Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Learning From One’S Own Errors Vs From Observing Other People's Errors: Ego Engagement Vs Ego Threat, Viktoriya Andreevskaya

Theses and Dissertations

Do people learn better from their own errors or from observing other people’s errors? A sense of ego-threat may impede learning from negative corrective feedback directed to self. A series of two experiments manipulated the degree of ego-threat between subjects. In the neutral ego-threat condition, results showed better learning from self-generated errors.

Individual Concepts And Personal Identity Judgement, Molly M. Ye

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research into personal identity judgments has yielded conflicting outcomes. This paper introduces an alternative argument, proposing that the concept PERSON and HUMAN BEING provide different ways of thinking about the identity of people. Two experiments in this study provide evidence for this claim.

Is A Test The Best?, Giulia Ronnette Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations

The test effect (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006) demonstrates that performance on a final test is better when an immediate test is taken after reading a passage rather than rereading. Although transfer appropriate processing has been suggested as a theoretical explanation, the results could be due to elaborative retrieval processes during the immediate test that are not available during restudy. We compared testing to three other strategies using elaborative retrieval—Generating Questions, Read-Recite-Review, Teaching—to determine whether they would be as beneficial as testing. Results showed that each of the alternative strategies produced final test performance equal to that of testing, suggesting not …

Masculinity-The Next Generation: Millennials, The Mrni, And Measurement Invariance, Charlotte Maria Shanaver

Theses and Dissertations

Socialization is, “the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). It is inescapable and pervasive. One of the most socialized constructs is gender. Gender roles, norms, expectations, shape how male and female identified folx move through the world and expect others to move through the world. However, this can become problematic when such norms become rigid and insurmountable. Adherence to traditional or hegemonic masculine norms, has been correlated with worse mental health outcomes (Gerdes & Levant, 2018). For decades, psychologists have utilized the Male Role Norms Inventory (Levant et al., 1992; Levant …

Behavioral And Eye-Movement Correlates Of Item-Specific And Relational Memory In Autism, Greta Nicole Minor

Theses and Dissertations

Recent work has challenged past findings that documented relational memory impairments in autism. Previous studies have often relied solely on explicit behavioral responses to assess relational memory integrity, but successful performance on behavioral tasks may rely on other cognitive abilities (e.g., executive functioning) that are impaired in some autistic individuals. Eye-tracking tasks do not require explicit behavioral responses, and, further, eye movements provide an indirect measure of memory. The current study examined whether memory-specific viewing patterns toward scenes differ between autistic and non-autistic individuals. Using a long-term memory paradigm that equated for complexity between item and relational memory tasks, participants …

Latino Career Choice And Prestige: Examining Prestige, Cultural Values And Family Influence In Predicting Career Choice, Edwin Ramos

Theses and Dissertations

Career choice continues to be a principal area for career development research, as finding ways to determine what contributes to career choices, and how those choices impact individuals’ micro and macro systems, informs best practices in vocational psychology. The field of vocational psychology can benefit from exploring myriad variables that may have an impact on career choice, career congruency, and persistence in the world of work; and highlighting the unique experiences and needs of diverse populations can produce new insight about different groups and people that the field should endeavor to improve. To this end, this study sought to uniquely …

The Role Of Childhood Trauma History In Relation To Decent Work, Matthew Reiland

Theses and Dissertations

This study used structural equation modeling to examine the impact of childhood trauma on decent work. Childhood trauma was added as an exogenous variable in the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) model and hypothesized to have direct and indirect effects on decent work. An online sample of 643 working adults completed PWT measures and a measure on childhood trauma. Additionally, participants completed a single Likert-type item measure assessing negative impact of COVID-19 on work so that model invariance could examined among two high and low impact groups. Group invariance was satisfied at the configural, metric, and scalar levels, and the …

Working In The Us For Recent Highly Educated Asian Immigrants And How Social Class Shift Impacted Their Experiences, Yixing Song

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation utilized the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method to understand the work experiences of recently arrived, highly educated Asian immigrants, specifically from Chinese and Taiwanese backgrounds, in the United States. Grounded in the Psychology of Working Theory, the study places a particular emphasis on the role of social class in shaping how immigrants conceptualize decent work and meaningful work as well as how they adapt in order to achieve their desired work experience after immigration. Through CQR analysis, nine distinct domains emerged, shedding light on the multifaceted nature of their professional journeys and the challenges and opportunities Asian immigrants …

Assessing The Correlation Between The Socioeconomic Level And Cognitive Function Among Older Adults In Egypt, Macy Abougabal

