Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Stereotype And Moral Values In Predicting Victim Blaming, Jihye Choi

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Exposing participants to a victim with different racial identities (Asian American vs. African American vs. White American) under two different types of misfortunes (poverty vs. disease), the present study aimed to find whether the victim-blaming patterns differ depending on the victim’s race and whether the difference in victim-blaming tendency could be explained by the interaction between pre-existing stereotypes and situational relevance.

Professional Learning Communities As A Framework For School Counselor Collaboration And Data Use: An Action Research Study, Adam Rixey Southall

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) calls on school counselors to take part in collaborative work experiences using data to address problems of practice. School counselors experience professional isolation leading to underperformance (Elliot et al., 2004; Stone-Johnson, 2015). School structures that lack collaborative experiences for school counselors leads to isolation (Bardhoshi et al., 2014). The purpose of this action research study was to assess the influence of a professional learning community (PLC) on the perceptions of school counselors to perform the elements of a PLC, their use of data to solve problems of practice, and their perceptions of benefits and …

Characterizing Changes In Participation And Diversification In Virginia's Small-Scale Commercial Fishing Industry, Shelby Brooke White

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Small-scale fisheries represent a diverse and dynamic portion of the global commercial fishing population and serve as a source of food security, income, and livelihood for many individuals and contribute to the development of local community and regional identities. Virginia’s small-scale commercial fisheries offer similar benefits, accounting for a significant portion of the state’s total annual landings and employing thousands of individuals. Despite the value of these fisheries, the number of commercial licenses has declined over the past few decades. Declines are attributed to various factors but indicate potential shifts in participation and resource dependence that may be consequential. Similar …

The Experiences Of Colorism For South Asian Women: A Qualitative Study, Aishwarya Nambiar

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Research has limitedly explored how colorism shapes the mental health and well-being of South Asian women across the diaspora. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenology study was to understand how South Asian women experience colorism and how these experiences shape their mental health and well-being. A total of 14 participants were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews and an artifact symbolizing experiences of colorism served as the methods of data collection. Critical Race Theory and Womanism were employed as the theoretical framework and the lens in which data was analyzed. A total of six main themes emerged in the study. The themes and …

Examining Racial Differences In Psychophysiological Responses To Exposure To Police Brutality, Autumn Scarborough

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

​​​​​Despite the prevalence of police brutality videos online, research examining the effects of exposure to such videos is extremely limited. The current work examined racial differences (among both participant and victim) in psychophysiological responses to videos of police brutality. Over the course of three sessions, participants (total N = 56) responded to questionnaires measuring attitudes toward police legitimacy, trait empathy, and justification of police use of force. EEG activity was recorded while participants watched four short videos depicting real-life incidents of excessive police use of force (two with Black victims and two with White victims). We examined mu suppression, commonly …

Achieving Equitable Offshore Wind Development: Lessons From European Stakeholders, Kacey Hirshfeld

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The Biden Administration has set aggressive offshore wind energy goals, aiming to have 30 gigawatts of offshore energy in place by 2030. This amount of energy has the potential to power 10 million homes (White House, 2022), helping the administration to reach larger clean energy goals. In Virginia, Dominion Energy aims to have 2.6 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2026, enough to power up to 660,000 homes (Dominion Energy).

While the upcoming offshore wind energy development will create clean energy and green jobs, the ocean is no longer an open field for development and already supports a complex matrix …

Development Of 3d And 360 Gis-Based Models To Visualize Projected Sea Level Rise In Coastal Virginia, Candice M. Vinson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Science communication is a skill that can be strengthened with practice. Like any skill, it helps to know what you need to practice in order to get better at it. When presenting information to an audience, the skill of science communication comes into play as early as the first draft of a presentation. As you think about how you will tell your story to the audience, you likely consider including text on slides, images, graphs, maps, or even videos. However, it is crucial to remember that accessibility barriers are something we must often consciously work to rid our presentations of, …

A Study Of Transparent Assessment Design And Low-Income Student Success In Washington State, Taylor Victoria Locks

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Transparent design has been promoted as a teaching pedagogy to promote student success, especially among marginalized student populations. This study seeks to understand the impact of participation in a transparently designed course on low-income students self-reported levels of academic self-efficacy and employer-valued skills in Washington state. This research furthers the understanding of low-income student success on campus while also providing a rigorous independent review of the Transparency in Learning and Teaching initiative’s (TILT) findings. The study uses data previously collected by the Washington State TILT Higher Ed research team in the Spring 2019 semester (n = 395) through a pre- …

The Faces Of Substance Use: A Reverse Correlation Analysis Of Perceptions Of Alcohol And Cannabis Use, Madison Hallie Colby

