Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

When Comments About Looking Good Lead To Feeling Good: The Interactive Effects Of Valuing Women For Their Sexual And Non-Sexual Attributes, Andrea L Meltzer

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous objectification research investigates the negative intrapersonal implications of societal female sexual objectification. However, little research has examined the interpersonal implications of female sexual objectification. Given that female sexual objectification occurs in interpersonal encounters (Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn & Twenge, 1998), and given that psychological phenomenon can vary across relational contexts (Reis, 2008), it is important to consider relevant factors of the intimate relationship context. The two studies reported here explored the proposition that women’s esteem and affect might benefit from men’s sexual valuation to the extent that women perceive those men as psychologically close. In the first study, a …

The Role Of Psychological Distancing In Prejudice And Prejudice Reduction, Joy Elise Phillips

Doctoral Dissertations

Two studies explored the relationship between psychological distancing and prejudice. Results of Study 1 indicated that social identity threat differentially impacted implicitly measured prejudice and explicit distancing such that highly threatened individuals showed less automatic prejudice but increased explicit distancing from Blacks. Additionally, motivational processes relevant to psychological distancing and prejudice were explored. Study 2 examined psychological distancing as a mediator of the relationship between initial automatic prejudice and the efficacy of a common ingroup identity (CII) prejudice reduction technique. While this mediation was only tentatively supported, relationships between motivational processes, nonverbal behavior in interracial interactions, and post-interaction attitudes and …

Disengaging From Moral Disengagement: Scant Experimental Evidence For A Popular Theory, Lydia Elisabeth Eckstein Jackson

Doctoral Dissertations

Moral disengagement theory (Bandura, 1999) is a popular theory widely used to explain how people are able to commit atrocities without incurring self-condemnation. Assuming the internalization of moral standards in socialization, the theory suggests that a sufficient enticement may motivate people to disengage their moral standards so as to violate them without negative consequences for self-perception. Thereby moral disengagement theory is proposed to be distinct from cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1954) in that disengagement is assumed to happen as an antecedent to injurious behavior. This temporal assumption has been all but ignored by extant research and presents a gap in …

Strangers With Benefits: Ovulation And Attraction To Outgroup Men, Joseph Frederick Salvatore

Masters Theses

The tendency for humans to behaviorally and attitudinally favor ingroups over outgroups is robust and pancultural. An evolutionary framework, however, provides reason to expect a systematic tendency toward outgroup-favoritism in a particular context. Ancestral females may have mated furtively with outgroup-males and returned to their cuckolded ingroup-male partner for child rearing, as a means of both maximizing genetic variability and promoting the long-term welfare of an offspring. The footprint of such a process may evidence in human females via increased physical attraction to outgroup (but not ingroup) males as ovulation approaches (conception-risk increases). Two studies of normally ovulating women tested …

A Humanitarian Perspective On Interracial Interaction Ideologies, Agnieszka Maria Helena Rykaczewska, Michael Olson

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Education & Crime: A Study In Student Perceptions Of Culpability, Larry Curtis Long

Masters Theses

Criminological research has long been concerned with how stereotypes of offender race and gender affect perceived culpability and policy formation. Using data collected from a college student population that were administered six vignettes written in the form of police blotters that depicted different crimes being committed by offenders with differing educational characteristics, this study seeks to identify whether or not an offender’s educational characteristics affect their perceived culpability. Although the data indicates that offender’s are seen as culpable regardless of their educational characteristics, it is evident that some degree or sociopathy is assessed to offender’s that are seen as educated …

Vote Or Die: The Power Of The Black Vote, Stephen J. Smith, Harlin Miller

Black Issues Conference

The progress of Blacks in America can, in many ways, be attributed to the advancements made by gaining the right to participate in the political process. From establishing equal opportunities in housing to leveling the playing field in the workplace, the quality of life we as African-Americans enjoy today would not be possible if those before us did not fight for the right to vote. However, today’s Black America exhibits great apathy when it comes to voting on all levels. Most, when asked about their political views and/or affiliation, cannot clearly articulate the differences between Conservative and Liberal, Democrat or …

The Double-Edged Sword Of Self-Enhancement: A Longitudinal Examination Of The Effects Of Self-Enhancement On Psychological And Physical Well-Being Among Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis, Erin Marie O'Mara

