Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Anti-Muslim Bias: Investigating Individual Differences, Threat Perceptions, And Emotions In Islamophobic Policy Support, Aeleah M. Granger

Dissertations and Theses

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Muslims in the United States were victims of increased surveillance by law enforcement on the basis of their religious identity, often resulting in mistreatment and unjustified imprisonment. These biases against Muslims and subsequent policy shifts have been pervasive and have had negative impacts on the growing number of Muslims in the United States. The current study focuses on individual differences that predict Islamophobia, including Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right-wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and Nationalism, as well as the specific types of intergroup threat perceptions (i.e., realistic, symbolic, terroristic) and subsequent emotional reactions (e.g., anger, fear) …

From Gorbachev To The Present: Russian Migration To The United States, Kate Slavashevich

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Vulnerability And Protective Factors Of Stress-Related Drinking: An Exploration Of Individual And Day-Level Predictors Of Alcohol Involvement, Cameron Trim Mccabe

Dissertations and Theses

Problem alcohol use has far-reaching economic, intra-, and interpersonal consequences. One particularly hazardous form of drinking pertains to the consumption of alcohol as a means of regulating stress, or drinking to cope. As such, it is critical to identify pathways through which stress-related alcohol use occurs, as well as protective factors which may mitigate the aforementioned consequences. To achieve this, I conducted three studies examining these topics at multiple levels of analysis among two at risk populations for engaging in problematic drinking: College students and military service members. Study 1 is a published manuscript examining the association between personality, a …

Music And Conflict Resolution: Can A Music And Story Centered Workshop Enhance Empathy?, Parfait Adegboyé Bassalé

Dissertations and Theses

The Story and Song Centered Pedagogy (SSCP) is a workshop that uses songs, stories and reflective questioning to increase empathy. This preliminary study tested the prediction that being exposed to the SSCP would increase empathy using, the Emotional Concern (EC) and Perspective Taking (PT) subscales of the renowned Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (Davis, 1990). Subjects self-reported their answers to the IRI before and after undergoing the SSCP intervention. Comparing their pre and post intervention results, no statistically significant changes were noticed for the EC and PT scales (p-value = 0.7093 for EC; p-value = 0.6328 for PT). These results stand …

From College To Career: Understanding First Generation And Traditional Community College Transfer Students' Major And Career Choices, Jeff Scott Shelton

Dissertations and Theses

While the connection between major choice and career goals seems logically obvious, research exploring this process is limited, particularly concerning how socio-economic class, based on parents' educational levels, influences the choice process. An important initial step in understanding this larger process is to explore how SES-based differences affect the process of choosing a major, a career goal and the way in which students link their major to a possible career.

This study utilizes a comparative interview design to explore the lived experiences regarding major and career aspirations of first generation and traditional college seniors who have transferred from a community …

Cultural Behavior In Post-Urbanized Brazil: The Cordial Man And Intrafamilial Conflict, Thais La Rosa

Dissertations and Theses

Cultures, subcultures, and individuals occupy different positions in the low-context/individualistic and the high-context/collectivistic spectrum, and they shift due to factors such as urbanization, economic development and cultural globalization. In this study, I examine Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's theory of the cordial man and how it illustrates qualities of the high-context Brazilian culture. Within the framework of grounded theory, these qualities are evaluated from the perspective of intergenerational dyads--fathers and sons--that have been exposed to an urbanized and globalized environment in order to determine whether and how a shift from high-context to low-context is occurring. The participants were interviewed to explore …

Humor-Related Social Exchanges And Mental Health In Assisted Living Residents, Ann Elizabeth Mcqueen

Dissertations and Theses

Social contact is known to be vital for older adults' mental and physical health, but few studies of social interactions have taken place in long-term care settings. The current study investigated whether the psychological well-being of assisted living residents was influenced by factors associated with residents' social interactions involving humor. Specific aims of the present study were to develop and test a measure related to humor-related social exchanges, to examine how humor-related social exchanges affect residents' mental health, and to explore whether humor-related social exchanges mediated the effects of resident and facility characteristics on indices of mental health. One hundred …

