Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Breastfeeding Matters : Infant Feeding Decision Making And Mothering Sense Of Competence Among Korean American Mothers, Soo-Bin You

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The current study examined the influence of ecological variables in breastfeeding role expectations on mothers’ sense of competence in infant care, and the mediating effect of breastfeeding experience of mothers on the relationship between breastfeeding role expectations and mothering sense of competence. Thirty nine Korean American mothers who have babies under 18 months old participated in the survey asking about various ecological factors in breastfeeding role expectation, their actual breastfeeding experience, and mothering sense of competence. Findings suggested that each ecological variable (i.e. mother self, baby, family, and community) influencing Korean American mothers’ breastfeeding role expectation was differently related to …

Campus Climate For Lgbtq Students, Rick Brown

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

As institutions of higher education have become increasingly cognizant of the need to ensure a welcoming campus climate for all members of their student populations, they have begun to undertake campus climate studies to assess student experiences and perceptions. While the majority of studies have been quantitative in nature, in-depth qualitative studies have been conducted in recent years. These studies have started to provide institutions with opportunities to really hear and understand the experiences of their students. The purpose of this study was to hear and understand the reported experiences of LGBTQ college students with campus climate at a mid-sized …

Parents' Intentions To Allow Youth Football Participation : Perceived Concussion Risk And An Augmented Theory Of Planned Behavior, Ashley Morgan Murphy

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Youth football participation numbers have seen a decline in recent years, with many believing that the risk of head injury is to blame for the decrease. One step to reversing the decline in participation is to understand why fewer children are participating in football. Using an augmented version of the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study looked at the predictors of parents' intentions to allow their children to participate in football. It was hypothesized that in addition to attitudes, social norms, and behavioral control, perceived concussion risk would be a predictor of intention to allow football participation. An online survey …

Correlates Of Depressive Symptoms In Adult Survivors Of Childhood Cancer, Melissa Miller

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Purpose: The impact of cancer in childhood among adult survivors needs to be studied to see how being diagnosed with cancer in childhood is associated with mental health in adulthood. Specifically this study will examine depressive symptoms. If there are negative effects such as depressive symptoms, it is important to know what may help reduce them such as support and counseling. Methods: This is a quantitative study where 49 adult survivors of childhood cancer participated in an online survey. They were recruited from forums for cancer survivors and with snowball sampling.

Results: Through correlation analyses and ANCOVA, it was found …

College Students' Attitude Toward Single Mothers In Poverty, Rocco Placenti

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Poverty in the United States is a huge problem, and it becomes bigger each year, as millions of single mothers are the ones who are suffering the most. The debate on how to solve poverty has continued for a very long time. It has been fixed temporarily, but not completely remedied.

Literature: Attitudes are forecasters of how and why individuals take action in specific ways. Some people believe in social attributions (e.g., societal responsibility); others have confidence in individualistic attributions (e.g., a single person’s responsibility); and others rely on fatalistic attributions (e.g., luck). Individuals’ attitudes towards single mothers in poverty …

Hooking Up, Romantic Relationship Self-Efficacy, And Attitudes Toward Marriage, Jacqueline Bible

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This quantitative study sought to describe general and penetrative hookup behavior among college attending emerging adults aged 18-22, and to understand the relationships between hookup behavior, romantic relationship self-efficacy, and intent to marry. Cognitive behavioral theory viewed through a feminist lens grounded the study. The convenience sample consisted of 38 respondents (32 females, 6 males) from a midsized northeastern university. Respondents were asked to answer an online survey that asked about hookup behaviors, partner types, emotional experiences, feelings of romantic relationship self-efficacy, and intent to marry. Frequencies revealed that respondents prefer to engage in hookups with partners they know and …

When Is Business Necessity A Necessity? : The Effect Of Disability, Status, And Nature Of Accommodation On Decisions To Accommodate Disabled And Pregnant Employees, Pamela Farago

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

A recent plethora of discrimination court cases regarding granting disability and pregnancy accommodations have brought to light many questions surrounding why outcome decisions have lacked uniformity. One such answer to these questions may be the central role that “business necessity” plays in whether or not a disabled or pregnant employee is granted accommodation. The current study sought to explore the potential perceptual bias in business necessity by investigating whether pregnant and disabled candidates were accommodated similarly and whether job status and the nature of the accommodation influenced decisions to accommodate. Using a group of HR professionals as our sample, the …