Theses and Dissertations

The number of older adults is increasing worldwide at an unprecedented rate. Some countries began to understand the challenges of aging, while others are still at the stage of comprehending the true dimensions of the situation. There is a global focus on aging research to appropriately mitigate the negative impact of aging and cognitive decline. Not only that dementia add economic pressure on governments, it also increase the psychological and physical burden of the caregivers. Scholars have previously studied socioeconomic level in three variables, namely work, education, and income, and their relationship with cognitive function. It was concluded that the …

Dancing Bees, Singing Whales. The Impact Of Idiosyncratic Information On Children’S Attitudes Toward And Moral Reasoning About Animals, Vittoria Sipone

Theses and Dissertations

Research in conservation psychology suggests that the tendency to engage in conservation behaviors develops from the interplay of both knowledge of and affinity toward nature (Schmitz & Rocha, 2018; Berenguer, 2007). The present study explores this connection between knowledge and attitudes by investigating the impact of information on individuals' attitudes and care toward animals. This study focuses on knowledge in the form of idiosyncratic information, due to considerations of potential cognitive strengths as well as the pervasiveness of “fun facts” in everyday life. Idiosyncratic information about natural items is not likely to be found in science textbooks at grade-school level, …

The Case Of The Disappearing Owner: Do Dogs Show Behavioral Evidence Of Violation Of Expectation?, Rita Kanagat

Theses and Dissertations

The What the Fluff challenge became a series of viral YouTube videos that started in 2018. In the videos, a person stood behind a blanket in a doorway in front of their dog and lifted and lowered the blanket revealing and obscuring themselves, and finally disappearing with a final blanket drop. The dogs’ reactions were varied but were suggestive of a violation of expectation response. We conducted a community science study that employed methodologies consistent with the What the Fluff Challenge paradigm that were conducted in the owners’ homes with their dogs. Each owner was required to run a control …

Relationships Between Cognitive Abilities And Patterns Of Children’S Classroom Behavior At Age Nine, Seré Elizabeth Politano

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher reports are often used to indicate how well children perform in school and help clinicians identify behavioral problems, such as inattentiveness (Charach et al., 2009). However, various factors may have an effect on teacher ratings of children’s behavior, which can have downstream effects on children’s academic achievement (Teisl et al., 2001). Given teachers play a large role in identifying at-risk youth, it is important to understand how their reports of children’s behavior are associated with childhood outcomes such as cognitive development, which is closely tied to academic achievement (Metcalfe et al., 2013). The present study aimed to identify patterns …

Psychiatric Diagnostic Decision-Making: Investigating The Theory Of The Dual-Process Model, Christopher S. Kleva

Theses and Dissertations

Diagnostic decision-making is an important component of clinical practice; however, there is substantial diagnostic unreliability within mental health diagnoses. The lack of reliability emphasizes the importance of investigating diagnostic decision-making; however, the research to date is limited, primarily relying on a vague definition of decision-making based on the dual-process model. The present study is an exploratory attempt to apply the dual-process model to explain how mental health clinicians (n = 30, 73.3% cisgender female, 96.7% psychologists) arrive at making diagnostic decisions through the use of an interactive interview mechanism. For each participant, we are able to create a figure …

Testing The Psychology Of Working Theory Among Economically Marginalized Workers, Willy Anthony Diaz Tapia

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

TESTING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WORKING THEORY AMONG ECONOMICALLY MARGINALIZED WORKERS

byWilly Anthony Diaz Tapia The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2022 Under the Supervision of Professor Kelsey Autin In 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that approximately 39.7 million U.S. Americans lived in poverty of which 6.9 million were considered the working poor. People from economically marginalized communities experience significant challenges in many areas of life and work is no exception; yet their work lives continue to be underrepresented in vocational literature. The Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) is one of the first vocational theories developed explicitly to better understand and …

Workplace Stressors And Withdrawal Intentions In Law Enforcement: The Role Of Living A Calling, Kristin Weber

Theses and Dissertations

Working in law enforcement is considered a dangerous and challenging profession. Not only do law enforcement officers experience stress related to job tasks but they experience additional job stress related to organizational processes and procedures. Ongoing exposure to job stress can lead to low job satisfaction and high job turnover (Biggs, Brough & Barbour, 2014). However, the job turnover for those in law enforcement is only approximately ten percent. To date, there has been no research examining this discrepancy or predictors of low withdrawal intentions in law enforcement. This study looks to examine the relationship between living a calling, job …

