Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Don't Get Too Close, It Hurts: Inclusion-Of-Other-In-The-Self And Biased Evaluations Of Romantic Partners And Their Behaviors, Jacqueline Lechuga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This investigation tested how inclusion-of-other-in-the-self (IOS) – the experience of closeness as overlapping selves – increases maladaptive biases toward romantic partners and their behaviors. Study 1 tested how the level of IOS is associated with disregarding signs that indicate that a romantic partner might be unhealthy for one’s emotional and physical well-being. Participants who were single (N = 77) reviewed four online dating profiles. Each profile was created to elicit high or low IOS and reveal a transgression committed by the potential romantic partner. Then, participants evaluated the potential romantic partner in suitability and the transgression on negativity. Study 2 …

Digital Payments And Consumption: Evidence From The 2016 Demonetization In India, Sumit Agarwal, Pulak Ghosh, Jing Li, Tianyue Ruan

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study how consumer spending responds to digital payments, using the differential switch to digital payments across consumers induced by the sudden 2016 Indian Demonetization for identification. Usage of digital payments rose by 3.38 percentage points and monthly spending increased by 3% for an additional 10 percentage points in prior cash dependence. Spending remained elevated even when cash availability recovered. Robustness analyses show that the spending response is not driven by income shocks, credit supply, price changes, or consumers' moving to the formal market. We provide evidence that digital payments increase consumer spending due to subdued salience.

A Robust Optimization Approach To Mechanism Design, Jiangtao Li, Kexin Wang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the design of mechanisms when the mechanism designer faces local uncertainty about agents’ beliefs. Specifically, we consider a designer who does not know the exact beliefs of the agents but is confident that her estimate is within ϵ of the beliefs held by the agents (where ϵ reflects the degree of local uncertainty). Adopting the robust optimization approach, we design mechanisms that incentivize agents to truthfully report their payoff-relevant information regardless of their actual beliefs. For any fixed ϵ, we identify necessary and sufficient conditions under which requiring this sense of robustness is without loss of revenue for …

Measuring Listening Effort In Bilingual Listeners For Speech Perception In Noise, Sita Carraturo

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Noise is a common impedance to easy and accurate speech understanding. In the presence of noise, speech processing mechanisms proceed with partial or ambiguous inputs, and listeners will engage additional cognitive resources to make sense of what they hear. The extent to which this is situation is affected by diminished exposure to a language is an understudied question, but one that is relevant to bilingual listeners. By virtue of using two or more languages, bilinguals have less exposure to any one language than monolinguals of that language do. This, in turn, may make language processing more effortful for them, particularly …

The Association Between Social Media, Toxic Masculinity, And Depression In Young Adult Males, Anthony Warren

Dissertations

The world is shaped by diverse influences that significantly affect individuals’ internal landscapes, leading to both positive and negative effects with profound implications for society. Role models play a pivotal role in shaping the aspirations of young adult males by providing direct and indirect lessons that leave lasting impressions and influence their worldview. In recent years, social media use, toxic masculinity, and mental health have garnered significant attention in understanding the experiences of young adult males. The focus in this study was to examine the relationships between social media use, toxic masculinity, and depression in young adult males ranging in …

Utilising Discriminant Function Analysis (Dfa) For Classifying Osteoarthritis (Oa) Patients And Volunteers Based On Biomarker Concentration, Laura Jane Coleman, John L Byrne, Stuart Edwards, Rosemary O'Hara

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterised by the breakdown of cartilage, causing pain, stiffness, and limited movement. Early diagnosis is crucial for effective management but remains challenging due to non-specific early symptoms. This study explores the application of Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) to classify OA patients and healthy volunteers based on biomarker concentrations of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and Myeloperoxidase (MPO). DFA was employed to analyse biomarker data from 86 participants (58 patients, 28 volunteers) to evaluate the discriminatory power of these biomarkers in predicting OA. Significant differences were observed in MPO and TNF-α levels between …

