as well as job satisfaction upon returning to work. Hierarchical linear regression analysis offered support for some …