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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Sharing Stress With A Robot: What Would A Robot Say?, Honson Y. Ling, Elin A. Björling Feb 2020

Sharing Stress With A Robot: What Would A Robot Say?, Honson Y. Ling, Elin A. Björling

Human-Machine Communication

With the prevalence of mental health problems today, designing human-robot interaction for mental health intervention is not only possible, but critical. The current experiment examined how three types of robot disclosure (emotional, technical, and by-proxy) affect robot perception and human disclosure behavior during a stress-sharing activity. Emotional robot disclosure resulted in the lowest robot perceived safety. Post-hoc analysis revealed that increased perceived stress predicted reduced human disclosure, user satisfaction, robot likability, and future robot use. Negative attitudes toward robots also predicted reduced intention for future robot use. This work informs on the possible design of robot disclosure, as well as …


Building A Stronger Casa: Extending The Computers Are Social Actors Paradigm, Andrew Gambino, Jesse Fox, Rabindra A. Ratan Feb 2020

Building A Stronger Casa: Extending The Computers Are Social Actors Paradigm, Andrew Gambino, Jesse Fox, Rabindra A. Ratan

Human-Machine Communication

The computers are social actors framework (CASA), derived from the media equation, explains how people communicate with media and machines demonstrating social potential. Many studies have challenged CASA, yet it has not been revised. We argue that CASA needs to be expanded because people have changed, technologies have changed, and the way people interact with technologies has changed. We discuss the implications of these changes and propose an extension of CASA. Whereas CASA suggests humans mindlessly apply human-human social scripts to interactions with media agents, we argue that humans may develop and apply human-media social scripts to these interactions. Our …


Social Connectedness And College Student Alcohol Use: Understanding The Role Of Alcohol Expectancies, Social Anxiety, And Need To Belong, Mark Crisafulli Jan 2020

Social Connectedness And College Student Alcohol Use: Understanding The Role Of Alcohol Expectancies, Social Anxiety, And Need To Belong, Mark Crisafulli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Despite recent decreases in college alcohol use, alcohol related harms continue to occur at high rates and currently available interventions do not work as well as previously thought. Research has found sociability expectancies to be particularly important in predicting risky alcohol use, and expectancy challenge programs that target these expectancies can be effective in reducing heavy drinking. Little is known, however, about how other social variables might contribute to the influence of expectancies in promoting alcohol use. The current study used structural equation modeling to test models of alcohol use examining how need to belong and social connectedness fit into …


Rethinking Burnout In Informal Caregivers: Development And Validation Of The Informal Caregiver Burnout Inventory - 10 Item Form, Nicholas James Jan 2020

Rethinking Burnout In Informal Caregivers: Development And Validation Of The Informal Caregiver Burnout Inventory - 10 Item Form, Nicholas James

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Measurement of informal caregiver burnout is typically achieved by re-purposing scales of occupational burnout. Such approaches have several methodological and theoretical weaknesses. This paper proposes a new tool for measuring caregiver burnout: The Informal Caregiver Burnout Inventory (ICBI). In the first portion of this study, focused feedback was collected from within-field experts and caregivers. Following item revision, an online sample of informal US caregivers of an individual with dementia was collected. Item Response Theory analysis was used to prune low-information or low-consistency items from the scale. The finalized ICBI contained 10 items and showed strong convergent validity, adequately differentiated burnout …


Determining And Assessing Fault Attribution In Collisions Involving Autonomous Vehicles, Alexandra Kaplan Jan 2020

Determining And Assessing Fault Attribution In Collisions Involving Autonomous Vehicles, Alexandra Kaplan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

There exists considerable research concerning how humans attribute fault to each other, both in cases of accidents and those instances of intentional harm. There also exist studies involving blame attribution towards robots, when such robots have caused harm through operational failure or lack of safety features. However, relatively little work has, to date, examined the ways in which fault is attributed to self-driving vehicles involved in collisions, despite many newspaper and popular articles which both report past incidents and warn of future risk. This dissertation examined fault attribution in collisions involving autonomous vehicles by conducting three separate experiments. The first …


100 Books To Think About, Cynthia M. Kisby Jan 2020

100 Books To Think About, Cynthia M. Kisby

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The news is full of stories about intelligent people, at the top of their game, who hurtle into public humiliation. I dubbed this fascinating phenomenon the theory of “smart and dumb.” Sometimes we’re thinking, and sometimes clearly, we are not. My quest to understand these quirks of human nature shaped a lifetime of research, and I am not alone in my curiosity. People seek answers to their own compelling life issues including health, financial, and interpersonal topics. Librarians research solutions. Self-care books, such as those summarized here, remain popular because people always appreciate advice on how to succeed, get rich, …