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Alcohol and cannabis are some of the most ubiquitous substances on college campuses. While the reason for use varies between each individual, from social lubricant to sleeping aid, nearly half of higher-education students endorse alcohol and/or cannabis use in the last month. Despite this popularity, there is still a deeply ingrained level of stigma around substance use and substance use disorders and people who use substances or struggle with substance use disorders are subject to a litany of damaging perceptions, such as being deemed violent, unpredictable, weak, and untrustworthy.. Most research on the stereotypic thinking surrounding substance use focuses on …

A Qualitative Investigation Into The Ethnic And Racial Identity Development Of Counseling Students, Philippa Chin

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This transcendental phenomenological study sought to understand the experiences of graduate counselor students during the development of their ethnic and racial identity (ERI). The research questions for the study were: How do counseling students experience ethnic and racial identity development during their graduate program and what is the meaning made by graduate students in their experiences with ERI development in their graduate program? Participants were recruited from a CACREP accredited graduate counseling program and the purposive sampling technique was used to identify those who have experience with the phenomena. In-depth, open ended questions were utilized to gather comprehensive descriptions of …

Self-Stigma And Problematic Alcohol Use: Risk Factor, Protective Factor, Or Both?, Victoria Olegovna Chentsova

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

While research has examined the effect of stigma from others towards individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUD), few studies have examined the relationship between perceived self-stigma related to AUD and corresponding engagement with alcohol among non-clinical samples. Present Study. The present studies examined the relationships between perceptions of self-stigma of AUD, proximity to others with AUD, and alcohol use behaviors and outcomes. Methods. In Study 1, participants (n = 3,169; 73.9% female) were college students within the U.S. recruited to participate in an online survey on substance use including questions on AUD self-stigma, alcohol use behaviors and negatives alcohol use …

Transpersonal In Counselor Education: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Unity Nova Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The aim of this qualitative study was to capture the experiences of master's levelcounselors-in-training who take transpersonal counseling courses. Instructors of such courses aim both to help students develop competence in counseling clients who have had transpersonal experiences--those that, despite their occurrence beyond the usual limits of reality, are believed by experiencers to be real (Holden, 1999), and to promote counselor development (Walker, 2022). Participants were four students who had completed such a course, two each from two U.S. universities, one located in the Southwest and the other in the East. I conducted a transcendental phenomenological analysis by interviewing participants, …

The Importance Of Sleep For Flexibly Coping With Daily Stress, Calissa Leslie-Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Coping flexibility, the ability to match coping strategy choice to the demands of a situation, has been found to diminish the effects of daily stress. Despite the importance of high levels of coping flexibility, little research has explored factors that can predict one’s ability to demonstrate coping flexibility. One promising avenue for such research is the role of sleep. This research aims to explore the importance of sleep as a predictor of daily coping flexibility across two studies. Study one consists of one hundred and fifty college student participants who were recruited in the Spring 2021 semester at the College …

Improving Coastal Management Through Integrating Social-Ecological Assessments, Amanda Grace Guthrie

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Societies and ecosystems are interlinked entities as there are feedbacks and dependencies between the systems and these can be viewed as an integrated, social-ecological system. Social and ecological research is often conducted independently which contributes to management recommendations that are premised on a false dichotomy. Compounding these challenges, climate change is accelerating and continues to exacerbate socio-ecological stressors. Coastal wetlands, such as salt marshes, are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and coastal development. Shoreline erosion is often managed through installing engineered shoreline armoring (i.e., bulkhead) that reduces many of the natural adaptive mechanisms present in coastal ecosystems. In contrast, …

The Impact Of Facial Coverings On Emotion Recognition Accuracy And Confidence During The Covid-19 Pandemic: An International Comparison, Fatima Zahera Nayani

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

With increased face mask usage globally following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to understand factors that influence mask wearing behavior. One factor that may influence mask wearing behavior is the degree to which they potentially impair emotion recognition. Previous research that has suggested that there may be cultural differences in facial regions that people in Japan and the United States attend to when inferring a target’s emotional state, whereby Japanese are more likely to look to the eyes and Americans are more likely to look at the mouth (Yuki et al., 2006 & Jack et al., …

What Lies Beneath? Examining The Explicit And Implicit Attitudes Of Omnivores Towards Vegetarians, Harini Krishnamurti

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Vegetarians are a unique social minority group because they fail to engage in dominant social norms with respect to meat consumption. Research has revealed that vegetarians reported lower self-esteem, lower psychological adjustment, less meaning in life, more negative moods, and more negative social experiences than omnivores. These experiences may be the result of experiencing ostracism, exclusion, disrespect, and derogation from omnivores. Although previous research has shown that omnivores report relatively positive explicit attitudes toward vegetarians, these reports can be susceptible to social desirability biases and may undermine the degree of negativity of omnivores’ attitudes toward vegetarians. To understand the nature …

