Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Text Messaging Between School Counselors And Students: An Exploratory Study, Nicholas R. Gilly

Graduate Theses & Dissertations

This exploratory case study examines the impact of text messaging on mentoring relationships when used as an outreach between school counselors and high school students, where established relationships are lacking. An SMS gateway was used to mediate communication between school counselors (N=2) and students (N=5) over a three-month timeframe. The SMS gateway converted email, sent from counselors, to text messages, which were received on mobile devices of students and allowed students to respond back to counselors. Findings indicate that the use of text messaging may ease scheduling of face-to-face meetings between counselors and students, but evidence does not support any …

Factors And Alleviation Of Learned Helplessness In The Elderly, Ashley Eckett

Capstone Showcase

Learned helplessness is a condition caused by maladaptive thinking related to a sense of powerlessness. It can result from lack of control in the face of life challenges leading to a loss of hope, motivation, and an inability to take action. Learned helplessness can have negative effects on an individual both mentally and physically. In regards to the elderly population, it can cause premature death. Gaining a better understanding of learned helplessness can play a lead role in preventing it and its negative effects in the geriatric population. The aim of the literature review was to answer how to recognize …

Very Superstitious: The Relationship Between Desperation And Superstitious Behavior, Christopher Evan Hannan

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Superstitious behavior has been found to emerge during situations of uncertainty and often used by those who desire control. Desperation, a negative emotion that motivates behavior, tends to also occur in uncontrollable environments. This study attempts to analyze the possible relationship between desperation and the use of superstitious behavior in circumstances that leave individuals with little to no control. This was achieved by simulating an uncertain environment through a computerized card game involving chance (i.e. War). Results from this study demonstrated that those who felt desperate due to uncertainty engaged in superstitious behaviors, and desperation was a greater predictor for …

Why We Ask Why: The Ways In Which Control And Stereotyping Biases Affect Internal Attributions, Tia Francis

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since the idea of attributions was famously discussed by Fritz Heider (1958), a wide array of empirical research has focused on the phenomenon. Included within the sphere of attributional theories are internal attributions, which have been of particular interest to the psychological community for decades. Although there is no comprehensive theory for why people make these attributions, literature points to establishing control as a possible motivator. In addition, research suggests that people may make more extreme internal attributions about minorities, particularly when they are not aware they are relying on stereotypes. Participants (N = 377) observed a modified version of …

Saudi Women's Experiences Of Control And Engagement As Employees In Private Universities, Kimberly Dawn Deatherage

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Saudi women have higher rates of graduation from college than their male counterparts, but are underrepresented as employees in the private higher education sector. Saudi women working in higher education report a lack of involvement in the planning of their work, challenges in balancing family and career, and low wages. Yet, no research has explored how Saudi women in administrative support staff positions in private universities perceive control and how their perceptions of control affect their engagement in the workplace. Therefore, based on locus of control theory, the 2-process model of perceived control, and compensatory control theory, the purpose of …

Young And Older Adults’ Beliefs About Effective Ways To Mitigate Age-Related Memory Decline, Michael Horhorta, Tara T. Lineweaver, Monique Ositelu, Kristi Summers, Christopher Herzog

Tara T. Lineweaver

This study investigated whether young and older adults vary in their beliefs about the impact of various mitigating factors on age-related memory decline. Eighty young (ages 18–23) and eighty older (ages 60–82) participants reported their beliefs about their own memory abilities and the strategies that they use in their everyday lives to attempt to control their memory. Participants also reported their beliefs about memory change with age for hypothetical target individuals who were described as using (or not using) various means to mitigate memory decline. There were no age differences in personal beliefs about control over current or future memory …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Healthy, Wealthy, Wise? Psychosocial Factors Influencing The Socioeconomic Status–Health Gradient, Kymberlee M. O'Brien

Kymberlee M. O'Brien

The present research investigated psychosocial factors: control beliefs; social relations moderating the SES–health gradient. Participants included 3775 respondents from a national probability sample, Midlife in United States (t1: Age, M = 46.40, SD = 13.00, t2: Age, M = 55.47, SD = 12.43), who provided reports on control beliefs, social relations, and health at two assessment occasions (1994/1995 and 2002/2003). Hierarchical regression demonstrated that control beliefs, social support, and strain uniquely moderated relationships between SES and longitudinal health. The present study highlights the importance of psychosocial factors as protective mechanisms of socioeconomic disadvantages and associated long-term deleterious health outcomes.

Young And Older Adults’ Beliefs About Effective Ways To Mitigate Age-Related Memory Decline, Michael Horhorta, Tara T. Lineweaver, Monique Ositelu, Kristi Summers, Christopher Herzog

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This study investigated whether young and older adults vary in their beliefs about the impact of various mitigating factors on age-related memory decline. Eighty young (ages 18–23) and eighty older (ages 60–82) participants reported their beliefs about their own memory abilities and the strategies that they use in their everyday lives to attempt to control their memory. Participants also reported their beliefs about memory change with age for hypothetical target individuals who were described as using (or not using) various means to mitigate memory decline. There were no age differences in personal beliefs about control over current or future memory …

Carving Cognition At Its Joints: Insights From The Interaction Between Explicit And Implicit Social Cognition, Kurt R. Peters

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The distinction of cognition into kinds of cognitive process has proven theoretically fruitful and empirically compelling, but there remain significant challenges in deciding how best to carve cognition. First, it is unclear how to design measurement procedures that select distinct kinds of cognitive processing as exclusively as possible and, conversely, how to interpret the results of different kinds of measurement procedure. Second, the distinction between kinds of cognition must be specified with enough precision to derive empirically testable and falsifiable predictions. Third, there must be a reasonable explanation, ultimately compatible with phylogenetic evidence, for the existence of the specified distinction …

Does A Sense Of Control Moderate Self-Regulation Strategies And Performance? When Feedback Lingers, Annette Feravich

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study examined whether a sense of control moderated the relationship between self-regulation and performance on an anagram task. High school students agreeing to participate in this study completed the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Approach Scale (BIS/BAS) in order to determine individual promotion or prevention chronic self-regulatory strategies, as well as the revised Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ-R) to determine a sense of control based on explanatory style. Changes in mood and performance on anagram tasks were measured at three different times during the study: prior to, after, and after discrediting randomly assigned negative or positive feedback. Performance tasks were designed …

Happy Law Students, Happy Lawyers, Nancy Levit, Douglas Linder

Nancy Levit

This article draws on research into the science of happiness and asks a series of interrelated questions: Whether law schools can make law students happier? Whether making happier law students will translate into making them happier lawyers, and the accompanying question of whether making law students happier would create better lawyers? After covering the limitations of genetic determinants of happiness and happiness set-points, the article addresses those qualities that happiness research indicates are paramount in creating satisfaction: control, connections, creative challenge (or flow), and comparisons (preferably downward). Those qualities are then applied to legal education, while addressing the larger philosophical …

Some Truth About Truth Commissions, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the veracity of Truth Commissions.