Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Exploration Of The Social And Economic Factors That Influence The Mental Health Of Lgbtq College Students, Alexandria Mh Fossum

Senior Theses

LGBTQ individuals face a much higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders and mental health issues than their heterosexual, cisgender counterparts. The added academic pressures of college introduce a unique set of challenges that LGBTQ students face. This thesis includes a review of academic literature and data examining the intersections between social isolation, institutional discrimination, and financial insecurity and the effects they have on the mental health outcomes of LGBTQ college students. The paper is accompanied by a documentary consisting of a set of interviews of LGBTQ college students, giving a more personal insight into the multitude of factors that affect their …

Toxic Positivity And Perceptions Of Mental Health, Madeline E. Feltner

Senior Theses

My thesis concerns how toxic positivity, especially the type we commonly see on social media, can affect perceptions and stigma around mental health issues on college campuses. Toxic positivity is the belief that a person should always maintain a positive mindset, no matter what situation they are in, and invalidates negative emotions. Previous research shows that toxic positivity can have a negative effect on mental health, but in this thesis, I study how toxic positivity affects perceptions about others with mental health issues, willingness to interact with those with mental health issues, and self-perception. It is important to research this …

An Analysis Of Appearance-Based Assumptions In Content Creation, Emily Andersen

Honors Projects

The purpose of this project is to uncover assumptions and stereotypes held against college majors through content creation. Is it natural to stereotype and label people? Is it harmful? Most may think that is true, while others may believe that is being judgemental. Can others tell what major a student is by a first glance or a brief conversation? Is it the way they dress, their star sign, or political beliefs? These are all examples of stereotypes I believe could influence an assumption. What kind of thoughts goes into these stereotypes from a sociological perspective? Answers are discovered through a …

“But Everyone Does It!”: A Look Into The Psychosexual Outcomes Of Pornography Use In College-Aged Men And Women, Rose-Sienna Medina

West Chester University Master’s Theses

In the current digital age, pornography is rapidly increasing in popularity amongst emerging adults and college students. Research from a variety of fields have found that consumption of pornography poses neurological, physiological, and psychological threats to emerging adults (Wordecha et al., 2018; Wright et al., 2018). Notably, many consequences of pornography consumption differ across gender (Brown & L’engle, 2016; Fritz & Paul, 2017). College students are more likely than the general public to experience cybersex addiction, with male students significantly more likely to meet the criteria than their female counterparts (Giordano & Cashwell, 2017). A clear link between negative mental …

Evaluation Of Native Advertisement Though Third Person Effect Theory: An Experimental Design, Inga Nafetvaridze

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this research is to determine how people evaluate native advertising in order to figure out how ethical is a native advertising practice. The Third Person Effect Theory was applied to this study. It enables to examine people’s attitude toward native advertising. An experimental design was developed. Participants were exposed to three types of ads to find out if they are able to recognize native ads among other advertisements. The total number of participants was 386. The results were analyzed via ANOVA. The main finding of this study states that individuals perceive the native advertisement in a …

It Is In The Cards: An Analysis Of Greeting Card Selection Through Identity And Personality, Emily Topilow

Honors Projects

In this exploratory study, personal and social identity were analyzed for their effect on how consumers choose greeting cards. Factors, including personality, relationships, and identity will be qualitatively analyzed to understand people’s buying habits. Certain factors, including gender, personality, relationships, type of card, and frequency of receiving and giving cards, will be qualitatively analyzed for frequency. The two theories analyzed were the Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the Identity Theory (IT).

525 college-aged students were surveyed to examine their purchasing habits of greeting cards. The results showed that the identity of the card giver and the identity of the card …

When Social Media Takes Your Money: In-App Shopping And Buyer’S Remorse Study, Catie Jaffe

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

A Meat Paradox: Media's Role In Mitigating The Omnivore's Dilemma, Karyn Camille Lewis

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research is to identify and understand media’s role in meat consumption and a disassociation of meat and its animal of origin. This study questions consumer behavior based on media portrayals of meat products as well as how consumers perceive these portrayals, meat consumption patterns based on media and family influence, and the types and levels of satisfaction (ex: self-esteem or masculinity) consumers receive from meat products.

