Psychology Commons^™

The Relationship Between Mortality Salience And The Two Subtypes Of Narcissism, Rianna H. Yung

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Terror management theory (TMT) posits that a psychological conflict (“terror”) is created when human beings are reminded of their own mortality (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991). This experimental study examines whether the impact of mortality salience on self-esteem is moderated by individual differences in narcissism. There are two subtypes of narcissism, namely grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism. Grandiose narcissism is associated with higher self-esteem, whereas vulnerable narcissism is associated with lower self-esteem. Participants (N = 437) completed an online survey that consisted of the Rosenberg Self-esteem Inventory, the Pathological Narcissism Inventory, a mortality salience manipulation or the control task, …

Substance Use Among College Students: Correlations With Intent To Graduate, Academic Integration, And Social Integration, Cecilia M. Clowdus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Substance use is one of the greatest concerns for adolescents and emerging adults. The consequences of prolonged substance use can lead to physical, psychological, and financial consequences for those suffering from use as well as their loved ones. One consequence that has not been researched thoroughly is the association between substance use and the decision to leave higher education, which is a decision that could have lasting effects on former students’ ability to obtain satisfactory employment in the future. This research looks at substance use and variables that are associated with the decision to leave college, which are derived from …

The Achievement Gap And Students Living In Poverty: The Role Of Core Self-Evaluation And Transformational Leadership In Teachers, India Harris

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Research has shown that the combination of locus of control, self-efficacy, self-confidence, and emotional stability is a good predictor of life success. Until now, this second order factor, called core self-evaluations (CSE) has only been studied in adults. Findings from this study, showed levels of CSE were significantly and positively connected with academic achievement for middle and elementary aged students. CSE appears to play to a similar role between students and academic achievement as it plays with adults and job performance. In this study, the dimensions of transformational leadership were applied to teacher behaviors and students were grouped based on …

A Dissonance Intervention To Reduce Implicit Prejudice Against Arab Muslims, Cheryl Alyssa Welch

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

With constant media coverage of hostility in the Middle East, and given recent acts of domestic terrorism such as the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is reasonable to assume that prejudice against the Arab-Muslim population has been increasing in the United States (Moore, 2002). There are many active campaigns advocating for both acceptance and the reduction of various types of prejudice and discrimination in our society. However, the question is if these campaigns are actually successful in their goals. The current study sought to fill this gap by assessing a social intervention on its effectiveness in reducing prejudice towards …

Exploring The Effects Of Positive Behavioral Supports On Disciplinary Practices In Schools And It's Potential To Mitigate Disproportionality In Disciplinary Outcomes For African American Students, E'Lexus Emily King

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Disproportionality in special education and school discipline in the U.S. Education system has been a crucial and complex issue. Research has shown that evidence-based interventions that lie within the positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) framework has been effective in improving educational outcomes for all students. In this study, the author investigated the impact of the School-Wide Benchmarks of Quality, a PBIS fidelity measure, on student disciplinary outcomes. 380 schools presented four years of disciplinary outcome data. Results showed that the PBIS fidelity measure had a modest effect on the overall student disciplinary outcomes but did not address the disproportionate …

Ambivalent Sexism, Religiosity, And Perceptions Of College Majors As Masculine Or Feminine, Emily Boyles

Senior Honors Theses

This study sought to determine if college students view certain majors as masculine or feminine and if gender perceptions influence their choice of major and subsequent vocation. The methodology included analysis of predictive relationship between scores on the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), the Ambivalence toward Men Inventory (AMI), the Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale (RRFS), and a scale measuring perceptions of majors as masculine or feminine. A total of 492 college students from a large east coast Christian university participated in this study by completing an online survey. Based on the university’s degree offerings, 24 college majors were selected, and students …

Authority As Related To The Milgram Studies, Elizabeth A. Ajadi

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

The topic I chose to research was authority as related to the Milgram studies. I chose this topic because of my curiosity about the legitimacy of the Milgram experiment after reading about it and watching several videos of the Milgram experiments. Stanley Milgram was a psychologist at Yale University who carried out the Milgram experiment to address conformity in a domain that self-evidently mattered and, with the Holocaust as his obvious point of reference; he chose the willingness of people to inflict serious physical harm on others. The experiment consisted of a “learner” and a “teacher,” the teacher read out …

Reciprocity: Caring For America's Caregivers, Courtney Dunn

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

Should families be forced to choose between the health of a caregiver and patient? Through the eyes of a woman caring for her husband with Alzheimer's disease, we see that family caregivers suffer tremendous amounts of stress while caring for the patient. Despite the time and efforts required to care for someone with Alzheimer's disease, people every day choose this as an alternative to out-of-home care. This often leads to depression, anxiety, and physical stress which can result in series medical issues. Considering the increase of people with Alzheimer's disease in the United States, this article argues that support programs …

