Psychology Commons^™

"To Call Or Not To Call?" The Impact Of Supervisor Training On Call Center Employee Attitudes And Well-Being, Whitney Elan Schneider Vogel

Dissertations and Theses

Call center customer service occupations represent a growing proportion of the U.S. economy in the digital age. These roles are characterized by low control, high levels of emotional labor, and burnout. Turnover rates in call centers are often twice as high as in other industries. To combat these challenges, I delivered a supervisor-focused mental health training intervention targeted at improving supervisor supportive behaviors and employee outcomes. The indirect effect of supervisor training on employee outcomes related to perceived supervisor support, problem-focused coping, burnout, turnover intentions, and withdrawal behaviors were evaluated. A waitlist control design (N = 74) was used …

Drinking On A Work Night: A Comparison Of Day And Person-Level Associations With Workplace Outcomes, Brittnie Renae Shepherd

Dissertations and Theses

Alcohol use and misuse is costly for U.S. employers, primarily due to health care expenses and lost work productivity. Despite high costs for organizations, employee alcohol use is understudied within the organizational literature. The scant research conducted largely utilized cross-sectional designs examining differences across individuals, despite prevailing theoretical frameworks describing primarily within-person processes. This study examined the simultaneous within-person and between-person relationships between employee alcohol use and work and well-being outcomes. The separation and comparison of within-person and between-person effects is essential for the evaluation of key theoretical frameworks around employee alcohol use. Additionally, this study investigates one mechanism (i.e., …

The Role Of Racial Microaggressions, Belongingness, And Coping In African American Psychology Doctoral Students’ Well-Being, Ryan Charles Warner

Dissertations (1934 -)

Research has indicated that African American undergraduate students experience racial microaggressions within their university contexts, and these experiences are associated with negative outcomes such as symptoms of depression and anxiety (Cokely, Hall-Clark, & Hicks, 2011; Nadal, 2011; Nadal, et al., 2014). Little is known about the experience of microaggressions and their effects on African American doctoral students, particularly those within the field of psychology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between racial microaggressions, sense of belonging, coping strategies (problem solving, social support and avoidance), and psychological well-being among African American doctoral students in psychology. Results revealed …

Family Linked Workplace Resources And Contextual Factors As Important Predictors Of Job And Individual Well-Being For Employees And Families, Jacquelyn Marie Brady

Dissertations and Theses

The inextricable ties between work and family have been extensively studied, however, with both societal and organizational change there is a continuing need for organizational research to elucidate the effects work can have on family, individual, and job well-being. Through three studies, this body of work demonstrates the role of supervisors, psychological contextual factors, and workplace work-family resources for improving employee and spouse family well-being and employee psychological and job well-being. This dissertation drew upon data from the Study for Employment Retention of Veterans (SERVe) and the Work-family Health Network (WFHN). Study 1 investigated the link between a supportive supervisor …

Cultivating The Skill Of Savoring: An Internet-Delivered Intervention To Promote Well-Being, So Yeon Park

Theses and Dissertations

The skill of savoring is one practice from the positive psychology literature that appears to facilitate well-being and happiness (e.g., Cazanescu, Tecuta, Candea, & Szentagotal-Tartar, 2018). Given such findings and the emerging evidence in favor of delivering positive psychology interventions via the Internet (Layous, Nelson, & Lyubomirsky, 2013), the potential feasibility of providing researched-based savoring instruction using self-directed online resources warrants empirical examination. This pilot study examined the feasibility of a self-directed online module of instruction and exercises intended to aid in cultivating individuals’ savoring abilities. The two primary aims of the present study were: 1) to examine the feasibility …

Reappraisal And Savoring As Mediators Of The Effect Of Informal Mindfulness Practice On Well-Being, Yan Qiang Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Although extensive research has been conducted on the effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), the processes through which MBIs affects well-being are still unclear. Furthermore, most of the current mindfulness research has focused on formal mindfulness practice. I aim to contribute to the field by studying the effects of informal mindfulness practice delivered through a mobile application in a two-week experience sampling study. Well-being was examined at three levels: immediately after completing an informal mindfulness exercise, at the end-of-the-day, and retrospective assessments of the two-week intervention period. I examined two possible mediators of the effect of the MBI on well-being: reappraisal …

