Psychology Commons^™

Himpathy? The Impact Of Defendant Social Status On Perceptions Of A Rape Legal Case, Andrea Pals

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

There is limited work regarding multiple indicators of social status in the legal system (e.g., power and SES). The present study investigated the influence of defendant social status on case judgments in a first-degree rape case. The experiment used a 2 (defendant power: high vs. low) x 2 (defendant SES: high vs. low) x 2 (participant gender) between-subjects design. A sample of 282 community members were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were presented with a case summary, asked to make guilt and credibility judgments, complete the system justification gender scale (gender SJ: Jost & Kay, 2005), and answer standard …

How I Can Be Me: Associations Between Presentation Discrepancy And Mental Health Outcomes Among Lgbtq Adults, Samuel Bruun

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

One’s perception of their own personal appearance, and how one is viewed by others has been previously shown to have an impact on one’s mental health. Whether it be dealing with unrealistic body expectations depicted in the media, or attempting to appear sufficiently masculine, there are a multitude of ways in which one’s appearance can cause distress. Some appearance challenges are more identity specific, such as the struggles that some transgender people experience when attempting to achieve affirming gender presentation. Although these different concerns have been addressed individually in past research, there has not been an attempt to determine how …

Altering The Distance: Using Construal Level Theory To Examine Conciliatory Policy Support, Brandon Reinkensmeyer

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Distancing—a cognitive reappraisal strategy—increases conciliatory policy support (i.e., policies redressing inequity) by reducing anger. Related but distinct research has used construal level theory (CLT), which explains the relationship between psychological distance and mental representations (e.g., events and attitudes), to explore intergroup relations. CLT demonstrates increased psychological distance induces abstract thinking, which leads to high-level construal (HLC) mindsets. HLC mindsets, like distancing, decrease political polarization and prejudice toward out-groups. As both distancing (an appraisal technique) and HLC mindsets (a potential outcome of appraisal techniques) may decrease political polarization and prejudice toward outgroups, across two experiments, the present work investigated whether …

The Impact Of Affiliative Motivation And Trust On Confrontations Of Racism, Jamie Patrianakos

Dissertations

Anti-Black racism persists in the United States with harmful consequences for Black people. White people are able to disrupt the racial status quo and propel the conversation about racial justice forward by confronting racism. Confronting perpetrators of racism can reduce prejudice, yet people hesitate to confront because they fear social backlash, even from those with whom they share a social bond. Two online studies asked participants to complete a task eliciting stereotypical responding while being observed by a supposed interaction partner with whom they shared either a high or low desire to get along. Participants were confronted by their interaction …

Promoting Information Exchange: Open-Minded Group Cognition And A Function Of Motivation And Task Type, Jeremy Ryan Winget

Dissertations

Open-minded cognition is a cognitive processing style that influences the manner inwhich individuals select and process information. An open-minded cognitive style is marked by a willingness to consider a variety of intellectual perspectives, values, attitudes, opinions, or beliefs, even those that contradict the individual’s prior opinion. However, people also process information and make decisions within groups, and their individual cognitive styles can influence how the overall group processes and shares information. Therefore, the present paper integrates the open-minded cognition and group decision making literatures, proposes and agent- based model of open-minded group cognition, and empirically tests the antecedents and consequences …

Ecology And Open-Minded Cognition: Does Exposure To Pathogens Influence Open-Minded Cognition?, Gabriel Escudero

Master's Theses

This study aimed to examine if a perceived pathogen contamination threat would influence participants level of open-minded cognition. This study obtained an online sample of 300 adults (i.e., 18-years or older) U.S. Amazon Mechanical Turk workers to participate in an online study. This study used a quantitative experimental design to examine if a manipulation of perceived pathogen contamination threat would influence participants level of situation-specific open-minded cognition (SSOMC). Participants were randomly assigned to either a perceived pathogen contamination condition in which they watched a short informative video on pathogens or a control condition in which participants watched a short innoxious …

Does Manipulating Source Gender Predict A Person's Open-Mindedness As A Function Of Sexism?, Tanyelle Annette Galman

Master's Theses

The present research examines whether Communication Source Gender influences a message recipients' level of Open-Minded Cognition, and whether Ambivalent Sexism moderates this effect. Participants were asked to think of themselves as part of a military panel which considers proposals to military spending. Then after reading a proposal from either Cassandra Smith or David Smith, participants were asked to indicate whether they would be open to hearing more from the author. Participants were then instructed to complete the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996). In total there were 395 participants in this study. Results show that there was no main …

A Fair Share: How Awareness Of Inequality, Allocation Method, And System Justification Affect Perceptions Of Distributive Fairness, David Thomas Igliozzi

