Psychology Commons^™

Perception Of Expectation States And Teaching Diversity In Higher Education: Insights From A Qualitative Study, Jun Fu, Sue C. Jacobs

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

There are many benefits from fostering interaction among students of diverse backgrounds in classrooms. To enhance students’ potential psycho-social and intellectual development, instructors need to do more than foster group interaction. They need to encourage and teach skills for diverse students to be able to genuinely communicate their differences in knowledge, perspectives, and expectation states. An expectation state is defined as an anticipation of the quality of group members’ future task performances and is shaped by socially ascribed characteristics. Researchers who based their studies on Expectation States Theory found ample evidence that expectation states exert multi-level effects on social dynamics, …

History Of Involvement With Combat Sports And Severity Of Subtypes Of Psychopathy, Allen Hagen

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Combat sports can be defined as sports that involve the physical domination of opponents in order to win. Previous research on combat sports as they relate to psychopathy and anti-social behavior has produced limited information regarding subtypes of trait psychopathy. While there is evidence suggesting participation in certain combat sports can lead to an increase in anti-social behavior (Endresen & Olweus, 2005), there has never been a direct investigation into primary psychopathy, which has other distinct features such as fearless dominance and lack of remorse. These traits may be useful in the further examination of psychopathologies within a sports context. …

Sex Trafficking: A Systematic Review Of Operational Definitions, Firdavs Khaydarov

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Objective: Trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation constitutes about 59% of detected victims of trafficking, which makes it the most prevalent form of human exploitation globally. In the existing literature, there is a lack of a precise and consistent conceptualization of this phenomenon, which poses a significant challenge in its study. The purpose of this inquiry is to fill in the gap in the existing literature by identifying and analyzing existing operational definitions of sex trafficking pertinent to psychological scholarly literature. Methods: Meta-ethnographic approach to qualitative research was utilized in this study. To identify pertinent literature, a systematic review …

The Effects Of Cognitive Training On Behavioral Functioning In Persons With Dementia, Abigail J. Dye

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Lack of engagement in pleasant activities and negative mood are two factors that decrease quality of life (QoL) for older adults with moderate to severe cognitive impairment. As enhancing QoL has become a primary treatment outcome for individuals with cognitive impairment, investigation into the ability of nonpharmacological interventions to increase engagement and positive mood has come to the forefront of research. Cognitive training is a nonpharmacological intervention that utilizes manualized techniques with the primary goal of enhancing different areas of cognitive function. Although the cognitive benefits of the programs have been widely investigated and established, the potential benefits that cognitive …

Diverse Teams, Team Effectiveness, And The Moderating Effect Of Organizational Support, Hannah Tilstra

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study adds to the growing literature on diversity in teams and team effectiveness. This study reviews the literature examining theoretical perspectives of diversity in teams, surface-level diversity attributes, team training and team outcomes. To test hypotheses, an archival dataset from a study focusing on team training, which is coded to represent the presence of gender and ethnic diversity on teams. Variables including team performance, shared mental models, and team behavioral processes are used to measure team effectiveness. The results of this analyses suggest mixed results, but do indicate that teams with diversity are more effective, particularly in measures of …

The Effects Of Positive And Negative Humor At Work, Trevor Frey

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The relationship between humor and work has been an extensively studied subject in psychology related to work. Past research has found a positive relationship between positive humor and work outcomes and a negative relationship between negative humor and work outcomes, though less research has been conducted in the realm of negative humor. This study aims to contribute towards research by replicating past studies when it comes to humor and job satisfaction – the relationship between positive supervisor humor was found to be positively related to job satisfaction for employees while negative supervisor humor was found to be negatively related to …

What Do You Do When You Are Bored? Outcomes And Moderators Of Job Boredom, Mitchell Eid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