The Relationship Between Adolescent Sense Of Purpose, Poster Quality, And Intentional Self-Regulation, Lauren Nazareth Gama

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper investigates the relationship between sense of purpose, the quality of work related to a youth character education (CE) program, and intentional self-regulation (ISR) for adolescents participating in the Inspire>Aspire: Global Citizens in the Making (I>A) Values Poster program. Relational developmental systems (RDS) meta-theory posits that individuals have the capacity to shape their own development and that positive development can be reached when individual assets are aligned with assets in the environment (Lerner, Lerner, von Eye, Bowers, & Lewin-Bizan, 2011). This agentic control over development is often referred to as ISR, which can be operationalized by the …

Infants' Categorization Of Goal Events, Danielle Spinelli

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Infants can discriminate the difference between goal (endpoint; e.g., duck walking to a tree) and source events (starting point; e.g., duck walking away from tree), and they show a preference for the goals over the source events (Lakusta et al., 2007; Lakusta & Carey, 2015). The current experiment explored to what extent 10-18 month old infants categorically represent goal spatial relations. The present experiment is an extension of Lakusta, Yuschak, & Batinjane (2014) which found that 14-month old infants show evidence for goal and, sometimes, source categorization. Because there is evidence for 14-month old categorization the current experiment tested younger …

Do Happy American And Japanese Adults Become Similar In Psychological Ttraits As They Age?, Masahiro Toyama

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

As happiness has been a popular topic, philosophers and researchers as well as lay people have continued to discuss it. The potential factors which lead to happiness may be influenced by culture and age. Referring to previous findings on distinctive characteristics between Western and Eastern cultures and age effects on psychological traits and well-being, the present study examined potential similarities and differences among age groups of American and Japanese adults with different levels of happiness. The age groups studied consisted of those aged 35-49, 50-64, and 65-79. It was hypothesized that psychological traits including independence, interdependence, extraversión, and neuroticism become …

The Thirteenth Amendment And Unconstitutional Servitude : The Punishment Exception Clause As A Legal Gateway To Involuntary Servitude, William L. Twisdale

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Did the “except for punishment for a crime” (exception punishment) clause of the first section of the Thirteenth Amendment provide a platform for states to revise, and create if necessary, laws to target blacks and imprison them, thus denying them their rights and create a labor force through the agency of mass incarceration? This author begins with the assumption that it did. The purpose of this thesis study is to explore this question and find if the author’s assumption is correct - whether the exception punishment clause permitted slavery and involuntary servitude to exist as a labor system despite the …

The Effect Of Charisma, Voice Pitch, And Information Richness On Leadership Perception And Follower Performance, Hillman Wirawan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study aimed to investigate the effect of charisma, voice pitch, and information richness on followers’ perceptions of leadership and task performance. A number of previous studies consistently found significant effects of charisma on performance. Similarly, some studies found the effect of lower voice pitch on leadership perception and effectiveness. In addition, the growth of information technology has changed the way leaders influence followers, making this variable an interesting one to examine. This study employed 2 (charisma vs. non-charisma) x 2 (low vs. high voice pitch) x 2 (strong vs. weak information delivery) experimental design. The participants were undergrad students …

The Influence Of Age, Gender, And Leisure On The Life Satisfaction Of Widowed Older Adults, Marcela Kepic

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Spousal loss can be a stressful life event for older adults and a difficult experience that affects daily life and life satisfaction of older adults. Life satisfaction is considered an important part of successful aging. The purpose of this study was to examine how participation in leisure activities, a person’s gender, and time since spousal loss influence life satisfaction of widowed older adults. A sample of 222 widowed older adults selected from the Americans Changing Lives (ACL) dataset was used in order to determine the relationship and impact of predictor variables on time since spousal loss, change in physical leisure …

Helping Students Achieve Their Goals : The Experience Of Working With Students With Mental Health Concerns In A Residence Hall, Kevin P. Schafer