Master's Theses

In considering the different ways people view inequality and various proposed solutions,this study draws on classic psychological theories of distributive justice which outline three modes of allocation strategies: equality, equity, and need. While Deustch’s (1975) work on these three allocation alternatives laid the groundwork for years of distributive justice research that would follow, little empirical work has actually experimentally evaluated the conditions under which people might be more or less willing to support equity, equality, or need-based strategies. There is evidence that certain individual difference measures can predict support for redistribution. That is—those who rate highly on system justification, political …

Now You See Me — Now You Don’T: An Investigation Of Hair Alterations Effects On Face Identification In Own- And Other-Race Faces, Maresa A. Tate

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Can It Be Done? Examining Stereotype Threat With Fake Stereotypes, Jessica Hodges

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Stereotype threat refers to the risk of conforming to a stereotype regarding a group one belongs to. This threat has been heavily studied with negative stereotypes on performance-based tasks (e.g., math), and encompasses the anxiety one may feel due to being associated with the negative stereotype (Steele & Aronson, 1995). The present project sought to expand upon current literature in several ways. First, this project sought to assess whether fake stereotypes elicit stereotype threat like real stereotypes do. Second, this project examined whether fake stereotype threat works with positive stereotypes as well as negative. Third, this study examined how group …

The Impact Of Healthcare Professional Students' Racial, Hiv-Related, And Abortion-Related Biases On Recommendations For Prenatal Care, Alison J. Patev

Theses and Dissertations

Black women and HIV-positive women have increased maternal mortality rates and other negative pregnancy outcomes, in part due to disparate prenatal care. Although women who seek abortions do not have the same negative outcomes, abortion stigma exists and is normalized in healthcare. Limited work has examined prenatal care provision for women in these groups, and even less work has explored the prenatal care provision by healthcare trainees (i.e., medical, nurse practitioner, and physician assistant students). Examining the role of bias on the prioritization of prenatal care items by healthcare trainees is imperative. Healthcare education sets the stage for future practice, …

Efficient Vengeance: The Role Of Processing Fluency In Making Decisions About Retaliation, Samuel J. West

Theses and Dissertations

Aggressive behavior is a harmful and pervasive psychological and behavioral phenomenon. Inherent to every act of aggression are decisions regarding the modality, severity, and timing of such actions. Prevailing theories of aggression emphasize the role of cognitive processes in aggression, especially retaliatory aggression. Despite this emphasis, few cognitive processes have been examined for their possible involvement in making decisions about retaliatory aggression. Across two studies, I examined the role of processing fluency in making decisions about retaliation. I drew from contemporary models of aggression (e.g., the General Aggression Model) and processing fluency (e.g., the Multi-Source Account) to develop hypotheses in …

Holding On To Who They Are: Pathways For Variations In Response To Toxic Workplace Behavior Among U.S. Intelligence Officers, Greta Creech

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The U.S. intelligence community is a critical mission industry responsible for protecting lives and safety in ways that impact the global security environment. Research on the deleterious impact of toxic workplace behavior on other critical mission fields, such as health care and the U.S. military, is robust. However, intelligence scholars publishing within the unclassified arena have been silent on the phenomenon, how personnel respond to it, and how it may impact the intelligence function. This lack of scholarship has afforded an opportunity to understand what constitutes toxic behavior in the intelligence environment and how it may affect U.S. national security …

Influencing Capitalist Attitudes To Drive More Capital Towards Social Good, Leah Michelle Burton

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to better understand how to influence capitalist attitudes and drive more capital towards social good. This is why we must explore the prospect of emancipating the capitalists from capitalism. This study identifies capitalism as a form of oppression that is contributing to a newly developed ethics of capital, a term introduced in this study. Emancipatory action research and general systems theory were employed as the primary approaches to engaging a group of venture capitalists and finance professionals in activities and dialogues. Value2 is the theory of action I use to influence the attitudes of …

The Perceived Deservingness Of Narcissistic Individuals, Danielle Lynch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Previous research has explored how narcissism relates to empathy and deservingness. It has been suggested that not only do narcissistic individuals lack empathy for others, but also that others lack empathy for narcissists when they experience misfortunes. It is not clear if this is because the narcissists’ own behaviour is believed to have contributed to the misfortune or because of their over-arching personality. The present research aimed to explore how narcissism affects empathy and perceptions of deservingness. Study 1 (N=962) investigated whether the target person’s amount of control over the negative outcome influenced how deserving they were perceived …

Race Logic: Measuring Stereotyped Mental Representations Of Football Player Positions, Jillian Fisher

