Psychology Commons^™

Growth Mindset Messaging In Stigma-Relevant Contexts: Harnessing Benefits Without Costs, Crystal L. Hoyt, Jeni L. Burnette

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Growth mindsets are increasingly used to promote learning, development, and health. The increased popularity resulted in scrutiny and disputes about utility. The current work reviews a perspective critical to the debate. Namely, we focus on emerging research that examines both the favorable and potentially adverse consequences of growth mindset messaging in stigma-relevant contexts. This double-edged sword model merges the mindset perspective with attribution theory and the psychological essentialism literature. In stigmatizing contexts and in isolation, growth mindsets can indirectly predict less positive outcomes, via personal responsibility for the problem, but more positive outcomes, via expectations for the potential to manage …

How Much Money Can Buy You Happiness, And Can Happiness Be Engineered?, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There may be a lot of misery in the world, opines Chandran Kukathas, but for many, ‘there’s gold in them thar hills’. But can happiness be engineered?

Racial Socialization In Non-Hispanic White American Families: An Exploration Of The Role Of Parental Racial-Ethnic Socialization, Julia C. Rodil

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Racial-ethnic socialization is a largely unstudied topic for White Americans. Most of the research on racial-ethnic socialization (RES) focuses on minority populations, but more literature is starting to focus on RES in White individuals. However, the mechanisms by which RES messages are transmitted are understudied. This study examined how prior parental RES strategies (i.e., egalitarianism, history of other groups, group differences, preparation for bias, general discrimination, and discrimination against other groups) impacted White college students’ own attitudes towards ethnic-racial minorities (i.e., racist, colorblind, and multicultural) and how these attitudes influenced inclusive (and non-inclusive) behavior, psychosocial costs of racism (White empathic …

The Attractiveness Advantage At Work: A Cross-Disciplinary Integrative Review, Kelly A Nault, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Compared with people of average attractiveness, the highly attractive earn roughly 20 percent more and are recommended for promotion more frequently. The dominant view of this “attractiveness advantage” is one of taste-based discrimination, whereby attractive individuals are preferred without justification in economic productivity. We conduct a comprehensive review of research on attractiveness discrimination, finding relatively more evidence that this phenomenon constitutes, to some extent, statistical (as opposed to solely taste-based) discrimination, in which decision makers assume that attractive people are more competent and discriminate based on instrumental motives. We then review research that speaks to whether decision makers might be …

Social Media Use Improves Executive Functions In Middle-Aged And Older Adults: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis, Shi Ann Shuna Khoo, Hwajin Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Given the paucity of research on the cognitive implications of social media use in middle and late adulthood, we sought to understand the relations between middle-aged and older adults' social media use and their executive functions (EF)—a set of domain-general cognitive control processes—and the underlying mechanism. By analyzing a nationally representative cohort ranging from ages 40s–70s from the MIDUS Refresher Survey and Cognitive Project, we tested a serial mediation model with perception of social support and sense of control (i.e., personal mastery and perceived constraints) as sequential mediators in a structural equation modeling analysis. We found that perceived social support …

Evolutionary Psychology’S Next Challenge: Solving Modern Problems Using A Mismatch Perspective, Norman P. Li, Jose C. Yong, Mark Van Vugt

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As acceptance of evolutionary perspectives in mainstream psychology grows, it becomes increasingly pertinent to ask what evolutionary psychology can do to solve real-world problems and better our lives. Answers to this important question will more than likely require an understanding and application of the evolutionary mismatch framework. This powerful framework suggests that many of our contemporary problems—ranging from diabetes and depression to low fertility and sustainability—stem from a mismatch between our evolved psychological mechanisms, which are designed to be adaptive in ancestral contexts, and modern environments, which present novel stimuli that these mechanisms are not well suited to handle. By …

A Survey Of Psychological Personality Classification Approaches, Mervat Ragab Bakry, Mona Mohamed Nasr, Fahad Kamal Al-Sheref

