Psychology Commons^™

Prejudice Toward Fat People: The Development And Validation Of The Antifat Attitudes Test, Robin J. Lewis, Thomas F. Cash, Lora Jacobi, Cristina Bubb-Lewis

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although the stigma of obesity in our society is well documented, the measurement of antifat attitudes has been a difficult undertaking, Two studies were conducted to construct and validate the Antifat Attitudes Test (AFAT), In study 1, college students (110 men and 175 women) completed the preliminary 54-item AFAT and specific indices of body image and weight-related concerns, Psychometric and factor analysis revealed a 47-item composite scale and three internally consistent factors that were uncorrelated with social desirability: Social/Character Disparagement, Physical/Romantic Unattractiveness, and Weight Control/Blame. Several body image correlates of antifat prejudice were identified, and men expressed more negative attitudes …

Measuring Organizational Climate For Diversity, Amy L. Vick

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The Climate for Diversity Index measures three dimensions associated with the ability of organizations or units to create an environment that allows members of all sociocultural backgrounds to participate and fully develop. The climate for diversity impacts individual outcomes such as general job satisfaction, affective commitment, identification with a psychological group/department, organizational citizenship behavior, and the intent to turnover. Several structural models depicting the relationship between the climate for diversity and the individual outcome variables were examined. Significant differences in perceptions of the climate for diversity are predicted by ethnicity, disability, and position. Data were provided by 319 members of …

Effects Of Exposure To Information About Appearance Stereotyping And Discrimination On Body Image And Mood, Melissa Ann Brown

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present experiment examined how information about societal appearance discrimination can affect current body image. Sixty-six female college students listened to audiotapes containing information about either appearance discrimination or an unrelated topic, television violence. Afterward, participants completed measures of mood and body-image states. They also completed the Appearance Schemas Inventory (ASI), an assessment of maladaptive investment in appearance (i.e., appearance schematicity). As expected, participants exposed to the appearance information subsequently reported significantly greater body-image dissatisfaction than did those in the Control condition. Conditions did not differentially affect mood state or ASI scores. Participants were divided into upper and lower tertiles …

The Relation Between Maternal Beliefs And Behavior And The Metabolic Control And Social Development Of Children With Diabetes, Peggy Ann Herzog-Simmer

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the relation between maternal control, beliefs, and concerns and the metabolic and social development outcomes of their children with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). It was expected that maternal control (i.e., protectiveness, knowledge and beliefs about. diabetes, and self-efficacy) would be positively related to children's outcomes as measured by their metabolic control, social and behavioral development. Thirty mother/child dyads participated. Children met the following criteria: (a) 4 to 16 years of age, (b) continually insulin-dependent for at least four months, and (c) had no significant cognitive or emotional impairment. To examine the effects of maternal control and …

A Structural Model Of Antecedents And Consequences Of Satisfaction With Growth And Development, Greg E. Loviscky

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Because downsizing and re-organizing have altered the social contract between employers and employees, employees have found additional incentive to grow and develop by adding to their portfolio of skills. In order to establish the validity of satisfaction with growth and development, an hypothesized model is tested and compared with competing models. 'our hundred and sixty three employees from a large southeastern city completed a questionnaire that examined attitudes regarding satisfaction with growth and development, general job satisfaction, and hypothesized antecedents (i.e., context and individual variables) and consequences (i.e., organizational commitment) of satisfaction with growth and development. LISREL VIII (Joreskog & …

Construct Validation Of The Small Unit Equal Opportunity Climate Survey, Arlene L. Pace

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to continue in the development of an equal opportunity climate survey, suitable for small groups, by establishing the construct validity of this newly developed measure. Four-hundred and twenty-nine members of 7 United States Coast Guard Units were administered the Small Unit Equal Opportunity Climate Survey (SUEOCS), an attitudinal instrument suitable for small groups. Conceptual analyses, item and scale analyses, and a confirmatory factor analysis via LISREL VIlI (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989), were used to establish the factor structure of the SUEOCS. The results of these analyses indicated that the hypothesized factor structure was …

Procedural Implications Of Affirmative Action: Perceptions And Attitudes Toward The Policy And Its Beneficiaries, Nicole A. Windfelder

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined the effects of race, sex, role, and policy type on the attitudes toward affirmative action and its beneficiaries. Specifically, this study investigated attitudes toward the fairness of affirmative action policies and the perceptions of competence of the beneficiaries. Participants included 394 African American and Caucasian American men and women undergraduate students from Old Dominion University and Hampton University. Participation involved reading a vignette in which they would imagine themselves in the role of either a beneficiary of an affirmative action program or a coworker of an affirmative action beneficiary. Furthermore, participants in both roles would read …

