“I Wonder What You Think Of Me”: A Qualitative Approach To Examining Stereotype Awareness In Appalachian Students, Chelsea G. Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Historically, Appalachia has been stereotyped as being a culture bred in poverty and ignorance. Much research has shown that stereotyping reveals a pattern of behavioral change and an impact on psychological well-being for the stereotyped (e.g., Pinel, 1999; Woodcock, Jernandez, Estrada, & Schultz, 2012), and has largely been centered on race and gender (e.g., Byrnes, 2008; Tuckman & Monetti, 2011). Less is known about the development of culture-specific stereotypes such as those related to Appalachians – a highly stigmatized group (Daniels, 2014; Otto, 2002). The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how adolescents in rural Appalachia …

Predictors Of Academic Achievement Of Non-Traditional College Students: Opportunities To Catch-Up And Succeed, Angela Bardwell-Owens

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Non-traditional students make up approximately 20% of the undergraduate student population nationwide and are one of few segments of the student population that are not provided with targeted programs and services. To help this cohort achieve their goals whilst universities can increase their retention rates, this research begins a review of the non-traditional student literature to gain an understanding of what this population faces as far as barriers to their education. The literature also provides recommendations and further information in retention efforts to support the student during their academic years. Next, an analysis of non-traditional student support services at 4-year …

Cognitive And Emotional Processes Involved In The Experience Of Objects As Holy Or Transcendent, Lotte J. Pummerer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, attitudes about religion/spirituality have become more pluralistic (Pew Research Center, 2015a). At the same time, the number of individuals who identify themselves as nonreligious, atheist or agnostic are growing (Pew Research Center, 2015b), yet we are lacking words and research to describe their attributions of transcendence in language not bound to religious concepts. This study aims at examining both concepts – holiness and transcendence – in their similarities and differences through assessing cognitive and emotional processes involved in experiences of objects.

The study consisted of two parts with a total of 206 Christian and 52 nonreligious/atheistic/agnostic participants. …

Parental Cultural Conflict And Children's Cultural Identity Development, Amanda Araki

Student Research Posters

Parent culturally incompatibility was evaluated for its possible negative impact on a bicultural offspring’s cultural identity development. The 43 self-identified bicultural participants, aged from 18 to 67 years, provided family cultural histories, and completed the Parental Cultural Conflict Scale (PCCS) and the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM). The hypothesized relationship between high PCCS levels and low MEIM levels was not supported by the data; however, the range of responses on the PCCS was very limited with a complete absence of any very low or very high conflict scores. It was concluded that parents’ cultural incompatibility does not have the level …

The Reflection And Reification Of Racialized Language In Popular Media, Kelly E. Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This work highlights specific lexical items that have become racialized in specific contextual applications and tests how these words are cognitively processed. This work presents the results of a visual world (Huettig et al 2011) eye-tracking study designed to determine the perception and application of racialized (Coates 2011) adjectives. To objectively select the racialized adjectives used, I developed a corpus comprised of popular media sources, designed specifically to suit my research question. I collected publications from digital media sources such as Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and Fortune by scraping articles featuring specific search terms from their websites. This experiment seeks …

From Dreamers To Dangerous Women: A Shift From Abstinence And Hypersexuality To Sexuality With Shame In Pop Music Listened To By Tween Girls In 2006 And 2016, Jaclyn Griffith

Honors College Theses

This thesis contains a comparative study of the most popular female artists or femalefronted groups among tween girls in the years 2006 and 2016. During the tween years girls construct their identities, develop sexual beliefs, and interact with potentially influential media texts.1, 2, 3 Based on survey data of fifty-seven female students ages twenty to twenty-four in a mid-Atlantic university, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, and The Black Eyed Peas were remembered as the musical artists they most often listened to in and around the year 2006. An analysis of the music videos, lyrics, and public personas of these artists …

Understanding Partner Loss In Same-Sex Couples, Margaret E. Manges

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of the present study is to examine the difficulties faced by sexual minorities who have lost their partners. More specifically, the impact of outness, relationship comfort, and social support on the bereavement process of same- and mixed-sex couples will be overviewed. The hypothesis of the present study is to examine whether social support, relationship comfort, and visibility mediate the relationship between sexual orientation and stress after the loss of a partner. In previous research, social support for the recently bereaved has been studied quite extensively; however, research has yet to examine sexual minorities and the specific hindrances this …

