Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Black College Students Perceptions Of The Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate, Rickae Rodney

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored Black college students’ perceptions of COVID-19 related mandates. Black college students with higher perceptions of racism, stronger ethnic identity, and greater distrust in science were expected to have more negative attitudes about COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates. Results varied when relationships were tested.

Stigma Towards Treatment Amongst People With Mental Illness, Haya M. Khan

Student Theses

There is evidence for the persistence of stigma towards people diagnosed with mental illness, as well as that endorsement of stigma is associated with reluctance to seek treatment. However, the process by which self-stigma impacts treatment choice amongst people with mental illness is not well understood. This study examined the impact of self-stigma on one’s decision to take medication or undergo psychotherapy; as well as the impact of stigma on choice of individual or group therapy. Surveys were administered through CloudResearch to 128 participants from the U.S, who reported a disorder diagnosed by a professional. The SSMIS-SF and ISMI-9 estimated …

Contact Isn’T Enough: Attitudes Towards And Misunderstandings About Undocumented Immigrants Among A Diverse College Population, Sarah C. Bishop, Nicholas David Bowman

Publications and Research

Ample evidence exists of bipartisan positive attitudes towards undocumented immigrants receiving a path to citizenship, and of a lack of US residents’ knowledge about undocumented immigration, but it is not yet clear whether individuals in the same sampling frame may exhibit both favourable attitudes towards and ignorance about undocumented immigrants. We use open- and closed-ended survey questions (N = 231) to probe perceptions of immigrants and knowledge about US immigration procedures in a cohort of demographically and ideologically diverse college students. Our findings confirmed largely favourable attitudes towards undocumented immigrants, but also misconceptions about undocumented immigrants’ rights and options with …

Mathematics Attitudes And Mathematics Performance: Novel Approaches Towards Noncognitive Educational Measurement, Applications To Large-Scale Assessment Data, And Examinations Of Multigroup Invariance, Kalina Gjicali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Academic performance is predicted by a multitude of demographic, contextual, cognitive, and noncognitive constructs. The noncognitive factors of achievement in mathematics that have previously been explored in depth are study skills, collaborative problem-solving, confidence, self-efficacy, and personality traits (Kyllonen, 2012). Limited applied research has explored the predictive value of noncognitive factors such as attitudes and beliefs in mathematics achievement – even though attitudes towards mathematics are a promising avenue for understanding the variability in mathematics achievement. The current research uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain high school students’ performance in mathematics in a series of three studies. …

Nurse Practitioner Knowledge, Attitudes, And Beliefs When Caring For Transgender People, Catherine Paradiso, Robin M. Lally

Publications and Research

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore Nurse Practitioner (NP) knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs when working with transgender people and to inform about Practitioner education needs.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used to explore (NP) experiences. Focused semistructured interviews were conducted in 2016 with 11 (N = 11) NPs in the northeastern United States who represent various years of experience and encounters with transgender patients. The interviews explored NP knowledge attitudes and beliefs when caring for transgender patients and described their overall experiences in rendering care in the clinical setting. The interviews were professionally transcribed and analyzed …

Perceived Knowledge And Defense Of Political Attitudes, Matthew H. Goldberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Three experiments tested if perceived knowledge about a political issue predicted people’s willingness to engage with relatively weaker versus stronger belief-threatening information on that issue. Study 1 assessed people’s perceived knowledge on four political issues and, for each issue, manipulated whether participants chose between arguing against a weak versus moderate argument or a moderate versus strong argument. Only one issue provided some support for the primary hypothesis. When people believed they were not knowledgeable about the carbon tax, giving them a relatively stronger set of arguments to choose from (moderate versus strong) further increased their preferences for the weaker argument …

Out-Group Threat Or Inter-Group Contact Theory? Out-Group Attitudes And Interaction In Times Of Diversity Growth, Annette Jacoby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Much attention has been devoted to the presumed negative effect of diversity growth on various dimensions of attitudes and interaction between different racial and ethnic groups. However, whether the claims hold true is unclear- there is a considerable controversy over the impact of changing diversity on societal behavior. With ongoing migration, the United States are becoming more and more ethnically diverse but a sound debate on racial and ethnic composition and its consequences for inter-group interactions and attitudes towards others has not yet been possible due to a lack of causally-oriented panel studies.

