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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Implementation And Evaluation Of Curricular Changes In The Undergraduate Tesol Internship Program At Brigham Young University, Lydia Ripplinger Jul 2012

Implementation And Evaluation Of Curricular Changes In The Undergraduate Tesol Internship Program At Brigham Young University, Lydia Ripplinger

Theses and Dissertations

This MA project consists of the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of intended improvements to the TESOL minor internship program at Brigham Young University (BYU). The majority of changes implemented and evaluated in this study were suggested by Marisa Ontiveros in her 2010 MA thesis, An Evaluation of the Learning Outcomes and Curricular Organization of the Brigham Young University Undergraduate TESOL Internships Course. The present report summarizes relevant literature that led to the current project, including a discussion of the importance of internships in general, information regarding the significance of TESOL internships, and a summary of the BYU …

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Malingering Detection Measure Utility And Concordance In A University Accommodation-Seeking Student Population, Nichole M. Loser Jul 2012

Malingering Detection Measure Utility And Concordance In A University Accommodation-Seeking Student Population, Nichole M. Loser

Theses and Dissertations

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, universities and colleges are required to provide accommodative services for students with disabilities. Many studies have examined the role of malingering mental health symptoms in order to obtain psychotropic medications, but very little research has been done on the role of accommodations as secondary gain in students who may malinger learning disabilities. This study sought to examine both the usefulness of implementing specific malingering detection measures in psychological evaluations with university students and the agreement of those measures within the population. Archival data was gathered from a university accommodation clinic that provided free …

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The Mediating Influence Of Child Self-Regulation On The Relationship Between Couple Attachment Security In Parents And Anxiety In Their Children, David P. Adamusko Jul 2012

The Mediating Influence Of Child Self-Regulation On The Relationship Between Couple Attachment Security In Parents And Anxiety In Their Children, David P. Adamusko

Theses and Dissertations

This two wave panel study examined child self-regulation as a potential mediator of the relationship between marital attachment security in parents and anxiety in their adolescent child. Data for this study were taken from the two parent families in waves three and four of the Flourishing Families project which included 335 two-parent families with children between the ages of 14 and 16. Both parents and child completed the Novak and Clayton (2001) Self-regulation Scale with the child's self-regulation as the target, and both husbands and wives completed a modified version of the Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire (Fraley, Waller, & …

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To Use Or Not To Use: The Role Of Affect And Cognition In Changing Attitudes Toward Using Condoms Among African American Women, Kristina Hood Jul 2012

To Use Or Not To Use: The Role Of Affect And Cognition In Changing Attitudes Toward Using Condoms Among African American Women, Kristina Hood

Theses and Dissertations

The current project involved three studies designed to examine which characteristics of persuasive communications change condom use attitudes. Study 1 investigated the effect of message type (affective versus cognitive) and source (male versus female) on attitude change among a sample of African American women attending college. In Study 1 (N = 146), the affective message and female source produced the most positive change in condom use attitudes. Study 2 examined whether message type and source were associated with favorable condom attitudes in a community sample and whether these findings differed from a college sample. Twenty-seven women participated in group discussions …

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The Evolution Of Conservative Attitudes As A Complement To Cognitive Threat Detection Mechanisms, Russ Clay Jul 2012

The Evolution Of Conservative Attitudes As A Complement To Cognitive Threat Detection Mechanisms, Russ Clay

Theses and Dissertations

Conservatism reflects a general attitude structure characterized by a preference for traditional social practices and an aversion to uncertainty and threat. Though the social environment undoubtedly plays a role in shaping conservative attitudes, recent studies suggest that trait-level characteristics may contribute to their development as well. The present research investigated trait-level cognitive threat detection ability as a factor which may influence the development and maintenance of conservative social attitudes. A computer simulation indicated that socially conservative attitudes may function as a strategy for increasing the survival rate of an individual with poor threat detection ability living in a relatively dangerous …