The Relation Between Psychopathology And Unconventional Relationships, Alyssa T. Roberts Jan 2020

The Relation Between Psychopathology And Unconventional Relationships, Alyssa T. Roberts

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The term “kink” refers to a community of people and a practice of sexual activities that engage in power exchanges with their partner(s), pain, and/or restraint in a myriad of different contexts, that may or may not occur in an overt sexual context (Meyer & Chen, 2019). “Kink” can be used interchangeably with the acronym BDSM, which stands for bondage, dominance/discipline, sadism/submission, masochism. The overall purpose of this study was to learn more about those who are part of the kink community. This research is important because the current literature on those who engage in kink is relatively small and …


Executive Function Impairment And The Influence Of A Break In A Virtual Nature Environment, Kipras Varkala Jan 2020

Executive Function Impairment And The Influence Of A Break In A Virtual Nature Environment, Kipras Varkala

Honors Undergraduate Theses

60 (44 in the final sample) full-time or part-time employed or full-time student participants at the University of Central Florida were recruited to see whether a break in virtual nature will help improve upon executive functioning (EF) processing speed; especially in an EF impaired population. The main interest is that if virtual nature breaks aid with mental performance, then the application of virtual nature break can prove beneficial to both normal and, most importantly, the cognitively impaired. The lack of methodological consistency and the limited research on the subject yields mixed results in previous literature. The present study tries to …


The Impact Of Virtual Reality On Chronic Pain, Alexis Whitehead Jan 2020

The Impact Of Virtual Reality On Chronic Pain, Alexis Whitehead

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Chronic pain remains a prevalent problem across the United States. Chronic pain does not seem to have a function and relief of this symptom remains elusive for many sufferers. Virtual reality has been used as an adjunct therapy to decrease acute pain with promising results, but there is little research on whether virtual reality could be used as a successful intervention for those with chronic pain. Virtual reality has few side effects, so it warrants consideration for the treatment of chronic pain. There is growing evidence that there is potential for virtual reality to produce desired results with patients having …


History Of Involvement With Combat Sports And Severity Of Subtypes Of Psychopathy, Allen Hagen Jan 2020

History Of Involvement With Combat Sports And Severity Of Subtypes Of Psychopathy, Allen Hagen

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Combat sports can be defined as sports that involve the physical domination of opponents in order to win. Previous research on combat sports as they relate to psychopathy and anti-social behavior has produced limited information regarding subtypes of trait psychopathy. While there is evidence suggesting participation in certain combat sports can lead to an increase in anti-social behavior (Endresen & Olweus, 2005), there has never been a direct investigation into primary psychopathy, which has other distinct features such as fearless dominance and lack of remorse. These traits may be useful in the further examination of psychopathologies within a sports context. …


Physical Activity Moderates The Relationship Between Apoe4 Status And Working Memory: The Health And Retirement Study, Dalia T. El-Shafie Jan 2020

Physical Activity Moderates The Relationship Between Apoe4 Status And Working Memory: The Health And Retirement Study, Dalia T. El-Shafie

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between physical activity and working memory decline among older adults with APOE4 status. The APOE4 allele is currently the strongest predictor of risk for Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias. The publicly available data from the Health and Retirement Study was used to complete this Retrospective Longitudinal study. Three hypotheses were explored. H₁: It is expected that the presence of the APOE4 allele will be associated with worse overall working memory performance and a steeper rate of decline in working memory over time. H₂: Meanwhile, it is expected that participants …


Exploring The Role Of Mindfulness On Psychological Well-Being Among College Students, Nikole Elderkin Jan 2020

Exploring The Role Of Mindfulness On Psychological Well-Being Among College Students, Nikole Elderkin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

More college students are experiencing stress that negatively affects their psychological wellbeing. Many universities are reporting that more students are seeking mental health services related to stress (Miller, Elder, Scavone, 2017). The intent of this thesis is to extend the previous research findings by specifically investigating the role of mindfulness on psychological well-being of college students. Participants were asked to complete a self-administered online survey that consists of the mindful attention awareness scale (MAAS) that measures the frequency of mindfulness state, the Psychological well-being scale (PWB) that measures six aspects of wellbeing and happiness, and the generalized self-efficacy scale (GSES). …