A quantitative research approach was proposed for this study. The primary research method was a survey among students, faculty and staff at The University of Southern Mississippi. A total of …

The Role Of Facebook In The Exhibition Of Subclinical Narcissistic Traits, Megan Gramm

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several psychological processes motivate the use of Facebook. The correlation between subclinical narcissistic traits and Facebook use has been examined, but the results have been inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Facebook use and the exhibition of subclinical narcissistic traits. The method for this study was meant to improve upon previous studies that used self-reported data by providing researchers with a technique to collect Facebook data from the personal pages of participants, with informed consent. Social learning theory provided the theoretical foundation for this study. This theory posits that new patterns of behavior can …

Binge On: The Phenomenon Of Binge Watching, Rachael Snyder

HON499 projects

This paper looks the phenomenon of binge watching. First, the technological advances that made binge watching possible are discussed. Next, the psychological benefits of watching television are briefly summarized. Finally, the element of shows that were considered the most “binge worthy” are investigated. By looking at what they five most recommend shows to binge watch (Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and Orphan Black) had in common, there is now a better understanding of what makes certain television shows get binge watched. The appeal of these shows plots, characters, and …

The Graphic Side Of Fear: The Effects Of Anti-Tobacco Graphic Threat Appeals, Latasha R. Swanson

Open Access Dissertations

Many public health organizations have proposed and implemented campaigns and policies involving graphic ads or warnings to deter individuals from smoking. The current study evaluated how high-cigarette dependent smokers evaluate these messages compared to low-cigarette dependent smokers using a mixed, 3 x 2 factorial design. A pilot study involving focus groups, interviews, and evaluation questionnaires (N=10) was conducted to classify graphic threat appeals and develop stimulus materials for the primary study. For the primary study, three graphic threat appeal conditions were evaluated by Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) users (N=200). Findings suggested that the graphicness of the …

Data Mining Twitter For Cancer, Diabetes, And Asthma Insights, Kimberly Chulis

Open Access Dissertations

Twitter may be a data resource to support healthcare research. Literature is still limited related to the potential of Twitter data as it relates to healthcare. The purpose of this study was to contrast the processes by which a large collection of unstructured disease-related tweets could be converted into structured data to be further analyzed. This was done with the objective of gaining insights into the content and behavioral patterns associated with disease-specific communications on Twitter. Twelve months of Twitter data related to cancer, diabetes, and asthma were collected to form a baseline dataset containing over 34 million tweets. As …

Improving Online Food Safety Communication: The Role Of Media, Jing Ma

Open Access Dissertations

Food safety is important as foodborne illness outbreaks cause great economic and societal losses. Efforts to protect public health and reduce foodborne illness outbreaks will not be fully effective unless the resulting information is communicated to consumers.

However, food safety communications have not been particularly satisfactory (Worsfold, 2006). If food safety information were more accessible, consumers would be more likely to use it (Worsfold, 2006). In this regard, the Internet presents great possibilities for communicating food safety information to the public. But media’s role has been largely overlooked in existing literature. When the lack of research is combined with consumers’ …

The Effect Of Face-To-Face Versus Computer-Mediated Communication On Interpersonal Outcomes In Getting-Acquainted Situations, Nicole Rae Brandon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

People use technology more today than ever before to self-disclose and form new relationships with others. Successful relationship development is often marked by the presence of positive interpersonal outcomes (i.e., closeness and liking). However, there is contention regarding whether computer-mediated communication (CMC) is as effective at developing positive interpersonal outcomes compared to face-to-face (FtF) communication. CMC is often considered subpar due to the lack of nonverbal cues that can be expressed. Two studies were designed to 1) compare the effect of FtF and CMC platform self-disclosures on closeness and liking in zero-acquaintance situations and 2) explore mediators that might explain …

Toddlers And Technology: An Examination Of How The Digital Surround May Be Related To Prototypic Vocabulary Development And Social Interactions During Play, Hannah Biarnesen Hutcheson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine how the digital technology that surrounds young children may be related to prototypic vocabulary development and Social interactions during play. Twenty-six families in the Northwest Arkansas region with children between 15-36 months of age participated in the study. Thirteen children attended a campus preschool, six children attended a grant-funded local preschool, and seven children, all from the Northwest Arkansas area, were part of an earlier home-based study. The materials for the study included a developmental-technology use questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Archival videotaped play sessions with the seven home-based children utilized a “Little …

A Descriptive Case Study Of Individuals With Presumed Ocular Histoplasmosis Syndrome Utilizing A Facebook Support Group, Lisa Aimee Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes the experiences of people diagnosed with presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome as they participate in an online peer-support group on Facebook. This is a descriptive case study of factors related to adjustment, treatment, emotional distress, access to services, and online peer support. Participants were interviewed and observed, and documents were collected to describe this phenomenon.