While little research on job boredom currently exists, most has focused on its connection to outcomes which are harmful to organizations. However, there is research that suggests boredom may have a positive relationship to creativity. The current study hypothesized that job boredom would be positively related to workplace creativity and that this relationship would be moderated by openness to experience. The current study also attempted to replicate previous research linking job boredom to counterproductive work behavior with boredom proneness as a moderator. Data were collected from 219 participants through a self-report survey on MTURK and analyzed with moderated regression analyses. …

Sin Papeles: The Experiences Of Undocumented Central American Immigrants In The United States, Elizabeth Jarquin

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

In the United States, the topic of immigration represents a source of intense debate, which has escalated in recent years. Research indicates that Latinx immigrants are negatively impacted by current immigration policies— they are feeling afraid, angry, exhausted, defeated, overwhelmed, and concerned about themselves and their family (Castrellón, Rivarola, & López, 2017; Wray-Lake et al., 2018). This research, however, has largely neglected the Central American subgroup and the experiences of undocumented immigrants. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of undocumented Central American immigrants and their families within the current sociopolitical context. I utilized interpretative phenomenological analysis …

Exploring The Professional Development Of Mft Students Enrolled In Equine Assisted Family Therapy Coursework: An Experiential Learning Modality, Natalie Rothman

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

Equine assisted activities have been utilized in various manners with multiple populations in therapeutic and educational environments. A graduate level marriage and family therapy program in South Florida is currently offering Equine Assisted Relational Learning (EARL) activities focused on teaching a specific sub-model of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP), known as Equine Assisted Family Therapy (EAFT). The experiential nature of EAP and EARL transforms abstract concepts such as thoughts and mannerisms into tangible experiences, as well as highlights behavioral patterns. The unique and innovative theoretical foundation of EAFT is being taught, demonstrated, and utilized to assist graduate level therapists with professional …

Prayer As A Potential Buffer Against Ego Depletion, Danielle Oehring

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Ego depletion is theorized as the loss of self-control after it has been exerted over a period of time, leading to loss of conscious regulation of behavior. Buffering against this loss is characterized by engaging in an activity that will help extent the use of self-control, helping to further regulate behaviors such as impulse control. We were interested in learning how prayer may act as a buffer against ego depletion and compared prayer against self-encouraging talk to find is there is a difference between how the two affect self-control. One hundred ten participants were randomly assigned to a video group: …

Smartphones, Stress, And The Reduction Of Cognitive Resources, Jenay R. Stone

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Smartphones are a ubiquitous part of daily life for most Americans. They offer an abundance of information, connectivity, and entertainment. Previous research suggests that smartphones are also responsible for cognitive costs in educational, public, private and professional settings when in use or audibly creating stimuli in the environment. Smartphones are also linked to an automatic attenuation of cognitive resources even when not in use and merely salient (Ward, Duke, Gneezy and Bos; Journal of the Association for Consumer Research; 2, 141, 154, 2017). The purpose of the present study was to experimentally test the effect of cell phone salience …

Attitude Formation And Malleability In Response To Visual Cues And Counterattitudinal Information, Tyler W. Mueller

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this research is to investigate how individuals form attitudes based on the appearance of another person and how malleable those attitudes are when the individual is presented with new information about the other person. The predicted effect from this study was that participants would form attitudes about another person's agreeableness based on visual information and that when presented counterattitudinal information would be more likely to change attitudes than information that matches their initial attitude. It was also expected that negative first impressions would be harder to change. METHOD: Participants (N = 109) were presented one …

A Study Of The Impact Of Covid-19 On Home Delivery Purchases And Expenditures, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly affected shopping behavior. This study surveys people living in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Metropolitan area on household and demographic characteristics, e-commerce and home delivery service and product preferences, number of deliveries made before and during the COVID-19 lockdown, and household expenditures on home deliveries. Ordered choice models are developed to understand factors that affect the number of online deliveries made before COVID-19, and the number and household expenditures on online deliveries during the COVID-19 lockdown. Results indicate that higher-income households are more likely to make more online deliveries and spend more money on home deliveries …

