Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Experiences Of Colorism For South Asian Women: A Qualitative Study, Aishwarya Nambiar

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Research has limitedly explored how colorism shapes the mental health and well-being of South Asian women across the diaspora. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenology study was to understand how South Asian women experience colorism and how these experiences shape their mental health and well-being. A total of 14 participants were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews and an artifact symbolizing experiences of colorism served as the methods of data collection. Critical Race Theory and Womanism were employed as the theoretical framework and the lens in which data was analyzed. A total of six main themes emerged in the study. The themes and …

A Qualitative Investigation Into The Ethnic And Racial Identity Development Of Counseling Students, Philippa Chin

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This transcendental phenomenological study sought to understand the experiences of graduate counselor students during the development of their ethnic and racial identity (ERI). The research questions for the study were: How do counseling students experience ethnic and racial identity development during their graduate program and what is the meaning made by graduate students in their experiences with ERI development in their graduate program? Participants were recruited from a CACREP accredited graduate counseling program and the purposive sampling technique was used to identify those who have experience with the phenomena. In-depth, open ended questions were utilized to gather comprehensive descriptions of …

Examining Racial Differences In Psychophysiological Responses To Exposure To Police Brutality, Autumn Scarborough

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

​​​​​Despite the prevalence of police brutality videos online, research examining the effects of exposure to such videos is extremely limited. The current work examined racial differences (among both participant and victim) in psychophysiological responses to videos of police brutality. Over the course of three sessions, participants (total N = 56) responded to questionnaires measuring attitudes toward police legitimacy, trait empathy, and justification of police use of force. EEG activity was recorded while participants watched four short videos depicting real-life incidents of excessive police use of force (two with Black victims and two with White victims). We examined mu suppression, commonly …

The Role Of Stereotype And Moral Values In Predicting Victim Blaming, Jihye Choi

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Exposing participants to a victim with different racial identities (Asian American vs. African American vs. White American) under two different types of misfortunes (poverty vs. disease), the present study aimed to find whether the victim-blaming patterns differ depending on the victim’s race and whether the difference in victim-blaming tendency could be explained by the interaction between pre-existing stereotypes and situational relevance.

Self-Stigma And Problematic Alcohol Use: Risk Factor, Protective Factor, Or Both?, Victoria Olegovna Chentsova

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

While research has examined the effect of stigma from others towards individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUD), few studies have examined the relationship between perceived self-stigma related to AUD and corresponding engagement with alcohol among non-clinical samples. Present Study. The present studies examined the relationships between perceptions of self-stigma of AUD, proximity to others with AUD, and alcohol use behaviors and outcomes. Methods. In Study 1, participants (n = 3,169; 73.9% female) were college students within the U.S. recruited to participate in an online survey on substance use including questions on AUD self-stigma, alcohol use behaviors and negatives alcohol use …

The Faces Of Substance Use: A Reverse Correlation Analysis Of Perceptions Of Alcohol And Cannabis Use, Madison Hallie Colby

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Alcohol and cannabis are some of the most ubiquitous substances on college campuses. While the reason for use varies between each individual, from social lubricant to sleeping aid, nearly half of higher-education students endorse alcohol and/or cannabis use in the last month. Despite this popularity, there is still a deeply ingrained level of stigma around substance use and substance use disorders and people who use substances or struggle with substance use disorders are subject to a litany of damaging perceptions, such as being deemed violent, unpredictable, weak, and untrustworthy.. Most research on the stereotypic thinking surrounding substance use focuses on …

Alcohol-Related Craving And Response Inhibition: Examining Effects Of Mindfulness Among Binge Drinking And Cannabis Using College Students, Eleftherios Mehael Hetelekides

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The present study aimed to examine several research questions related to alcohol craving, state mindfulness, and response inhibition in binge drinking college students who do and do not use cannabis. Before and after listening to a mindfulness or a control audio clip, participants (N = 30) completed a cued Go/NoGo task. EEG activity was measured throughout, and alcohol craving was assessed before and after each task. We examined whether P300 amplitude would differ as a function of the within-subjects variables Block (1 vs. 2), Target (Go vs. NoGo), and Cue (Alcohol vs. Neutral) of each task. We also examined if …

Transpersonal In Counselor Education: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Unity Nova Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The aim of this qualitative study was to capture the experiences of master's levelcounselors-in-training who take transpersonal counseling courses. Instructors of such courses aim both to help students develop competence in counseling clients who have had transpersonal experiences--those that, despite their occurrence beyond the usual limits of reality, are believed by experiencers to be real (Holden, 1999), and to promote counselor development (Walker, 2022). Participants were four students who had completed such a course, two each from two U.S. universities, one located in the Southwest and the other in the East. I conducted a transcendental phenomenological analysis by interviewing participants, …