Emotional Resilience In Children With Incarcerated Mothers: A Person-Centered Approach, Jenna B. Marzougui

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

According to Bioecological theory, social and environmental contexts (e.g., parental incarceration) shape child outcomes (Brofennbrenner & Ceci, 1994). Research suggests that children with incarcerated parents are at heightened risk of experiencing adverse outcomes, yet, little research has focused on resilience in this population (Arditti et al., 2020). Conceptualized within a Bioecological framework (Brofennbrenner & Ceci, 1994), the present study used a person-centered approach to investigate emotional resilience in children with incarcerated mothers. Participants were 148 children (Mage = 9.87 years, SD = 1.65 years, range = 7- 13 years, 52.7% female, 66% Black), their 116 incarcerated mothers (Mage = 32.8 …

Error Commission And Aging: Using Single-Trial Movement Kinematics To Decode The Time-Course Of Response Monitoring Processes During Complex Decisions In Older And Younger Adults, Emily Norton

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

We are constantly making decisions in everyday life that involve interactions with our environment: from simple behaviors like deciding to reach for your cup of coffee to complex behaviors like deciding which route to take to work. It is well known that these decisions require constant monitoring, such that decision-making is not a discrete event and requires initiation, monitoring, and evaluation for success. This process can be seen during error-corrections, in which an initial plan was implemented, an error was recognized, and a new plan was implemented to correct the initial response. While we have learned a great deal about …

Alcohol-Related Craving And Response Inhibition: Examining Effects Of Mindfulness Among Binge Drinking And Cannabis Using College Students, Eleftherios Mehael Hetelekides

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The present study aimed to examine several research questions related to alcohol craving, state mindfulness, and response inhibition in binge drinking college students who do and do not use cannabis. Before and after listening to a mindfulness or a control audio clip, participants (N = 30) completed a cued Go/NoGo task. EEG activity was measured throughout, and alcohol craving was assessed before and after each task. We examined whether P300 amplitude would differ as a function of the within-subjects variables Block (1 vs. 2), Target (Go vs. NoGo), and Cue (Alcohol vs. Neutral) of each task. We also examined if …

Intergroup Perceptions Of Discrimination, Neelamberi Klein

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Efforts to effectively combat discrimination require an understanding of how groups in power think about those experiencing prejudice and discrimination. To study how White individuals think about the discrimination faced by different racial groups (Non-Hispanic White, Black, Asian, Middle Eastern, Native and Indigenous, Latinx and Hispanic, and Mixed-Race men and women), 304 White participants completed an edited version of the Everyday Discrimination Scale and the Hypervigilance scale for each of these 14 groups to assess participants’ perceptions that these targets experience discrimination. Further, explicit attitudes towards each group were assessed with feelings thermometers. Results of our within subjects ANOVAs found …

Seeing Community Values And Resistance In The Grave: Burial Practices At Terre Haute African Cemetery, Annabelle Julia Lewis

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This thesis examines a group of 114 burials found within the Terre Haute African Cemetery in Midlothian, Virginia, using gender and resistance as frameworks through which to understand the relationships that members of the historically Black Huguenot Spring community had with the American funeral industry as it developed parallel to the cemetery’s use history from roughly 1800 to 1934. The movement for the beautification of death and increasing emphasis on material goods for funerary commemoration beginning in the nineteenth century did not occur in a vacuum; this work explores the ways in which Huguenot Springs community members chose to participate …

Promoting The Well-Being Of Youth Involved In The Juvenile Justice System: An Ecological Perspective, Jennifer Marie Traver

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system often express hope for their future. However, most research on this population centers on negative outcomes, such as being re-arrested or developing mental health problems. The purpose of the current study was to better understand factors that promote positive development of youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979), we examined whether the following variables were associated with well-being: maternal warmth, peer warmth, school bonding, neighborhood conditions, or procedural justice.

