Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Age-Friendly Technology Toolkit, Carrie Leach, Mikayla Harrison, Deborah Beard, Dell Stubblefield, Zachary Rowe, Winona Bynum, Sandra Turner-Handy, Faith Hopp, Rodlescia Sneed, Deborah Charbonneau, Rochelle Chapman, Hayley S. Thompson

Institute of Gerontology

A toolkit created for older people who are interested in connecting through technology. Content is based on recommendations from older adults who partnered on a project to increase digital inclusion.

Above And Belowground Biomass Of A Multidecadal Restored Tallgrass Prairie Chronosequence And Its Influence On Soil Carbon Dynamics, Adam John Bauer

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Evidence supports the idea that tallgrass prairie restoration has the potential to sequester carbon, but the influences of site age and quality on restored tallgrass prairie carbon dynamics are not well known. This dissertation characterizes a multidecadal tallgrass prairie chronosequence and evaluates the influence of both restoration quality and time since restoration on biomass and soil carbon dynamics using both remotely sensed and field data collected from Nachusa Grasslands tallgrass prairie restorations. It also expands on the traditional aspatial analyses using geographically weighted data to examine the spatiotemporal variation in environmental variables that influence restored tall grass prairie carbon dynamics. …

Encouraging Selection Of Effective Learning Strategies, Kaya Easley

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

College students have difficulty selecting effective learning strategies, often due to their perceptions of cost and value of these strategies. The goal of the present study was to examine ways to increase students’ perceptions of value to outweigh their perceptions of cost to help them select an effective learning strategy (generation). Students were randomly assigned to one of five conditions in an additive design: no treatment control, experience comparing generation to a less effective learning strategy, experience plus information about its application to one’s life, experience and application plus evidence of the effectiveness of generation, or experience, application, and evidence, …

Relationship Between Transformational Leadership And Employees' Psychological Safety, Minahil Khan

SSLA Culminating Experience

This study explored how psychological safety manifests in the workplace and how it is influenced by transformational leadership. Using quantitative survey data from 101 employees—pre-dominantly based in Karachi, Pakistan—the research investigated the relationship between psychological safety and transformational leadership. It also explored whether there is a gender difference in the employees’ perception of transformational leadership and psychological safety. Findings indicate that transformational leadership has a significant positive correlation of 0.734 with psychological safety, which in turn enhances employees’ willingness to speak up and engage in creative problem-solving. Additionally results also indicated that there is no statistically significant gender difference in …

Race, Diversity, And The Development Of Political Attitudes On College Campuses, Nathan Chan, Tanika Raychaudhuri

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

Faced with demographic change, many colleges are offering courses about race and ethnicity. How does taking race-focused courses affect public opinion? We theorize that while White,Latino, and Asian American students develop more inclusive political attitudes through race-centered coursework, Black Americans may enter college with a deeper understanding of racial issues. We test these expectations using two longitudinal multi-racial datasets. First, using a national longitudinal survey of college students, we find that ethnic studies coursework is associated with increased recognition of racial discrimination among Whites, Latinos, and even Black Americans. Second, using an original panel survey from a public university, we …

The Group-Basis Of Political Behaviour Among Minoritized Communities: The Case Of Lgbtq+ Linked Fate And Sexual And Gender Minorities, Nathan K. Chan, Gabriele Magni

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

LGBTQ+ individuals often display consistent political behaviour despite being internally diverse. We theorize about the importance of group-based heuristics to understand this cohesiveness by proposing the concept of LGBTQ+ linked fate. First, we argue that LGBTQ+ linked fate is stronger among privileged individuals within the LGBTQ+ community (white, cisgender, gays/lesbians) and among those whose life experiences have made their LGBTQ+ identity salient. Then, expanding on social identity theory, we posit that individuals with greater LGBTQ+ linked fate are more likely to hold group-based political attitudes and voice these preferences through electoral participation. We provide support for these claims using a …