Error Commission And Aging: Using Single-Trial Movement Kinematics To Decode The Time-Course Of Response Monitoring Processes During Complex Decisions In Older And Younger Adults, Emily Norton

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

We are constantly making decisions in everyday life that involve interactions with our environment: from simple behaviors like deciding to reach for your cup of coffee to complex behaviors like deciding which route to take to work. It is well known that these decisions require constant monitoring, such that decision-making is not a discrete event and requires initiation, monitoring, and evaluation for success. This process can be seen during error-corrections, in which an initial plan was implemented, an error was recognized, and a new plan was implemented to correct the initial response. While we have learned a great deal about …

The Importance Of Sleep For Flexibly Coping With Daily Stress, Calissa Leslie-Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Coping flexibility, the ability to match coping strategy choice to the demands of a situation, has been found to diminish the effects of daily stress. Despite the importance of high levels of coping flexibility, little research has explored factors that can predict one’s ability to demonstrate coping flexibility. One promising avenue for such research is the role of sleep. This research aims to explore the importance of sleep as a predictor of daily coping flexibility across two studies. Study one consists of one hundred and fifty college student participants who were recruited in the Spring 2021 semester at the College …

Intergroup Perceptions Of Discrimination, Neelamberi Klein

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Efforts to effectively combat discrimination require an understanding of how groups in power think about those experiencing prejudice and discrimination. To study how White individuals think about the discrimination faced by different racial groups (Non-Hispanic White, Black, Asian, Middle Eastern, Native and Indigenous, Latinx and Hispanic, and Mixed-Race men and women), 304 White participants completed an edited version of the Everyday Discrimination Scale and the Hypervigilance scale for each of these 14 groups to assess participants’ perceptions that these targets experience discrimination. Further, explicit attitudes towards each group were assessed with feelings thermometers. Results of our within subjects ANOVAs found …

Promoting The Well-Being Of Youth Involved In The Juvenile Justice System: An Ecological Perspective, Jennifer Marie Traver

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system often express hope for their future. However, most research on this population centers on negative outcomes, such as being re-arrested or developing mental health problems. The purpose of the current study was to better understand factors that promote positive development of youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979), we examined whether the following variables were associated with well-being: maternal warmth, peer warmth, school bonding, neighborhood conditions, or procedural justice.

The current study used data from the Crossroads Study. Participants included 1,216 adolescent male first-time offenders who …

I Should Know Better: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Of New Counselors' Experiences Navigating Their Implicit Biases, Okenna Egwu

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Implicit biases are known to have potentially damaging effects in counselors’ professional work. Although it is widely accepted that all people have these personal and unconscious biases, it has been difficult for researchers to identify strategies for consistently eradicating them on an individual level. To engage in multiculturally competent practice, counselors are directed to make every effort to eliminate latent biases. In order to understand how clinicians go about doing this, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was employed to explore the nature of counselors’ experiences navigating and addressing their implicit biases. The findings of this study revealed a need for more training …

The Effects Of Antiracism Education On Confrontation Of Institutional Discrimination: A Game Theory Approach, Emma Wedell

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Confrontation is an important mechanism to reduce racial prejudice and stereotyping. Yet, little research has examined White adults’ intended confrontation within the context of institutionally discriminatory policies that pose barriers to Black Americans seeking employment or investigated reactions to zero-sum and negative-sum anti-Black institutional discrimination. The present study investigated the effects of an antiracism educational exercise on White adults’ confrontation of zero-sum and negative-sum institutional discrimination. Participants (n = 195; Mage = 54.16) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) antiracism education with writing reflection, (2) antiracism education alone, or (3) a control condition. Participants next reported how …

The Effectiveness Of Health, Environmental, And Animal Welfare-Focused Video Appeals On Implicit And Explicit 'Wanting' Of Meat And Intentions To Reduce Meat Consumption, Luke Herchenroeder

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

High levels of meat production/consumption negatively impact physical health, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare. As a result, documentaries focused on increasing knowledge of these negative consequences have emerged in popular media. Given this information, the present study examined and compared the effects of these video appeals on intentions to reduce meat consumption and ‘wanting’ of meat. In the analytic sample, most participants identified as White non-Hispanic (n = 237; 58.8%), with a smaller proportion identifying as Asian American or Asian (n =101; 24.9%), as Black or African American (n = 54; 13.3%), as Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin (9.4%), …

The Effects Of Explicit And Implicit Racial Bias On Evaluations Of Individuals Involved With The Criminal Justice System, Annabelle Bass