The Development Of The Degrees Of Freedom Scale, Darius Wright

Theses and Dissertations

The Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) is a person-environment fit model used to predict turnover intention, determined by the satisfaction of one’s values being reinforced at work. A unique component of this framework looks at how one responds when work values are not being met: either by trying to change the outcome with the workplace or adjust oneself to the outcome. What is unknown however, are the factors that influence the different responses. There is evidence to suggest that there are objective external factors that might play a role in these decisions. This study aimed to capture these factors using …

Assessing Pediatric Chronic Pain Treatment Engagement: Development And Initial Validation Of The Pediatric Pain Perceived Behavioral Control Measure, Nina Linneman

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric chronic pain significantly impacts functioning across all domains of life and often carries forward into adulthood. Chronic pain is often complex to treat and pediatric non-adherence to treatment recommendations has been indicated to be upwards of 55%. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework, the aim of the present study was to develop and validate two measures of perceived behavioral control for chronic pain treatment recommendations with a clinical adolescent patient sample (patient and parent proxy versions). The measures underwent development, data from a pediatric chronic pain clinical sample were collected, and an exploratory factor analysis was …

Men, Athletic Identity, Masculinity, And Alcohol: An Examination Of Health Risk Patterns In Male Collegiate Athletes, Travis Love

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of study was to examine the health risk behaviors (alcohol use /abuse) of male student athletes and the relationship these behaviors have to their athletic identity and conformity to masculine norms. Alcohol usage has been identified as a significant health risk behavior exhibited by male collegiate athletes and the study sought to examine the correlations with and athletic identity and conformity to masculine norms using the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS), Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI-46), and the AUDIT-C. Correlation analyses and multiple regression analyses were utilized to statistically explore the relationship between the three variables. Results …

Stand Up Eight: Adversity, Resilience, And Career Adaptability, Samantha Schams

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to fill a gap in the literature by examining the relationship between adversity and career adaptability. The objectives of this study are: 1) to better understand the relationship between adversity and career adaptability. 2) to examine whether race, gender, socioeconomic status, or resilience moderate this relationship. 3) to compare career adaptability and resilience. These objectives were addressed in a quantitative analysis of survey results gathered of adults living in the United States who speak English. To test for a curvilinear relationship between adversity and career adaptability, we completed a regression analysis of the data using adversity, squared …

Gender And Ptsd: An Examination Of Socialized Masculinity As Moderator Of Ptsd Symptom Development, Kirsten Schmidt

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to explain observed gender differences in PTSD risk and protective factors and subsequent PTSD symptoms by use of a Masculine Heuristic moderator variable. Drawing from heuristic and gender role theories, this study utilizes a sample of male and female trauma survivors to examine the interaction between a Masculine Heuristic style and trauma exposure in the development of PTSD symptoms. Structural Equation Modeling and moderation analysis were used to explore these constructs. Results are discussed and incorporated into current literature, while limitations of the current study and suggestions for future research are explored.

Individual Differences In Structure Learning, Philip Newlin

Theses and Dissertations

Humans have a tendency to impute structure spontaneously even in simple learning tasks, however the way they approach structure learning can vary drastically. The present study sought to determine why individuals learn structure differently. One hypothesized explanation for differences in structure learning is individual differences in cognitive control. Cognitive control allows individuals to maintain representations of a task and may interact with reinforcement learning systems. It was expected that individual differences in propensity to apply cognitive control, which shares component processes with hierarchical reinforcement learning, may explain how individuals learn structure differently in a simple structure learning task. Results showed …

The Effect Of Strategy Instruction And Spatial Ability On Spatial Problem Solving, Nia Scarboro

Theses and Dissertations

High spatial skills tend to be a strong indicator for predicting STEM success. There are varying abilities when it comes to spatial skills, despite that spatial skills are adaptable and can develop with proper training. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the role of strategy instruction on spatial thinking performance. More specifically whether or not a response elimination strategy (count the number of folds and multiply by two) or a visualization strategy (imagining unfolding the paper) would be more beneficial in terms of improving Paper folding task score. Students participating in this experiment were undergraduate students from St. …

Pushing It To The Limit: Determining Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) Olfactory Sensitivity And Discrimination Through A Behavioral Choice Task, Matthew S. Rudolph

