Social Psychology Commons^™

Reproductive Coercion And Intergenerational Trauma: The Role Of Reproductive, Sex, And Relationship Education And Family Messaging, Maria-Ernestina Christl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women’s knowledge of reproductive choices as well as ability to decide and implement those choices are critical to promoting healthy parent-child relationships and avoiding potentially harmful family dynamics. Reproductive coercion (RC) is a form of intimate partner violence in which abusive partners control reproductive outcomes of their partners. The field of RC is a relatively new field of study compared to the literature on IPV, and this study is one of the first to examine the role of formal and informal messaging women received in childhood related to sex, dating, and relationships in relation to RC. Furthermore, parenting attitudes were …

An Investigation Into Loneliness And Solitary Drinking In A University Sample, Daniel C. Faraci

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol consumption tends to occur in social contexts and has been shown to increase prosocial behaviors and facilitate social connection. Simultaneously, socially excluded drinkers tend to increase or continue problematic levels of alcohol consumption when alone, possibly consuming alcohol as a replacement for desired but unavailable social connection. This investigation attempted to examine the relationship between loneliness (i.e., lack of perceived social connection) and subsequent alcohol consumption in solitary versus social contexts using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) techniques. University students recruited through a research subject pool who drank at least once per week were asked to respond to 28 short …

The Impact Of Emotional Impulsivity On Emotion Regulation And Internalizing Disorders: Competing Latent Path Models, Alicia L. Milam

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Emotion regulation has been identified as a transdiagnostic risk factor in internalizing disorders. Previous literature has attempted to classify regulatory strategies by their temporal and functional characteristics to determine how to best implement emotion regulation interventions. However, these frameworks occasionally conflict, particularly in the presence of factors impacting regulatory strategy selection such as emotional impulsivity. This project examined competing theoretical models of emotion regulation strategy classification as related to internalizing psychopathology as well as explore the association between emotional impulsivity, regulatory classification and internalizing psychopathology. A community sample of 783 adults recruited through Amazon MTurk completed online questionnaires related to …

Training In Trauma-Responsive And Anti-Racist Telehealth: A Model For Behavioral Health Clinicians And Providers, Ritchie Rubio

Psychology Division Scholarship

Telehealth's uptake in behavioral health services has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many clinicians continue to lack focused training in providing trauma-informed and culturally-responsive telehealth care. This article outlines a model curriculum that was created to instruct and coach behavioral health providers in California on how to integrate anti-racist and trauma-responsive techniques into telehealth. Topics like evidence-based trauma therapies, racial/ ethnic trauma, marginalized communities, digital divide, and provider selfcare were all covered in the nine-part curriculum. Every three-hour session included evidence-informed didactic content, telehealth skills practice, and concrete planning for implementation. Trauma-responsive frameworks such as the tri-phasic model …

Sources Of Sexual And Romantic Education: Associations With Sexual Minority Men’S Sexual Experiences And Romantic Relationship Quality, Charlie Huntington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with sexual minority identities experience a variety of poorer mental and physical health outcomes, including those related to sexual and romantic quality, relative to heterosexual individuals (Beaulieu et al., 2017; CDC, 2021). These poorer romantic, sexual, and psychological outcomes may be attributable in part to lacking access to affirmative and relevant modeling of sexual minority experiences, such as through sex education (Gillespie et al., 2022; Keiser et al., 2019). This study aimed to understand how sexual minority men learn – in ways potentially both helpful and unhelpful – about romantic relationships and sexual activity, and how these experiences are …

Sexual Abuse: A Multi-Faceted Problem, Marcus Venable

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

On average, US citizens have experienced approximately 400,000 sexual assaults per year, which results in enormous immediate and long-term consequences for individuals, as well as society in general.

In the U.S., the principal method of combatting this crime has been the creation of Sex Offender Registries used to notify the public of the identity and location of convicted sex offenders who may be living in proximity to their residence. In addition to the Registry, laws have been passed forbidding convicted sex offenders from residing within buffer zones around areas of high child concentration [schools/parks/etc.].

The efficacy and consequences of these …

Feldenkrais And Music Informed Listening: A Neurophenomenological Perspective On Autism, Arona Primalani

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Phenomenologists identify the subjective body and its felt-senses as the basis for human development and consciousness, including mental health. Several mental health disorders, when viewed from a phenomenological perspective, share common symptomology related to varying extents of fractured selves, which in turn hinders dynamic interaction between individuals, their actions, and their relationships with their social and material worlds. Autism is one such condition. Hence, I created an intervention to investigate how listening, which foster subjective and intersubjective experiences, lies at the heart of somatic and arts-based interventions. This thesis, first, begins with a summary of the presenting symptoms observed in …

Exploring The Link Between Self-Distancing And “Stress Is Enhancing” Mindsets, Kyle Green

Masters Theses, 2020-current

While stress is generally framed as debilitating, past research has shown that adopting a mindset that focuses on the positive aspects of stress, referred to as a “stress is enhancing” mindset, can improve the ways in which one engages in stressful experiences. Researchers in this area have called for further investigation of the ways in which “stress is enhancing” mindsets are adopted. This study sought to explore the practice of self-distancing as a potential mechanism. It was hypothesized that participants who were instructed to write about a personally relevant future stressor from a distanced, third-person perspective would have more positive …

