Arts and Humanities Commons^™

An Examination Of The Association Of Religiosity, Purity Culture, And Religious Trauma With Symptoms Of Depression And Anxiety, Kaelyn R. Griffin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While no consistent definition yet exists for religious trauma, religious abuse is typically defined as a misuse of authority by a spiritual leader to coerce, control, or exploit those under their leadership, which may in turn lead to the experience of religious trauma. Numerous studies suggest that experiencing abuse within a religious environment is a both global phenomenon and common experience. The impact of religious abuse has recently gained greater media attention, specifically related to the social and psychological impact of leaving high-cost religious groups (i.e., those with rigid rules or groups from which departure leads to isolation and rejection …

Multiple Approaches To Examining Gender Norms In Romantic Relationships, Carrie Underwood

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Romantic relationships are essential to the human experience, and gender stereotypes are so ingrained they can be automatic. In this dissertation, I address three empirical questions through both quantitative and qualitative research methods, all of which contribute to the growing body of literature on gender norms and romantic relationships. In Chapter 2, I present a mixed-methods study that examines how heterosexual men reason about benevolent sexism. Results revealed themes of equality in the workplace and men’s roles as providers. In Chapter 4 I implemented a two-study research design to understand how heterosexual women and men reason about troubled romantic relationships. …

The Experience Of Self-Coherence: Self-Coherence As The Hub Of All Needs, April Ursula Fox

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Self-coherence as the hub of all needs is a novel proposition made by Carol Dweck (2017), and not yet further explored. While supporting self-coherence with a comprehensive review of its presence within behavioral sciences, Dweck does not dive deeper into it, and offers an invitation for further research of its workings. In this study I respond to that invitation. I design a continuation to her theory. I also expand her theory to include what I have found to be missing, but essential, additional components that cannot be ignored within the context of self-coherence as a master sensor of needs. Finally, …

It’S Not You, It’S Me: Measuring Erotic Self–Focus, Evan Fertel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research suggests the presence of a non-relational aspect of women’s sexuality wherein a focus on oneself may be linked to elevations in sexual desire/arousal. Some theorists have even asserted that women may be, in some ways, their own sexual objects. Building on a previous exploration of what is now termed Erotic Self-Focus (ESF; Fertel, 2015), the present study developed a refined measure of ESF to further assess the validity and nature of this new construct. An exploratory factor analysis revealed four factors: Arousal to Own Body, Self/Own-Gender Focus vs. Partner/Other-Gender Focus, Self-Focused Arousal – Physical, Self-Focused Arousal – Mental. Although …

Is Pristine Inner Experience Linked To Biology? An Examination Of Experience Across The Menstrual Cycle Among Women With Premenstrual Distress, Alek E. Krumm

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The link between mind and biology is intuitively known: We notice changes in our mood and behavior when hungry, in pain, or under the influence of substances. Yet, the specifics of this link—for example, how changes in biology affect directly apprehended conscious experience— are not well known. The present study was an exploratory attempt toward filling that gap by using a state-of-the-art, beeper-driven method for exploring directly apprehended conscious experience (Descriptive Experience Sampling; DES) across one of the most predictable and wellknown biological cycles: menstruation. We screened approximately 300 college women to identify those who reported clinically significant symptoms of …

Exploring The Relation Between Musical And Dance Sophistication And Musical Groove Perception, Samantha R. O'Connell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Listening to groovy music is an enjoyable experience and a ubiquitous human behavior in some cultures. Specifically, many listeners agree that high-groove songs are enjoyable, familiar, and likable compared to low-groove songs. While the pleasurable and dance-inducing effects of musical groove listening seem omnipresent, what is less known is how subjective feelings towards music, individual musical or dance experiences, or more objective musical perception abilities are correlated with the way we hear music with groove. Therefore, the present online study aimed to evaluate how musical and dance sophistication relates to musical groove perception. One-hundred and twenty-four participants completed an online …

Memory And Stereotypes For Lesbian/Gay Characters, Amber Rose Williams

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Stereotype-consistency bias refers to the idea that people tend to remember stereotypical information about others better than non-stereotypical information (Fyock & Stangor, 1994). Limited research has examined how people may use stereotype-consistency bias when recalling information about LGBT characters in narratives (Bellezza & Bower, 1981; Clark & Woll, 1981; McGann & Goodwin, 2007; Snyder & Uranowitz, 1978). This line of research suggests that, instead of genuinely remembering stereotypical information better, participants tended to guess stereotypical answers to questions they do not know. In contrast to those studies, the experiment I conducted for this thesis suggests that heterosexual young adults tend …