The current study used data from the Crossroads Study. Participants included 1,216 adolescent male first-time offenders who …

Environmental Justice In The Elizabeth River Watershed: Exploring The Utility Of Environmental Justice Screening Tools, Julianna M. Ramirez

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The Environmental Justice (EJ) movement has long highlighted the disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards experienced by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income communities across the country. Environmental practitioners have recently focused on utilizing EJ screening tools, which combine environmental and social data to visualize vulnerable communities, to begin to address environmental injustice rampant in BIPOC and low-income communities. This project explores EJ theoretical frameworks and the historical context of social oppression and environmental pollution in the Elizabeth River watershed (ERW) of Virginia to: 1) understand the social, political, and economic context behind environmental injustice; and 2) generate goals …

The Effects Of Explicit And Implicit Racial Bias On Evaluations Of Individuals Involved With The Criminal Justice System, Annabelle Bass

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

A racialization of crime exists in American society with Black men in particular being associated with crime. The purpose of this research was to examine whether perceptions of criminal sentencing decisions and perceptions of male criminal offenders would vary as a function of race and are associated with explicit and implicit racial bias. Four studies were conducted utilizing a within-subjects design in which participants viewed fictitious case records for Black and White criminal offenders and completed measures of bias and perceptions of the sentencing decision and the offenders themselves. Two studies included samples of White American adults (n = 113 …

The Dynamics Of Resilience In A Centering Meditation: A Longitudinal Randomized Controlled Trial, Stephanie Dorais

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

In use for centuries across nations, meditation is still one of the widely used interventions to promote holistic health. Despite its large research base, many forms of meditation in use still have yet to be subject to empirical research. Centering prayer has been an established contemplative practice since the third century and has recently gained popularity at the turn of the last century. Individuals practiced centering to find stillness and, through the stillness, their inner strength. Due to its lack of empirical evidence, centering practice has primarily remained in religious or contemplative circles outside instead of counseling treatment. Furthermore, it …

The Effects Of Antiracism Education On Confrontation Of Institutional Discrimination: A Game Theory Approach, Emma Wedell

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Confrontation is an important mechanism to reduce racial prejudice and stereotyping. Yet, little research has examined White adults’ intended confrontation within the context of institutionally discriminatory policies that pose barriers to Black Americans seeking employment or investigated reactions to zero-sum and negative-sum anti-Black institutional discrimination. The present study investigated the effects of an antiracism educational exercise on White adults’ confrontation of zero-sum and negative-sum institutional discrimination. Participants (n = 195; Mage = 54.16) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) antiracism education with writing reflection, (2) antiracism education alone, or (3) a control condition. Participants next reported how …

Spirtual First Responders: The Experiences Of Imams In Their Mosques During Their Personalized Interactions With The Congregants They Serve, Leila Khalid Warraich

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of Imams in their mosques during their personalized interactions with the congregants they serve. A review of the literature was conducted, and the theoretical framework of the study was social constructivism. Eight Imams were identified as meeting the criteria for the study. Data collection consisted of a demographic questionnaire, a semi-structured interview, and artifact collection. A hermeneutic phenomenological method was used to analyze the data which resulted in five themes around Imam’s experience with their congregants. Additional findings are also discussed, along with implications, limitations, and future research.

The Effectiveness Of Health, Environmental, And Animal Welfare-Focused Video Appeals On Implicit And Explicit 'Wanting' Of Meat And Intentions To Reduce Meat Consumption, Luke Herchenroeder

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

High levels of meat production/consumption negatively impact physical health, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare. As a result, documentaries focused on increasing knowledge of these negative consequences have emerged in popular media. Given this information, the present study examined and compared the effects of these video appeals on intentions to reduce meat consumption and ‘wanting’ of meat. In the analytic sample, most participants identified as White non-Hispanic (n = 237; 58.8%), with a smaller proportion identifying as Asian American or Asian (n =101; 24.9%), as Black or African American (n = 54; 13.3%), as Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin (9.4%), …

I Should Know Better: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Of New Counselors' Experiences Navigating Their Implicit Biases, Okenna Egwu

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Implicit biases are known to have potentially damaging effects in counselors’ professional work. Although it is widely accepted that all people have these personal and unconscious biases, it has been difficult for researchers to identify strategies for consistently eradicating them on an individual level. To engage in multiculturally competent practice, counselors are directed to make every effort to eliminate latent biases. In order to understand how clinicians go about doing this, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was employed to explore the nature of counselors’ experiences navigating and addressing their implicit biases. The findings of this study revealed a need for more training …

The Effect Of Supervision Training For School Counselors On Supervision Knowledge And Supervisor Self-Efficacy, Adrienne Marie Backer

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This study investigated the effect of supervision training on participating school counselors’ supervision knowledge and supervisor self-efficacy. A randomized experimental research design allowed the unbiased examination of outcomes associated with participation in the Site Supervision Training for School Counselors (SST-SC) program. The researcher conducted repeated measures analyses of variance to explore the effect of a seven-week, asynchronous online site supervision training intervention on school counselors’ supervision knowledge and supervisor self-efficacy. The results indicated a statistically significant main effect for time for supervision knowledge, with both groups showing an increase in test scores from pre- to post-test, regardless of participation in …