Youth In Transition: Culturally Sensitive Treatment Modules That Enhance Trauma Psychotherapy For Immigrant Latinx Youth, Valentina Nikulina

Open Educational Resources

This manual was developed as a modification to efficacy-based trauma-treatment for immigrant Latinx youth, ages 13 to 25 years old. The goal of the modification is to add to the effectiveness of existing efficacy-based treatments (Trauma-Focused CBT, specifically) to better serve this population of youth. In addition to the sections on the general cultural considerations and engagement strategies, there are three modules (i.e., Building a Network of Support; Effective Communication and Assertiveness, & Empowerment and Resilience/Strengths Building).

Development And Formative Evaluation Of The Speak7 African American Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program, Mikeiya Y. Morrow

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a complex issue among African American children, who experience significantly higher rates of CSA (Sedlak et al., 2012). Despite this, a dearth of research has examined CSA prevention among African American children. Moreover, there are no established culturally sensitive prevention programs targeted at addressing CSA among this demographic. This study addressed a significant gap in the literature by developing and evaluating the Speak7 African American Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program (Speak7). Speak7 is a culturally sensitive, adult-focused CSA prevention program that aims to enhance the CSA prevention competence of adults who provide for African American …

Healing From Racism With Compassion Meditation: Effects Of Coping On Mental Health, Courtney Chan

CMC Senior Theses

This study examines whether Compassion Meditation (CM) can help ethnic minority college students heal from race-related stress. The present study hypothesized that through participation in a CM intervention, the augmentation of adaptive coping strategies (i.e., self-compassion) and the reduction of maladaptive coping strategies (i.e., internalization, defined as self-blame, and detachment, defined as social isolation) would reduce depression and PTSD. Participants (N = 9) participated in an 8-session weekly CM intervention and completed three questionnaires at the beginning, middle, and end of the intervention. Results demonstrated that increasing self-compassion predicted decreases in depression, and that reducing coping via detachment predicted …

A Cultural Comparison Of The Facial Inference Process, Janine Swiney

All Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare emotion and personality trait attributions to facial expressions between American and Asian Indian samples. Data were collected using Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Participants in this study were asked to infer the emotions and personality traits shown in three facial expressions (scowling, frowning, and smiling) of young white females and males in six photographs. Each picture was randomly presented for 10 seconds followed by four randomized questions about the individual in the picture. The first question asked participants to identify the emotion shown from a list of six emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, …

Just World Beliefs, Identity Development, And Social Justice Advocacy Of Counselor Trainees, Sara Rundlett

All Master's Theses

This was the first study exploring the relationship between the belief in a just world, identity development, and social justice advocacy (SJA). A mixed methods design was conducted using a nationwide sample of ninety-seven counselor-in-training participants. Hypotheses included positive correlation between identity development and SJA, negative correlation between belief in a just world and SJA, and negative correlation between belief in a just world and identity development. Results were not significant but provided implications for future research and counselor training programs.

Are All Interferences Bad? Bilingual Advantages In Working Memory Are Modulated By Varying Demands For Controlled Processing, Hwajin Yang, Sujin Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We investigated bilingual advantages in general control abilities using three complex-span tasks of working memory (WM). An operation-span task served as a baseline measure of WM capacity. Additionally, two modified versions of the Stroop-span task were designed to place varying attentional-control demands during memoranda encoding by asking participants either to read the to-be-remembered item aloud (lower cognitive control; i.e., Stroop-span task) or to name the font color of the to-be-remembered item while still encoding the word for later recall (greater cognitive control; i.e., attention-impeded Stroop-span task). Twenty-six Korean-English bilinguals and 25 English-native monolinguals were tested. We found that bilinguals outperformed …

Coping With Acculturative Stress: Mdma Usage Among Asian American Young Adults In The Electronic Dance Music Scene, Michelle Stephanie Chan

Pomona Senior Theses

The intersection of Asian American identity and illicit substance use is greatly understudied in psychological literature, especially with matters of mental health and drug use being stigmatized by Asian cultural norms. However, with an increasingly alarming number of fatal drug overdoses by Asian Americans at electronic dance music (EDM) events, attention must be drawn to the needs of this unique population. The present study characterizes this community by drawing from data of 1,290 Asian American young adults who participate in the EDM scene. This study also hypothesizes the impact of acculturative stress and feelings of social belonging on MDMA usage …