In this study, two important features are …

Zine Authors ’ Attitudes About Inclusion In Public And Academic Library Collections: A Survey- Based Study, Anne Hays

Publications and Research

Zine collections are becoming an increasingly popular addition to public and academic library holdings. Although academics have made strong arguments for the value of zines' inclusion as part of our cultural heritage, current research does not focus on zine authors' perspectives. How do the zine writers themselves feel about having their work--which is often highly personal--collected, shared, and sometimes circulated in the public and academic library sphere? This study will report the findings of a survey designed to uncover zine authors' attitudes about having their works collected, shared, and circulated--in academic libraries, public libraries, and institutionally affiliated archival collections across …

Individual Levels Of Bias And Immigration Policies In The United States: A Test And Extension Of The Dual Processing Model Of Bias, Lorraine Phillips

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study was a test and extension of the Dual Process Model of bias on attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the United States. The Dual Process Model predicts that people who score higher on either the Social Dominance Orientation scale or the Right Wing Authoritarian scale will hold more negative attitudes toward immigrants, particularly if immigrants are viewed as a threat. A sample of 315 participants from across the United States was recruited using Amazon’s M Turk site. This study used a combination of attitudinal measures, policy scales, and experimental vignettes. The study found that the Dual …

Language Complexity, Belief-Consistency And The Evaluation Of Policies, Matthew H. Goldberg, Cheryl L. Carmichael

Publications and Research

Policy proposals often contain complex legal, technical, or scientific jargon, making it difficult for people to evaluate their favorability toward the policy. We proposed one experiment testing the effect of language complexity on people’s evaluation of a policy proposal as moderated by their initial policy beliefs. We hypothesized that when a policy was consistent with one’s beliefs or if participants had no policy preference, they would evaluate it more favorably when it was simple than when it was complex; when a policy was inconsistent with one’s beliefs, they would evaluate it less unfavorably when it was complex than when it …

Perceptions Of Money: Relationships Between Remembered Parental Rejection, Extrinsic Life Aspirations And Maladaptive Attitudes Toward Money, Rebecca J. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined the extent to which maternal rejection, paternal rejection, maternal care, and maternal overprotection predict extrinsic life aspirations as well as maladaptive money attitudes in young adults. Additionally, this study sought to determine if the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire correlates with the Parental Bonding Instrument. The variable, extrinsic life aspirations, was examined to determine if it mediates between parental rejection and maladaptive money attitudes. Finally, the present study examined gender differences with regard to parental rejection, extrinsic life aspirations, and maladaptive money attitudes. A multiple regression analysis was conducted in a college sample of 366 participants using self-report …

Alien, Illegal, Undocumented: Labeling, Context, And Worldview In The Immigration Debate And In The Lives Of Undocumented Youth, David A. Caicedo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A key element of investigating attitudes towards unauthorized immigrants in the United States has been political orientation, yet few studies have examined the influence of such orientation on labels relevant to the immigration debate. The current dissertation project examined these attitudes among young adults using survey, focus group, and interview methodologies. Level of agreement on various statements regarding unauthorized immigrants was examined in Study I, definitions given for the labels ‘illegal’ and ‘undocumented’ were explored in Study II, and the lived experience of undocumented youth in two community colleges was investigated in Study III. It was hypothesized that: I) attitudes …

The Effect Of Community And Individual Differences On College Students' Attitudes And Behaviors Towards Transgender Individuals, Laura Hackimer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For transgender adolescents in an environment consisting largely of non-transgender (cisgender) individuals, whether adults and their peers in school are rejecting or accepting of their gender identity can have a large impact on their immediate and future outcomes. As college students will go on to form the social environment for the next generation of transgender adolescents, it is important to assess their beliefs and behaviors regarding this population. The present study sought to investigate the impact of individual and community factors on cisgender college students’ attitudes and behaviors towards transgender individuals. Using a sample of 302 cisgender college students from …