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study prospectively examines factors that affect whether self-enhancement exerts favorable or unfavorable effects on both psychological and physical well-being in a context that is less controllable than other contexts in which self-enhancement has been examined (e.g., academic performance), an at risk population of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients. In particular, the present study (a) examines whether self-enhancement differentially predicts psychological and physical well-being when self-enhancement is related or unrelated to the well-being outcomes, and (b) whether self-enhancement interacts with severity of circumstances (i.e., course of MS) to predict psychological and physical well-being, as suggested by O’Mara, McNulty, & Karney …

The Role Of Financial Services Advertising On Investors' Decision-Making, Tae Jun Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study assesses the effect of financial services advertising on investors’ decision-making by adopting a two-sided approach: a stimulus-side analysis to document the nature and prevalence of advertising strategies and advertising disclosures being used and a response-side investigation to examine the investors’ processing of and receptiveness to financial services advertising. By performing a content analysis of recently published financial services magazine advertisements, this study provides a contemporary look at whether and how financial services companies inform, persuade, and communicate with average investors. Results from this content analysis method is also used as a foundation to help design realistic test …

Cell Phone Usage Patterns With Friends, Parents, And Romantic Partners In College Freshmen, Stephanie L. Blackman

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

We're Not Thugs And Rappers: An Examination Of African American Male Athletes' Perceptions Of The Media, Keia Janese Bragg

Masters Theses

Manipulation of stories and events expose issues of false representation and stereotyping within the mainstream media. This research examined the media’s role in shaping the behaviors and experiences of African American male athletes while using Critical Race Theory as the framework in conducting research. A focus group consisting of six former African American male student athletes was conducted. A semi-structured interview schedule was used in order to allow for open discussion. The Constant Comparison Method was instrumental in thematizing the data while QDA Miner software was used to analyze the data. The findings suggested that African American male athletes feel …

Sex And Neuroticism: Frequent Sex Protects Intimates From The Negative Implications Of Their Neuroticism, Virginia Michelle Russell

Masters Theses

A robust literature documents numerous negative implications of neuroticism for romantic relationships. The current study was the first to demonstrate necessary information regarding how couples can protect against these implications. Given the role of negative affect in the association between neuroticism and relationship difficulties, and given the role of sex in reducing negative affect, the current 8-wave longitudinal study of 72 newlywed couples tested the prediction that sexual frequency would moderate the association between neuroticism and marital satisfaction. Lagged multilevel modeling analyses supported this prediction. Specifically, although neuroticism was negatively associated with changes in marital satisfaction among spouses engaging in …

Offender Variables: Unique Predictors Of Benevolence, Avoidance, And Revenge?, Patrick C. Carmody

Masters Theses

Most past research on interpersonal forgiveness has emphasized qualities of the betrayed partner (e.g. trait forgiveness, dispositional empathy, narcissism) or relationship factors (e.g., relational closeness) in predicting forgiveness. However, research has rarely considered characteristics of the offender as predictors of forgiveness, as when a victim comes to wish the offender well and feel warmth toward him/her, and unforgiveness, as when a victim avoids or retaliates against an offender. Therefore the current project sought to assess the unique contribution of offenders’ personality over and above the aforementioned established predictors of forgiveness and unforgiveness outcomes on the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations (TRIM) inventory. …

Communication In Married Couples: Exploring The Roles Of Betrayal And Forgiveness, Nikki N. Frousakis

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explored the associations between having experienced a major betrayal, forgiveness, and communication behaviors in married couples. The first aim of the current research was to compare the communication behaviors of couples who have experienced a major betrayal and are in various stages of the forgiveness process as delineated by Gordon, Baucom, and Snyder (2005) to couples who reported never having experienced a betrayal in their current relationship. The second aim of the study was to explore whether injured partners and their spouses behave differently when discussing the betrayal event than when they are conversing about a separate problem …

Using Critical Race Theory To Read Fantasy Football, Stephanie Rene Hill

Doctoral Dissertations

Fantasy sports are the latest addition to the sports industry. Fantasy sports (FS) participants compete against one another by using players from the “real” world to create a virtual team. FS simulates the structures of the real sporting world. The most popular FS is football, due to the success of the National Football League (NFL) (World Fantasy Games, 2009). Black males represent a vast majority of the athletes in the NFL and are often bought and sold by white participants who represent a critical mass of FS players. The purpose of this dissertation is to read fantasy football participation and …

