Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

African American Family Structure Of Caring For A Member With Alzheimer's Disease And Dementia, Sherry Lane Perry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) affect African Americans (AA) more than other ethnic or racial groups. It is common for AA diagnosed with ADRD to be cared for in the home. Historically, family members that provide care consist of significant others, relatives, and extended family. The United States Census Bureau showed an increase in Americans aged sixty and older from 55.7 million to 74.6 million. Due to the increase in the AA elderly population, the need for family caregivers will increase for this minority group. This study explored how AA family caregivers described their experiences and unique family structure …

Ableism In Education: Professor Perpetuation Of Disability Discrimination Through Accommodation Non-Compliance, Kasey Bumgardner

Scripps Senior Theses

This proposed study aims to explore factors that may decrease professor compliance with their disabled students’ documented academic accommodations, including pre-existing ableist beliefs held by professors, race of the disabled student, and visibility of the student’s disability. Participants will consist of undergraduate professors from colleges and universities across the United States, varying in size and geographical location. Participants will complete scales to assess their ableist beliefs, and will be asked to report their likelihood of complying with, or fully meeting, various disabled students’ documented accommodations. It is expected that results will reveal that professors who hold more ableist beliefs tend …

Intuitions Across The Theistic-Atheistic Spectrum: A Convergence Of Social Psychology And Experimental Philosophy Research Paradigms, Janessa R. Brown

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The aim of the present study was to examine what intuitions individuals have regarding factors related to religious belief and non-belief. This was achieved via the convergence of experimental philosophy and social psychology research paradigms. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three vignette conditions depicting either a theistic, agnostic, or atheistic universe or a non-vignette control condition. Participants reported intuitions in the context of the universe to which they were assigned on factors of death anxiety, awe, pure evil, and fine-tuning. Responses were compared across vignette conditions and by category of belief. It was hypothesized that group differences regarding …

Revisiting Cognitive Dissonance: A Closer Look At The Core Assumptions Of A Classic Theory, Mikayla V. Colthirst-Reid

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cognitive dissonance is a well-established and highly cited psychological theory. However, many of its basic assumptions have come under recent criticism concerning methodological design, variable manipulation, and measurement of dissonance as a unique psychological phenomenon distinct from general negative affect. A within-subjects design compared measures of dissonance-related affect at baseline to the same affect measures across varying magnitudes of belief-behaviour inconsistency via a counter-attitudinal task. The study also measured belief change in response to dissonance conditions and explored relationships between dissonance experience and individual difference variables (extraversion, religiosity, and political orientation). Results did not support an increase of dissonance relative …

Assessing The Discriminant Validity Between Integrative Complexity And Open-Minded Cognition, Madeleine Louise Kindler

Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to evaluate the discriminant validity between integrative complexity and open-minded cognition (OMC). That is, the aim of this study was to show that integrative complexity and OMC are conceptually distinct constructs. This online study randomly assigned 198 Loyola University Chicago undergraduate psychology students to read either six tenable, homogeneous written communication remarks or six untenable, heterogeneous written communication remarks, made during a hypothetical conversation about the inclusion of prayer/moments of silence in high school curriculums. Participants then listed their cognitive thoughts and responses to the communication in a free response format (integrative complexity measure) …

Freedom, Covid-19, And Resistance To Public Health Orders, Benjamin Rosenberg

Psychology | Faculty Scholarship

As we look back on one year since the first Covid-19 lockdowns went into effect in the United States, several truths about this ever-changing virus have emerged. For one, well-fitting, multi-layered face masks significantly reduce people’s likelihood of spreading or catching Covid-19 (e.g., Leung et al., 2020), and the vaccines similarly reduce the risk of spread and infection (Thompson et al., 2021). Second, things that were, at best, at the outskirts of people’s attention have become commonplace over the past year: hand sanitizer, social distancing, mask wearing, vaccinations. The related third truth is that over the past year, most Americans …

Information Prioritization: A Comparison Between Utility Maximizers And Probability Matchers, Yusuf Ismaeel

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the differences between probability matchers and utility maximizers in their preferences for information sources in a lab environment. In this paper, we consider the best source of information to be the most connected one. We conducted several linear probability model type regressions along with logit regressions. Furthermore, we also attempted to control and fix any potential misclassifications in classifying the cognitive strategy by using instrumental variables. The results show that utility maximizers will almost always choose the most informed node. Probability matchers, on the other hand, do not exhibit such a behavior as the probability matching strategy …