The Bamboo Ceiling: A Study Of Barriers To Asian American Advancement, Emily Cheng

UROP Posters

The idea of cultural diversity in the workplace is a popular one, generating much discussion about the inclusion of and affirmative action toward minorities. However, these conversations rarely involve Asian Americans, who despite above-average levels of educational achievement, household income, and employment, find themselves underrepresented in and shut-out of upper-level management positions. In this project, I investigated the stereotype of East-Asian Americans as a model minority (created by non-Asians) to find out why East-Asian Americans are underrepresented in upper-level management in corporate workplaces, a phenomenon known as the “bamboo ceiling.” I explored a variety of scholarly sources that analyzed the …

Intersections Of Culture And Trauma: Understanding Identities And Experiences Of Salvadoran Refugee College Students, Janette Linares, Cara Maffini

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Culture And Parenting Among Teen Fathers, Cecilia Macedo, Cara Maffini

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

‘I Feel Like I Don't Belong’: Examining The Social And Cultural Experiences Of Bicultural And Biracial College Students, Michael West, Cara Maffini

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Afrocentric Features In Mental Healthcare Utilization And Counselor Preferences In Black College Students, Randl B. Dent

Theses and Dissertations

Though mental health issues are prevalent in Black young adults, they underutilize mental healthcare services. This research examined the role of feature-based discrimination in mental healthcare (under)utilization. Study 1, a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, provided no evidence supporting a link between skin tone and mental healthcare utilization, when controlling for depression diagnosis. However, when controlling for depression symptoms, there was a trend such that Black young adults with darker, as opposed to lighter, skin tone utilized healthcare less. Study 2, an experimental study with 33 Black college students, showed 73% of the …

Non-Medical Use Of Prescription Drugs, Stress, Cultural Orientation, Utilization Of Healthcare, And Protective Factors Among College Students In China, Cheuk Chi Tam

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) refers to the use of prescription drugs which are traditionally utilized to manage pain or treat psychiatric problems but without a doctor’s prescription. In 2010, an investigation by the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) revealed that 5.3% of young adults (18 to 25-year-olds) in the United States reported past-month NMUPD. NMUPD has become a growing concern owing to associations with consequences such as college dropout, poor academic achievement, and health jeopardizing behaviors. College students' NMUPD has been well documented in the United States. Limited studies, however, have been conducted among …

Uncovering The Processes And Consequences Of Egyptian Immigrant Parental Involvement In Their Children’S Education: Bridging Cultural Differences, Hend Shalan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

For more than a decade, researchers have concluded that immigrant parents face several barriers to becoming involved in their children’s education. All studies agree that language and cultural differences are the most significant barriers to immigrants’ involvement in their children’s education, yet we know little about what these cultural differences are and how these cultural differences influence the school involvement of immigrant parents. This study integrates theories of cultural differences, acculturation, and culture shock and the corresponding literature to investigate the lesser involvement of immigrant parents in school-related activities.

A focused ethnographic design was employed and a thematic analysis …

An Exploration Into The Lived Experience Of The Jazz Funeral, Caryn R. Whitacre

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative phenomenological study set out to explore and understand the subjective lived experience of the Jazz Funeral ritual of New Orleans, Louisiana. This dissertation was guided by two principal research questions: 1) What is the lived experience of participation in the Jazz Funeral ritual? and 2) What elements of the Jazz Funeral are beneficial to bereavement as reported by the subjects? Research data were collected and arranged through the utilization of phenomenological research protocol. By recognizing that people are the experts of their own lived experience and listening to participants describe their lived experiences of this ritual, this researcher …

Examining Differences Between Mandarin Chinese And English Speakers In Gender Stereotype Regarding Daily Life Activities, Jingyu Peng

Theses and Dissertations from 2016

The terms gender and sex in both western and Chinese culture, and professional area, seems complex and sometimes confusing. Previous studies have examined gender expectation within (Kroska, 2003) and across (Baxter, 1997; Zhou, Dawson, Herr, & Stukas, 2004) cultures, and many have focused on traits of different genders, especially Bem’s (1974) measurement which has been widely discussed. In order to explore the difference between Mandarin Chinese and English speakers on gender stereotype, an online survey with English and simplified Chinese language version was conducted. Twenty-one daily life activities were examined in this survey to measure gender stereotype. Data was mainly …