Institution-Wide Retreats Foster Organizational Learning And Action At A Comprehensive Cancer Center, Benjamin R Schrank, John A Fuller, Colleen M Gallagher, Van K Morris, Emma B Holliday, Kelly Merriman, Lynne Nguyen, Lou Weaver, Kelly Nelson, Elizabeth Chiao, Albert C Koong, Ernest Hawk, Shine Chang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Providing safe and informed healthcare for sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals with cancer is stymied by the lack of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data reliably available in health records and by insufficient training for staff. Approaches that support institutional learning, especially around sensitive topics, are essential for hospitals seeking to improve practices impacting patient safety and research. We engineered annual institutional retreats to identify and unify stakeholders, promote awareness of gaps and needs, identify initiatives, minimize redundant projects, and coordinate efforts that promote improvements in SGM cancer care, education, and research. The 2022 and 2023 retreats employed …

Cerebrovascular Reactivity Mri As A Biomarker For Cerebral Small Vessel Disease–Related Cognitive Decline: Multi-Site Validation In The Markvcid Consortium, Peiying Liu, Zixuan Lin, Kaisha Hazel, George Pottanat, Cuimei Xu, Dengrong Jiang, Jay J. Pillai, Emma Lucke, Christopher E. Bauer, Brian T. Gold, Steven M. Greenburg, Karl G. Helmer, Kay Jann, Gregory Jicha, Joel Kramer, Pauline Maillard, Rachel M. Mulavelil, Pavel Rodriguez, Claudia L. Satizabal, Kristin Schwab, Sudha Seshadri, Herpreet Singh, Ángel G. Velarde Dediós, Danny J. J. Wang, Rita R. Kalyani, Abhay Moghekar, Paul B. Rosenberg, Sevil Yasar, Marilyn Albert, Hanzhang Lu

Neurology Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) represent a major factor in cognitive decline in older adults. The present study examined the relationship between cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cognitive function in a multi-site study, using a predefined hypothesis.

METHODS: We conducted the study in a total of three analysis sites and 263 subjects. Each site performed an identical CVR MRI procedure using 5% carbon dioxide inhalation. A global cognitive measure of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and an executive function measure of item response theory (IRT) score were used as outcomes.

RESULTS: CVR …

Identity And Access: Gender-Based Preferences And Physician Availability In Primary Care, Brigham Walker, Janna Wisniewski, Sarah Tinkler, Jillian Torres, Rajiv Sharma

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Patient preferences for physicians may be influenced by shared characteristics such as gender. We analyzed experimental data from a survey of US adults in which respondents were asked to choose between physician profiles that on average varied only by gender. We find that female patients prefer female physicians to male physicians by 51.8 percentage points (95 % CI: 0.470 to 0.566, p < 0.01), and that result holds across Black, White, and Hispanic sub-groups. With no countervailing preference among male patients, this result holds in the overall sample at 26.8 percentage points (95 % CI: 0.228 to 0.307, p < 0.01). We also analyzed data from a simulated patient field experiment concerning access to primary care appointments and find that female physicians, on average, offer appointments 7.1 days later than male physicians (95 % CI: 5.1 to 9.1, p < 0.01), consistent with the finding that female physicians are preferred. Female physicians’ offices appear to favor female patients, offering appointments to them 2.6 days earlier compared to male patients (95 % CI: -5.3 to 0.195, p = 0.07). However, Hispanic female patients were offered 4.2-percentage-points fewer appointments compared to Hispanic males (95 % CI: -0.069 to -0.014, p < 0.01) by female physicians’ offices. Similarly, Black female patients were told that the physician is “not taking new patients” 3.5 percentage points more often (95 % CI: -0.004 to 0.073, p = 0.08) and were offered appointments that were 2.6 minutes shorter compared …

Value Capture And Affordable Housing: Insights From Singapore, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

To explain the role of value capture in Singapore’s progress, I will first provide some background information on Singapore and its housing sector. I will then take you on a journey back to the 1960s to show how we established our present institutional arrangements for land and housing. I will next describe how housing policies have evolved over the past six decades in response to changing contexts. Finally, I will conclude with the fiscal implications of successful value capture. Where relevant, I will indicate how Singapore’s policies align with George’s views.