Is It Just A Dream? How Attributions For Successful And Unsuccessful Social Mobility Attempts Maintain The Myth Of The American Dream, Erin Shanahan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite rising inequality making upward social mobility difficult, faith in the American Dream persists. Why is this the case? In six studies (five pre-registered), we demonstrate that in scenarios where hard work and ability are held constant, people praise the hard work and talent of individuals who successfully move up the social ladder while derogating these same characteristics among individuals who do not; a pattern of attributions which is likely to reinforce the American Dream. Further, conservatives explain mobility failure particularly in terms of personal shortcomings whereas liberals look to systemic disadvantages, attributions that in turn predicted lowered and heightened …

Dual Attitude Model Of Opinion Diffusion: Experiments With Epistemically Motivated Agents, Riyang Phang, Lin Qiu, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Opinion diffusion is often simulated in agentbased models to reveal the perpetuation of norms and beliefs. This paper presents a dual attitude model where agents’ interaction, information search, and opinion formation are influenced by the need for cognitive closure (NFCC). Two experiments simulated topic advocacy with either high- or lowNFCC agents. Experiment one initiated societies with unbiased distribution of NFCC levels between advocates of two competing topics, while experiment two initiated biased distributions of NFCC levels between the topics. Results in the unbiased condition showed that the popularity of the majority topic increases over time in high NFCC societies while …

Social Psychology, Griffin N. Thayer

Open Educational Resources

A syllabus designed with OER concepts in mind to teach social psychology.

The Relationship Between The Accessibility Of Political Attitudes And Voting Behavior, Alison I. Young

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Eighty-five Olivet students (57 women) participated for extra credit in a study focused on the relationship between the accessibility of one's attitudes toward political parties (Democrats vs. Republicans) and political decisions (e.g., likelihood to vote for a given candidate). Participants viewed a series of Democrat-related (e.g., left-leaning, liberal) and Republican-related (e.g., right-leaning, conservative) terms piloted for political orientation. For each, they were asked to indicate as quickly and accurately as possible whether they liked or disliked it. The speed of their response served as a measure of attitude accessibility. Participants then completed a series of questions regarding their political orientation, …

Mortality Salience And The Effects Of Autonomy On Death Anxiety, Dylan Earlin Horner

ETD Archive

The present research built on prior work suggesting that mortality salience (MS) can undermine psychological well-being and explored the previously-untested hypothesis that autonomy can mitigate that effect. Specifically, the study investigated the effects of primed autonomy on measured death anxiety following a reminder of mortality. Participants (n = 119) were randomly assigned to either an MS or control condition and then, following a delay, were primed with the concept of either autonomy or being controlled. Death anxiety was then measured. Results found that MS increased death anxiety among those in the controlled prime condition, but not among those in the …

The Effects Of Mortality Salience And Autonomy Priming On Worldview Defensiveness, Joseph P. Conti

ETD Archive

Terror Management Theory posits that people are motivated to defend against death awareness by maintaining cultural beliefs and behaviors that transcend mortality— sometimes motivating hostile, even militaristic, defenses of one’s culture. In contrast, self-determination theory suggests that autonomous regulation (self-determination) serves as a platform for personal growth and well-being. However, the present thesis suggests that, in addition to fueling growth, self-determination may also help buffer against the awareness of mortality, thus mitigating the impact of death awareness on hostile cultural worldview defense. To test this hypothesis, American participants were randomly assigned to be reminded of mortality or a control topic, …

Prejudice, Jonathan M. Gallimore

PSY 101 PR - Gallimore - Fall 2018

This activity - Prejudice - is designed to expose students' explicit prejudices.

This activity should help students understand that everyone holds prejudices and to launch a discussion about the source of prejudice – especially ways to reduce it. Often, superordinate goals are a great way to bring together disparate groups, so the class does spend time talking about goals that may unite humanity.

This activity uses a worksheet, “Acceptability of Prejudice,” from http://breakingprejudice.org/teaching/group-activities/acceptability-of-prejudice.html The worksheet was adapted by Mary Kite and Elizabeth Tobin from a 2002 article by Crandell, Eshleman, and O’Brien.

Prejudice, Jonathan M. Gallimore

PSY 350 PR - Gallimore - Fall 2018

This activity - Prejudice - is designed to expose students' explicit prejudices.

This activity should help students understand that everyone holds prejudices and to launch a discussion about the source of prejudice – especially ways to reduce it. Often, superordinate goals are a great way to bring together disparate groups, so the class does spend time talking about goals that may unite humanity.

This activity uses a worksheet, “Acceptability of Prejudice,” from http://breakingprejudice.org/teaching/group-activities/acceptability-of-prejudice.html The worksheet was adapted by Mary Kite and Elizabeth Tobin from a 2002 article by Crandell, Eshleman, and O’Brien.