Engaging In Self-Care: Do Mental Health Care Providers Practice What They Preach?, Nancy L. Lashley

Dissertations

Self-care has been identified as a critical protective factor against the adverse effects of career-related stress among mental health care professionals. The need for utilization of adequate self-care practices among mental health care professionals remains critical with the number of mental health care professionals endorsing clinically significant levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideations. Research has identified the need and importance of self-care among mental health care providers as well as the adverse consequences of inadequate self-care. This literature review examined the methods and strategies mental health care providers are using to engage in self-care including complementary and alternative methods. …

Examining The Effects Of Exposure To Nature On Well-Being: Implications For College Campuses, Fatimah T. Majors

Honors College Theses

Humans attraction to the natural environment stems from our evolutionary tendencies. Biophilia is defined by E.O. Wilson as the “innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes (Wilson, 1984, p. 1).” Recent studies have shown that spending time outside in nature is beneficial to physical and mental health as well as well-being. Nature is filled with intriguing things such as animals, plants, fresh air and other aspects which can help an individual replenish. Some of these benefits include stress reduction, opportunities and motivation to complete tasks. Research indicates that adults who work in offices would perform better if they …

Patient-Provider Communication In Community Mental Health: How Perceptions Of Engagement In Decision-Making Influence Patient-Perceptions Of Well-Being, Elizabeth R. Stein

Psychology ETDs

Shared Decision-Making (SDM) is being increasingly advocated for in the fields of physical and mental healthcare as it provides a means for patients and providers to engage in meaningful conversation about treatment decisions. Although there are many reasons for advocating for the implementation of SDM, there is limited information on how SDM impacts patient outcomes throughout treatment and the mechanisms through which these effects occur, and this information is even more limited in the area of mental health. The current research used secondary data analyses to examine patient and provider perspectives on the occurrence of SDM and patient engagement in …

Supporting Pre-Service Teachers With Skills From Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Almut K. Zieher

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Mindfulness trainings, which tend to include daily home meditation practice, have been found to improve in- and pre-service teachers well-being, but findings indicate that participants struggle to complete the recommended home meditation practice. A mindfulness training based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills may be a more feasible training format for teachers because the home practice is informal and easily integrated into daily life. DBT skills are also discrete and easy-to-understand and directly relate to the intrapersonal and interpersonal challenges teachers face. Although DBT skills-based trainings have been used with non-clinical populations, to date no study has been identified exploring …

Relations Between Subclinical Narcissism, Effortful Control, And Well-Being In Emerging Adulthood, Beth M. Rachlin

Honors Theses

The present study evaluates relations between subclinical grandiose narcissism, facets of effortful control, and hedonic well-being in a sample of emerging adults. The goal of this study was threefold. First, to assess the relation between subclinical grandiose narcissism and hedonic well-being. Correlational analyses provided support for increased grandiose narcissistic tendencies being associated with increased hedonic well-being. Second, the study sought to examine the relation between effortful control and hedonic well-being. Regression analyses revealed a lack of support for this relationship; however, this could be due to lurking variables such as self-esteem. Last, the study aimed to explore whether there is …

Student Wellbeing Matters! Use Positive Psychology Interventions To Help Your Students Achieve And Succeed., Andrea A. Francis

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI), grounded in the psychological theory of Wellbeing (Seligman, 2002) are pathways to a life of purpose and meaning. Each intervention is proved to not only reduce anxiety and increase optimism, but to create protective factors needed to cope with stress, anxiety and trauma.

Taking Time To B.R.E.A.T.H.E. Strategies For Strengthening Staff And Student Well-Being, Joelle Hood

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

When students and staff experience chronic stress, it negatively impacts their motivation, performance, and wellbeing, Participants in this engaging workshop will walk away with simple research-based practices from the fields of Mindfulness and Positive Psychology, that they can utilize with both themselves and students to reduce stress and anxiety, improve attention and performance, and strengthen overall physical and psychological well-being.