Downsizing America In The Twentieth Century: A Sociological And Theoretical Analysis Of The Shrinking Middle Class, Terreea Lynne Adams

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Downsizing is the process by which a firm decreases its number of employees, even during times of a strong economy, with the stated purpose of generating greater efficiency, productivity and of course, profit. The downsizing trend in the United States during the past three decades has resulted in an enormous shift in the structure of our society. Various theorists, sociologists and economists employ differing ways of looking at this downsizing trend and its effects on the largest segment of the population; that is, the middle class.

lndications of a healthy economy are low levels of unemployment and poverty-. Downsizing involves …

Interaction Of Ethanol And Insulin On Motor Activity And Hypoglycemia In Rats, Kristen E. Koontz

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study investigated the effects of ethanol on insulin-induced hypoglycemia in rats. Measurements were made on the interaction of insulin at a dose of 2 units/kilogram in combination with four ethanol doses on motor activity and on blood glucose levels. Nine rats were administered eight treatment conditions (insulin or no insulin; combined with ethanol dosage of either: 0, 300, 600, or 1000 mg/kg). In a counterbalanced sequence of treatments, the rats were injected with insulin and placed into activity detectors for 20 minutes. At this time their blood glucose was measured, they were injected with ethanol, and placed hack …

School Behavior And Perception Of The Family Environment Of Delinquent Youth, Anne Rachel Greenberg

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated the perceptions that juvenile delinquents have of their family environment as they pertain to their current school behavior and treatment placement. The 75 subjects, ages 12 to 17 years, both male and female had been placed by the local juvenile and domestic relations court into one of three treatment programs. The subjects in the In-home treatment placement group perceived higher levels of Cohesion and Control, as measured by the Family Environment Scale (F.E.S.). The subjects in the Residential placement group perceived lower levels of Conflict. Conflict was found to be negatively correlated to problem school behavior as …

Parental Quality Ratings Of Early Child Care Experiences And Subsequent School Adjustment, Donna Owens Collier

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate differences in the school performances of children with different early child care experiences. The relationship between parental quality ratings of early child care experiences and subsequent school performance was also examined. The subjects in this study were 99 first grade students from two public elementary schools in Chesapeake, Virginia. The parents of these students were asked to assess broad areas of their children's early care. This assessment resulted in four subscores and one overall score of quality. The school performance scores included two measures of academic achievement obtained from the students' …

The Assessment Of Different Cerebral Locations In The Study Of Arousal And Attention Using A Closed Loop Tracking System, Keith W. Clouatre

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present experiment assessed the importance of the temporal, parietal, and frontal lobes in a sustained attention task using a closed-loop arousal monitoring system for a tracking task. Thirty-six undergraduates from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia served as subjects. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the lobe conditions and recordings were taken from sites over either their temporal, parietal or frontal lobes while they performed a compensatory tracking task. The monitoring system recorded the subject's beta, theta, and alpha wave production, an engagement index (derived from an algebraic function of the individual bandwidths) and the root mean square …

The Influence Of Time Pressure And Information Load On Rule-Based Decision-Making Performance, Brooke Browne Schaab

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Performance was evaluated under varying levels of time pressure and information load to determine their influence on simple rule-based decision-making. Consistent errors, biases, and heuristics found in human decision-making have been attributed to attempts to reduce attentional demands and to the limitations of working memory. Do these same mistakes occur when little or no demand is placed on working memory and the decision is made by following a set of simple rules? Using a simulation of a radar operator's task, 96 participants monitored a display for 24 min. Time pressure was manipulated by increasing or decreasing the number of aircraft …

Neuropsychological Assessment Of Battered Women, Mona Matheney Tiernan

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the effect of physical battering on the neuropsychological functioning of women. Twenty-five battered women and twenty-five non-battered women were administered a neuropsychological screening battery (11 separate tests, yielding 16 variables) to assess for possible deficits in the areas of attention/concentration, memory, visual-perceptual skills, sensory-motor skills, novel problem solving, and verbal fluency. All participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a post-concussive syndrome checklist, and a questionnaire evaluating for the presence of depressed mood and possible effects of depression. Potential participants with a history of previous head injury (occurring from a source other than battering) or other neurological disorders were …

Cross-Cultural Differences And Intercultural Cooperation In The Context Of Change And Uncertainty: Americans And Finns In The Workplace, Maija Llisa Herweg

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

American and Finnish workers in financial institutions in the United States and in Finland were interviewed in their respective languages to explore cross-cultural differences in response to change and uncertainty in the work place. Changes were explored in the domains of organizational, process, procedure and work content, and technological changes in the work place. As a point of departure for this study, Hofstede's IBM study, as it pertains to Uncertainty Avoidance--a measure he used to evaluate culture-based resistance to change--was used for this study.