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Forecasting The Vitality Of The Fur Language: A Study In Language Use Patterns And Attitudes In Darfur, Kerry Mae Corbett Jul 2012

Forecasting The Vitality Of The Fur Language: A Study In Language Use Patterns And Attitudes In Darfur, Kerry Mae Corbett

Theses and Dissertations

The Fur language of Darfur, Sudan has been undergoing a decades-long language shift to the more dominant and prestigious Arabic spoken throughout the country. However, a decade of conflict in Darfur has brought greater awareness of ethnic identity and disrupted the previously-documented language shift. Using questionnaires, this study explores the current language use patterns and attitudes of 286 individuals in two towns and four Internally Displaced People camps in Darfur. It uses interviews to further explore language attitudes. The research shows that demographic variables such as gender, age, and level of education affect language use and attitudes and confirms that …

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Supporting Utah's Parents In Preventing Adolescent Suicide: A Literature Review And Handouts For Utah's Youth Suicide Prevention Manual, Jennifer L. Whicker Jun 2012

Supporting Utah's Parents In Preventing Adolescent Suicide: A Literature Review And Handouts For Utah's Youth Suicide Prevention Manual, Jennifer L. Whicker

Theses and Dissertations

Suicide, a public health problem on a global scale, has become the focus in many domains across the United States. With the recent push to provide solutions to the adolescent suicide rate in the U.S., the school setting has become an important venue for prevention and intervention efforts. While there are many risk and protective factors, the majority of suicide completions are concurrent with psychiatric disorders among adolescents; as such, this is an area that warrants further investigation. Additionally, school resources are often overwhelmed by the magnitude of need among the student population; therefore, effective interventions must be identified that …

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The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Working Successfully With Young Learners" And "Working Successfully With Very Young Learners", Heidi Healy Jun 2012

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Working Successfully With Young Learners" And "Working Successfully With Very Young Learners", Heidi Healy

Theses and Dissertations

Many thousands of people with varying degrees of preparation teach English as a second or foreign language to many millions of people around the world. Some of these teachers are novice, volunteer teachers, who have not received any professional-level training. These novice teachers help to meet the demand for English teachers by often teaching for little remuneration or in non-ideal teaching conditions. These teachers can benefit from receiving training in how to teach English as a foreign language. Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL) is a program that is being created to provide …

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Indicators Of Fertility Change In A Developing Nation: Examining The Impact Of Motorcycles As A Distance Demolishing Technology On Fertility Change In Rural Indonesia, Jonathan A. Muir Jun 2012

Indicators Of Fertility Change In A Developing Nation: Examining The Impact Of Motorcycles As A Distance Demolishing Technology On Fertility Change In Rural Indonesia, Jonathan A. Muir

Theses and Dissertations

Given the consistent findings in the development literature that fertility is associated with economic growth for individuals, families, and even influences a country's Gross Domestic Product, I explore to what degree motorcycles impact changes in fertility in rural Indonesia. I argue that motorcycles function as a "Distance Demolishing Technology" (Scott 2009:11) and therein empower individuals, particularly young rural women from lower socioeconomic groups who are socially and economically isolated, through increasing their access to labor markets, educational opportunities, non-familial social organizations, and more diverse social networks—key indicators in affecting fertility decisions identified in the existing literature. I examine this relationship …

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Do Extracurricular Activities Help Adolescents Develop Academic Self-Efficacy? Evidence For How And Why, Brianne Louisa Burr Jun 2012

Do Extracurricular Activities Help Adolescents Develop Academic Self-Efficacy? Evidence For How And Why, Brianne Louisa Burr

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has linked extracurricular activities to academic performance for adolescents, but it remains unclear through what mechanisms they are linked. I posit that extracurricular activities lead to the development of academic self-efficacy, which in turn improves academic performance. This study examines the nature of the relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and academic self-efficacy for adolescents. Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, I find that academic self-efficacy is positively related to participation in extracurricular activities. Results indicate that participation in a diversity of types of extracurricular activities such as in both sports and student government is …