Growth Motivation And Well-Being In The U.S., Japan, Guatemala, And India, Jack J. Bauer, Sun W. Park, Hiroko Kamide, Nicholas Pesola, Shanmukh V. Kamble, Laura E. Graham, Joseph Debrosse, Mahadevi S. Waddar

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present study examined how the Growth Motivation Index (GMI; J. J. Bauer et al., 2015) related to well-being and identity exploration in samples from the U.S., Japan, Guatemala, and India. The GMI has two facets. GMI-reflective measures the motive to cultivate critical self-reflection and intellectual development, whereas GMI-experiential measures the motive to cultivate personally meaningful activities and relationships. We expected and found that, when comparing the two GMI facets simultaneously, GMI-reflective predicted well-being in countries ranked as having collectivist but not individualist cultures, whereas GMI-experiential predicted well-being in countries ranked as having individualist but not collectivist cultures. GMI-reflective predicted …

Experiences With Benevolent Sexism: Scale Development And Associations With Women’S Well-Being, Debra L. Oswald, Maha Baalbaki, Mackenzie S. Kirkman

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Ambivalent sexism theory (Glick and Fiske 1996, 1997) suggests that sexism takes two forms: an overt hostility as well as a subtle benevolence. We examined benevolent sexist behaviors and developed a 25-item Experiences with Benevolent Sexism Scale. Exploratory factor analysis (Study 1, U.S. college sample of 489 women) and confirmatory factor analysis (Study 2, online sample of 216 women) revealed three subscales of benevolently sexist experiences: Heterosexual Intimacy, Protective Paternalism, and Complementary Gender Differences. Women reported experiencing benevolently sexist events more frequently than overtly hostile sexist events; however, they perceived the hostile events to be more distressing and sexist (Studies …

Relational Thriving In Context: Examining The Roles Of Gratitude, Affectionate Touch, And Positive Affective Variability In Health And Well-Being, Alicia Rochelle Starkey

Dissertations and Theses

Social connection is important to one's health and longevity. However, not only do people need others to survive, we need others to thrive. Researchers call for deeper examination of the functions and processes through which our social partners help us to prosper and thrive, such as through increased physical health and well-being. Over three studies, I examined phenomena theorized to contribute to long-term thriving including positive emotions (i.e., gratitude and positive affect fluctuation), responsive support, affectionate touch, and physical health (i.e., sleep) within the context of nursing work (Study 1) and military relationships (Study 2 & 3). Study 1 provides …

Gratitude Reception And Physical Health: Examining The Mediating Role Of Satisfaction With Patient Care In A Sample Of Acute Care Nurses, Alicia R. Starkey, Cynthia D. Mohr, David M. Cadiz, Robert R. Sinclair

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Literature examining well-being benefits of gratitude experiences is currently thriving in psychological science. However, evidence of the physical health benefits of gratitude remains limited. Research and theory in affective science suggests an indirect relationship between gratitude and physical health. This study examines how receiving expressions of gratitude predicts physical health outcomes in a sample of acute care nurses over time. Registered nurses (N = 146) practicing in Oregon completed weekly surveys over 12 consecutive weeks describing their positive and negative events, health, and work-related experiences. Multilevel mediation models revealed that being thanked more often at work was positively related to …

A Longitudinal Study Of Spirituality, Character Strengths, Subjective Well-Being, And Prosociality In Middle School Adolescents, Ariel Kor, Steven Pirutinsky, Mario Mikulincer, Anat Shoshani, Lisa Miller

Graduate School of Social Work Publications and Research

Using data from 1,352 middle-school Israeli adolescents, the current study examines the interface of spirituality and character strengths and its longitudinal contribution to subjective well-being and prosociality. Participants were approached three times over a 14-months period and completed measures of character strengths, spirituality, subjective well-being (positive emotions, life satisfaction), and prosociality. Findings revealed a fourth-factor structure of character strengths that included the typical tripartite classification of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intellectual strengths together with spirituality emerging as a statistically autonomous factor. Spirituality was stable over time and contributed to higher subjective well-being and prosociality both cross- sectionally and longitudinally. Discussion focuses …