Future Computing and Informatics Journal

Online social networks (OSNs) have become essential ways for users to socially share information and feelings, communicate, and thoughts with others through online social networks. Online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are some of the most common OSNs among users. Users’ behaviors on social networks aid researchers for detecting and understanding their online behaviors and personality traits. Personality detection is one of the new difficulties in social networks. Machine learning techniques are used to build models for understanding personality, detecting personality traits, and classifying users into different kinds through user generated content based on different features and measures …

Young Men’S Perceptions Of Teenage Pregnancy, Oluwatoyin Adewole, Oluwaseun M. Otubanjo

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of the qualitative study was to understand the perceptions and experiences of young men who lived in a county of Texas regarding teenage pregnancy. Face-to-face audio-taped interviews were conducted with 20 young men between ages 18 and 21. Five major themes and one subtheme were uncovered from the interview: unplanned pregnancy/attitude to unprotected sex, being a father at an early age, wanting sex education in the school curriculum, advice for other young men, and desiring parent’s role in sex education. The sub-theme was early childhood education to start at home. The findings of this study demonstrate that young …

The Representation Of Masculinity In A Malaysian Televised Show, Uma Rani A Rethina Velu

Student Works (2020-2029)

This study examines the representation of masculinity in a Malaysian televised show, Oh My English! using a multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis from four perspectives. Firstly, this study analyses the verbal processes significant in the reflection of the Other among five main male social actors and with other character roles. Secondly, the non-verbal processes are simultaneously analysed via visual interpretation. Thirdly, these two processes overlap with the analysis of social actions in the performance of masculinity. Finally, how ideological assumptions reflect on masculinity are analysed via the two processes and social actions among the five main social actors along with the …

Impacts Of Mental Health First Aid On Mental Health Literacy And Stigma, Junseon Hwang

Student Theses

Mental Health First Aid has been developed to train the general public to give initial support to those in mental health crisis and development. The effectiveness of Mental Health First Aid has been questioned due to its relatively short history of the course. Mental Health First Aid was recently widely-disseminated in New York City as part of the ThriveNYC initiative. While most studies were supportive of the training, there has been no study that specifically examines New York residents. We recruited 328 New York residents who self-reported whether or not they have participated in Mental Health First Aid via Amazon …

Legislation, Linguistics, And Location: Exploring Attitudes On Unauthorized Immigration, David A. Caicedo, Vivienne Badaan

Publications and Research

Contemporary discourse on domestic immigration policy varies widely based on political affiliation, linguistics, and regional differences. This experimental study aimed to concurrently investigate three social psychological bases of attitudes towards unauthorized immigrants in the United States: political ideology, social labels, and social context. Participants were 744 adults, recruited from “New York Community College” (“NYCC”/urban) and “New Jersey Community College” (“NJCC”/suburban), who were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: “illegal” vs. “undocumented”. Participants completed a scale measuring their attitudes towards unauthorized immigrants with the embedded label manipulation, followed by the General System Justification scale, and culminating with demographic items. …

Hubungan Penglibatan Ibu Bapa Dengan Tingkah Laku Prososial Kanak-Kanak Empat Tahun, Sharifah Aini Syed Tahir

Student Works (2020-2029)

Kajian ini adalah berkaitan penglibatan ibu bapa dan tingkah laku prososial kanak-kanak. Tujuan kajian ini adalah menentukan hubungan antara status sosioekonomi ibu bapa dengan enam dimensi penglibatan ibu bapa seterusnya hubungan antara dimensi penglibatan ibu bapa tersebut dengan tiga jenis tingkah laku prososial kanak-kanak empat tahun. Seramai 210 ibu bapa dan anak berusia empat tahun dan 16 orang pendidik awal kanak-kanak dari 13 buah taska yang dipilih secara rawak berstrata di bandaraya Shah Alam dan Petaling Jaya telah dilibatkan dalam kajian ini. Data kajian diperolehi menerusi dua set soalselidik untuk mengukur status sosioekonomi dan penglibatan ibu bapa yang dijawab sendiri …