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Social Skill Generalization With "Book In A Bag": Integrating Social Skills Into The Literacy Curriculum At A School-Wide Level, Buddy Dennis Alger Jun 2012

Social Skill Generalization With "Book In A Bag": Integrating Social Skills Into The Literacy Curriculum At A School-Wide Level, Buddy Dennis Alger

Theses and Dissertations

Social skill instruction is needed in both targeted and universal contexts. This research utilized a universal social skill intervention, Book in a Bag (BIB), to increase the use of a specific social skill by all students within an elementary school, including students identified as at-risk for behavior problems. BIB was designed to integrate social skills into the curriculum by way of children's literature, specifically a read-aloud book using a direct instruction strategy. The results indicate that BIB had a positive effect on students' behavior in the classroom both for students identified and those not identified as being at-risk for behavior …

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Cyberspace And Real-World Behavioral Relationships: Towards The Application Of Internet Search Queries To Identify Individuals At-Risk For Suicide, Casey C. Miller Jun 2012

Cyberspace And Real-World Behavioral Relationships: Towards The Application Of Internet Search Queries To Identify Individuals At-Risk For Suicide, Casey C. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

The Internet has become an integral and pervasive aspect of society. Not surprisingly, the growth of ecommerce has led to focused research on identifying relationships between user behavior in cyberspace and the real world - retailers are tracking items customers are viewing and purchasing in order to recommend additional products and to better direct advertising. As the relationship between online search patterns and real-world behavior becomes more understood, the practice is likely to expand to other applications. Indeed, Google Flu Trends has implemented an algorithm that accurately charts the relationship between the number of people searching for flu-related topics on …

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Community Journalists And Personal Relationships With Sources And Community Organizations, Richard G. Johnson Jun 2012

Community Journalists And Personal Relationships With Sources And Community Organizations, Richard G. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Community journalists, most of whom work and live in small towns, are likely to create personal relationships with sources and local organizations because of their proximity and involvement in the community. Such relationships may raise ethical questions that explore how journalists manage personal ties in the community. Using a grounded theory approach, the researcher analyzed 15 qualitative, in-depth interviews, this research examined ways in which journalists in six Western communities weigh their personal relationships against traditional journalism norms such as objectivity and detachment. Analysis of these interviews found community journalists fear conflicts of interest, and many of the interview subjects …

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Measurement Approach To The Comparisons Of Career Anchor Models, Mengfei Cai Jun 2012

Measurement Approach To The Comparisons Of Career Anchor Models, Mengfei Cai

Theses and Dissertations

The career anchors concept is an approach to understanding career orientation and motivation. The original career anchor model was introduced by Schein in 1974. Several investigators have created revisions of the model to make it more useful. This dissertation is a continuation of the quest to evaluate the original model and the revised models with respect to empirical support. This study is the first of two studies in which measurement methods are devised to solve the psychometric problems of previous measures. In this study we create and test an "economic exchange" model to correct the problem of acquiescent bias. We …

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Attitudes Of Public Relations Professionals In Ukraine Toward The Problem Of Bribery, Liliya Velbovets Jun 2012

Attitudes Of Public Relations Professionals In Ukraine Toward The Problem Of Bribery, Liliya Velbovets

Theses and Dissertations

Ukraine, just as many other countries that were part of the former Soviet Union, is suffering from the problem of bribery. The public relations field in Ukraine is not immune to corruption, and bribery between public relations professionals and journalists is a well-known phenomenon. In the current qualitative study, the goal was to explore the attitudes of Ukrainian public relations professionals toward bribery and to create a guide for doing business in Ukraine. Through a semistructured survey, the researcher obtained the perceptions of Ukrainian public relations professionals toward bribery, including the definition of bribery, the differentiation between bribery and …

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Clarifying The Relationship Between Bullying And Fear Of Victimization: The Contribution Of Collective Efficacy, Karen R. Spence Jun 2012