Beliefs About Childhood Obesity, Jillian Braley

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Currently in the United States, it is estimated that 25% of American children are obese. Several factors that may contribute to childhood obesity are environment, eating habits, underlying health conditions, and psychological influences. I plan on becoming an elementary teacher and I was shocked to find out that elementary schools are now cutting physical education classes to as little as thirty minutes and only every other week in some districts. While at the same time increasing the total amount of time students are using computers. I believe it is important that structural issues such as the decrease in physical education …

Ethnic Differences In Self-Efficacy At Southern Adventist University, Seth L. Daly Stennis

Journal of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research

Concern has been expressed about the poor academic performance of African American students, in comparison to their other ethnic counterparts. Many individuals have attempted to explain this anomaly. A large portion of studies show how socioeconomic standing and parental involvement play a role in the academic achievement gap. A more modest amount used psychological factors to explain the deplorable academic achievement in African Americans. One such psychological factor, self-efficacy, was not well represented in the literature; few papers discussed the association of self-efficacy and African American academic success. The purpose of this study was to compare self-efficacy levels of individuals …

Exploring The Unique Experiences Of Biological Children In A Foster Family, Alana Marsh

Honors Projects

:The purpose of the following research was to identify the experiences and needs of biological children in a foster family. An online survey was sent to licensed foster families from a private agency. The survey included questions about the experiences, both positive and negative, of biological children before foster youth enter the home, during their stay, and after they exit the home. Analysis of 21 survey answers and thorough review of literature indicated significant lack of available resources for foster parents to utilize when preparing their biological children for this family change. Results also showed that children held damaging misconceptions …

Interconnections Between Perceptions Of Blame, Mind, And Moral Abilities, Alex Ropes, Steve Guglielmo

Psychology Honors Projects

Theories of blame, mind, and moral attribution consider an individual’s perceived agency, operationalized in part as perceived intentionality and self-control. People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may display social deficits and a greater tendency to engage in problem behavior (PB; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) than neurotypical (NT) people, which may lead people to perceive that individuals with ASD act less agentically. Study 1 shows that the mitigated perceived agency of people with ASD leads to mitigated blame attribution. In addition to perceived agency, theories of mind and moral attribution account for perceptions of an individual’s capacity to experience emotions, pleasure, …

The Effect Of Descriptive Norms On Resistance Exercise Self-Efficacy In College-Aged Females 2016, Justin Kompf

Master's Theses

Resistance training is a form of physical activity that provides substantial health benefits. Despite these widespread benefits, participation in resistance training is considerably low, particularly among females. To engage in a skill-related activity such as resistance training, individuals need to have confidence in their abilities. Self-efficacy is a cognitive construct that is used to describe situation-specific self-confidence. Descriptive norms are a type of social norm that describes the behavior of others. Descriptive norms have been useful in positively changing health related behaviors. The exact mechanism of how descriptive norms alter behavior is unknown. However, it has been show in research …

Family Communication Motivating Athletics Over Generations: A Mixed Method Expansion Of Self-Determination Theory, Elizabeth Hanson Smith

Dissertations

Mixed methods were utilized to test the communication within a model of self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985) in a multi-generational sports framework in order to argue for an update to self-determination theory (SDT) that includes a communication element. Fourteen qualitative research questions were posed to examine how communication functioned to move tennis players, golfers, and runners from the initial family influence in participating, to integrating family values to the extent that participants modeled athletic values to offspring and community members. Three hypotheses correlating the variables of self-efficacy, autonomy-controlling and autonomy-supportive family communication supported the argument that communication functioned to develop …

Decision Making Theories Of Retaliation, Katlyn S. Farnum

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 2013, the Supreme Court decided, in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v Nassar, that Title VII retaliation claims should be interpreted under the stricter but-for causality instructions. This requires claims of retaliation to show that the plaintiff’s discrimination complaint (or involvement in a discrimination claim) is the direct cause of the adverse action, as compared to a motivating factor that is required under the less strict motivating factor causal instructions. The current research examines the role of regulatory focus (promotion v. prevention), causal instructions, employment action (promotion v. dismissal), and number of claims considered on both juror …

The Development Of Sexual Attitudes In The Family Of Origin And Sexual Satisfaction Later In Life, Bryant Christlieb

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to determine if variance for individuals’ sexual satisfaction as well as attitudes toward sexual instrumentality, sexual permissiveness, sexual communion and attitudes could be predicted by family sexual communication during adolescence as well as various demographic factors such as age, years together, gender, race, income level, religion, religiosity and sexual orientation. This was done by recruiting 250 people via Mechanical Turk (www.mturk.com) and through undergraduate courses at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The researcher used an enter-method multiple regression model and Kendall’s Tau for non-parametric data. The results of this study show that sexual satisfaction …