Teachers` Dual Commitment To The Organization And Occupation: A Person-Centered Investigation, John P. Meyer, Alexandre J. S. Morin, Laura J. Stanley, Elyse R. Maltin

Psychology Publications

This study extends previous commitment research by applying person-centered analytic techniques to identify and compare profiles of affective, normative, and continuance commitment to the organization and occupation. Latent profile analyses applied to data from 336 Canadian teachers revealed five profiles with unique combinations of the three commitment mindsets across the two targets. Differences observed across profiles in teachers’ turnover intention and physical and psychological well-being are used to illustrate the benefits of taking a more holistic approach to the investigation of commitment compared to analyses involving individual targets and/or mindsets. Implications for commitment theory, future research, and practice are discussed.

Mortality Salience And The Effects Of Autonomy On Death Anxiety, Dylan Earlin Horner

ETD Archive

The present research built on prior work suggesting that mortality salience (MS) can undermine psychological well-being and explored the previously-untested hypothesis that autonomy can mitigate that effect. Specifically, the study investigated the effects of primed autonomy on measured death anxiety following a reminder of mortality. Participants (n = 119) were randomly assigned to either an MS or control condition and then, following a delay, were primed with the concept of either autonomy or being controlled. Death anxiety was then measured. Results found that MS increased death anxiety among those in the controlled prime condition, but not among those in the …

Interpersonal Processes And Consequences Of "Technoference" In Romantic Couples, Julia Leah Briskin

Wayne State University Dissertations

Smartphone use during in-person interactions with romantic partners (“technoference”) has become commonplace, and research has begun to investigate the negative effects of technoference on romantic relationships. However, little research has explored the mechanisms by which technoference influences romantic relationships, and the specific interpersonal processes that are disrupted by technoference must be identified and tested. The present dissertation aims to integrate the interpersonal process model (Reis & Shaver, 1988) with Williams’ model of ostracism (Williams, 1997) to provide a theoretical framework for understanding how technoference uniquely influences romantic relationships. Using a combination of correlational, experimental, and daily diary methodology, four studies …

Integrating Coaching And Self-Determination Theory: The Development And Validation Of The Managerial Coaching Questionnaire, Hunter Thomas Black

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Despite increasing practitioner application and decades of research on the topic of managerial coaching, the topic continues to lack conceptual clarity, foundational theory, and sound measures. As a result, there is little understanding of the underlying psychological mechanisms connecting coaching behaviors to employee outcomes. This dissertation develops a new theory-based framework and survey measure of managerial coaching behaviors (the managerial coaching questionnaire; MCQ) grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Time-lagged results support the theoretical propositions of the framework with results showing a positive relationship between the MCQ and employee wellbeing mediated by employee need …

What Contributes To Well-Being In Later Life? How Two Life-Span Perspectives Explain The Process, Yeojin Rho

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Goals influence the direction of life. Because of this, goals play major roles in our motivations, behaviors, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2015). Thus, it has been one of the important topics in developmental psychology to study how goals are formed and changed over the life-span. Selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) theory and socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) explain goal changes throughout life. Although these theories focus on different factors that led to goal changes and on different aspects of goals, both theories assert that people can achieve their goals, be satisfied with their life, and finally experience successful …

Development And Validation Of The Japanese Version Of The Savoring Beliefs Inventory (Sbi-J)., Atsushi Kawakubo, Fred B. Bryant, Erika Miyakawa, Takashi Oguchi

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Savoring is defined as people’s capacity to attend to positive experiences and to regulate positive feelings in response to positive events. The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese adaptation of the Savoring Beliefs Inventory (SBI-J). The SBI is a self-report measure designed to assess individuals’ beliefs about their ability to savor positive experience within three temporal orientations involving future-focused anticipation of upcoming positive events, present-focused savoring of ongoing positive moments, and past-focused reminiscence about positive memories. After back-translating the SBI, we used an Internet survey to administer the instrument, along with a set of validational criterion measures, …