Differences in the kinds of change considered difficult to adjust to were found in the cross-cultural …

The Relationship Of Autonomy Sociotropy And Depression To The Recall Of Autobiographical Memories, Jennifer Sue Cheavens

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Past research in the area of dysphoria and depression has examined two personality constructs known as autonomy and sociotropy. These personality constructs have been studied as predispositions to dysphoria and depression. The current study focused on the ability of Autonomy and Sociotropy, measured by the Personal Style Inventory (PSI), to predict both participants' and raters' autonomous and sociotropic ratings of autobiographical life events. The study also examined the differences in classifications of events as either sociotropic or autonomous when the classifications were made by both participants and objective raters. Participants were 72 female and 43 male undergraduate students enrolled in …

The Effects Of Feedback Seeking Performance And Tenure On Perceived Organizational Commitment Self-Promotion Attributions And Allocation Of Organizational Rewards, Bryan C. Hayes

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Few studies have addressed the performance feedback seeking process from the perspective of the source of the feedback. Investigators generally focus on the behavior of the feedback seeker, either ignoring or only speculating about reactions by the target of the feedback request. The objective of this study was to empirically investigate the target's reaction to requests for performance feedback. Extensive efforts have been made to demonstrate that people often constrain their feedback seeking behavior because of perceived risks, however, research has not examined to what extent the perceived costs are real. A hypothetical scenario was used to elicit reactions to …

Psychological Outcomes Of Religiosity In The Elderly, Deanna R. Hogge

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Three components of religiosity- organizational religious involvement, nonorganizational religious involvement, and subjective religiosity- were examined for effects on wellbeing, depression, and coping in an elderly sample. A multiple regression analysis, in which demographic variables were controlled for, did not result in any significant findings. The lack of statistically significant findings conflict with a large body of research on religion and psychosocial and health outcomes. The current findings suggest that while traditional religious involvement may be beneficial to those who participate, this involvement does not account for significantly increased well-being, better coping, and less depression for the individuals of this elderly …

Work Interference With Family (W→F) And Family Interference With Work (F→W): Antecedents And Mediators, Karyn Hofler

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study was designed to assess the antecedents of two forms of work-family conflict (WFC). The separation of two types of WFC is represented by work interference with family (W→F) and family interference with work (F→W). Several variables were hypothesized to be directly and indirectly related to the two forms of work-family conflict. Because of the individualistic nature of WFC. the participants for the present study were all female. LISREL VIII was used to test the proposed model and to develop an alternative model. Job stress was found to be directly and indirectly related to W→F. Family stress was …

Task Interdependence And Teamwork Processes, Kristin Krahl

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In today's continually expanding and global marketplace, organizations are increasingly relying on teams. The tasks that are performed by these teams are requiring greater interdependency among members as technology becomes more complex. Therefore, there is a need for a valid measure to study the task interdependence among team members. This study developed a measure of task interdependence and provided evidence for the construct validity of the measure using LISREL (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993). In particular, the task interdependence measure was shown to be distinct from teamwork measures developed in previous research (Rosenstein, 1994). A structural model of relationships among teamwork …

An Artificial Life Model Of Engineering Attrition Contemplation: Why Do Federally Employed Civilian Engineers Think Of Quitting?, John William Herweg

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The research objective is, using engineer turnover, to develop an Artificial Life (A-Life) model and simulation methodology useful for studying behavioral variables of individuals in an organization.

One consequence of work stress is burnout, and its extreme expression is quitting or turnover. Various models have been used to explain and predict this behavior. Behavior models are useful tools to explore the ability of organizational policies to reduce stress levels and turnover. Advancing the usefulness of models is a goal which assists all research on human behavior. A-Life offers a new and different methodology for this purpose. It provides an ability …

Effects Of Goal Reward And Feedback Frequency On Motivation: A Control Theory Perspective, Jonathan Michael Balcerek

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The current study investigated the effects of feedback frequency and goal reward on subject motivation. Klein's (1989) control theory model of work motivation was used to conceptualize the method and hypothesis. Subjects performed a simple computer addition task. When we examined subjects who displayed medium to high mathematical ability, significant effects were discovered. Higher goal reward led to higher motivation. In addition, subjects with a low goal reward and high amounts of feedback displayed lower motivation than subjects with a high goal reward and high amounts of feedback and subjects with a high goal reward and low amounts of feedback. …

The Role Of Event Asynchrony And Attentional Deficits On Task-Unrelated Thoughts In Vigilance: Implications For Workload And Boredom Proneness, Steven Michael Springer