Is Sex Important To Marital Satisfaction Or Is Marital Satisfaction Important To Sex? Top-Down And Bottom-Up Processing In The Bedroom., Carolyn Anne Wenner

Masters Theses

How do people determine satisfaction in their relationships? One way may be to engage in bottom-up processing and rely on sexual satisfaction to arrive at an overall evaluation of the relationship. Another way may be to engage in top-down processing and allow the overall relationship satisfaction to color the perceptions of sexual satisfaction. The current study more rigorously examined the causal relationship between sexual and marital satisfaction through multilevel cross-lagged regression analyses of 8 waves of marital and sexual satisfaction reported by 72 newlywed couples over the first five years of marriage. Consistent with bottom-up processing, initial sexual satisfaction predicted …

An Anonymous Collection Of Poetry, Anonymous

Commission for LGBT - Reports, Minutes, Events and Other Documents

No abstract provided.

Psychophathology And Interpersonal Relationships: Clinical Vs. Normative (Non-Patient) Samples, Guy Edlis

Doctoral Dissertations

The centrality of interpersonal relationships in both adaptive functioning and psychopathology is unmistaken. Across the lifespan, individuals are born into, develop within, and manifest their behaviors within a relational context. Within the clinical context, relationships in general and relational problems in particular are often key in defining and describing psychopathology and its etiology. Theory and research regarding the relationship between psychopathology and interpersonal functioning have yielded diverse conceptualizations and multitude of empirical findings, all indicative that psychopathology and interpersonal difficulties are inseparable.

The current study represents an added step in the empirical and conceptual process of clarifying the multi-layered relationship …

How Relational Views Influence Adolescents’ Subjective Understanding Of Romantic Relationship Interactions, Justin Dean Smith

Masters Theses

The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of relational views on adolescents' subjective understanding of interactions in the context of their romantic relationships. Relational view is an attachment system construct comprised of three specific measures of attachment: attachment style, rejection sensitivity and self-silencing. To examine the influence of relational views on individual's subjective understanding, we are employing an innovative multimodal methodology: The video-recall system (Welsh & dickson, 2005). This system assesses adolescent participants' subjective understanding of their feelings and behaviors during a video-taped interaction with their romantic partner as well as trained observers' interpretations of the …

Saying Yes When You Mean No: A Phenomenological Analysis Of Consensual Unwanted Sexual Activity, Samantha C. Litzinger

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to conduct a phenomenological analysis of the experience of consensual unwanted sexual activity (CUSA). College men and women (N=10) in relationships ranging from casual to committed who were enrolled at a university in the southeastern United States were interviewed about experiences of CUSA. Interviews were conducted in person with participants who were asked to answer the following research question: “Describe a time in which you did not want to participate in some sexual activity, but you decided to anyway.” Interview transcripts were analyzed using phenomenological research methods in the context of an interpretive research …

Development And Validation Of The Control In Relationships Scale, Ivelina N. Naydenova

Masters Theses

Psychological research suggests that, other things being equal, the desire for or exercise of control over consequences is advantageous to the individual. However, in the context of relationships where the needs and welfare of another person are salient, the preference and enactment of control may be more problematic. Furthermore, although considerable research attention has been devoted to issues of control in general, the more contextualized, relationship-specific conceptualization of control has remained relatively unexplored in the literature, and the relevant research that does exist is limited by measurement problems. The primary purpose of this project was to advance the study of …

Cognitive Prototypes Of The Mentor And Protégé Roles, Stacy Mcmanus

Doctoral Dissertations

Organizational mentoring is associated with positive events and experiences for protégés, mentors, and their organizations. Research on what makes those relationships successful – and potentially replicable with formal programs – has looked at the structure of the mentorship (e.g., formal vs. informal), the demographic make up of the mentoring dyad (e.g., race, gender), and attitudinal similarity between the mentor and protégé. Generally, results have been mixed and it appears that these factors do not account for a great deal of mentorship success. Cognitive prototypes of the mentor and protégé roles may be one as yet unexplored factor that might help …