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Individuals living with a mental health issue and attending college may experience significant opportunities for growth and also personal challenges in their development into young adulthood. Residence hall directors may be instrumental in assisting this population during their college years. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experience of residence hall directors working specifically with students with mental health concerns. Grounded in Relational-Cultural-Theory and Chickering’s Student Developmental Theory this study was a two phase study conducted at universities and colleges in the northeast United States. Utilizing a basic qualitative approach deductive coding was used to examine the …

Measures Of Handedness, Kyle Michael Dodd

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Previous handedness research focused on comparing left-handers (LH) and right-handers (RH). Recently, researchers have compared consistent-handed and inconsistent-handed people, as defined by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI). Consistent-handers (CH) typically use their dominant hand for nearly all manual activities whereas inconsistent-handers (IH) do not necessarily have a dominant hand or have no preference in hand use across several daily, manual activities. Degree of handedness is consistently found as the more robust variable in handedness research. Additionally, relying solely on self-reports to identify and categorize handedness instead of longer assessments of handedness, may not able a researcher to capture the subtle …

Familism And Psychological Well-Being Among College-Attending Young Adults : Examining Multiple Mediation And Moderated Mediation Effects, Yiting Cai

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between familism and psychological well-being using an ethnically diverse sample of 636 college-attending young adults. Specifically, this study examined whether familism was related to depressive symptoms and life satisfaction directly, as well as indirectly through family support and conformity to parental expectations. The moderating role of gender in the proposed associations was also explored. PROCESS was employed to test the proposed multiple mediation and moderated mediation models. The results showed that the relationship between familism and depressive symptoms was not direct, but indirect through family support and conformity to parental …

The Curvilinear Effects Of Extroversion On Subjective And Objective Sales Outcomes, William T. Sevcik

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Recent advances in the shape of the extraversion-sales performance relationship suggests being highly introverted and highly extraverted can be detrimental to customer interactions. Using two archival data sets (Study 1: N = 574, Study 2: N = 168), the current study explored non-linear extraversion-sales performance relationships at both the factor- and facet-level for predicting objective and subjective criteria. Findings suggest significant non-linear relationships for extraversión facets with specific criteria combinations. Sales organizations should consider facets over factors for performance prediction. Implications for hiring extraverted sales professionals are discussed.

Perceptions Of Leadership : A Policy Capturing Approach, Kelcie Tacchi

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Drath’s (2001) meta-theory of leadership posits individuals’ developmental levels (dependent, interdependent, inter-independent) will influence their constructions of leadership (.Personal Dominance, Interpersonal Influence, Relational Dialogue) with advanced development subsuming and expanding less complex principles. While this meta-theory has been influential in practice, little research has investigated its propositions. For this thesis, a policy-capturing methodology with 23 leadership vignettes was used to examine (a) if individuals have different constructions of leadership, b) whether a crisis context will influence leadership perceptions, and (c) the effects of demographic and experiential factors on endorsement of varying leadership principles. Results suggest individuals vary in leadership constructions, …

Stereotype Threat In The Interview : The Effects Of Structure And Priming, Joshua Carrasco

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The most common tool in the job selection process is the in-person job interview. The job interview is used as way to determine if the individual is a match for the job functions and the culture of the organization. Interviews are generally considered to be unstructured, which allows for a free flow of topics or is structured and follows a more ridged format. From the view of the person applying for a job, the interview is the most stressful aspect of the selection. As the interview is considered to be social interaction between many people, many times stereotypes can influence …

Differential Effects Of Discrete Positive Emotions On Give-Some And Take-Some Social Dilemmas, Caitlin F. O'Neill

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Building upon the literature regarding the unique effects of distinct negative emotions on decision making, the current thesis investigates the differential effects of distinct positive emotions (i.e., pride, elevation, and amusement) on giving and taking behaviors in social dilemmas. Results of a pilot and experimental studies reveal autobiographical recalls successfully elicited distinct positive emotions, but the effects were generally inconsistent or null in predicting prosocial acts. Supplementary analyses reveal a potential methodological confound, with significant findings more likely to emerge when emotions were measured after as opposed to before the targeted dilemmas. Specifically, elevation led to significantly higher levels of …