Hubungan Penglibatan Ibu Bapa Dengan Kemahiran Sosial Kanak-Kanak Di Pusat Anak Permata Negara, Nora Azua Zaini

Student Works (2020-2029)

Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk melihat hubungan penglibatan ibu bapa dengan kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak di Pusat Anak PERMATA Negara. Dari segi pembangunan kemahiran sosial, penglibatan ibu bapa dapat memudahkan pembangunan pendekatan disiplin yang konsisten di rumah dan sekolah. Pengetahuan tentang hubungan penglibatan ibu bapa dengan kemahiran sosial ini juga dapat memberi pendedahan dan membantu ibu bapa khususnya dalam memahami kepentingan penglibatan ibu bapa dalam aktiviti anak-anak bagi meningkatkan kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak di mana kemahiran ini merupakan salah satu kemahiran yang sangat penting dalam menyediakan individu menghadapi kehidupan abad ke-21 khususnya. Kajian ini merupakan kajian korelasi yang menggunakan kaedah tinjuan yang …

Effects Of Ratemyprofessors.Com And University Student Evaluations Of Teaching On Students’ Course Decision-Making And Self-Efficacy, Stefanie S. Boswell

Higher Learning Research Communications

This study investigated effects of Ratemyprofessors.com and university student evaluations of teaching on students’ course decision making and self-efficacy in an ethnically diverse undergraduate sample. It also investigated if these effects were impacted by evaluation positivity. Additionally, the study explored if attitudes toward Ratemyprofessors.com was related to student gender, college class, and age. Participants were 73 undergraduates who were exposed to positive and negative evaluations about fictitious professors; participants were informed that the evaluations originated from RMP or university student evaluations of teaching. Evaluation positivity but not type influenced students’ intention to enroll in the professor’s course, but not how …

Spheres Of Identity: Theorizing Social Categorization And The Legitimacy Of Criminal Justice Officials, Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Identity is of central importance in the subjective experience of justice and assessments of legitimacy. In this study, the researcher explores whether perceptions of legitimacy are constructed differently across social group identity, particularly where social groups differ in relation to government (e.g., outgroup or ingroup). The analyses are conducted using data from a procedural justice study conducted in two U. S. cities. The findings suggest evidence of a generally similar construction of legitimacy though with important dissimilarities based on social group. Additionally, certain respondents’ narratives follow common narrative scripts in describing interactions with police, suggestive of a shared master narrative …

The Racial Position Model As A Framework To Understand Friendship Formation Between Latinx Americans And Other Racial Minorities, Darren Agboh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Three experiments utilized the Racial Position Model (RPM, Zou & Cheryan, 2017) in intraminority relations context to examine how Latinx Americans form friendships with a Black or Asian American interaction partner based on their shared or separate axes of subordination on the RPM. Latinx Americans may have contrasting interaction expectations with Black Americans and Asian Americans, as they share inferiority with Black Americans and foreignness with Asian Americans but are inferior compared to Asian Americans and foreign compared to Black Americans (Zou & Cheryan, 2017). Results showed that Latinx Americans feel more similar in terms of inferiority to Black Americans …

The Dynamic Linkages Between Structural Interdependencies, Computer-Mediated Communication, And Emergence In Newly Formed Virtual Groups, Erik Pesner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Virtual groups and teams are increasingly common in today’s organizations, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. However, little is known about how specific design features predict communicative team processes and emergent phenomena in the days immediately following virtual team formation. This dissertation examined the effects of task interdependence (i.e., shared resources) and outcome interdependence (i.e., shared goals and feedback) on task-oriented and relationship-oriented electronic communication between group members and emergent group perceptions over a 5-day experimental simulation. Results showed that while the majority of hypotheses were not supported, three key findings were culled from the analysis. First, virtual …

False Cures Of U.S. Nationalism: The Border Wall – A Raucous Call From The Silent Center, Tatiana N. Browne-Kai