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined the impact of event asynchrony, task-unrelated thoughts, attentional deficits, and boredom proneness on vigilance performance. Each subject participated in two sessions, one with asynchronous background events and one with temporally regular background events. Subjects were assigned to three groups: (a) those diagnosed as possessing attention deficit disorder (ADD) during childhood, (b) those with a high potential of having attention deficit disorder during childhood, and (c) those with a low potential of possessing attention deficit disorder during childhood. Subjects were required to indicate their spontaneous and deliberate task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) during each vigilance session. Boredom proneness was …

Development Of The Inventory Of Life Span Events, Julie A. Dickison

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The possible relationship between stressful life events and subsequent illness has been studied in the past few decades, resulting in several widely-used questionnaires. However, these measures tend to focus on recent events and attempt to remove subjective rating of a stressful event by the respondent. These two factors may limit these scales clinical utility. An alternative measure, the Inventory of Life Span Events (ILSE) is proposed, to quantify the life-stress burden for childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and across the entire life span. ILSE was compared to other leading measures for life events, hassles and perceived stress, and was more closely related …

Causal Models Of Work-Family Conflict From Family And Organizational Perspectives, Lyse Guttau Wells

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

More women are entering the workforce and the number of dual career couples has increased and will probably continue to do so. As women's tasks and responsibilities outside of the home have increased, those within the home have not diminished resulting in higher work-family conflict (Greenglass, Pantony, & Burke, 1988). This research examined a woman's work-family conflict from both work and family perspectives. Two models were described and tested. One model included individual and family antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict. The antecedents included sex-role attitudes, role salience, and perfectionism in the wife. The consequences were quality of family life …

Toward Understanding Team Leadership: The Empirical Development Of A Team Leadership Classification System, Brian J. Ruggeberg

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a classification system of team leadership through the empirical process of numerical classification. Although the value and importance of leadership have been recognized in the team literature, few empirical studies have been conducted to understand the phenomenon of team leadership. A thorough review of the relevant literature was conducted to identify the various behaviors, functions, traits, and KSAOs associated with team leadership. This information was then used to select and construct data collection instruments for the classification process.

Two separate studies were conducted to achieve the overall goal of developing a team …

Animal-Word And Sound Test: An Auditory Cognitive Interference Effect, Jason L. Parker

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study presented a method in which the Stroop Color Word Test can be adapted to an auditory form. This auditory test used a series of animal words, animal sounds and word-sound combinations. This "Animal-Word-and-Sound test" contained three subtests. The test tasks were to repeat a list of words, identify a list of animal sounds, and to identify the sound in a combined animal word-sound pairings (Both the animal's name and sound are presented simultaneously). An alternate form of this audio test was examined. The alternate form followed the same construction except in the final condition, the task was to …

Body Image And Information-Processing Biases On A Modified Stroop Task, Andrea Powell Arcona

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Recent research in the area of body image and body-image disturbance has increasingly examined cognitive information-processing models. The focus of the current study was on the processing of appearance-related and nonappearance-related information in appearance-schematic versus appearance-aschematic women. As a modified and extended replication of a study by Labarge, Cash, and Brown (in press), information processing was investigated using a computerized Stroop-type task. Participants were 128 Old Dominion University women who had previously completed the Appearance Schemas Inventory (ASI). They were divided into two groups based on their above median (appearance-schematic) or below-median (appearance-aschematic) ASI scores, Then, at designated times, these …

Validation Of Continuous Self Improvement Flow And Individual Commitment As Personality Constructs, Alexia Anne Fink

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Three personality constructs that are hypothesized to be related to desirable organizational outcomes were validated in the present study. The 363 participants included 39 artists, 43 athletes and 281 psychology students, for a total of 363 participants. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a good fit to the measurement and structural models. The scales were trimmed to maximize discriminative efficacy in an effort to further establish construct validity. The trimmed measures have satisfactory scale characteristics, but their discriminative efficacy is limited.

Affinity-Maintenance Strategies And Relationship Satisfaction, Carla J. Jernigan

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the influence of affinity maintenance strategies (i.e., positivity, openness, assurances and sharing tasks) on relationship satisfaction. An individual's perception of his or her partner's affinity-maintenance behaviors was investigated. Gender differences and sex-role attitudes were also examined. Using Stafford and Canary's (1991) Affinity-Maintenance Strategy Measure and Hendrick's (1988) Relationship Assessment Scale, positive correlations were found between the frequency of positivity and relationship satisfaction for males and females. The perception of partner's use of sharing tasks was positively correlated with relationship satisfaction. Gender differences were not found in how frequently males or females utilized affinity-maintenance strategies within their relationship. …