Gradient Wild Bootstrap For Instrumental Variable Quantile Regressions With Weak And Few Clusters, Wenjie Wang, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the gradient wild bootstrap-based inference for instrumental variable quantile regressions in the framework of a small number of large clusters in which the number of clusters is viewed as fixed, and the number of observations for each cluster diverges to infinity. For the Wald inference, we show that our wild bootstrap Wald test, with or without studentization using the cluster-robust covariance estimator (CRVE), controls size asymptotically up to a small error as long as the parameter of endogenous variable is strongly identified in at least one of the clusters. We further show that the wild bootstrap Wald test …

An Investigation Of Continued Contact Between Victim And Perpetrator After Sexual Violence, Maria Bates

Student Theses

Given the prevalence of sexual violence and child sexual abuse (CSA) it is imperative to accurately conceptualize victim experience following sexual violence. Rape myths do not provide an adequate understanding of victim behavior post-abuse/assault (e.g., Denne et al., 2013; Harsey & Freed, 2023; Romero-Sanchez et al., 2018; Russel & Hand, 2017), such as prescribing that victims of sexual violence would never hold contact with a perpetrator post-abuse/assault (e.g., Maurer, 2015; Shepp et al., 2019; St. George et al., 2022; Smith, 2023). Since research shows that many victims, particularly CSA victims, know the perpetrator, (e.g., Basile, 2020; Gewirtz-Meydan & Finkelhor, 2020; …

A Response To “The Danger Of Ideology”, Amie Thurber, Ericka Kimball

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

On January 9, 2024, Social Work journal published in advance access a commentary by Farber and Fram titled “The Danger of Ideology: Social Work, Israel, and Anti-Semitism” (Farber & Fram, 2024). Writing following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the authors lay out their central thesis in the opening paragraph: “We watch in horror and stand in support of Israel. As social work educators and scholars, we must also speak about the complicity of our profession in nurturing anti-Semitism and the ideology that undergirds Hamas and other terrorist organizations” (p. 1). This is a serious claim, and one that …

Political Constructions Of People Who Use Drugs In The Philippines: A Qualitative Content Analysis, Gideon Lasco

Development Studies Faculty Publications

Background

This paper examines the political constructions of people who use drugs in the Philippines throughout the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte (2016–2022), during which the government engaged in a ‘war on drugs’ and promoted a punitive drug regime.

Methods

Building on and drawing inspiration from the global drug policy scholarship that has looked at the ways in which drugs are framed and problematised in various domains, this study used qualitative content analysis to review 96 documents from national government agencies - including strategic action plans, directives, memorandums, guidelines, annual reports, and legislative measures.

Results

Foremost, the study finds that various …

Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder And Anxiety: An Evidence-Based Approach Exploring Interventions For Minimally Verbal Children With Asd And Anxiety, Zolzaya Batjargal

Research Psychology Theses

With approximately 1 in 100 children worldwide affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (WHO, 2023), the urgency for effective interventions is underscored. This study investigates evidence-based interventions for anxiety in minimally verbal children with ASD. The study examines CBT and ABA therapy effectiveness over 10 months for children with ASD, aiming to enhance their quality of life and well-being with tailored interventions. This research proposal hypothesizes reduced anxiety symptoms post-treatment, stable intellectual functioning, improved adaptive behavior skills, and better outcomes with higher parental involvement.

High Fat Diet & Social Isolation: Interactive Effects On Pain, Cognition, & Neuroinflammation, Ian M. Campuzano

Research Psychology Theses

Prior research has established a role for both social isolation and exposure to high fat Western diets in altering a range of behaviors from reduced memory performance to increased depression-like behaviors. The present study scrutinizes the interplay among these variables during the peri-adolescent developmental phase, utilizing Long-Evans rats as the experimental model. Our overarching hypothesis is that rats exposed to either social isolation, a high-fat diet, or both will result in heightened pain sensitivity, diminished cognitive flexibility, and increased neuroinflammatory responses within brain regions implicated in sociability, cognition, memory, and pain processing. Behavioral flexibility will be assessed using a maze-based …

Factors Impacting Treatment Decisions In Caregivers Of Autistic Children, Tiffany Harris

Dissertations

Caregivers of autistic children are not only tasked with deciding upon various treatment options for their children’s symptoms but must also navigate the initial crisis that is experienced after receiving a diagnosis of ASD for their children (Blancher, 1984; Ellis, 1989). Leventhal’s Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation (the CSM; Leventhal et al., 1980) is a theoretical framework developed to understand the self-regulatory processes involved in adapting to and managing health threats and posits that cognitive and emotional illness perceptions influence illness outcomes through coping behaviors. This is the first study to examine all major components of the CSM (i.e., cognitive …