Clarifying The Relationship Between Bullying And Fear Of Victimization: The Contribution Of Collective Efficacy, Karen R. Spence

Theses and Dissertations

The rate of fear of victimization has declined in recent years but remains a prevalent problem among adolescents. Fear has been explained in past literature by three main theories: victimization theory, social integration theory, and social disorganization theory. However, the prediction of fear of victimization can be done more concisely by the contribution of collective efficacy, a concept that combines a community's feelings of social cohesion with a willingness to intervene for the common good. Using data collected from Philadelphia middle schools in 1993-1994, this study tested the direct and interacting effects of bullying and collective efficacy on fear of …

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The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Content-Based Language Classes" And "Multiple Skills In One Class", Amanda Staten Malaman Jun 2012

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Content-Based Language Classes" And "Multiple Skills In One Class", Amanda Staten Malaman

Theses and Dissertations

Under the direction of Dr. Lynn Henrichsen, a group of students has developed numerous units for the Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL) program. This program is currently located on a website and will someday be published in book and DVD format. These units provide general training for novice teachers who teach domestically or abroad. With little or no training, volunteer English language teachers are often left with questions that BTRTESOL strives to answer in its 52 units. As this audience may or may not have university education or heavy commitment, these units …

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Visual Form And A Typology Of Purpose: A Peircean-Based Approach To Visual Information Design Pedagogy, Christina Laraine Perkins Rosenquist Jun 2012

Visual Form And A Typology Of Purpose: A Peircean-Based Approach To Visual Information Design Pedagogy, Christina Laraine Perkins Rosenquist

Theses and Dissertations

Visual information design is a vital part of modern communication. Currently discussion is occurring in most disciplines to determine more effective ways to incorporate visual information design into all their communication, including website and document design. These discussions typically focus on elements of traditional graphic design that tell the student what is "good" graphic design; however, traditional graphic design depends on trial and error, luck, and best practices, with only rare attempts to construct general principles. Selection of visual elements is usually based on designer preference rather than any consistent conceptual framework or empirical support for design decisions. Another approach …

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Content Analysis Of 50 Picture Books For Latino Immigrant Children: Implications For Supportive Bibliotherapy, Robert Jeffrey Gomm Jun 2012

Content Analysis Of 50 Picture Books For Latino Immigrant Children: Implications For Supportive Bibliotherapy, Robert Jeffrey Gomm

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the content of 50 children's picture books, specifically award-winning picture books created for and/or about Latino immigrant children. Familiar artwork, situations, and characters help Latino immigrant children identify with the stories. Information from this analysis will help parents, teachers, and school mental health professions select appropriate books for bibliotherapy aligned with Latino immigrant children's needs. Based on this study's analyses, two resources are included: (a) a list of 20 children's picture books that address four or more Latino immigrant challenges and (b) a handout with common challenges facing immigrant children and books to specifically meet each of …

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Greening The Market: The Development And Effect Of Environmental Terms On Consumer Perception Of Products, Jae Parker Heiner Jun 2012

Greening The Market: The Development And Effect Of Environmental Terms On Consumer Perception Of Products, Jae Parker Heiner

Theses and Dissertations

History, discourse analysis, and corpus linguistics show the green movement (humankind's response to issues affecting the environment) to have proliferated both ecological ideologies and the linguistic tools to discuss them, (R. J. Alexander, 2002; Bang, Døør, Steffensen, & Nash, 2007; Carvalho, 2007; Mahlberg, 2007; Wang, 2009) showing the development of green or environmental language in the lexicon. The topic has also left its mark on the market, and green market research has shown effects of messages on perceptions of green brands (Phau & Ong, 2007) and profiles of m (J. A. Roberts, 1996). However , surprisingly little research has been …

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Social And Emotional Learning In Preschool: An Evaluation Of Strong Start Pre-K, Leslie Gunter Jun 2012

Social And Emotional Learning In Preschool: An Evaluation Of Strong Start Pre-K, Leslie Gunter