Political Centrism, Perspective Taking, And Outgroup Derogation: An Integrated Model, David Kesler

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The relationship between perspective taking abilities, political centrism, and outgroup derogation is not defined at this time. While previous research has demonstrated a negative relationship between political centrism and outgroup derogation (Van Prooijen, Krouwel, Boiten, & Eendebak, 2015), the relationship between the other variables is unclear. Therefore, the current study sought to measure the relationship between (1) perspective taking abilities and political centrism, (2) perspective taking and outgroup derogation, (3) political centrism and outgroup derogation and lastly, (4) whether the relationship between perspective taking abilities and political outgroup derogation would be mediated by an individual's level of political centrism.

How Going With The Flow Could Aid Factor Learning In Mathematics, Aaron M. Beuoy

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

This quasi-experimental study examined the effectiveness of elaborative processing and knowledge maps for learning the steps to factor polynomials with various numbers of terms when math anxiety was accounted for. The study took place in a college classroom during an eight day period when students were learning to factor polynomials. On Day 2, students studied the factoring steps using a list of steps or a flowchart and then engaged in free- and cued-recall tests. Day 3 was similar except that students did not complete a free recall test. Another set of cued recall tests were administered on Day 5, and …

Employee Development And Turnover: A Moderated Mediation Model Of Employee Perceptions Of Development, Job Satisfaction, Supervisor Support, And Intent To Stay, Ryan Kasdorf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As employee turnover continues to be a major concern for organizations, there is increasing evidence that providing development opportunities can be an effective intervention to decrease voluntary turnover. I propose that an integrated theoretical framework of combining Organizational Support Theory (OST) and the Job Demands- Resources Theory (JD-R) is best suited to explain the relationship between employee development and turnover. Moreover, a moderated-mediation model is developed and tested, whereby the relationship between employee perceptions development (EPD) and intent to stay is mediated by job satisfaction, and this indirect relationship is moderated by perceived supervisor support. A large sample (N = …

Early Adolescent Social Isolation, Hope, And Well-Being During A Pandemic, Alicen Hauck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social isolation is often divided into two subcategories of objective and subjective. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in objective social isolation in the form of social distancing and fewer social events. Research delineating the relationship between social isolation and adolescent well-being utilize measures of subjective social isolation. Whereas, measures of objective social isolation are more commonly used with geriatric populations. Therefore, there is a lack of information specific to the impact of objective social isolation on adolescent well-being, particularly during a pandemic. The effects of social isolation due to COVID-19 will not be short lived. Deciphering the …

Associations Between Sleep And In-Race Gastrointestinal Symptoms: An Observational Study Of Running And Triathlon Race Competitors, Patrick Benjamin Wilson

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: It remains unstudied whether poor sleep is involved in the etiology of gastrointestinal (GI) problems in athletes.

METHODS: Eighty-seven running and triathlon/duathlon race (>60 minutes) participants completed questionnaires to quantify the Sleep Problems Index-(SPI)-I and sleep parameters from the night before races. For GI symptoms, participants reported the severity (0-10 scale) of four upper and three lower symptoms during races. Spearman's correlations examined whether sleep measures were associated with in-race GI symptoms. Partial correlations were calculated to control for age, resting GI symptoms, and anxiety.