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

A racialization of crime exists in American society with Black men in particular being associated with crime. The purpose of this research was to examine whether perceptions of criminal sentencing decisions and perceptions of male criminal offenders would vary as a function of race and are associated with explicit and implicit racial bias. Four studies were conducted utilizing a within-subjects design in which participants viewed fictitious case records for Black and White criminal offenders and completed measures of bias and perceptions of the sentencing decision and the offenders themselves. Two studies included samples of White American adults (n = 113 …

The Dynamics Of Resilience In A Centering Meditation: A Longitudinal Randomized Controlled Trial, Stephanie Dorais

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

In use for centuries across nations, meditation is still one of the widely used interventions to promote holistic health. Despite its large research base, many forms of meditation in use still have yet to be subject to empirical research. Centering prayer has been an established contemplative practice since the third century and has recently gained popularity at the turn of the last century. Individuals practiced centering to find stillness and, through the stillness, their inner strength. Due to its lack of empirical evidence, centering practice has primarily remained in religious or contemplative circles outside instead of counseling treatment. Furthermore, it …

Spirtual First Responders: The Experiences Of Imams In Their Mosques During Their Personalized Interactions With The Congregants They Serve, Leila Khalid Warraich

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of Imams in their mosques during their personalized interactions with the congregants they serve. A review of the literature was conducted, and the theoretical framework of the study was social constructivism. Eight Imams were identified as meeting the criteria for the study. Data collection consisted of a demographic questionnaire, a semi-structured interview, and artifact collection. A hermeneutic phenomenological method was used to analyze the data which resulted in five themes around Imam’s experience with their congregants. Additional findings are also discussed, along with implications, limitations, and future research.

The Effect Of Supervision Training For School Counselors On Supervision Knowledge And Supervisor Self-Efficacy, Adrienne Marie Backer

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This study investigated the effect of supervision training on participating school counselors’ supervision knowledge and supervisor self-efficacy. A randomized experimental research design allowed the unbiased examination of outcomes associated with participation in the Site Supervision Training for School Counselors (SST-SC) program. The researcher conducted repeated measures analyses of variance to explore the effect of a seven-week, asynchronous online site supervision training intervention on school counselors’ supervision knowledge and supervisor self-efficacy. The results indicated a statistically significant main effect for time for supervision knowledge, with both groups showing an increase in test scores from pre- to post-test, regardless of participation in …

The Effect Of Parental Food Neophobia On Children’S Fruit And Vegetable Acceptance: A Serial Mediation Model, Christina Sophia Marlow

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The United States is currently facing a child obesity epidemic. One possible contributor to this epidemic is children’s low intake of healthful foods such as fruits and vegetables. In order to investigate factors associated with children’s low fruit and vegetable liking and acceptance, we recruited 150 children between the ages of 5 and 10 years of age (Mage = 92.47 mo. , 44.7% female). Based on previous research, we measured parental and child neophobia using adult and child versions of the food neophobia scale, and parents’ reports of children’s fruit and vegetable offered at home. Children completed two laboratory tasks. …

Keep Your Distance! Modeling The Relationship Between Social Ecology And Changes In Geographic Mobility During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jason Dillon Freeman

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

In this paper, we examine whether relational mobility and historical pathogen prevalence on a country level relates to an individual’s willingness or ability to restrict movement in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, both together an individually. We use data on geographic mobility compiled from geolocation data on mobile phones to examine aggregate changes in geographic mobility at the country-level at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with a pre-pandemic baseline. We find that countries high in relational mobility showed a greater decrease in geographic mobility than countries low in relational mobility following the onset of the …

Measuring Social Ecology: Comparing Perceptions Of Personal And Societal Relational Mobility In Japan And The United States, Caroline Mackenzie Jordan

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Relational mobility, i.e., the degree to which individuals are afforded opportunities to voluntarily form and terminate relationships in a given society, is proposed in previous research to underlie many cultural differences in psychology. However, questions remain about how to best measure the construct of relational mobility, and whether to consider relational mobility as a construct existing on the environmental or individual level. In this study, we test the measurement invariance of one proposed alternate measure, the personal mobility scale across the United States (n = 1,698) and Japan (n = 2,224). We then compare correlations between personal mobility and individual …

Mindfulness Moderates The Association Between Internalizing Symptomatology And Emotional Eating, Ti Hsu

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Emotional eating is defined as the tendency to increase food consumption in order to modify negative emotional states. Although it is counter to the more typical response of decreasing food intake in the face of distress, emotional eating is observed in both eating disordered and healthy populations and is associated with overweight and obesity. Theories on emotional eating attribute its cause to inadequate emotion regulation, specifically an inability to draw awareness to and accept distress. Mindfulness, or the ability to pay attention to one's internal and external experiences, is negatively associated with both emotional eating and psychological distress. Only one …

Investigating Facilitation Strategies And Engagement In Correctional Mindfulness Programs: A Grounded Theory, Alexander Joseph Seth Hilert