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This preregistered research sought to capture the mental images associated with the quarterback and wide receiver positions to understand race logic prevalent in the NFL using the two phase, reverse correlation image classification paradigm. Participants in phase one were randomly assigned to the quarterback or wide receiver group and responded to 300 forced choice side by side images, indicating which image appears most like the target position. From these responses, four images were created based on position (quarterback or wide receiver) and participant exposure to football related media content (high or low). These images were used as stimuli in phase …

How Did We Learn About Sex? —— Sex Education And Sexual Health In Chinese Youth, Yujuan Liu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Attitudes toward sexuality among Chinese youth have become more liberal in recent generations, but sex education remains controversial and limited. Due to the lack of awareness of sexual risks, many Chinese youth engage in unprotected sexual activities resulting in unintended pregnancy, abortions, and STIs. Therefore, understanding successful pathways and unique challenges are crucial to develop adequate sex education for youth’s sexual health in China. The current study used semi-structured in-depth interviews and investigated 28 Chinese youths’ experiences of sex education and sexual health. The results mapped out youth’s sex education experiences by age and sources and demonstrated the impacts of …

Opposite Sex Friendship Initiation: Dispositional Differences In Self-Monitoring, Abigail P. Masterson

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Based on the self-monitoring and friendship literature (Fuglestad & Snyder, 2010) it was predicted that compared to low self-monitors, high self-monitors have an unrestricted orientation to sexual liaisons and view friendships as activity-based. These two tendencies suggest high self-monitors are more likely than low self-monitors to initiate opposite sex friendships for sexual purposes whereas low self-monitors are more likely than high self-monitors to initiate opposite sex friendships for companionship purposes. To evaluate this prediction, 133 male and 135 female heterosexuals completed the 25 item Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974), the Reasons for Friendship Initiation Scale (Bleske-Rechek & Buss, 2001), and the …

“I Hate To Be A Burden!”: Experiencing Feelings Associated With Ostracism Due To One's Poor Performance Burdening The Group, James H. Wirth, Donald F. Sacco, Mitch Brown, Bradley M. Okdie

Faculty Publications

We examined if perceiving oneself as burdensome, due to performing poorly in a group, can lead to feelings associated with ostracism (being excluded and ignored), without actually being ostracized. Participants completed a typing game (Study 1) or solved Remote Associates Test (Study 2) items where they performed worse, equal, or better than the group. To isolate the influence of burdensomeness, participants were consistently selected by computerized agents to play. In each study, worse performers experienced greater perceptions of being burdensome, less basic need satisfaction, increased negative mood, and greater anticipation of being excluded from a future group task compared to …

"The Candy Problem, Solved!": White Children And White Parents Grappling With Dysconscious Whiteness, Lindsay E. Olson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

During an amplification of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, white children and parents have faced multiple interruptions to their protective territory of dysconscious whiteness—an uncritical approach to a structural status quo that favors white lives. Through semi-structured activities and interviews with ten children ages 3 to 9 and nine of their parents who observed these activities, I discovered a parent–child subsystem of dysconscious whiteness. White children and parents revealed aspects of this subsystem by grappling with dysconscious whiteness (grappling) as they struggled to avoid implicating skin color in resource inequality. Through grounded theory analysis of the process of grappling, …

A Low Self-Esteem Perspective On Support Provision, Alexandra Hirniak

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Social support is an essential part of personal and relationship well-being. However, not all relationship partners may be equally willing to provide social support to close others. Due to their tendencies toward pessimism (Baumeister et al., 2003) and self-protective biases (Murray et al., 2003, 2008) individuals with lower (vs. higher) self-esteem may have biased perceptions about their own efficacy when it comes to providing support, as well as the consequences and benefits of support provision. These biased beliefs could mediate the relationship between provider self-esteem and support provision. In the present research, I examine how self-esteem affects social support provision. …

Connections During Times Of Change: The Interplay Between Gratitude Communication, Well-Being And Resilience, Aubrey Carlene Moore

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This pilot study investigates the relationships between gratitude communication, well-being, and resilience in times of change. The 2019 coronavirus, COVID-19, brought on a global pandemic that continues to impact people’s lives daily. However, due to continuous changes, lockdowns, social distancing, mask mandates and more, people have found other ways to stay connected in lieu of face to face communication. This study aims to understand better how people are moving forward during these challenging, ever-changing times. Using an online survey and previously established measures including the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS-14), …

Reducing Anticipatory Anxiety: Does Values-Affirmation Increase Self-Compassion?, Elena Harwood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Mindfulness- and acceptance-based interventions for social anxiety incorporate techniques such as self-compassion and values articulations. Self-compassion has been shown to reduce anticipatory anxiety in students with high social anxiety but the impact of values-affirmation has not yet been explored. Additionally, past research suggests that values-affirmation may foster self-compassion. Three studies were conducted to explore whether values-affirmation, too, reduces anticipatory anxiety (related to an upcoming speech task) and to evaluate whether self-compassion is a mechanism of change. In study one, participants (N = 93) were randomly assigned to a self-compassion manipulation, a values-affirmation condition, or a control condition. After controlling …