Emerging Adults’ Identities, Attitudes, And Orientations Concerning Consensual Non-Monogamy, Amber Kory Stephens

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study considered the connection among aspects of emerging adults’ identities and their relational and sociosexual orientations as well as their attitudes toward consensual nonmonogamy (CNM). Results indicated significant relationships among individuals’ collective and social identity aspects, as dictated in the AIQ-IV, and how emerging adults label their relational orientations (e.g., strictly monogamous, monogamish, open, and polyamorous). Additionally, findings demonstrated that the salience/importance of social categories, roles, and reputations in one's identity influences how they choose to label their relational orientation, their attitudes toward non-monogamy, and their orientation toward uncommitted sex (sociosexual orientation). Discussion, implications and future directions follow.

Sex Worker And Proud: A Phenomenological Study Of Consensual Sex Workers' Lives, Michael Gerald Curtis Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ten consensual sex workers who were currently working in Nevada were qualitatively interviewed in an effort to explore their perceptions of the adult industry. Interviews specifically focused on their experience disclosing their profession to others and the potential effects that it has on their personal relationships, and access to effective treatment. The Moustakas method of phenomenological inquiry was used to analyze data from ten participants who self-identified as direct sex workers. Seven essential themes emerged from this analysis: (1) the adult industry provides professional and personal agency, (2) the industry is often transient, (3) disclosure is an impactful and ongoing …

Sexual Desire Trajectories: Heterosexual Individuals' Perceptions Of The State And Trait Characteristics Of Desire, Caroline Maykut

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Significant theoretical and empirical attention has aimed to classify sexual desire in a way that accounts for its complexities. A recent question to arise from this discussion is whether desire is best conceptualized as a state or a trait. Limited data examine patterns of desire spanning several years, and most data emanate from cross-sectional or short-term follow-up studies. Long-term accounts of desire level variability remain a gap in the literature, as does research inquiring directly about the question of trait desire.

Thirteen heterosexual women and ten heterosexual men, ages 40-63, participated in a semi-structured interview focusing on desire level and …

Experience-Specific And Domain-General Effects On Simple And Complex Meter Processing, Sangeeta Gupta

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Our ability to process rhythmic patterns is constrained by the complexity of its interval structure. The goal of the present study was to explore the cognitive demands and neural mechanisms for processing simple and complex meters, and the extent to which they are modulated by culture-specific experience. The first experiment explored the argument that perception of rhythm is guided by a domain-general ability to process quantity, and that processing simple and complex meter rhythms requires different cognitive strategies. Rhythm perception was assessed by testing listeners’ ability to detect disruptions in simple and complex meter melodies. Proficiency with numerosity judgments was …

Examining The Role Of Supportive Others In Substance Abuse Treatment And Child Welfare, Jessica Marie Urgelles

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Child neglect is a prevalent problem and often co-occurs with parental substance abuse. Mothers are most often the perpetrators of child neglect. The currently available treatment programs appear to be failing to meet the needs of these mothers. Most mothers are not completing treatment, putting them at risk of losing custody of their children. The literature suggests that women may have different risk factors associated with their substance use, as compared to men. Social networks appear to play a particularly important role in the maintenance of women’s substance abuse problems. The role of social networks may be distinct for different …

Possible Benefits Of Playing Music Video Games, Amanda Pasinski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Music video games, such as Rock Band, are an emerging and popular genre of video game that allows non-musicians a taste of what it is like to be a musician. For most people, developing musicianship (or the process of becoming competent with a particular musical instrument) to an expert level is a long and difficult process that can take up to 10 years or over 7,500 hours to complete. Yet musicians tend to outperform non-musicians on a variety of tasks--showing greater motor coordination, better synchronization skills, and better pitch and tempo discrimination--and possibly show differences in related cognitive processes. However, …

Client Selected Music Based Effects On Marital And Couples Therapy, Kevin Matthew Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study was designed to examine the interaction of music-based interventions in the therapeutic process of Martial and Couples Therapy. The use of pre-recorded music was found to be under researched within the literature and created a void within the knowledge that clinicians have about how music might enhance effectiveness of treatment. The inclusion of music in this process is not currently known, which led to this study being conducted. Through a phenomenological lens, the awareness and understanding of how clients react and experience pre-recorded music during the therapeutic process, while still having a selection of options to preserve autonomy, …

The Role Of Music-Specific Representations When Processing Speech: Using A Musical Illusion To Elucidate Domain-Specific And -General Processes, Christina M. Vanden Bosch Der Nederlanden