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Mindfulness has received growing attention as an empowering approach for the treatment of addiction and mental health disorders in the criminal justice system. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, this study explored the teaching practices of volunteers who currently facilitate mindfulness programs in correctional settings. A total of fifteen volunteer meditation teachers and three former group members were interviewed. The researcher utilized interview data to construct a grounded theory which conceptualizes the barriers volunteers face, helpful facilitation strategies, and factors which promote and threaten the engagement of group members. The results of this grounded theory illustrate culturally responsive facilitation strategies …

The Longitudinal Impact Of Moral Injury On Combat Soldiers: A Narrative Inquiry Study, David Gosling

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This study explores the confluence of Narrative Inquiry's three commonplaces of temporality, sociality, and place on the experiences of five combat veterans with combat-designated Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) across the lifespan. In particular, the study examines the longitudinal components of Moral Injury (MI) before, during, and after combat operations. Chapter 4 explores the individual narratives of the participants, Chapter 5 examines common narrative threads between participants, and Chapter 6 is the author's subsequent extrapolations on the subject matter given his own experiences as a combat veteran of the Iraq War.

Trait Absorption: Correlates And Role In A Mindfulness-Based Intervention For Social Anxiety, Joshua Lipson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Trait absorption, defined by Tellegen and Atkinson (1974) as “a disposition for having episodes of ‘total’ attention that fully engage one’s representational … resouces”, has been explored in connection to placebo response, mystical experience, religiosity, and synesthesia. However, absorption has not been explored as a predictor of psychotherapeutic outcomes. Over the course of two studies, we sought to gain an understanding of absorption’s trait-level associations, as well as its role as a predictor of social anxiety reduction after a brief mindfulness paradigm. Namely, we hypothesized that individuals higher in trait absorption would experience larger reductions in social anxiety after a …

Internet-Based Cultural Competence Training For White Undergraduate Students At Predominantly White University, Nyx Robey

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Students from underrepresented racial groups experience higher rates of both explicit and subtler forms of racial prejudice and discrimination (Ellis, Powell, Demetriou, Huerta-Bapat, Carmen & Panter, 2019; Harwood et al., 2012; Ray, 2013; Stevens, Liu, & Chen, 2018; Vaccaro, 2010). Cultural competence training may benefit individuals in celebrating culturally-based differences as strengths, cognitively understanding their experience and cognitively empathizing with the experience of others, as well as building skills to better cross-cultural interactions (Glockshuber, 2005; Minami, 2008; Sue et al., 1982; Sue, 2001 Sue & Sue, 2013). This process can be beneficial particularly for White students (Chao, Wei, Good & …

Parent And Peer Emotion Socialization As Predictors Of Adolescent Internalizing Symptomatology: The Role Of Emotion Via Structural Equation Modeling, Molly Elizabeth Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Parental and peer emotion socialization as well as adolescent emotion regulation are significant predictors of adolescent psychopathology (Gaertner et al., 2010; Shortt et al., 2016). When a parent is unsupportive of their youth's emotional displays, the adolescent is at greater risk for internalizing disorders (Shewark & Blandon, 2015). During adolescence, friends are also socializers of youth's emotions and those peers who respond in validating ways may buffer against the development of internalizing disorders (Bowker & Rubin, 2009). Research analyzing these constructs has relied almost exclusively on one form of measurement (e.g., McKee et al., 2018) and often emotion regulation has …

Challenges Finding Employment: An Investigation Of Implicit Vs. Explicit Attitudes Towards Autistic Adults, Bendu Mercy Jackson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Despite the pervasiveness of autism (1 in 54), implicit and explicit attitudes towards people with ASD are mainly adverse (Cage et al., 2019). Although in recent years, more research has been conducted to investigate implicit attitudes towards other mental illnesses (Teachman, Wilson, & Komorovskaya, 2006) and physical disabilities (Nosek et al. 2007), few studies have assessed implicit and explicit attitudes toward adults with autism. The main goal of the study was to investigate Non-ASD individuals’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward autistic individuals. We hypothesized that participants would have negative implicit attitudes but report positive explicit attitudes towards autistic individuals, participants …

Personality Profiles And Political Regions: A Latent Profile Analysis Approach, Tianfang Yang

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Big Five personality traits have been shown to be one important psychological process that underlie differences in political orientation. An abundance of work has found that political conservatism is consistently predicted by trait Conscientiousness, whereas political liberalism is consistently predicted by Openness to Experience. Other work found that political behaviors may be related to regional differences in personality. The present study extended existing work by examining the numbers and features of distinct personality profiles within Republican, Democratic, and swing regions of the United States. To do so, we conducted latent profile analysis (LPA) to determine different personality profiles within different …