Sexual Assault Disclosure And Gender: Relationship Between Survivor Gender And Disclosure, Christian Thomas Clevenger Jan 2020

Sexual Assault Disclosure And Gender: Relationship Between Survivor Gender And Disclosure, Christian Thomas Clevenger

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to explore whether the gender of a sexual assault survivor influenced to whom they disclosed the sexual assault. Previous research indicates that barriers to disclosure could differ based both on the gender of a sexual assault survivor and characteristics of the disclosure recipient. Examining how disclosure is influenced by survivor gender could help better identify which groups could benefit most from educational resources. Participants (n = 160) were college students who experienced a sexual assault in adolescence or adulthood. Disclosure to a range of different formal and informal supports was assessed. Findings indicated that …


Performance In Vr, Gabriela N. Gonzalez Jan 2020

Performance In Vr, Gabriela N. Gonzalez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Psychologists once believed that memory was the result of a single-unitary memory system, and that memory was representative of a video recording. However, recent research has found that memory is malleable, and different factors can attribute to the accuracy of memory. Factors include internal bias, time since event, level of rehearsal, and outside influences. Specifically, the concept of false memories in regards to eyewitness testimony has garnered the attention of researchers. Prior research regarding false memories has looked at the impact of leading questions on memory accuracy. This study aims to explore the impact of leading questions on false memories …


Restortive Effects Of Meditation Apps, Kyle Hart Jan 2020

Restortive Effects Of Meditation Apps, Kyle Hart

Honors Undergraduate Theses

We have investigated two different smartphone meditation apps to determine if they have any effects on stress and check if they are a viable tool that users can engage with to cope with stress during a work break. The dependent variables being measured include affective and cognitive restoration. The control group performed a coloring activity using a mandala figure. The experimental conditions engaged in app guided meditation through either 10% Happier or Calm. Both are health apps that are intended to help users practice a variety of mindfulness meditation exercises and help build healthy habits. This research focused on a …


Coping Mechanisms In Graduate School Discipline Specific Comparison, Sandra P. Montenegro Jan 2020

Coping Mechanisms In Graduate School Discipline Specific Comparison, Sandra P. Montenegro

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Psychological research has studied the effects of college academic demands on students' wellbeing through the moderating role of coping mechanisms. This study provides further insight by focusing on coping mechanisms among graduate students from different fields, including humanities, STEM, and social sciences. Participants were recruited at the University of Central Florida (n=97). They answered an online survey assessing the prevalence of academic stressors, the use of different coping mechanisms, and strain outcomes, including somatic symptoms, insomnia, and burnout. STEM students reported higher organizational constraints and higher interpersonal conflict compare to students in other fields. Arts and humanities students reported higher …


Examining The Moderating Role Of Coping Strategies In The Relationship Between Team Role Alignment And Employee Well-Being Outcomes, Justine Moavero Jan 2020

Examining The Moderating Role Of Coping Strategies In The Relationship Between Team Role Alignment And Employee Well-Being Outcomes, Justine Moavero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Individual well-being outcomes like engagement and burnout can have a major impact on employees and their performance. As a result, the organization itself may experience serious repercussions, financial and otherwise. Teams have become ubiquitous within modern organizations, with operations largely consisting of workers that engage in various levels of teamwork. As such, factors of team dynamics might influence well-being outcomes by either improving or exacerbating the occupational health of the employee. Research has demonstrated that team roles are foundational and enacted within every team; however, there is little existing literature assessing the impact of team role alignment on employee well-being. …


Why Experienced Incivility Triggers Instigated Incivility: Combining The Affect-Based And Resource-Based Pathways, Xin Peng Jan 2020

Why Experienced Incivility Triggers Instigated Incivility: Combining The Affect-Based And Resource-Based Pathways, Xin Peng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Ever since Andersson and Pearson's seminal work (1999), incivility has become one of the most commonly studied forms of mistreatment in the organizational sciences (Hershcovis, 2011). While research to date has yielded significant findings about the effects of experienced incivility, far less is known about the underlying mechanisms that linked experienced incivility and instigated incivility. Among the limited studies investigating the positively relationship between experienced incivility and instigated incivility, two distinct theoretical frameworks, affective-based perspective and resource-based, were drew upon. And these two perspectives have never been examined in the same model. To this end, I investigated negative affect (affect-based …