African American Men’S Health: Regulating Race-Related Stress Through Cognitive Flexibility, Brian P. Littleton

Dissertations

African American men have one the highest preventable mortality and morbidity rates in the United States (Rich, 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). Moreover, there is substantial health disparity between African American men and White men in the United States (Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2003). It has been stated that pervasive racism and discrimination are the most significant contributors for the disparity. Studies have shown race-related stress, which is derived from experiencing racism, discrimination or having internalized feelings as the result of an individual’s racial status, has been associated with blood pressure, emotional distress, and physical health …

Correlates Of Satisfaction With Life For People Who Identify As Transgender And Sexual Minority, Christopher C. Bober, Kristen L. Suing, Dustin K. Shepler

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Researchers have focused on understanding factors such as resiliency, medical concerns, and coping skills in the lives of transgender and gender-nonconforming people. However, little research has examined how transgender and gender-nonconforming people cognitively evaluate their own lives. Furthermore, many people who identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming also report a sexual minority identity status. In this study, we sought to understand how aspects of sexual self-concept (i.e., sexual esteem and sexual anxiety), internalized homonegativity, and level of outness about sexual identity correlated to self-appraisals of satisfaction with life (SWL) in a sample of transgender and gender-nonconforming people who identified as sexual …

Validating A Measure Of Ethnic Identity In Afro-Caribbean American Students, Keisha V. Thompson

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study was to validate the Multi group Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) on a sample of Afro- Caribbean American college students. This investigation is unique in that it disaggregated the data to go beyond the usual labels of Black and African American used in past validation studies. Due to being subsumed in the past under such monikers, information on the ethnic identity of Afro-Caribbean American college students has largely been missing from the literature. This investigation served as a comparison to past investigations on ethnic identity in populations of African descent. The results of this study indicated …

Exploring Shame And Guilt In Hiv-Positive Women In Southern India, Mitra L. Lebastchi

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Limited research exists examining shame and guilt among HIV positive populations and across cultural contexts. This study addresses this gap in the literature by considering shame and guilt, and potential associations with mental health symptoms, among a sample of 20 HIV positive women in Southern India. Results indicate that most women experienced high levels of shame and guilt, based on responses to items from an adapted version of the State Shame and Guilt Scale (Marschall, Saftner, & Tangney, 1994). Although correlations were not significant between shame and PTSD or depression, guilt was significantly correlated with both. Future research should focus …

Students’ Perceptions And Stigma Toward Those With Intellectual And Physical Disabilities, Brighton C. Hollingsworth

Scholars Week

Students’ Perceptions and Stigma Toward Those with Intellectual and Physical Disabilities

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that there is a negative impact on those who are labeled as having an intellectual or physical disability (Green, Davis, Karshmer, Marsh, & Straight, 2005). The purpose of this research was to learn more about the stigma against those with disabilities and how one can cope with this stigma.

METHODS: The subjects of this study were 80 General Psychology students. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, which differed in which vignette received. The four vignettes described individuals with the disabilities of …

Putting Parent-Subsidiary Relationships Right: Lessons From Japanese Corporate Groups, Akira Mitsumasu

Asian Management Insights

How do Japanese corporate groups manage their subsidiaries?

Cultural Threats In Culturally Mixed Encounters Hamper Creative Performance For Individuals With Lower Openness To Experience, Xia Chen, Angela K. Y. Leung, Daniel Y. J. Yang, Chi-Yue Chiu, Zhong-Quan Li, Shirley Y. Y. Cheng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Past research has examined independently how openness to experience, as a personality trait, and the situational threat triggered by a foreign cultural encounter affect the emergence of creative benefits from a culture-mixing experience. The present research provides the first evidence for the interactive effect of openness to experience and cultural threat following culturally mixed encounters on creative performance. In Study 1, under heightened perceptions of cultural threat, exposing to the mixing of Chinese and American cultures (vs. a non-mixed situation) made close-minded Chinese participants to perform more poorly in a creative generation task. In Study 2, inducing cultural threat by …