Friendship Between Women : The Influence Of Incest, Laurie Lockert

Dissertations and Theses

This study focused on the mother/daughter relationship in father/daughter incest and how that relationship influences women's friendships with other women. Many researchers have concluded that females who were sexually abused by male authority figures, i.e., father, step-father, grandfather, older brother, minister, babysitter, will have impaired relationships with men. Clinicians surmise that the enormous betrayal of trust involved in the incest leads the child to generalize from her experience with one male to all males. Victims express feelings of distrust, fear of intimacy, and fear of personal expression in all male/female relationships. Studies suggest that in families where father/daughter incest has …

Alienation Under The Rainbow: A Survey Of Oregon Graduate Students, Robert Michael Travis

Dissertations and Theses

Nisbet's theory of alienation entails three propositions: 1) alienation is a unidimensional phenomenon; 2) alienation is a generalized phenomenon; and 3) power relations foster loss of community which engenders alienation. All three propositions were tested on a population of graduate students at a university in the Pacific Northwest.

The Use Of Discrediting Labels In The Maintenance Of Socially Constructed Reality, Nathan Church

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past two decades an increasing number of theorists and practitioners have called for a thorough rethinking of the underlying assumptions of the concept of rrental illness and the traditional psychiatric nodes of responding to mental disorders. The work of this group of writers has come to be referred to as the "antipsychiatry" literature. The insights of this perspective center largely about a rejection of those theories and methods of treatment that are based upon the medical model. Many writers point to the use of traditional psychiatric practice as an oppressive instrument of social control. While much of this …

The Predictive Validity Of A Police Officer Selection Program, Neil Bingham Davidson

Dissertations and Theses

This study was designed to determine the predictive validity of a police officer selection program and identify the contribution made by each major selection device to the total program. Police officers employed by the Portland Police Bureau who had completed three years of post-probationary employment were randomly assigned to a validation group and a cross-validation group on a two for one basis respectively. Beta weights were computed for the written test, interview and psychological scores in the validation group. The regression formula was then applied to the data in the cross-validation group. A cross-validation R of 0.12 was obtained between …

Personality Correlates Of Interpersonal Perception In A Residential Treatment Center For Adolescent Girls, Raymond Paul Micciche, Terrell Lynn Eheler

Dissertations and Theses

While men do indeed construct self-validating and often peculiar interpretations of the realities of their world the simple fact that these views become consensually shared doctrines of experience does not protect them from the revisionism of historical scrutiny. These perceptions of the world become retrospectively altered as developing bodies of knowledge reject them as being clearly deceptive or anachronistic. The concept of psychopathology, distinguished historically under many rubrics, has not been immune to these same processes of modification, nor has it ever been free of the diverse irrationalities which men of all ages have constructed to explain the etiology and …

An Alienation Measurement And Observed Behavior: A Study Of Forty-Two Male Seniors In A Technical High School, Jack Leo Terzenbach

Dissertations and Theses

The study examined the relationships between subjects' degree of alienation and descriptions of their behaviors. The subjects were 42 male, senior students at Benson Polytechnic High School who attended one of two required social science classes. Benson High School is an all male, technical high school which admits students from all parts of the City of Portland, Oregon. Alienation was defined as a syndrome of feelings consisting of apathy, distrust, pessimism, cynicism, and emotional distance. The degree of subjects' alienation, as defined, was measured by the Multiple Alienation Measure devised by Dr. Laurence J. Gould. Subjects' were thereby divided into …

The Monopoly Study Of Authority, Micheale Hall Williams

Dissertations and Theses

The Monopoly Study of Authority was an institutional grant project designed to test the variables of authority and protection in a laboratory experiment conducted in the Small Groups Laboratory. Subjects (Ss) were recruited and paid a minimum wage to play Monopoly, while the Experimenter (E) manipulated the relevant variables, observed and video-taped the games.