Theses and Dissertations

Young children face unique social challenges, and they need social and emotional resilience skills in order to navigate their way through school. Many of the children who need the most help are in family situations where parents are not able to teach these skills. Students can become more resilient through social and emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom. SEL teaches children to identify the emotions of themselves and others, to communicate their emotions in a nonviolent way, and to be good friends. By teaching SEL at a young age, teachers can help children become more adept as they make friends …

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Interracial, Yet Intrafaith: Does A Common Religion Predict Higher Relationship Quality In Interracial Romantic Relationships?, Danielle Fenn Jun 2012

Interracial, Yet Intrafaith: Does A Common Religion Predict Higher Relationship Quality In Interracial Romantic Relationships?, Danielle Fenn

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between relationship quality and religious discrepancy of interracial couples who are either married or cohabiting. Two variables of religious discrepancy (religious affiliation discrepancy and religiosity discrepancy) were studied. The sample included three groups of interracial couples: Hispanic-white, Asian-white, and Black-white. The data were analyzed using a structural equation model and regression estimates of the three groups were compared. Results showed a significant relationship in only three of the 12 relationships between the two variables of religious discrepancy and relationship quality. Significant negative relationships were found between religious denomination discrepancy and …

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A Study In Computerized Translation Testing (Ctt) For The Arabic Language, Amanda J. Kuhn Jun 2012

A Study In Computerized Translation Testing (Ctt) For The Arabic Language, Amanda J. Kuhn

Theses and Dissertations

Translation quality assessment remains pertinent in both translation theory and in the industry. Specifically, the process of assessing a target document's quality or a person's translation competence involves a lot of time and money on the part of various governments, organizations and individuals. In response to this issue, this project builds on the ongoing research of Hague et al. (2012), who seek to determine the capabilities of a computerized translation test for the French-to-English and Spanish-to-English language pairs. Specifically, Hague et al. (2012) question whether a good score on a detect-and-correct style computerized translation test that is calculated by a …

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We Need To Talk: Persuasive Communication In Fireproof Ministries' Xxxchurch Anti-Pornography Campaign, Vauna L. Davis Jun 2012

We Need To Talk: Persuasive Communication In Fireproof Ministries' Xxxchurch Anti-Pornography Campaign, Vauna L. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The growing evidence of harm caused by pornography calls for interventions to counteract the influence of explicit sexual media. Fireproof Ministries conducts a major Christian anti-pornography campaign called XXXchurch. This case analysis of the campaign evaluated if the messages were appropriately designed in light of what persuasion research has discovered about motivating attitudinal and behavioral change. Theories about agenda setting, attitude accessibility, exemplars, evidence, cognitive dissonance, guilt, reactance, fear appeals, and self-efficacy were the basis of identifying the themes of the campaign, evaluating the credibility of XXXchurch, and assessing the theoretical foundation of the campaign. The study found three dominant …

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Open (Adoption) For Business: Opposing Movements And Environmental Opportunity Structures In The Adoption Organizational Field, 1972-2000, Krista Marie Frederico Jun 2012

Open (Adoption) For Business: Opposing Movements And Environmental Opportunity Structures In The Adoption Organizational Field, 1972-2000, Krista Marie Frederico

Theses and Dissertations

Recent directions in organizational studies have demonstrated progressive social movements' ability to generate rewarding enterprises or environmental opportunity structures (EOS) in receptive markets. However, more nuanced opposing movements (Meyer and Staggenborg 1996), such as the pro-choice and pro-life movements, receive far less attention, leaving scholars to postulate that there is much yet to know about the impact of movements other than those with strict progressive orientations (Zald, Morrill, and Rao 2005). To better understand how opposing movements contribute to environmental opportunity structures, this thesis examines dramatic growth in the number of adoption agencies advertising services in the Yellow Pages during …

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A Translation And Cultural Adaptation Of The Japanese Version Of The Outcome Questionnaire 45 (Oq), Risa Takara Jun 2012