The Effects Of Ambient Light Intensity On Affordance Perception, Tyler Overstreet

Dissertations

Humans can reliably perceive whether a slanted ground surface can be stood on or not. In the present study we investigated how differences in ambient lighting conditions affected the perception of stand-on-ability. The study manipulated lighting conditions (photopic, mesopic, scotopic) under which participants made affordance judgements about the stand -on-ability of a presented ramp in a virtual reality environment. We hypothesized that less visual information would be available in the scotopic condition, which would result in changes to affordance boundaries and movement complexity, when measured from head sway and center of pressure. Results indicated that participants’ affordance judgements were more …

Examining The Association Between Parental Attachment, Fictive Kin Bonds, Psychological Needs Satisfaction, Emotional Distress, And Subjective Well-Being Among Black Americans, Roxanne Watts

Dissertations

Secure attachment with parents predicts less emotional distress and greater subjective well-being across the lifespan. One mechanism by which parental attachment supports mental health outcomes is through psychological needs satisfaction (PNS). In addition to the attachment to parents, relationships with fictive kin caregivers are prevalent and important among Black families. The present study investigated the association between parental attachment, fictive kin bonds, psychological needs satisfaction and mental health outcomes (i.e., emotional distress and subjective well-being) in a sample of Black American adults. Two hundred twenty-three (N = 223) participants completed measures of parental attachment, fictive-kin bonds, psychological needs satisfaction …

Understanding The Relations Between Parental Psychological Distress And Child Emotional And Behavioral Problems: A Path Analysis, Lauren S. Erp

Dissertations

Maternal psychological distress has consistently been linked to emotional and behavioral problems in school-aged children. Given the high prevalence and negative outcomes of child emotional and behavioral problems, parenting variables have been examined as mechanisms underlying this relation. Research has demonstrated that mothers who endorse high psychological distress report high parenting stress, which contributes to the use of more negative parenting practices. Moreover, parenting stress has been shown to relate to negative parenting practices through parenting inflexibility. Yet, no known study has examined parenting stress, negative parenting practices, and parenting inflexibility as pathways through which parental psychological distress relates to …

Evaluating The Treatment Utility Of Universal Screening For Social-Emotional And Behavioral Risk, Rebecca Wagner Lovelace

Dissertations

Universal screening is a proactive method used by schools to identify social-emotional and behavioral (SEB) difficulties experienced by students to inform necessary intervention supports and practices. Early detection of SEB problems in young children is imperative to effective treatment, but there is currently little guidance and research to support effective use of universal screening data, particularly for SEB risk, to inform treatment. The current study followed up on studies that examine the use of universal screening to inform intervention decision making (e.g., treatment utility) for SEB risk. An alternating treatment design was used to assess treatment effectiveness of matched and …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Career Decision Making In College Students: Investigating The Moderating Effects Of Perceived Covid-19 Impact And Ambiguity Tolerance, Kendall Klumpp

Dissertations

College students face many difficult decisions as they navigate adulthood, including making a decision about their career. Although much research has already been conducted to explore these difficulties, little has explored the potential impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on one’s career-related cognitions. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided a new context in which difficulties with career-related decisions may be exacerbated. Through the lens of psychological stress, the current study examined the responses of 231 undergraduate students using a university-based online participant recruiting site, SONA. It was predicted that level of ACEs would be positively related with levels of negative …

Patterns Of The Use And Perception Of Cannabis Among College Students In Tennessee, Jayla Ruffus-Milner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cannabis has been historically difficult to research due to its federal scheduling. However, as legalization of cannabis medically, recreationally, or both in states across the country has increased, so has the need to address the research gaps that persist. The purpose of this study was to explore the patterns of cannabis use and perceptions of college students in Tennessee, which encompass a demographic of mainly young adults who are typically associated with high usage patterns. The study uses quantitative data collected from an online survey sent to a university in East Tennessee to evaluate associations between students’ age, gender, race/ethnicity, …

Vertical Expansion In The Making: Planning Against Deindustrialization By Promoting "Industry's Going Upstairs" In Shenzhen, Qianqian Wei, Yong Zhang