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In trying to grasp the authoritarian surge in the U.S. since 2016, political theorists have increasingly turned their focus back to the Studies of the Authoritarian Personality. In response to the risk of these contemporary studies’ use of psychoanalysis in a de-historicized and individualized way, this paper opts for a double historicization of modern mass-formations. In analyzing the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, the Minuteman Border Fence and We Build the Wall, civil initiatives that aim at fortifying the U.S.-Mexican border wall (D. Trumps central campaign theme), the current surge to the right is shown to be based on and made …

Grassroots Tales: Journeys Of Inward Healing And Outward Movement Building – “A Story Of Youth Development And Healing”, Andrew Cory Greene

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rooted in Liberation Psychology epistemology, this dissertation was engaged to liberate myself as well as psychology. Positing Healing Justice and Sociopolitical Development as theoretical guides, this dissertation explored a community specific approach of radical healing to develop urban youth’s abilities to sustain (build) spirit and collective hope for grassroot movement building. This dissertation asks, what are the possibilities of bringing urban youth (n=9) together who shared similar realities, dared to dream together (i.e., think tank), and turn those dreams into a Grassroot Movement Building?

The methodological praxis of this dissertation project was politically and theoretically situated to study learnings at …

Developmental Predictors Of Adolescent Mental Health Stigma And A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Of "Ending The Silence" In New York City, Joseph S. Deluca

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explored predictors of mental health stigma among adolescents and the effectiveness of a school-based mental health stigma reduction and health promotion program, “Ending the Silence” (ETS), developed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Youth mental health service use is impacted by many factors, but concern about stigma and low mental health knowledge have been consistently identified as leading barriers to help-seeking. Beyond education and contact program components, existing research on how to design a successful adolescent stigma reduction intervention has been inconclusive. A diverse sample of 206 high school students in New York City participated in the …

Teenagers’ Wellness In Divorced Families: A Phenomenological Study, Sarada Devi R.Subramaniam

Student Works (2020-2029)

This study aimed to explore an in-depth understanding on the wellness of teenagers in divorced families. This qualitative study used the phenomenological approach to explore the experience of ten teenagers living with single mothers after the divorce of their parents. Participants in this research are 10 teenagers age between 16 to 18 years’ old who lived with their mothers after their parents' divorce. The duration of their parents' divorce during the data collection was in the range of one to ten years.Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and document analysis by social media. Data were analysed using NVIVO12 software. Nine …

Income Inequality And Crime: Consumption Channel, Ishak Nur Annizah

Student Works (2020-2029)

The general objective of this study is to examine the relationship between income inequality and crime. Many studies have discussed the relationship between inequality and crime. However, all the literature focused on ‘absolute’ measurements, such as income, poverty, Gini index, education, and employment. They neglected the importance of ‘relative concept’ - a missing element of the way economists analyze inequality. This study argues income inequality is visible through conspicuous consumption. Hence this study proposes conspicuous consumption as another possible channel that could explain the relationship between inequality and crime. Specifically, this study comprises of four specific research objectives. The first …

“Las Experiencias De Padres Con Hijos Discapacitados” Lived Experiences Of Mexican-Immigrant Parents Of Children With Identified Disabilities, Christina Cortez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

A nurturing and engaging environment within the family often leads to enhanced student performance. Nonetheless, the education system continues to struggle to connect with families from racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse groups, particularly parents with limited English proficiency or those who have children in special education programs. Amplified difficulties may arise because children with identified special needs—such as physical impairments, learning deficiencies, or developmental disabilities—require additional support, interventions, parental support, and/or services. As the nation attempts to mainstream children in public education and provide them support, Mexican immigrant families in many cases remain underrepresented, or they fall into greater risk …