The hypothesis states that the greater the investment, the more likely will the individual make efforts to protect it. The dimensions of investment were ego involvement (desire to win, competitiveness), and resource commitment (Ss were offered rewards of double-time pay for winning the Monopoly game). Efforts …

The Effectiveness Of Environmental Control In Modifying Problem Behaviors In Mother-Child Interaction, Thomas Whalen Hamilton

Dissertations and Theses

An experiment was designed to test the effectiveness of using standard laboratory environments in producing a broad class of problem behaviors which defined Mother-Child (M-C) interaction difficulties. The effects of four environments, free-time (X), child's game and rules (B), mother's game and rules (C), and clean-up (Z), on the frequency of eight criteria behaviors were tested on 12 M-C pairs over three days of baseline data collection. It was predicted that the frequency of problem behaviors would decrease as a function of environment (X) and increase as a function of environments (B), (C), and (Z). A two factor …

Age, Emotional Maturity And The Decision To Marry, Patricia Ann Duclos, David F. Thomas, Joanne Zusman

Dissertations and Theses

The decision to marry and choice of mate are two issues contemplated by most individuals during their lifetime. It is our belief that the manner in which an individual makes these decisions is a reflection of that individual’s level of emotional maturity.

In our society, the right to enter into a marriage agreement is largely determined by chronological age. Our research problem began with the hypothesis that there is no direct relationship between chronological age and emotional maturity at the time of marriage.

For our study, marriages were divided into two general categories: 1) teenage marriages in which at least …

Continuance Vs. Discontinuance In Family Counseling, Katherine Anderson, Alice Dudley, Mayetta Rocks

Dissertations and Theses

The study was designed to examine the social workers' and clients' perceptions of change in the treatment process; specifically to examine the question of why clients discontinue service prior to planful termination. Also, the authors attempted to assess the client's perception of gain and the worker's assessment of gain.

Action-Oriented Group Therapy For Lower-Socio-Economic-Status Clients, Joan C. Peters

Dissertations and Theses

An attempt is made to present a model of group therapy for Lower-Socio-Economic-Status (LSES) clients. The theoretical issues include a definition of traditional group therapy along with a brief description of the more recent sensitivity training approaches. A rationale for combining these two different group approaches is presented to form the model for action-oriented group therapy (ACT groups) which utilizes both the traditional approach and action techniques of the sensitivity group. It is proposed that this hybrid, the AOT group, is more appropriate for treating the LSES client. The needs and expectations of the LSES client are discussed. The goals …

Identities In Gay Drinking Places, Sharon Gertrude White

Dissertations and Theses

It is through the announcement and placement of various identities that one is able to enter into various types of social relations. Identity is a label used to describe a person in a particular situation as being a kind of social object. A person announces his identity and others place him as having this identity on the basis of his appearance. Structural relations have been defined as relations where one may enter by using a title, while interpersonal relations are entered by using a name or nickname. Structural identities place people in categories, while separating them from others in different …

How Women Are Made: A Look At The Issues Of The Women's Liberation Movement, Lenore Jan Coffey

Dissertations and Theses

This project was originally conceived of as an exploration and written presentation of various dimensions of the contemporary social movement called the Women’s Liberation Movement. The exploration was to be through personal experience in the movement and research in movement literature. From a research point of view, the specific objective was to identify the issues and elements of the Women's Liberation experience for those who are involved, in other words, to determine what are the salient dimensions of this experience for the individual in Women’s Liberation.

Life Styles Of Methadone Treatment Patients: Agreement Of Self Report And Informant Report, Richard Cox, Gary West

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to reveal the typical life style of a representative sample of fifty male opiate addicts participating in the Oregon Methadone Treatment Program. An important goal of the research was to assess the reliability of information gathered from patients compared to data obtained from an equal number of informants. A highly structured questionnaire was designed to elicit specific responses in order to calculate the degree of concordance between patients and informants to identical items. The findings depicted the modal life style of the subjects as more socially conventional, more responsible, and less antisocial. Although …

A Study Of The Willingness Of Elderly People To Live With Each Other, Joanne Welander, Marvin Clifford

Dissertations and Theses

This research project was focused on elderly people and their living arrangements in an attempt to discover whether elderly people would prefer to live alone or with other elderly persons. If it was found that the elderly people interviewed would like roommates, then this would provide information which would be helpful in assessing the need for and determining the feasibility of a roommate service for elderly people.

Willingness to roommate served as the dependent variable. This study tested the relationship between each of two psychological variables, loneliness and independence, and the dependent variable. Loneliness was defined as an elderly person's …