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In recent years, industrial metropolises in China have experienced a surge in proactive planning initiatives aimed at developing high-rise industrial structures, commonly known as “Industry’s Going Upstairs (IGU).” This study argues that the IGU represents a distinct form of urban verticality that is neither motivated by capitalist speculation nor sustainability prompts but rather by local states’ intervention to ensure economic resilience and enhance innovation capabilities. This study presents the case of Shenzhen to demonstrate how the adoption of the IGU initiative is catalyzed by concerns over manufacturing sectors’ out-migration and the effects of volatile US-China relations on the city’s competitiveness. …

Ticket Punch: The Consequences Of Fare Evasion Enforcement In New York City Subways, Sheyla A. Delgado, Gina Moreno, Fidel L. Osorio, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Researchers at the John Jay College Research and Evaluation Center studied transit fare evasion in New York City subway stations from 2018 to 2023 as part of the NYPD's Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative. Analyzing fare evasion alongside arrest data and neighborhood characteristics, the study found no significant link between fare enforcement and overall arrest rates. However, fare evasion enforcement was concentrated in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, highlighting the influence of social factors on public safety practices.

Two Essays On Corporate Finance, Yongdong Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays on corporate finance. In my first essay, I investigate the effect of the top management team (TMT) political heterogeneity on the CEO’s ability to implant her/his ideology onto the firm’s CSR policies. We present evidence that a CEO’s ideology can shape CSR policies only in the existence of a politically homogeneous TMT. This result is robust to the use of the propensity score matching (PSM) approach to address selection bias, the instrumental variable (IV) approach to address endogeneity, and Oster’s test to address omitted variables bias. Further analysis shows that the association between CSR …

Investigating The Relationships Among Explicit And Implicit Language Bias, Reading Motivation, And Reading Comprehension Among Bilingual College Students, Erika Vanessa Garza

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between language attitudes in reading motivation and reading comprehension in 243 voluntary English-Spanish bilingual college students. The current study focused on addressing two primary research questions: investigating the relationships between explicit and implicit language bias and reading motivation in English and Spanish and the relationships between explicit and implicit language bias and reading comprehension in English and Spanish. A multivariate multiple regression analysis revealed the dscore and Spanish Explicit Attitude to be significant on multiple outcome variables, English Explicit Attitude did not. Subsequent univariate analyses identified numerous individual effects that were statistically significant.

Associative Stigma Among Criminal Legal Staff: Measurement And Relation To Job Factors, Shania Siebert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A sizeable portion of the United States (U.S.) population works within the criminal legal system, and individuals who have legal involvement are a highly stigmatized population. Research suggests working with stigmatized populations can result in the transfer of stigma to professionals, referred to as associative stigma. While qualitative studies indicate there are negative perceptions related to working in criminal legal settings, there is no quantitative research on criminal legal staff’s experience with associative stigma and how it impacts job-related factors. The purpose of this study was to 1) examine the psychometrics of an adapted measure to quantitatively assess associative stigma …

The Effects Of Grading Equity Practices On Students: Do Student Perceptions Of And Teachers’ Exposure To Grading Equity Practices Matter?, Sarah Ruth Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation critically examines grading practices within schools, tracing the evolution from traditional to modern approaches and highlighting the social dimensions and debates surrounding grading. Through a mixed-methods study spanning three empirical chapters, it explores students' and teachers' perceptions of grading practices, the impact of professional development (PD) on teachers' approaches to grading equity, and the resultant effects on student outcomes. Chapter Two reveals students' preferences for practices that recognize effort and support academic growth, alongside a tension between Pre-AP students' resistance and the support from students under high stress. Chapter Three finds that while PD can shift teachers' views …

Integrated Public Archeology: Innovative Three-Dimensional Modeling And Digital Storytelling Techniques For Historic Preservation And Outreach, Bryce James Drachenberg

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the integration of digital methodologies in public archeology to enhance public engagement and historic preservation. Focusing on digital storytelling and three-dimensional modeling, the research demonstrates how tools like photogrammetry and ArcGIS StoryMaps can democratize archeological knowledge and involve wider audiences. A case study of Cane Hill, Arkansas, showcases the practical application of these techniques. The study highlights the creation of three-dimensional models and their integration into interactive StoryMaps, discussing the benefits, challenges, and future directions of digital public archeology.