A Translation And Cultural Adaptation Of The Japanese Version Of The Outcome Questionnaire 45 (Oq), Risa Takara

Theses and Dissertations

The need for psychotherapy outcome research is growing in Japan as the societal demands for psychotherapy have increased in recent years. Although researchers in Japan recognize the importance of integrating clinical practice and empirical research in evaluating psychotherapy outcome, most Japanese studies to date have relied heavily on qualitative case studies (Haebara, 1997; Kanazawa, 2004; Tanno, 2001). With the help of six translators and 116 native Japanese pilot respondents, this study adapted the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ; Lambert et al., 1996), one of the most common quantitative measures of clinical outcome, for use in Japan. The translation of the original OQ …

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The Personal Characteristics And Pedgagogical Styles Of Effective Abstinence Education Instructors, Karen D. Hill Jun 2012

The Personal Characteristics And Pedgagogical Styles Of Effective Abstinence Education Instructors, Karen D. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the personal characteristics and pedagogical styles of effective abstinence instructors. Abstinence instructors receive regular training and evaluation and tend to remain in the abstinence education field for multiple years. Abstinence education programs are offered throughout the United States and present a pool of participants in which to sociologically examine the dynamics of the relationship of adolescents and instructors in a youth prevention program. This qualitative study is based on in-depth personal interviews of eight abstinence instructors who shared insights into their own teaching experiences, expressed their thoughts about who they are as …

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A Comparison Of The Effects Of Negative Communication And Spirituality On Relationship Quality Among Different Groups Of Latino And Anglo Couples, Sergio Benjamin Pereyra Jun 2012

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Negative Communication And Spirituality On Relationship Quality Among Different Groups Of Latino And Anglo Couples, Sergio Benjamin Pereyra

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the direct relationship between actor/ partner effects of negative communication, spirituality and relationship quality and also examined negative communication when mediated by spirituality among four types of couples. The sample included 300 heterosexual Anglo couples (AC), 319 heterosexual female Anglo/ male Latino couples (FAML), 292 heterosexual female Latina/ male Anglo couples (FLMA), and 177 heterosexual Latino couples (LC) who completed a survey questionnaire known as the RELATionship Evaluation (RELATE). Variables from this questionnaire that were used in the study included measures of negative communication, spirituality, and relationship quality. Results from Structural Equation Modeling indicated that negative communication …

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The Actor-Observer Effect And Perceptions Of Agency: The Options Of Obedience And Pro-Social Behavior, Samuel David Downs Jun 2012

The Actor-Observer Effect And Perceptions Of Agency: The Options Of Obedience And Pro-Social Behavior, Samuel David Downs

Theses and Dissertations

The actor-observer effect suggests that actors attribute to the situation while observers attribute to the actor's disposition. This effect has come under scrutiny because of an alternative perspective that accounts for anomalous finding. This alternative, called the contextual perspective, suggests that actors and observers foreground different aspects of the context because of a relationship with the context, and has roots in Gestalt psychology and phenomenology. I manipulated a researcher's prompt and the presence of a distressed confederate as the context for attributions, and hypothesized that actors and observers would differ on attributions to choice, situation, and disposition because of presence …

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Relational And Social Contexts As Predictors Of Satisfaction And Stability Among Asian-White Couples, Jerevie Malig Canlas Jun 2012

Relational And Social Contexts As Predictors Of Satisfaction And Stability Among Asian-White Couples, Jerevie Malig Canlas

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that interracial couples are more distressed and have lower stability compared to their endogamous counterparts. Interracial relationships involving Whites and Asians, however, seem to be an exception. To explore this exception, the pathways to relationship stability among endogamous and exogamous Asian-White couples were compared. Using Analysis of Covariance, partner empathy, social approval, relationship satisfaction, and relationship stability for endogamous and exogamous Asian-White couples were compared, while holding length of relationship constant. Actor and partner effects of partner empathy and social approval on relationship satisfaction and relationship stability, as well as that of relationship satisfaction on relationship stability, were …

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