Effects Of Social Media And Smartphone Use On Body Esteem In Female Adolescents: Testing A Cognitive And Affective Model, Hwajin Yang, Jiaqi Joy Wang, Yue Qi Germaine Tng, Sujin Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We examined the predictive relations of social media and smartphone use to body esteem in female adolescents and the mechanism that underlies these relations. As a result of frequent social media and smartphone use, adolescents are continually exposed to appearance-related media content. This likely reinforces a thin ideal and fosters appearance-based comparison and increases fear of external evaluation. Hence, we investigated a cognitive-affective framework in which the associations of social media and smartphone use with body esteem are serially mediated by cognitive internalization of an ideal body image, appearance comparisons, and social appearance anxiety. By testing female adolescents (N = …

Caregivers’ Expectations, Reflected Appraisals, And Arrests Among Adolescents Who Experienced Parental Incarceration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Melissa Noel

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

This research sought to identify a potential process by which intergenerational crime occurs, focusing on the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ subsequent arrests. We drew from Matsueda’s work on reflected appraisals as an explanatory mechanism for this effect. Thus, the present research examined whether caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for adolescents’ future incarceration sequentially mediated the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual arrest outcomes. Propensity score matching was used to examine this effect in a sample of 1,735 15- to 16-year-olds using NLSY97 data. Parental incarceration was positively related to caregivers’ expectations of adolescents’ future arrest. Moreover, caregivers’ expectations …

Book Review: Reconnecting To The Source By Ervin Laszlo, Elizabeth W. Szatmari Krasnoff

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Quantum philosopher Ervin Laszlo has taken one step further outside of the contemporary mainstream scientific view, which believes in a reductive “scientific” method primarily of highly controlled experiments to determine truth. In this visionary work, Laszlo proposes that the true laws of nature can also be accessed and felt experientially. Here he argues that the new quantum science can support this view, and even assist us as we heal the rift between mind and spirit and reconnect to our source. Laszlo proposes a new paradigm, a holotropic worldview with love as the core attracting force of wholeness. Indeed, as the …

Book Review: The Intelligence Of The Cosmos: Why Are We Here? By Ervin Laszlo, Elizabeth W. Szatmari Krasnoff

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Ervin Laszlo breaks down his theory of everything into a credo of 8 statements. This review looks in some detail at Laszlo’s theories and also touches on the other writers who have been invited to participate. It is noteworthy that Laszlo breaks with the current scientific belief that we are without purpose, and that evolution has no purpose. He believes that compassion, love, and expansion are our purposes for being here.

Gendered Processes And Women’S Stunted Career Growth: An Exploratory Study Of Female Software Engineers, Sucharita Maji, Shikha Dixit

The Qualitative Report

In the present qualitative study, we explored to what extent gender has been an integral part of workplace experience and career growth among female software engineers in Indian Information and Technology sector. Following a purposive sampling strategy, data were drawn from twenty-one female software engineers. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. A hybrid of theoretical and inductive thematic analysis was done to answer the research questions. For analyzing the data through theoretical thematic analysis, Acker's (1990) “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations” was used as the theoretical lens. The result revealed that four features of gendered processes in the …

We All Feel Feelings, Ben Ohene

Theses and Dissertations

Consisting of three illustrated books, We All Feel Feelings is designed as a vehicle for the discussion of emotional and mental health with young boys. These books will help foster a mindset of openness and acceptance through different methods of displaying and understanding emotions.

Predictors Of Social Distancing And Mask-Wearing Behavior: Panel Survey In Seven U.S. States, Plamen Nikolov, Andreas Pape, Ozlem Tonguc, Charlotte Williams

Economics Faculty Scholarship

This paper presents preliminary summary results from a longitudinal study of participants in seven U.S. states during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to standard socio-economic characteristics, we collect data on various economic preference parameters: time, risk, and social preferences, and risk perception biases. We pay special attention to predictors that are both important drivers of social distancing and are potentially malleable and susceptible to policy levers. We note three important findings: (1) demographic characteristics exert the largest influence on social distancing measures and mask-wearing, (2) we show that individual risk perception and cognitive biases exert a critical role in influencing …