The Lipstick Effect Operates At The Level Of Automatic Visual Attention, Aaron M. Bermond

Honors Theses

Although general consumer spending usually decreases during economic recessions, Hill and colleagues (2012) found evidence that women concerned with economic recession demonstrated an increased preference towards purchasing products capable of enhancing physical beauty, thereby allowing them to appear more attractive to mates with resources. Referring to this phenomenon as the lipstick effect, these researchers suggested such purchasing preferences demonstrate evidence for an evolved female mating strategy. The current study was designed to more directly test whether the lipstick effect represents an evolved female mating adaptation by determining if it operates at the level of automaticity, specifically automatic visual attention (Fodor, …

Completing The Puzzle: Exploring Possible Antecedents To Rape Myth Acceptance, Skye A. Geeslin

Theses and Dissertations

Rape myths are commonly accepted, but usually false, attitudes and beliefs about the act of rape, the perpetrators, and most often the victims (Aronowitz, Lambert, & Davidoff, 2012). Studies have shown that the endorsement of rape myth attitudes influences not only the likelihood of a sexual assault occurring, but also whether or not the incident is reported, and how the victims view themselves and their experiences afterwards (Burnett et ah, 2009). The present study surveyed college students to assess their levels of social competence, semantic knowledge of sex, bystander attitudes, and rape myth acceptance (RMA). The purpose of this study …

A Preliminary Investigation Of Positive Imagery Training To Reduce Risk For Suicidal Behavior Among Adolescent Girls, Sasha Micaella Rojas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents, with risk for suicidal thoughts and suicidal behavior emerging during adolescence particularly among girls. Consistent with theory and empirical evidence, the current study examined the effects of Socially-focused positive imagery training among a small sample of adolescent girls evidencing suicidal thoughts. This preliminary small n design also allowed for a detailed assessment of acceptability of imagery training for the adolescent sample. Risk for suicidal intent was indexed by 1) negative affect, 2) positive affect, 3) greater resting right (relative to left) prefrontal asymmetry, 4) perceived Social isolation, and 5) suicidal …

The "We-Ness" And Empathy Of Liberalism, David Sparkman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most research in Social and political psychology focuses on the psychological antecedents to conservatism; the primary aim of this work was to investigate antecedents to liberalism. This led to an examination of we-ness and empathy as underlying mechanisms to liberal attitudes. Using perspective taking as a cognitive process common to both we-ness and empathy, I tested a model of we-ness and empathy as serial mediators of the effect of perspective taking on political attitudes. Results suggested that we-ness and empathy serially mediated the association between perspective taking and liberalism (and its Social and economic sub-attitudes), and empathy independently mediated the …

The Dark Triad And Hexaco Model Of Personality In Relational Aggression, Niki M. Knight

Master's Theses

Past research has linked relational aggression (RA) to many forms of psychological maladjustment among children and early adolescents. Although less is known about RA among emerging adults, there is a growing body of research demonstrating a number of adverse correlates. This literature has sparked an interest in examining the role of personality in RA. Most investigations to date have focused on the Five Factor Model; however, the six factor HEXACO model of personality (Ashton et al., 2004) may offer some advantages in studying RA. Moreover, the manipulative and often covert nature of RA among emerging adults has theoretical overlap with …

Problem Analysis In Community Violence Assessments: Reavealing Early Childhood Trauma As A Driver Of Youth And Gang Violence, Laurie Ross Phd, Samantha Arsenault, Sergeant Miguel Lopez

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Problem analysis conducted by a university-based research partner can provide communities with data-driven options to address the local drivers of serious youth and gang violence. Situated in Worcester, Massachusetts, this article describes how after early childhood trauma was identified as a potential driver of adolescent and young adult violence, problem analysis using local data confirmed that being the victim or witness of a traumatic incident before the age of 12 was significantly correlated with involvement in violence in adolescence or young adulthood. While there is a robust literature on the relationship between early childhood trauma and later delinquency, local decision-makers …

The Effects Of Gender And Self Construal On Perception Of Racism, Lauren S. Schapiro, Anne M. Schoenfeld, William C. Thomas

Celebration

When looking into the idea of if one's gender and their self-construal has an effect on how they perceive racism, we hypothesize that women will take a more interdependent self-construal and men will take a more independent self-construal. Based on how they identify, we believe that those in the interdependent condition will perceive more racism and those in the independent condition will perceive less racism.