Social Comparison In Eating Disorder Recovery: A Mixed-Methodological Approach, Jessica Faye Saunders

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines social comparison tendencies in young women during eating disorder (ED) recovery. Study one drew on a photo-elicitation method (“PhotoVoice”) and semi-structured interviews to examine this relation. Thirty U.S. women, ages 18-35, in self-defined recovery from disordered eating, used photography to capture personally-meaningful social and cultural influences on their recovery. Participants then shared these photographs with the research team and described them in detail. Photographs and interviews were examined for social comparisons using thematic analysis, and two broad categories emerged: recovery-promoting and recovery-hindering comparisons. The presence of both “upward” and “downward” comparisons that both support and hinder recovery …

Milton Rokeach's Experimental Modification Of Values: Navigating Relevance, Ethics And Politics In Social Psychological Research, Stefan Jadaszewski

Psychology from the Margins

In 1967, social psychologist Milton Rokeach (1918 – 1988) proposed that in order for social psychology to remain relevant to the issues confronting the social sciences and the United States, it must adopt value as its core construct. In addition to influential conceptual advancements, his major contributions to this literature would include the development of the Rokeach Value Survey and the introduction of a method of experimentally inducing changes in values, termed "self-confrontation." Rokeach conceptualized this body of research as operating within an explicitly humanistic, democratic and socially-oriented ethic. As Rokeach's efforts to produce socially-relevant research expanded beyond the traditional …

The Art Of Peer Pressure: Social Desires As Incentives To Join Students Protests In Jordan, Jordan Hughes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Collective action and rational choice theory suggest that social movements suffer from a tragedy of the commons that incentivizes individuals against participation. The last several decades of increased youth-driven protests and demonstrations in the Middle East, however, suggest that these collective action barriers are being consistently overcome. I propose an addition to the rational choice basis of Olson’s collective action theory which incorporates social desires, and specifically peer pressure, as an observable individual incentive. Using a combination of interviews and vignette-style factorial surveys, I test this hypothesis to measure the effect of perceived peer pressure on the intention of students …

Measurement Of The Propensity To Trust Automation, Sarah Ann Jessup

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Few studies have examined how propensity to trust in automation influences trust behaviors, those which indicate users are relying on automation. Of the published studies, there are inconsistencies in how propensity to trust automation is conceptualized and thus measured. Research on attitudes and intentions has discerned that reliability and validity of measures can be increased by using more direct and specific language, which reduces ambiguity and increases the ability to predict behavior. This study examined how traditional measures of propensity to trust automation could be adapted to predict whether automation is deemed as trustworthy (perceived trustworthiness) and whether people behave …

The Relationship Between Social Status Motivation And The Detection Of Trustworthy And Affiliative Cues In Faces, Christopher J. Lustgraaf

Dissertations

A prominent feature of human (and non-human primate) social group structure involves the establishment and maintenance of a social hierarchy; that is, social groups are arranged hierarchically, based on individuals’ level of status, and conspecifics who more effectively ascend this status hierarchy accrue more reproductive and resource benefits (Hawley, 1999). Thus, for any individual, other group members could be either a threat to one’s status, or an ally to assist status goals, and accurate identification of these various social targets would have adaptive utility in status maintenance or status hierarchy ascension. The current study tested the hypotheses that activation of …

Worlds Ahead?: On The Dialectics Of Cosmopolitanism And Postcapitalism, Bryant William Sculos

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that the major theories of global justice (specifically within the cosmopolitan tradition) have missed an important aspect of capitalism in their attempts to deal with the most pernicious effects of the global economic system. This is not merely a left critique of cosmopolitanism (though it is certainly that as well), but its fundamental contribution is that it applies the insights of Frankfurt School Critical Theorist Theodor Adorno’s negative dialectics to offer an internal critique of cosmopolitanism. As it stands, much of the global justice and cosmopolitanism literature takes global capitalism as an unsurpassable and a foundationally unproblematic …

Decision Making Theories Of Retaliation, Katlyn S. Farnum

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 2013, the Supreme Court decided, in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v Nassar, that Title VII retaliation claims should be interpreted under the stricter but-for causality instructions. This requires claims of retaliation to show that the plaintiff’s discrimination complaint (or involvement in a discrimination claim) is the direct cause of the adverse action, as compared to a motivating factor that is required under the less strict motivating factor causal instructions. The current research examines the role of regulatory focus (promotion v. prevention), causal instructions, employment action (promotion v. dismissal), and number of claims considered on both juror …

Retrospective Emotional Interpretation Of Holocaust Victims: Case Studies Of Usc Shoah Foundation Testimonies, Rachel Gaufberg