Ladies' Choice: Intersectional Linked Fate And Public Opinion Toward Women Of Color In Politics, Nathan K. Chan, Joyce H. Nguy, Alexandria J. Davis

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

This article seeks to understand the public opinion formation among women of color in America. How do identity-based factors, such as linked fate with women of color (WoC), shape political evaluations? Expanding on social identity theory and intersectionality frameworks, we investigate the political influences of WoC identification and WoC intersectional linked fate. We argue that intersectional linked fate represents a deeper sense of shared experiences and interconnected outcomes across race and gender, making this both a conceptually distinct construct and a politically consequential extension of WoC identity. Further, we theorize that women of color’s perceptions of intersectional linked fate drive …

Fatalism And Interest In Cancer Screening Among African American Individuals, Timothy J. Williamson, Mckenzie T. Reese

Psychological Science Faculty Works

African American individuals experience disproportionately high cancer mortality compared to White individuals,1 partly due to reduced access to high-quality care, including at early stages of the care continuum (eg, screening).1 These structural barriers may be perceived as beyond individuals’ control and contribute to fatalistic beliefs about cancer, shaping attitudes toward screening. Cancer fatalism is a multidimensional construct that includes cancer mortality salience (associating cancer with death) and occurrence fatalism (perceiving cancer risk as uncontrollable).2,3 Evidence linking fatalism and screening is mixed,3-5 suggesting a need to analyze its distinct components separately.3 Therefore, we used a national dataset to assess how cancer …

How Long? How Many? How Much? Evidence Of Convergent Validity Among Thin-Slice Behavioral Coding Metrics, Nora Murphy, Mollie A. Ruben, Morgan Stosic, Laetitia A. Renier, Katja Schlegel, Judith A. Hall, Marianne Schmid Mast, Brett Marroquín

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Despite the ubiquity of thin-slice coding for behavioral measurement, there exists relatively little systematic research into the convergent validity of thin-slice coding metrics for nonverbal behaviors when using human coders. This study utilized five previous datasets to measure four commonly-measured nonverbal behaviors (gaze, gestures, nods, smiles) using three different coding metrics (duration, frequency, rating) coded in 2 or 3 min slices. Convergent validity was measured by comparing a given behavior coded with at least two different metrics. Meta-analytic assessments across studies, behaviors, and metrics indicated strong convergent validity for various metrics for each behavior. Results provide confidence to researchers on …

Patient-Clinician Discussions On Lung Cancer Screening In The United States Before And After 2021 Guidelines, Timothy J. Williamson Phd, Mph, Whitney M. Brymwitt Ma, Mckenzie T. Reese, Erin A. Hirsch, Lisa Carter-Bawa

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Background Screening for lung cancer via low-dose computed tomography of the chest can promote early detection and reduce mortality. However, since the United States Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) issued lung cancer screening guidelines in 2013, uptake has been low. The USPSTF revised the guidelines in 2021 to expand eligibility. Purpose To determine whether patient-clinician discussions about lung cancer screening differs from 2017 to 2022 following 2021 revisions to the guidelines for lung cancer screening. Methods Data were obtained from the Health Information National Trends Survey (2017, 2020, and 2022). Community-dwelling US adults (N = 2973) were in the eligible …

The Longitudinal Effects Of Parent–Adolescent Digital Communication On Depression And Anxiety Symptoms, Bradley M. Trager Ph.D., Layla M. Rainosek, Ina M. Koning Ph.D., Suzanne M. Geurts Ph.D., Regina Jjm Van Den Eijden Ph.D., Helen Gm Vossen Ph.D.