The Peacock Effect: The Influence Of The Opposite Sex On Aggressive Behavior, Kira J. Mason

Celebration

Most widely-accepted models for aggression do not explicitly address an important variable that roots in evolutionary psychology: the presence of a potential mate. The current research investigates whether the presence of an attractive or unattractive member of the opposite sex influences hypothetical aggression. Participants (N = 1035) imagined themselves in front of an attractive or non-attractive member of the opposite sex (accompanied by pictures of corresponding attractiveness levels), and indicate their aggressive intentions after a provocation, or not. Results from the 2(sex) x 2(attractiveness) ANOVA showed that males viewing an image of an attractive female aggressed more when provoked than …

The Effect Of Historical Narratives And Flag Type, Maher A.R. Bigley, Alexandra E. Casella, Marike S. Sevigny-Morrissey, Amy E. Violante

Celebration

This research will examine the effect of mainstream or marginalized historical narratives and the Confederate or American flag on temporal distancing, patriotism, perception of injustice, and assimilationist national identity. We expect that participants exposed to marginalized narratives will indicate higher perceived distance, especially when exposed to the Confederate flag. We expect that participants exposed to mainstream narratives will be highest on blind patriotism, especially when exposed to the American flag. We expect that participants in the American flag marginalized narrative condition would perceive the most racism and would reject more assimilationist conceptions of national identity. For the dependent measures of …

Are Forgiving People Less Likely To Experience Cognitive Dissonance?, Jordan A. Barthel

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

People differ in the degree to which they are able and willing to forgive themselves after they have committed a transgression against another person (Thompson et al., 2005). The purpose of the current study was to see if individuals with lower levels of dispositional forgiveness would experience more attitude change toward a boring task than those who have higher levels of dispositional forgiveness, as a result of cognitive dissonance being induced. Participants completed a boring task that involved moving beads back and forth on an abacus, and then were either asked or told to mislead the next participant by telling …

Retrospective Emotional Interpretation Of Holocaust Victims: Case Studies Of Usc Shoah Foundation Testimonies, Rachel Gaufberg

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

Extensive research has been conducted on the emotional/psychological conditions of survivors post-Holocaust, specifically symptoms of trauma of which many have been grouped and coined into terms such as “survivor syndrome” and “concentration camp syndrome” (USHMM, 2015). In addition, the treatment of such conditions have been studied and implemented. Conversely, significantly less research has been conducted regarding the emotional/psychological experiences of victims during these events, as recollected by victims in the present. Personal narratives of Holocaust survivors shed light on the emotional and psychological implications of the Holocaust’s traumatic events on individuals. In this paper, Holocaust survivors’ retrospective descriptions of …

Pulling The Trigger: Dehumanization Of African Americans And Police Violence, Themal I. Ellawala

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

Police shootings and killing of African American targets has reached epidemic proportions and has captured the attention of the entire country. Research in social psychology has studied many dimensions of this layered issue, and has generated disparate findings regarding the role of racial bias in police violence. The process of implicit dehumanization of African Americans, especially youth, has been proposed as particularly salient in making shoot/don’t shoot decisions. This paper suggests that the paradigm of dehumanization could complete the understanding of racialized police violence and reconcile contradictory research findings, while highlighting areas for future research.

The Motivational Effects Of Goal Orientation, Self-Efficacy, And Perceived Choice, Charles N. Elliott

Symposium of Student Scholars

The present research explores relationships between intrinsic motivation, choice, autonomy, and self-efficacy. Intrinsically motivated individuals have increases in perceived choice, as well as self-efficacy while completing tasks autonomously. New research suggests the type of goal an individual sets effects their motivation for completing a task and their self-efficacious behavior while performing it. The present research manipulates goal orientation with either an approach-mastery goal or with an approach-performance goal manipulation. We predicted that mastery goals would lead to increases in achievement motivation and perceived choice, because of self-efficacy. Feedback was manipulated using informative slightly positive versus very positive conditions (Ryan, 1982). …

The Effects Of Racial/Ethnic And Gender Discrimination On College Students' Self-Esteem, Elizabeth Silva, Colin Silverthorne Phd

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

College-aged participants (N=239, 57 men and 182 women) completed two measures, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale—assessing global self-esteem, and the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS)—assessing their perceptions of discrimination based on racial/ethnic stereotypes and/or gender stereotypes. The first hypothesis was that negative racial/ethnic discrimination would have a negative impact on self-esteem. The second hypothesis was that negative gender discrimination would negatively impact an individual’s self-esteem.

Results on the EDS showed that men had more experiences with perceived discrimination than women (t(239)=2.41, pF(4, 234) = 4.275, p = 0.01). A significant negative correlation was found between the two measures, ( …