RESULTS: SPI-I scores correlated with in-race upper GI symptoms (rho=0.26, p=0.013). Controlling for …

The Framing Of Past Bullying Experiences: Impact On Social Decision Making, Emotions, And Predictions Of The Future, Abigail Stark

Psychology Department Dissertations

Background: Studies on framing demonstrate that the way ideas are presented influence the way individuals feel emotionally, conceptualize risk, and make decisions. Few studies have examined framing in social contexts, particularly within bullying. Many bullying interventions involve competing frames, with some discussing bullying in terms of negative effects and others in terms of resiliency from the experience. Gender is closely related to frames about bullying, as culturally communicated expectations and past experiences contribute to differences in individuals’ internalized frames about bullying. To explore this gender by frame effect within the context of bullying, the current study examines how creating either …

Neuroprotective Effects Of Cardiorespiratory Fitness On White Matter Integrity And Cognition Across The Adult Lifespan, Ryan A. Mace

Psychology Department Dissertations

Objective: Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is associated with decreased risk for cognitive decline. Accumulating evidence has linked CRF to more conserved white matter (WM) integrity and better cognitive performance in older adults. Additional research is needed to determine: (1) which WM tracts are most strongly related to CRF, (2) whether CRF-related benefits on WM translate to enhanced executive functioning (EF), and (3) if the neuroprotective effects of CRF are age-dependent. This study aimed to evaluate CRF as an intervention for modulating decreased WM integrity and EF in aging. Method: Participants were community-dwelling adults (N = 499; ages 20-85) from the open-access …

A Factor Analytic Examination Of The Underlying Mechanisms Of Delay Discounting, Sarah Levy

Psychology Department Dissertations

People tend to prefer smaller-but-sooner over later-but-larger rewards, indicating the subjective value of a reward is discounted as a function of time. This phenomenon is referred to as delay discounting and represents a facet of impulsivity that is associated with reward processing. Despite the empirical literature surrounding delay discounting, the underlying mechanisms are not yet well established. The current study investigated whether delay discounting belongs more to one grouping – personality traits or cognitive functioning – than the other. Additionally, neuroimaging metrics (i.e., cortical thickness) was also examined, as it has the potential to mediate these pathways to delay discounting. …

Rooting For Everybody Black: Exploring The Need For Mentorship For Black First-Generation Students At Predominantly White Institutions, Layshan Gilliard

West Chester University Master’s Theses

This thesis addresses how mentorship can enhance the experience and success of Black first-generation college students at predominantly white institutions. More specifically, I explore why first-generation Black students need guided support that comes with mentorship, what that support should entail, and how and when it should be delivered to them. I used the methodology of critical action research to analyze the structures of power that affect the education received by these students, while also utilizing my personal experience. I propose a mentoring program that promotes Black excellence. The program, SOUL (Students Overcoming Uniting and Learning), will provide students with the …

Assessing Addiction Stigma: Effects Of Early Exposure To Familial Drug Abuse And Childhood Trauma, Rebecca L. Laconi

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Stigma continues to be a prevalent issue for individuals suffering from substance use disorder, contributing to ostracization and discrimination. Along with the psychological and social consequences of addiction, substance abuse has effects on family. Children often experience trauma and/or deficits because of a relative’s problematic drug use. The impact of parental and familial drug abuse on children has been examined, however, an important, yet significantly less studied consequence is the effect of drug abuse on the child’s level of stigma toward addiction. The present study examined stigma towards individuals suffering from addiction and trauma-exposure among college students (N=555). Survey items …

Targeting Youth’S Motivation To Change Substance Use Behaviors: Feasibility And Preliminary Outcomes From An Open Trial Of The Free Talk Program In A Short-Term Juvenile Detention Facility, Cassidy L. Tennity

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Juvenile offenders who use substances are at an increased risk for multitude of negative outcomes, including substance use problems in adulthood and recidivism. Interventions that are effective in community settings or long-term juvenile justice settings may not be well suited for implementation in short-term juvenile detention facilities. Free Talk (FT; D’Amico, Chan Osilla, & Hunter, 2010) is a brief motivational intervention that targets motivation to change substance use. The current study aimed to determine whether youth participating in FT within a short-term juvenile detention center reported expected changes in motivation to change substance use. Additionally, we aimed to assess whether …

An Examination Of Reward Probability As A Mediator Of The Relationship Between Trauma-Exposed Individuals And Cannabis And Alcohol Use, Daniel Loomis