Lego My Ego: The Puzzling Role Of Self-Esteem And Goal Orientation On Appraisals Of Unsolicited Help, Emily Broksch Jan 2020

Lego My Ego: The Puzzling Role Of Self-Esteem And Goal Orientation On Appraisals Of Unsolicited Help, Emily Broksch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The threat-to-self-esteem model suggests an individual's interpretation of an offer of help is influenced by factors of the aid that have implicit consequences to the helpee's self-esteem (Fisher, Nadler, & Whitcher-Alagna, 1982). Basic needs theory states that the fulfillment of autonomy and competency needs are two components necessary for an individual to achieve optimal well-being, and thus self-image (i.e., self-esteem; Ryan & Deci, 2000). As such, this study used a LEGO building task and manipulated challenges to autonomy and competency in order to determine the extent to which an individual finds an unsolicited offer of help as threatening or supportive …


Does One Bad Phish Spoil The Whole Email Load?: Exploring Phishing Susceptibility Task Factors And Potential Interventions, Dawn Sarno Jan 2020

Does One Bad Phish Spoil The Whole Email Load?: Exploring Phishing Susceptibility Task Factors And Potential Interventions, Dawn Sarno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Phishing emails have become a prevalent cybersecurity threat for the modern email user. Research attempting to understand how users are susceptible to phishing attacks has been limited and hasn't fully explored how task factors influence accurate detection. Even further lacking are the existing training interventions that still have users falling victim to up to 90% of phishing emails following training. The present studies examined how task factors (e.g., email load, phishing prevalence) and a new form of intervention, rather than training, influence email performance. In four experiments, participants classified emails as either legitimate or not legitimate and reported on a …


Goodness In Gaming: A Survey On Gamers And Their Altruism, Daniel Amaral Jan 2020

Goodness In Gaming: A Survey On Gamers And Their Altruism, Daniel Amaral

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The psychological inquiry into the effects of videogames and the internet on behavior is still a relatively new field. The question of whether playing violent videogames directly contribute to violent behavior, particularly in reference to its influence in mass shootings, is an important one that needs answers. A plethora of research purportedly shows the negative effects of (violent) videogames, but research showing positive effects, particularly on prosocial behaviors within the virtual world and reality, are less common. If specific videogame preferences are associated with altruistic behaviors, such a finding could elucidate how videogames might contribute to prosocial behavior. In this …


Perception Or Reality? The Perception Of Abusive Supervision In The Workplace, Paul M. Amari Jan 2020

Perception Or Reality? The Perception Of Abusive Supervision In The Workplace, Paul M. Amari

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Most previous research on workplace mistreatment has proceeded under the assumption that the various forms of mistreatment are uniformly perceived as negative by recipients. Abusive supervision is one form of mistreatment that has rarely ever been examined through a lens of ambiguity. The question many researchers have failed to ask is whether it is reality that every questionable act labeled as abusive is truly abuse, or such perceptions vary across individuals. And for the individuals perceiving the act (the target), what individual differences are influencing their judgement? The purpose of the study was to explore the influence of individual differences …


Recovery In Teachers: Barriers, Facilitators And The Relationship To Physical Stress Symptoms, Amber A. Blatchford Jan 2020

Recovery In Teachers: Barriers, Facilitators And The Relationship To Physical Stress Symptoms, Amber A. Blatchford

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Previous research has shown that teachers are at risk of experiencing significant work-related stress. Recovery is seen as a way to unwind from work stress caused by a myriad of stressors. This study examines the mechanisms of teacher recovery and their relationship to physical stress symptoms. Fifty high school teachers were recruited to participate from schools in South Florida. Physical stress symptoms were measured using a self-report survey called the Physical Symptoms Inventory (PSI) , which took place directly after the open-ended question portion of the survey. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to assess any connection between the …


The Role Of Expertise In Perceiving Emotions Through Kinematics, Kendahl E. Krause Jan 2020

The Role Of Expertise In Perceiving Emotions Through Kinematics, Kendahl E. Krause

Honors Undergraduate Theses

There has been much debate about how we perceive other people’s minds. Some theories, such as Theory of Mind, are based on the presumption that the minds of others are closed and inaccessible, requiring some form of inferential processing and mentalizing to understand. On the other hand, Direct Social Perception says that information about the mental states of others is readily available to perceive and requires no internal processing to understand. Taking either theory into account, it remains an open question if expertise plays a role in social perception. This study aimed to identify if experience in portraying emotions through …