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Purpose: Digital communication between parents and adolescents is prevalent. This study explored the overall frequency of digital communication and frequency of exchanging specific content between parents and adolescents as predictors of adolescents' depression and anxiety symptoms. Methods: Participants were 188 mother–adolescent and 137 father–adolescent dyads from the Netherlands. Parents (mothers/fathers: Mage = 46.17 of 48.55) and adolescents (Mage = 13.88) each completed 2 surveys 1 year apart. Results: Results from the study suggest that the nature of the digital communication content rather than its overall frequency plays a crucial role in adolescents' mental health outcomes. Sharing personal experiences with mothers …

The Puzzle Of Political Ambition And Prosociality, Jennifer Pate, Alessandra Cassar, Mary L. Rigdon

Economics Faculty Works

This study explores the effect of prosocial interventions on political engagement, particularly whether a prosocial, redistributive option can narrow the gender gap in willingness to enter elections (Pate and Fox, 2018). Previous evidence suggests that prosocial incentives boost women’s desire to compete (Cassar and Rigdon, 2021a,b). Building on this, our research investigates whether mechanisms that enable elected leaders to share their gains can increase women’s political ambition. We conducted a laboratory experiment at two distinct laboratories with 320 participants using a within-subjects design to compare a standard election with one where the elected leader could redistribute earnings to the lowest …

Negotiating Power Relationships In Interprofessional Health Care Groups, Allison L. Noyes

Communication Studies Faculty Works

This chapter examines the communication challenges associated with the hierarchical structure of power relationships among the health professions. It is commonly believed that balancing power relationships is crucial for successful interprofessional collaboration in providing patient care, but because hierarchy is deeply embedded in healthcare organizations, balancing power among health professionals may be an unrealistic ideal. This chapter therefore reframes thinking about professional hierarchy-from a monolithic absolute to a flexible and negotiable social order that can serve multiple purposes at different points in the patient care process. It proposes a communicative framework of interprofessional hierarchy negotiation that can help us to …

Post-Pandemic Recovery: Search And Matching, Market Power, And Endogenous Labor Demand, Konstantin Platonov

Economics Faculty Works

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, United States (US) output rebounded quickly, labor productivity rose above pre-pandemic levels, profit rates increased, and the labor market tightened, all despite high unemployment. These observations can be reconciled in a search and matching model of the labor market with two new assumptions of strong firm market power and endogenous labor demand. Market power encourages firm entry when prices rise, while endogenous labor demand enables firms to adapt to shocks rather than shut down. Two regimes arise: one with weak market power, representing the pre-pandemic era and another with strong market power, explaining the post-pandemic recovery. …

Hunting And Fishing Ceos: Environmental Plunderers Or Saviors?, Thomas Covington, Steve Widler, Keven Yost

Finance Faculty Works

CEOs who participate in hunting and fishing benefit by appreciating natural environments and permanently consuming natural resources. We examine whether CEOs who hunt and fish make different environmental decisions and find that firms led by CEOs who obtain the most hunting and fishing licenses have lower environmental performance as measured by MSCI-KLD. This effect is strongest in the environmental category of climate change but also extends to pollution, waste, and the protection of natural capital. Furthermore, firms led by CEOs with the most hunting and fishing licenses are significantly more likely to pay a regulatory settlement for an environmental regulatory …

Disengaged And Drowsy: Using An Adaptive System To Detect Suboptimal Learning, William Andrew Stalker

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Instruction is increasingly asynchronous, providing new opportunities but at the cost of losing some guard rails of in-person classes. One such guard rail is an instructor’s ability to detect boredom and learner disengagement. This dissertation explores the development and evaluation of an adaptive training simulator designed to respond to user engagement levels in real-time. The simulator monitors eyeblinks, comparing metrics to individual baselines to detect signs of fatigue and boredom. Participants are exposed to novel information in an audiobook recording of a textbook chapter and later quizzed to assess retention. An adaptive intervention offering periodic brief respite was tested against …

Religiosity And The Gender Violence Crisis: How Religious Affiliation Of Society Impacts Violence Against Women, Sydney Hoffman