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Trauma-exposure and Posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms are frequently comorbid with problematic cannabis and alcohol use which is high among college students. Emerging research suggests the relationship between trauma and drug and alcohol use is due to the reinforcing effects of substances like alcohol and cannabis. Researchers have looked at behavioral economic theories of reward/reinforcement to see how reward deprivation plays a role in trauma and substance use. Reward deprivation associates with a person’s ability to experience reward and availability of reward in the environment, as measured by the Reward Probability Index scales: Reward Probability and Environmental suppression(RPI; Carvalho et …

Teacher-Student Exchange As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between Core Self-Evaluations And Student Engagement In Citizenship And Counterproductive Behaviors, Holly L. Gasper

West Chester University Master’s Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine if core self-evaluations (CSE) could be used to predict participation in student citizenship behaviors (SCBs) and counterproductive student behaviors (CSBs). This study also introduced a new term to the literature, Teacher-Student Exchange (TSX), to describe the quality of relationships students have with professors and investigated how these interactions influence student participation in SCBs and CSBs. It was proposed that CSE would positively predict participation in SCBs and negatively predict participation in CSBs. It was also proposed that TSX would moderate the relationships between CSE and SCBs and CSE and CSBs. Participants …

Determining And Assessing Fault Attribution In Collisions Involving Autonomous Vehicles, Alexandra Kaplan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

There exists considerable research concerning how humans attribute fault to each other, both in cases of accidents and those instances of intentional harm. There also exist studies involving blame attribution towards robots, when such robots have caused harm through operational failure or lack of safety features. However, relatively little work has, to date, examined the ways in which fault is attributed to self-driving vehicles involved in collisions, despite many newspaper and popular articles which both report past incidents and warn of future risk. This dissertation examined fault attribution in collisions involving autonomous vehicles by conducting three separate experiments. The first …

Workplace Stress And Sleep Quality: The Differential Moderating Effects Of Problem- And Emotion-Focused Coping, Wheeler Nakahara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Research on coping has provided consistent evidence that emotion-focused coping strategies tend to have negative ramifications for well-being, whereas problem-focused coping strategies tend to promote well-being. However, there is little research that examines how these two types of coping strategies impact stressor-sleep quality relationships. Therefore, the current thesis included two studies that utilized Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) conceptualization of coping as either problem-focused or emotion-focused to test the impact of those coping strategies on stressor-sleep quality relationships. The first study was cross-sectional and investigated the effect of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping on the relationship between workload and sleep quality, and …

Examining The Role Of Item Scrolling In Mobile Cognitive Assessment, Betsir Zemen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The use of mobile assessment in personnel selection is an increasing trend that offers benefits to job applicants and organizations, including increased convenience of testing and expanded applicant pools (Tippins, 2011). Fewer than 10 published studies have examined the measurement equivalence of pre-employment cognitive ability assessments administered over mobile compared to non-mobile devices. Some of this research has found evidence of measurement equivalence and no score differences across device types while other studies contradict these results (Arthur et al., 2017). The present study is the first to investigate the measurement equivalence of a mobile-delivered, adaptively administered pre-hire cognitive ability assessment. …

The Strong Families Program: Differential Impacts Of Resilience And Parent Management Training, Katie Slusher

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Childhood behavior problems are pervasive with 50% of non-referred families citing noncompliance and behavior problems as an issue (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981). Many behavioral parent trainings (BPTs) treat these behaviors at an early age. Recently, adaptions to BPTs include group formats increasing accessibility and decreasing cost, especially for rural families with limited resources (Niec, Barnett, Prewett, & Stanley Chatham, 2016). Beyond BPTs, Alvord, Zucker, and Johnson Grados (2011) developed the Resilience Builder Program to enhance children’s social, emotional, and behavioral skills through a cognitive behavioral framework. The Resilience Builder Program improves anxious and depressive symptoms and reduces behavior problems in …