Who Is The Stranger Really? A Reluctant Autoethnography Of The Strange Situation Procedure, Tara Yazdani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper aims to review the cross-cultural application of attachment theory as a western model of thought and practice. That is, this research aimed to recognize and question how embedded attachment theory has become in programming and education within North American academic and practical arenas. In applying the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to a limited sample of Eritrean dyads, important considerations and questions arose regarding the cross-cultural application of this protocol. The aims of this research shifted toward further exploring these considerations and questions, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the new research aim emphasized how to inform future …

Subjective Social Status And Inflammation: The Role Of Culture And Anger Control, Jose C. Yong, Andree Hartanto, Jacinth Jia Xin Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objective: Research on subjective social status (SSS) and inflammation risk suffers from a lack of cross-cultural data as well as inconsistent findings between SSS and the biomarker C-reactive protein (CRP). The current study addressed these issues by examining possible cultural differences in the SSS-CRP link with anger control as an underlying mechanism while controlling for potential confounds such as wealth, education, and health factors. Method: Participants comprised 1,435 adults from the Biomarker Project of the MIDUS (American) and MIDJA (Japanese) studies. Participants’ SSS and tendency to control anger were assessed through surveys, and their CRP levels were measured through fasting …

Not So Much Rational But Rationalizing: Humans Evolved As Coherence-Seeking, Fiction-Making Animals, Jose C. Yong, Norman P. Li, Satoshi Kanazawa

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The evidence for biased perceptions and judgments in humans coupled with evidence for ecological rationality in nonhuman animals suggest that the claim that humans are the rational animal may be overstated. We instead propose that discussions of human psychology may benefit from viewing ourselves not so much as rational animals but rather as the rationalizing animal. The current article provides evidence that rationalization is unique to humans and argues that rationalization processes (e.g., cognitive dissonance reduction, post hoc justification of choices, confabulation of reasons for moral positions) are aimed at creating the fictions we prefer to believe and maintaining the …

How Do You Talk To Yourself? – The Effects Of Pronoun Usage And Interpersonal Qualities Of Self-Talk, Sonya M. Bisol

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Self-talk is defined as an inner voice that addresses the self, usually silently but sometimes aloud, with content that is self-relevant. In two studies, this work investigates the pronouns people use within their self-talk, classified by a newly developed pronoun coding scheme, and the interpersonal qualities of self-talk, characterized by an interpersonal framework. For each study we also explore how pronoun usage and interpersonal self-talk styles relate to each other, and to other important variables that pertain to the possible causes and effects of self-talk. In our first study, 131 participants completed a structured interview in which they provided …

Constructively Deviant: Examining The Positive Employee Consequences Of Pro-Social Rule Breaking, Su Kyung (Irene) Kim

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Conceptualized as a form of constructive deviance, pro-social rule breaking (PSRB) refers to employees’ intentional violation of a formal organizational policy, regulation, or prohibition with the primary intention of promoting the welfare of organization or one of its stakeholders. The extant research primarily focused on the antecedents of PSRB, and research on the consequences of the behavior is limited. In my dissertation, I adopt a combination of correlational and experimental designs to examine various employee outcomes of PSRB, including employee well-being and behavioral outcomes, as well as evaluative outcomes rated by others. The first manuscript focuses on rule breaking for …

Is It Just A Dream? How Attributions For Successful And Unsuccessful Social Mobility Attempts Maintain The Myth Of The American Dream, Erin Shanahan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite rising inequality making upward social mobility difficult, faith in the American Dream persists. Why is this the case? In six studies (five pre-registered), we demonstrate that in scenarios where hard work and ability are held constant, people praise the hard work and talent of individuals who successfully move up the social ladder while derogating these same characteristics among individuals who do not; a pattern of attributions which is likely to reinforce the American Dream. Further, conservatives explain mobility failure particularly in terms of personal shortcomings whereas liberals look to systemic disadvantages, attributions that in turn predicted lowered and heightened …

A Tale Of Two Tweets: What Factors Predict Forgiveness Of Past Transgressions On Social Media?, Andrew Dawson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As more and more of our lives take place online, we are developing a very public and permanent record of our past views and actions. It is increasingly common for public figures to have their current image tarnished by their mistakes and transgressions in what is often the distant past. Although factors such as the passage of time and age of the actor are typically given consideration in moral judgement, they may be swept away by identity and politics when the transgressions are viewed along partisan lines. Three experiments (N = 2,018) found that judgements of a public figure …