Exploring The Influence Of Smartphone Technology Within The Context Of Marriage: An Intervention Study, Joshua Shea Borrelli

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Abstract The introduction of smartphones and their use into the everyday lives of a significantly large population has changed the way people communicate and interact. The purpose of this study is to examine any possible negative or positive effects smart phone use may have on partner satisfaction and couple-communication within a married/partnered couple. Participants were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The constructs of communication and relationship satisfaction were measured through a repeated-measures design. The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) was used to measure relational satisfaction, and the Primary Communication Inventory was used to measure partner communication. …

Framing Responsibility For Bullying: An Ethnographic Content Analysis, Kayla Knight

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to explore ways in which American print news media frame responsibility for adolescent and teen bullying. More specifically, how media portray responsibility for the underlying causes and consequences of bullying, as well as for responding to bullying, are examined. Drawing from media studies and the construction of Social problems literature, the study is guided by two broad research questions, 1) How do American news media frame responsibility for bullying? and 2) What news sources, or "claims-makers," are selected as authorities on bullying in news media articles? Articles published between 2009 and 2013 are …

Noise., Laura Katherine Polaski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My research is in the realm of the psychological, the emotional and way these drives manifest physically. The works in Noise. aims to give a physical representation to the non-physical. Research on Affect Theory and the teachings of Silvan Tomkins were paramount to understanding emotional drives and the ways in which they manifest.

The purpose of this research is to understand how emotions are generated and communicated and to ask if specific emotions can be generated upon viewing inanimate objects. I create abstract figurative sculpture, which imitate emotion that has no specific physicality. These works exist with one foot in …

Companies' Responses To Negative Online Reviews, Claudia L. Ramos

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Past research has revealed that very little research had examined services recovery strategies in the online context. The study investigated different types of companies’ responses to negative online reviews as a service recovery strategy after a service failure. The current research centers on the relationship between one service recovery strategy and three online customer behavioral reactions: post-purchase cognitive dissonance, post-recovery satisfaction and re-purchase intentions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five conditions and were asked to complete a questionnaire that measured cognitive dissonance, post-recovery satisfaction and re-purchase intention scores, as well as demographic items. Results showed that the apology …

Is Maternal Touch Used Referentially?, Rana Abu-Zhaya

Open Access Theses

Early social interactions are highly multimodal and include a wealth of cues (e.g., speech, facial expressions, motion, gestures and touch). Infant-directed speech (IDS) by itself may aid in language development. Touch by itself has been also shown to play an important role in dyadic interactions affecting both the infant and the caregiver. However, little is known about the impact of the combination of these two modes of communication on infant language development. In this thesis, I hypothesize that caregiver touch is provided in synchrony with speech, providing the language-learning infant with cues that may not only help her to find …

Don’T Worry, I Am Fine: A Qualitative Analysis Of Family Communication And Depression In Chinese International Students In The Us, Lan Jin

Open Access Theses

Depression and associated mental health problems are increasingly a critical health issue for Chinese international students in the U.S. (Lyubomirsky, Kasri, & Zehm, 2003; Cheung, 2011; Liu, 2009). Recent studies in different U.S. universities found a 32% to 47% rate for depression symptoms among Chinese international students (Cheung, 2011; Wei et al., 2007). The statistics suggest that Chinese students face a high prevalence of depression problems (Han et al., 2013). To address the depression problems, family communication provides substantial support for Chinese students (Liu, 2009). However, little is known about family communicative practices of this population (Wei et al., 2010). …

Mother's Experience Of Social Media: Its Impact On Children And The Home, Abe Van Hatch