How Free Is "Free?": Restrictive Agency And Optimism, Mel A. Tornin Jan 2020

How Free Is "Free?": Restrictive Agency And Optimism, Mel A. Tornin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study explored the effect of restricting participants’ agentic choice on their levels of optimism. This study used the pre-test, post-test design to investigate the impact of non-agentic choice in meaningful scenarios on feelings of optimism. 147 participants completed a measure of optimism, were assigned to conditions of simulated choice, and were instructed to freely write about their decisions. The association between personality traits and optimism was also explored. Study findings showed that assigning participants to restrictive and agentic conditions had no effect on optimism. However, a significant negative correlation trait neuroticism and optimism was found. Content analyses run on …


Associations Among Smoking, Vaping, Psychopathology, And Identity, Jacqueline A. Beretsky Jan 2020

Associations Among Smoking, Vaping, Psychopathology, And Identity, Jacqueline A. Beretsky

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Although there has been progress in trying to decrease the use of cigarette smoking, a new method of smoking has evolved which is rapidly increasing, namely vaping. Adolescents who participate in smoking are more likely to increase smoking frequency if they believed that it is self-defining (“I smoke cigarettes” versus “I am a smoker”). While there has been evidence to support the claim that internal motives for smoking are correlated with smoker identity development, there has been none, to our knowledge, found for vaping identity. Due to the similarities of smoking and vaping, it is important to discover whether those …


Development Of A Self-Report Scale Of Motivation: The Multifaceted Motivation Inventory, Magan T. Halverson Jan 2020

Development Of A Self-Report Scale Of Motivation: The Multifaceted Motivation Inventory, Magan T. Halverson

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Individuals experience different dimensional levels of motivation and apathy (i.e., the lack of motivation), which can reflect both state and trait contributions. Chronic apathy is common in a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. The primary aim of the current study was to create a new self-report measure that measures different domains of motivation/apathy with subscales and also take into account many other aspects that could affect motivation within the same scale, including energy level, anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, indecisiveness, and initial and sustained effort. A …


Over Sexualization Of Women In The Media And Its Effect On Self-Objectification, Alaysia M. Herndon Jan 2020

Over Sexualization Of Women In The Media And Its Effect On Self-Objectification, Alaysia M. Herndon

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The current study examined the relationship between the sexualization of women in the media and its effects on women's self-objectification and sexual priming with sociodemographic variables as a mediator. It was hypothesized that (1) exposure to increased sexual content in music videos would positively correlate with increased sexual priming among viewers and (2) increased sexual priming among females would be associated with increased self-objectification and increased objectification of other women. Additionally, the current study aimed to examine sociodemographic factors and if they correlate to the impact of sexual priming on self-objectification and the objectification of other women. The results of …


Trait Anxiety And Other Personality Constructs As Predictors Of Negative Reactions To Quarantine And Social Isolation, Faith A. Ambrose Jan 2020

Trait Anxiety And Other Personality Constructs As Predictors Of Negative Reactions To Quarantine And Social Isolation, Faith A. Ambrose

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Former research has shown a strong relationship between anxiety and various negative reactions to trauma, including widespread traumatic events such as natural disasters, war, and pandemics. COVID-19 has been an ongoing, potentially traumatic event for individuals all over the world. Even individuals who have not experienced serious traumatic consequences because of the pandemic have likely had some negative experiences regarding the mandated quarantine and social distancing. This study seeks to find possible personality predictors for negative reactions, whether they be behavioral or cognitive. Participants completed several questionnaires that test personality constructs, including trait anxiety, need for affiliation, extraversion, and autonomy. …


Living Up To The American Dream: The Influence Of Family On Second-Generation Immigrants, Nicole Palmeri Jan 2020

Living Up To The American Dream: The Influence Of Family On Second-Generation Immigrants, Nicole Palmeri

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Second-generation immigrants are increasingly embracing their biculturalism, equally identifying as American and "other" (Yazykova & McLeigh, 2015). While this allows for ethnic diversity as well as other social and linguistic advantages, the internalization of two different cultures has been linked to causing tensions related to identity development and mental health (Huynh et al., 2018; Ceri et al., 2017; Ritsner & Ponizovsky, 1999). Previous research has shown a link between parental support and an individual's acculturation and psychological well-being (Pawliuk et al., 1996; Abad & Sheldon, 2008). This study seeks to further examine the influence of family on the bicultural identity …