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

Extensive research has been conducted on the emotional/psychological conditions of survivors post-Holocaust, specifically symptoms of trauma of which many have been grouped and coined into terms such as “survivor syndrome” and “concentration camp syndrome” (USHMM, 2015). In addition, the treatment of such conditions have been studied and implemented. Conversely, significantly less research has been conducted regarding the emotional/psychological experiences of victims during these events, as recollected by victims in the present. Personal narratives of Holocaust survivors shed light on the emotional and psychological implications of the Holocaust’s traumatic events on individuals. In this paper, Holocaust survivors’ retrospective descriptions of …

An Experimental Test Of Whether Mortality Salience Can Motivate Open-Mindedness Among Individuals With Intrinsic Goal Orientations, Mark Blades

ETD Archive

Terror management theory posits that when people are primed with thoughts of death, they will seek to abide by their cultural worldview beliefs. For example, mortality reminders motivate those with an extrinsic goal orientation to strive to accomplish culturally valued goals (e.g., wealth) and defend familiar cultural worldviews. But, as of yet, no research has investigated the possibility that MS might motivate those with an intrinsic goal orientation to strive instead to explore culturally, socially, or intellectually novel experiences and information. The present research hypothesized that MS would lead individuals with stronger extrinsic goal orientations to defensively prefer their familiar …

Altruism And Popularity, Eda Egilmez

Master's Theses

Popularity, as a manifestation of social status, has been widely researched and appears to be determined by members of a social group. Individuals’ either aggressive or prosocial characteristics and environment lead them to one type of popularity. Prosocial behaviors are actions with intention of benefiting others or society as whole with little or no personal gain and may include helping, sharing, cooperating, donating, and other voluntary works. Altruism is a type of prosocial behavior that could affect individuals' popularity. Altruism has been studied in different disciplines with the general definition of cooperative behavior that has a cost to the actor …

Construction Of An Anti-Mexican American Bias Scale And Its Validation, Leslie N. Martinez

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of the dissertation is to develop a meaningful measure of Anti-Mexican American attitudes and to test that measure for its utility in predicting biased attributions for Mexican Americans. Attention has mainly focused on bias against Blacks, and this has produced important gaps in the understanding of race/ethnic bias that must be addressed. For the past few decades, the number of racial minorities, especially the number of Latinos/Hispanics, has been on the rise. The psychometric properties and validation of the new Anti-Mexican American Attitude Scale (AMAAS) were investigated through study 1 and study 2. The principal components analysis pulled …

Can Quantitative Assessment Of Moral Identity Be Improved?, David Adrion Baker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

According to results from Aquino and Reed (study 5, 2002) and Hall and Derryberry (2010), high means and very low standard deviations of the average score for each question for both the internalization and symbolization scales of the Moral Identity Scale (MIS) are common. This study attempts to measure the extent to which a person considers morality to be a central part of his or her self-concept. Because participants may feel pressure to respond in a certain way on the MIS, the role of social desirability to respond favorably is very plausible. The current study, therefore, attempts to reduce socially …

The Impact Of Engagement With Community Supported Agriculture On Human Attitude Towards The Sustainable Food Movement, Ariana Margarita Cano

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

With a total of 164 community supported agriculture programs (CSA), Vermont is leading the "locavore" movement in the United States, ranked number one in the country with the most CSAs and Food Hubs per capita. ("Locavore Index," 2013)

CSAs have a large positive impact on reducing carbon emissions, advancing local economic growth, and promoting healthy lifestyles of consumers. The purpose of this study is to explore the overall experience of individuals in comparison to their current social norm, individual attitudes, identity, and intentions of change, and understand any change overtime in their individual attitude and behavior.

Attitude change was measured …

Do Our Perceptions Affect Our Decision Making In Legal Contexts?, Scott Benedict

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Previous research has established that community interaction with the mentally ill, public education on the subject, and social integration all lead to a significantly more positive prognosis for sufferers of mental illness (Trute & Loewen, 1978), especially in ensuring less-frequent interaction with the legal system. Research has also shown however, that the misinformed and uneducated are more punitive and less empathetic (Shaw & Woodworth, 2013). The large representation of the mentally ill in the prison system necessitates revisions of policies regarding the handling of mental illness in social and community immersion, public education and legal contexts. The present study was …

Between Warrior And Helplessness In The Valley Of Azawa - The Struggle Of The Kel Tamashek In The War Of The Sahel, Patrick James Christian

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an Investigation into the Tuareg involvement in violent conflict in the Sahara and the Sahel of North Africa from a sociological psychological perspective of unmet human needs. The research begins by establishing the structure and texture of the sociological, psychological, and emotional life patterns of their existence when not involved in violent conflict. This is followed by an examination of the pathology of Tuareg social structures that are engaged in intra and inter communal violence as perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. The first part of the research establishes normal conditions of the sociological life cycle and highlights natural …