Mindfulness Meditation Among Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence In A Community Program, Artemiza Hernandez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study aimed to assess the impact of an Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention in a program serving women who survived Intimate partner violence (IPV). The biopsychosocial model, formulated by Engel, was the theoretical basis of this study. The impact of the MBSR intervention was assessed by qualitatively evaluating researcher notes and 5 participants' journals and reflections, and quantitatively evaluating 16 participants' self-reported stress, mindfulness, well-being, and optimism before and after the intervention. The themes that emerged from the qualitative data included participants' feelings of relaxation or balance, improved self-awareness, mindfulness exercises becoming easier over time, and improved intentionality. The …

Millennials Leaving Religion: A Transcendental Phenomenological Research Study On Religious Disaffiliation, Elizabeth Ann Rainwater

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Religious disaffiliation among Millennials has increased significantly in the past decade alongside rapidly changing social relationships amplified by social media applications. In the United States, many Millennials claim no religious identity with many leaving their religion for a variety of reasons. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of religiously disaffiliated Millennials regarding their psychological health and well-being. Self-determination theory fulfilled the theoretical framework for examining the lived experiences of young adults regarding their well-being after religious disaffiliation. A purposive sample of 12 male and female religiously disaffiliated Millennials was recruited for semistructured interviews. …

Worldview Conflict In Daily Life, Mark J. Brandt, Jarret T. Crawford, Daryl R. Vantongeren

Faculty Publications

Building on laboratory- and survey-based research probing the psychology of ideology and the experience of worldview conflict, we examined the association between worldview conflict and emotional reactions, psychological well-being, humanity esteem, and political ideology in everyday life using experience sampling. In three combined samples (total N = 328), experiencing disagreement compared to agreement was associated with experiencing more other-condemning emotions, less well-being, and less humanity esteem. There were no clear associations between experiencing disagreement and experiencing self-conscious emotions, positive emotions, and mental stress. None of the relationships were moderated by political ideology. These results both replicate and challenge findings from …

Age-Related Differences In Cognition And Affect At Work : The Impact Of Mindfulness, Sara Michelle Stevens

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The present research examined job-related affective and cognitive processes across ages, and the role of trait mindfulness as a mechanism that influences the strength of these relationships. Specifically, job-related affective well-being, job satisfaction, and fluid intelligence were investigated as they relate to dynamics of aging. Participants on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N = 174) completed a two-time longitudinal survey separating individual difference tests of trait mindfulness and fluid intelligence at Time 1 from self-report assessments of job satisfaction and job-related affective well-being at Time 2. Overall, the results from this study provide strong evidence that age and mindfulness both play an …

A Closer Look At Internet Addiction, Jakub Mikuška

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Based on a sample of 1,012 late adolescents and young adults (ages 18-26), the current three interrelated studies tested a series of specific questions and hypotheses focused on understanding Internet Addiction.

Study 1 sought to directly compare psychometric properties of four of the most widely used Internet addiction scales based on citation metrics (Internet Addiction Test, Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire, Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 and Chen Internet Addiction Scale), and to aggregate the best items across all scales into a new measure using bifactor IRT analyses. The resulting 10-item Aggregated Internet Addiction Scale (AIAS) consists of the best …

The Ethical And Emotional Benefits Of Reducing Self-Focus Through Mindfulness, Emma Loftus

Scripps Senior Theses

This proposed study was inspired by the concept in Aristotle’s virtue ethics theory that a good life is necessarily an ethical one. The following work intends to expand previous literature on this topic by exploring an accessible potential method through which ethicality (and thus, well-being) can be increased, and also a possible explanation of how this process might occur. Past research has indicated that mindfulness training can increase both prosociality and well-being, and additionally that higher ethicality is connected to higher well-being. Reduced self-focus has been found to mediate these relationships. The proposed 30 day study makes use of a …