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the impact that the religious affiliation of a population has on both the prevalence of violence against women, as well as the presence of legislation and other legal frameworks aimed at preventing violence and protecting women. Utilizing data from international organizations and nonpartisan fact tanks, regression analyses are performed with four different models and dependent variables to understand the effect religiosity has on both prevalence and prevention of gender violence. While the results of these models do not indicate a likelihood of real relationships between religiosity and the different outcomes, the thesis overall contributes further to the …

Diverse Environments: Refining The Concept Of Remote Work Through A Job Demands-Resources Lens, Riley Schwanz

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Global events such as globalization, technological advancements, and fundamentally new methods for completing work are contributing factors to the mass migration of employees from in-person to more remote work modalities. Researchers have found evidence for advantages (e.g., autonomy) and disadvantages (i.e., lack of teamwork) for employees in more remote modalities. However, there are critical gaps in the literature including a lack of clear definitions, assessments, taxonomies, and application of well-established theories. Beyond focusing on the physical aspects of remote work, I proposed a new concept, degree of remoteness, to capture the psychological experience of working remotely. Further, I proposed that …

Ready, Set, Resistance: A Dual Continuum Approach To Organizational Change Acceptance, Alexandria Bohn

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

With organizations operating in increasingly dynamic and competitive landscapes, organizations need to be able to get their employees to adapt to system-wide changes that are needed. However, research has suggested a 70% failure rate for organizational change initiatives (Hughes, 2011). Prior research has produced mixed research results when examining resistance and readiness to organizational change on either a single dimension (e.g., Kaplan, 1972) or two dimensions (e.g., Repovs, Drnovsek, & Kase, 2019). I extended prior research by examining resistance versus readiness as residing on a single continuum and whether effects on outcomes were moderated by change orientations. Research has suggested …

Complainer's Dilemma, Greg Leo, Jennifer Pate

Economics Faculty Works

Technological innovations have made complaining easier. Often, when it is easy to complain, only problems that meet a high threshold of complaints are addressed. We present a novel model of the strategic environment facing complainers and demonstrate that the properties of the resulting games' equilibria justify the existence of high complaint thresholds. By setting the thresholds appropriately, an administrator can prevent complaints that are not worth addressing. Policies that minimize the cost of complaining while requiring a large threshold are universally more efficient for large constituencies. Our results regarding the equilibrium for large constituencies are facilitated by the application of …

Voter Apathy And Divided Government, Ty'hier Simon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The proposed research project will pertain to the voter attitudes associated with our government. The association with our government is critical to document because it may reflect the outlook of how the seats are distributed between the two major parties in our system. Voter apathy is the lack of interest in elections of representative democracies. In this project, a correlation may be drawn between voter turnout and how the delegation of our representatives looks. For example, if there is a low voter turnout there may be a swift change in power in Congress or there might be total gridlock. Using …

Soc 37 Syllabus, Gilbert Marzan

Open Educational Resources

The SOC 37 syllabus contains a course description, learning objectives, course readings divided by week and a link to the course's OER textbook.

Use Of The Slur “Retard” Triples On X After Elon Musk Shares The Word In A Post, Bond Benton, Daniela Peterka-Benton

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

A joint study from Montclair State University faculty in the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media and the Department of Justice Studies shows that Elon Musk dramatically increased content containing the slur “retard” on X after using the term in a post. Highlights from the study include:

• A 207.5% increase in posts containing the r-word on X.
• 312,642 posts using the term r-word identified in the period studied.
• Google Trends Analysis showed a similar increase in online search activity related to the r-word.
• Indication of a broader …

Pride Month Support Can Generate 320% More Positive Social Media Posts For Companies; Dropping Support Can Increase Online Negativity By 165%, Study Finds, Bond Benton, Yi Luo, Jin-A Choi

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

A study from Montclair State University faculty in the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media showed the ongoing commitment to Pride Month by Universal Studios has been received positively online. In contrast, Target’s rolling back of support for Pride Month and diversity/inclusion elicited negative reactions in social media. Results show 320% more positive emotional sentiment in posts about Universal’s #loveisuniversal campaign, with 85% of posts advocating #BoycottTarget expressing negative emotions towards the company including anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. #BoycottTarget posts also contained 165% more negative emotions …