Theses and Dissertations

Elephants have shown remarkable olfactory capabilities. Their sense of smell impacts their foraging choices, behavior, and ultimately, survival. Being able to detect a target odor can allow elephants to locate specific resources, identify threats, and find receptive conspecifics. Previous studies have shown that elephants can consistently detect target odors, but have not identified the limits of this detection. Thus, to investigate the extent of elephants’ odor detection capabilities, we tested Asian elephants in a two-step odor discrimination task. First, we investigated whether elephants could detect odors at varying levels of dilution after a training procedure, and then whether they could …

Discrete Processing In Visual Perception, Marshall L. Green

Theses and Dissertations

Two very different classes of theoretical models have been proposed to explain visual perception. One class of models assume that there is a point at which we become consciously aware of a stimulus, known as a threshold. This threshold is the foundation of discrete process models all of which describe an all-or-none transition between the mental state of perceiving a stimulus and the state of not perceiving a stimulus. In contrast, the other class of models assume that mental states change continuously. These continuous models are founded in signal detection theory and the more contemporary models in Bayesian inference frameworks. …

The Afro-Brazilian Martial Art Of Capoeira: Cultural Healing And Identity, Lauren Hsiao-Ling Mascari

Theses and Dissertations

By the year 2050, racial and ethnic minorities are projected to become the rising majority accounting for more than 50% of the population in the United States, however minorities are consistently at greater risk for poorer health outcomes and at higher risk for trauma-related symptoms than their White counterparts. Although some individuals seek and access traditional mental health services, more than half of the individuals who have diagnosable conditions never obtain formal treatment. Within the past two decades, the American Psychological Association delineated Multicultural Guidelines that describe the need for interventions to not only adapt to culture, but to be …

Examining Black Americans’ Attitude Towards Mental Health Treatment, Alannia Mosley

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

EXAMINING BLACK AMERICANS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT

By

Alannia Mosley-Jenneford

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2021 Under the Supervision of Marty Sapp, Ph.D.

The purpose of this study was to expand on the current literature on help-seeking attitudes among Black Americans. There is little research exploring the variables associated with Black American’s help-seeking attitudes. However, research has documented the underutilization of service among Black Americans. Literature suggests Black Americans do not seek services until symptoms become persistent and interfere with daily functioning. Evidence supports the relationship between help-seeking attitudes and racial mistrust, racial identity and help-seeking attitudes, and racial …

Behavioral And Neural Correlates Of Episodic Memory Regulation, Mrinmayi Kulkarni

Theses and Dissertations

Episodic memory retrieval, while critical for daily living, needs to be regulated to maintain goal-directed behavior. Past work has shown that episodic memory regulation engages brain regions involved in cognitive control, such as the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. These regions interact with the medial temporal lobe structures to control retrieval processes. In the current study, I paired eye-tracking, a sensitive index of memory, with fMRI in a novel paradigm to address several open questions in the field of episodic memory regulation. Participants initially encoded three celebrity faces and three tools with multiple indoor and outdoor scenes. In a subsequent …

Mental Health Stigma And Its Impact On Experiences Of Decent Work For Veterans, Matthew James Kessler

Theses and Dissertations

Veterans comprise roughly 8.3% of the U.S. adult population and 6.4% of the civilian labor force. Veterans tend to experience rates of both unemployment and underemployment at rates similar to their civilian peers. The duration of enlistment for military members has increased over the last four decades. Although longer enlistments may indicate better retention efforts and the ability to sustain individual careers in the military, this also increases potential rates for combat exposure and psychological distress. Additionally, military members tend to assume strong military identities through their time in the service.

Veterans often struggle with reintegrating into civilian life after …

Transition From Collegiate Track & Field: An Examination Of Values And Commitment, Michael Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a glimpse into psychological factors some of the 100,000 student-athletes who leave collegiate sport each year may face and adds to current understandings of ways to best serve collegiate student-athletes prior to their departure from collegiate sport. Drawing from the theories of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and The Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment, the study utilizes a population of former NCAA Division 1, 2, 3 and NAIA student-athletes to offer an in-depth look at the transition away from collegiate track and field. Mediation analysis was utilized to explore the interplay between commitment to values driven behavior, psychological …

Neural Correlates Underlying The Interactions Between Anxiety And Cannabis Use In Predicting Motor Response Inhibition, Richard Ward

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to effectively withhold an inappropriate response is a critical feature of cognitive control. Prior research indicates alterations in neural processes required for motor response inhibition in anxious individuals, including those with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and those who engage in regular cannabis use. However, thus far most research has examined how anxiety-related symptoms and cannabis use influence response inhibition in isolation of one another. The current study examined the interactions between anxious symptomology and recent cannabis use in a sample that recently experienced a traumatic event using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the completion of a Stop-Signal …