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

When listening to music and language sounds, it is unclear whether adults recruit domain-specific or domain-general mechanisms to make sense of incoming sounds. Unique acoustic characteristics such as a greater reliance on rapid temporal transitions in speech relative to song may introduce misleading interpretations concerning shared and overlapping processes in the brain. By using a stimulus that is both ecologically valid and can be perceived as speech or song depending on context, the contribution of low- and high-level mechanisms may be teased apart. The stimuli employed in all experiments are auditory illusions from speech to song reported by Deutsch et …

Blurring Boundaries: Mexican-American Border Patrol Agents Performing Border Guard Roles And Experiencing Emotional Labor, Aaron Hockman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As of 2008 the Border Patrol (BP) consisted of an unprecedented Hispanic majority due to heavy recruiting efforts among bilingual Mexican-American populations. Within the Mexico-U.S. border region where opportunities are otherwise limited a career with the BP provides the prospect of upward class mobility. This thesis explores the subjective experiences of seven Mexican-American BP agents from the El Paso Sector, ethnographically examining how they manage emotions to perform border guard roles. I argue that participants' subjective experiences offer insight into the larger structural forces that constrain role performance, the meaning of American identity, and the boundaries that prejudice division over …

Concordance Of Vocational Interest And Efficacy Of Female College Students Pursuing A Traditional Career Path, Priscilla A. Walton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Women make up a considerable portion of the 21st century workforce. Despite the increase in the labor force, the Census Bureau continues to reflect that the majority of women are employed in what are defined as traditionally female occupations (Watson, Quatman & Edler, 2002). Even though the proportion of women in the work force has increased, women continue to be underrepresented in high-paying, high status professions that have been traditionally male dominated (Betz, 1994). Significant research has been devoted to understanding the unique variables which affect women's career choices and behaviors. According to Fitzgerald, Fassinger, and Betz (1995), women's vocational …

Exploring The Morality Of Arthur Miller And Elia Kazan To Show How It Affected Their Work, Friendship And Society, Dale D. Parry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to explore the moral convictions, or the lack of same, in the personal character of Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan and to show how those convictions affected not only their work and personal friendship but society as well. They first met in 1946 when Harold Clurman of the Group Theater passed to Kazan a Miller play that he had read entitled All My Sons. With the success of the play, the two became fast friends and collaborators in profession and ideology. Each had in common the Great Depression, problem fathers, marital instability and Communism. …

The Role Of Metrical Structure In Tonal Knowledge Acquisition, Matthew Rosenthal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Experienced listeners possess a working knowledge of pitch structure in Western music, such as scale, key, harmony, and tonality, which develops gradually throughout childhood. It is commonly assumed that tonal representations are acquired through exposure to the statistics of music, but few studies have investigated potential learning mechanisms directly. In Western tonal music, tonally stable pitches not only have a higher overall frequency of occurrence, but they may occur more frequently at strong than weak metrical positions, providing two potential avenues for tonal learning. Two experiments employed an artificial grammar learning paradigm to examine tonal learning mechanisms. During a familiarization …

The Effects Of Cultural Experience And Subdivision On Tapping To Slow Tempi, Sangeeta Ullal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Our ability to accurately synchronize with rhythmic patterns is constrained by two factors: temporal length and interval structure. By using strategies such as subdivision, we can improve synchronization accuracy at slow tempos, but our ability to utilize subdivisions is constrained by the nature of interval ratios contained in culture-specific subdivision types. Western music falls within a restricted temporal range and its metrical subdivisions contain simple ratios, but Indian music violates these constraints. The present study examines the effects of culture-specific experience on these constraints. American and Indian listeners were asked to perform synchronous tapping to a stimulus with a slow …

Midlife Career Change And Women: A Phenomenological Examination Of The Process Of Change, Terry Ann Bahr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine how fourteen women between the ages of thirty-five and fifty years old experienced the essence of making a midlife career change. Of further interest were the unique dimensions of each participant in their experience of this internal process of change. This study was an exploratory and inductive search for common themes and differences that these women shared throughout their experience of making a midlife career change.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was made by the construction of profile narratives for each participant. Five emerging themes were extracted from the …

Race Stereotypic Crimes And Juror Decision Making: Hispanic, Black, And White Defendants, Joseph Francis Boetcher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A race stereotypic crime is a crime that most people tend to associate with a certain race. This is a type of racial bias that affects juror decision making by undermining the presumption of innocence and lowering the prosecution's burden of proof. Two studies investigated race stereotypic crimes. Study 1 used a new scale to identify race stereotypic crimes for black, Hispanic, and white males. Study 2 used a mock juror paradigm with a realistic stimulus and sensitive measures to focus on the influence of this type of bias on mock juror decision making. Study 1: Participants were 143 undergraduate …