“R-Word” Slurs Triple On X After Donald Trump’S Thanksgiving Post Used The Word, Bond Benton, Daniela Peterka-Benton

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

A joint study from Montclair State University faculty in the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media and the Department of Justice Studies shows a dramatic increase in content containing the slur “retard” on X after Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving Day Truth Social post used the word. Findings showed a 225.7% increase in posts containing the r-word on X with 1,129,438 posts in the studied period. The most viewed, liked, and shared content analyzed enthusiastically endorsed use of the r-word. Results appear consistent with the period after other prominent …

Breaking Ground On Self-Efficacy: A Qualitative Exploration Of Intimate Partner Violence Survivors’ Experiences With Therapeutic Horticulture, Rachel Marie Reeves

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This dissertation explores how participation in a Therapeutic Horticulture program may support the self-efficacy of survivors of Intimate Partner Violence. Through a thematic analysis of interviews with 45 women living at a domestic violence shelter in Lexington, Kentucky, this study investigates whether and how gardening activities contributed to participants’ belief in their abilities to shape outcomes in their lives.

Findings are organized around Bandura’s four sources of self-efficacy: enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological/affective states. These insights contribute to feminist criminology and trauma-informed care literature by illuminating the transformative potential of nature-assisted healing programs.

Emplacing Deaths Of Despair Within The Rural Mortality Penalty: The Spatial Inequality Of Violent Death Across Rural America, Cameron A. Mcalister

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

American life expectancy continues to diverge from most developed nations. Literature spanning several fields of scholarship has documented an uneven distribution of life expectancy between social groups and across geographic contexts. Frameworks such as “Deaths of Despair” and the rural mortality penalty describe the declining health trends among working class whites and rural America. But, conceptual development around these frameworks is still limited. This dissertation utilizes a rural sociological approach to bridging the gap between the Deaths of Despair framework and the rural mortality penalty by examining violent death patterns across diverse rural contexts. In doing so, I incorporate several …

Wiring Attachment, Alexander K. Bacon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis began with a question: can diagrams create understanding, or only reflect it? Through paintings that layer automotive wiring schematics with family photographs, I explore how the human attachment system resists easy mapping. Using digital tools like Photoshop and scanning, alongside analog methods such as papier-collé and photo transfer, I examine how systems built for clarity—like wiring diagrams—contrast with the layered, often messy realities of human relationships. Drawing from attachment theory’s empirical foundation, rather than the metaphorical leanings of psychoanalysis, my work investigates how emotional bonds form, falter, and repair over time. Material loss and layering are not flaws, …

The Dance Of Human Affairs: Public Administration Leaders’ Perceptions Of Candor’S Impact On A Sense Of Belonging, Aaron Dimmock

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines public administration leaders’ perceptions within the executive branch of the state government studied to determine if the components of radical candor, care personally and challenge directly, are associated with the sense of belonging in a public administration setting. Questions from surveys conducted by the state government studied were used to create the variables analyzed in this study. To the researcher’s knowledge, this is the first study to apply components from the Radical Candor® Framework to determine a relationship with sense of belonging in a public administration setting.

The significance of these components was tested through a quantitative, …

The Switch: Determinants Of Family School Modality Choices During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Steicy Lopez

2025 Research Poster Competition

The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges to the U.S. K-12 education system, disrupting traditional public school enrollment while fueling growth in private schooling and homeschooling. Some research has analyzed these decisions at the state level or with administrative data, but little is known about the associated characteristics of these decisions nationally. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of public, private, and homeschooling enrollment patterns during the pandemic, focusing on the transitions families made between these schooling types and identifying key characteristics associated with switching in and out of public schools. Using a discrete choice duration model and random forest algorithms …