Theses : Honours

With the prevalence and accessibility of social media within the last 15 years it has become possible for children to have constant access to their friends and social networks. It is relatively unknown what impact adopting social media has on children and how mothers interpret this. There are gaps in the literature investigating the pervasive effects of modern technology and what meaning mothers ascribe to their children using social media as a method of connecting with the world. The present research aims to explore this phenomenon by investigating the experiences of mothers who have children that have recently adopted social …

The Mechanisms Of Interpersonal Privacy In Social Networking Websites: A Study Of Subconscious Processes, Social Network Analysis, And Fear Of Social Exclusion, Bryan I. Hammer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With increasing usage of Social networking sites like Facebook there is a need to study privacy. Previous research has placed more emphasis on outcome-oriented contexts, such as e-commerce sites. In process-oriented contexts, like Facebook, privacy has become a source of conflict for users. The majority of architectural privacy (e.g. privacy policies, website mechanisms) enables the relationship between a user and business, focusing on the institutional privacy concern and trust; however, architectural privacy mechanisms that enables relationships between and among users is lacking. This leaves users the responsibility to manage privacy for their interpersonal relationships. This research focuses on the following …

Power Of Speech Styles: A Relational Framing Perspective, Michael Lewis King

Dissertations

This study advances understanding of powerful and powerless language effects by incorporating a relational framing perspective. Relational framing theory (RFT) suggests that when messages are interpreted using a dominance frame, issues regarding persuasion, influence, and control become salient. When exchanges are framed by affiliation, however, issues of liking, attraction, and regard become salient. Power of speech style researchers have instantiated dominance-framed interactions in their experiments primarily, thus leaving affiliation-framed interactions largely ignored. Addressing this gap, this study considered the effects of relational framing differences on participants’ evaluation of speech style variations. Consistent with previous literature and in partial support for …

Attachment And Delayed Gratification In The Technological Age, Susan G. Pomerantz

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Family Members' Support Approaches Toward Veterans Exhibiting Symptoms Of Ptsd: A First Step Toward Validating The Inconsistent Nurturing As Control Theory Scale, Danielle M. Reed

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study was an initial step toward validating a new quantitative measure, the Inconsistent Nurturing as Control Theory (INCT) Scale, designed to quantitatively operationalize the INCT and assess whether functional family members take a controlling, nurturing, or inconsistent support approach to deal with their veteran’s PTSD behavior. Functional family members (88%) indicated that their veteran relative exhibited signs indicative of PTSD, using the PTSD Checklist (PCL-M). The INCT Scale was then used to determine which support approach family members used to deal with their veteran’s behavior. Results indicated that question items on nurturing and controlling yielded .70 or above internal …

More Than Memories? Schema Transference From Media Characters To Real People, Hilary Ray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on whether personality traits and evaluations of television personalities are used to make inferences about new Social interaction partners. It tested the hypothesis that priming schemas of television personalities will bias inferences made about a stranger. The results were mixed. Participants in the experimental condition made more biased inferences about a stranger than did participants in the control condition. This transference was not influenced by participants' parasociability, and methodological limitations prevented conclusive study of the influence of affective evaluations in this effect. Future studies should attempt to increase methodological control and introduce a diverse set of measures …

A Study Of Self-Imposed Silence And Perceived Listening Effectiveness, Cynthia Marroquin-Baldwin

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study examines the affects of self-imposed silence on perceived listening effectiveness. The subjects used in this study were 15 males and 17 females from the McAllen area (n = 32). These subjects were nonsystematically approached at the Lark Community Center/Library to solicit participation in the study. Four tests were performed to test the possible affects that 12 hours of self-imposed silence may have on listening. The independent t-test used to analyze differences in posttest scores between the treatment group and the control group revealed that no significant difference was found. The independent t-test used to analyze differences in pretest …

Making Friends To Last A Lifetime: An Ethnographic Study Of Parasocial Relationships And Soap Opera Characters, Emmalee Elizabeth Haight Pryor

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to build theory about parasocial relationships and to examine what affect, if any, religion had on parasocial relationships. Using qualitative methods, the researcher watched the show three times with five women followed by an in-depth interview. The women chosen were LDS stay-at-home moms who had watched a soap opera for at least a year.
From this data came several surprising findings about religion and soap opera viewing. The women said they did not feel guilty about the content of the shows, rather the time required to watch. This guilt was alleviated by structuring their …