Unwanted Pursuit Behaviors & Emotional Reactivity To Former Romantic Partners: An Eeg Study, Ameer Abdel-Muhsin

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Romantic relationships are extremely important connections for humans to make. When these relationships end, one partner will sometimes engage in unwanted pursuit behaviors (UPBs) to attempt to continue communication the other. Although previous research has demonstrated that these UPBs can result in psychological distress among victims, little is known about how they influence one’s emotional reactivity to the perpetrator. This study therefore sought to investigate the link between cyber and in-person UPBs and neural indicators of emotional reactivity when viewing photos of an ex-partner. Participants (n = 18) who experienced a breakup were asked to view pictures of their …

Attachment To Diagnostic Labels: Social Media, Over Identification, And Self-Efficacy For Personal Recovery, Robert Oehler

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This study explored the relationship between self-diagnosis, social media exposure, and how individuals interpret a diagnostic label. Different attitudes toward one’s diagnosis impact an individual’s attitudes toward therapy, compliance with care, and general psychological well-being. One such attitude is over-identification, how attached an individual is to their diagnostic label and how they see a diagnosis as a part of themselves, as this could have implications for their self-concept and attitudes toward therapy. We will ask the following questions: Firstly, do individuals with different diagnoses show meaningfully different levels of attachment to their diagnosis? Secondly, do individuals vary in their social …

Meaning In Life And Metacognition: Application Of The Self-Validation Hypothesis, Liam Hill

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Meaning in Life is a robust predictor of various positive outcomes, and provides a buffer against a host of negative outcomes. Due to this fact, it becomes important to examine all the facets of a meaningful life. One consistent predictor of Meaning in Life (MIL) in the literature is one’s sense of positive affect. I tested the idea that it is possible to doubt (or have confidence in) one’s affect, such that under conditions of doubt, positive affect is less strongly related to MIL. It may be the case that positive affect predicts MIL because of what we think of …

Cultural And Structural Barriers Of Utilizing Mental Health Services In A School-Based Setting For Latinx Populations, Silvia Lozano, Bridgette Guadalupe Calderon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This qualitative research study aimed to reduce mental health service disparities in Latinx communities and helps fill in the gap by addressing cultural and structural barriers to utilizing MHS in a school-based setting for Latinx youth. There is limited research regarding Latinx parents’ perspectives and the reservations they have on utilizing school-based mental health services (MHS) for their children. This study identified six important themes: cultural factors, trust and rapport, reservations, access and awareness, parental involvement and challenges, and school-based resources. Implications for school districts are that they can use these findings to increase early intervention mental behavioral health programs …

Assessing Social Engagement Differences Across The Continuum Of Sexuality, Ariana Cunningham

Honors Projects

Individuals attracted to more than one gender identity, also known as non-monosexuals, exist in a unique place in the sexuality dichotomy. Often experiencing prejudice from both their heterosexual and homosexual peers, they are prone to increased rates of loneliness. Loneliness has been shown to increase both mental and physical health risks. Due to the dangers of loneliness, the current study set out to examine this relationship between non-monosexuals and loneliness. A two-phase study was created containing an online survey portion and an in-person interview procedure. Due to small sample sizes, no statistical significance was found but data has been trending …

Making Deception Fun: Teaching Autistic Individuals How To Playfriendly Tricks, Adel Naj, Megan St. Clair, Kacie Massoudie, Jonathan Tarbox, Lauri Simchoni, Marianne Jackson, Angela Persicke

Psychology Division Scholarship

Perspective taking is a critical repertoire for navigating social relationships and consists of a variety of complex verbalskills, including socially adaptive forms of deception. Detecting and being able to use socially adaptive deception likelyhas many practical uses, including defending oneself against bullying, telling white lies to avoid hurting others’ feelings,keeping secrets and bluffing during games, and playing friendly tricks on others. Previous research has documented thatsome Autistic1 children have challenges identifying deception and playfully deceiving others (Reinecke et al., 1997). Thecurrent study employed a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the use of multiple exemplar training, rules,modeling, practice, and …

Examining The Effects Of Social Group Persecution And Traumatic Humiliation In Survivors Of Torture, Tilda Cvrkel

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Refugees and asylum seekers account for 34.4 million people worldwide (UNHCR, 2021), and up to 40% of this population are survivors of torture (UNHCR, 2017). The Istanbul Protocol (United Nations, 2022) describes one of the explicit ends of torture as the severing of a person from their community, a breaking of their dignity and humanity. This may be done explicitly, through acts of traumatic humiliation. Traumatic humiliation includes acts such as forcing victims to eat religiously forbidden food, forced posing or touching others in culturally taboo sexual ways, forced nudity or clothing that reflects misgendering (such as “emasculating” clothing), widespread …

Equality In Times Of Uncertainty: Economic Downturn And Body Image Messaging Toward Women, Ritsa Giannakas

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

A vast body of literature indicates that the economy and the status of women are interlinked, with higher levels of economic well-being tending to correspond with advancements in women’s rights. However, little of this research has investigated the changes in the wellbeing of women as it pertains to their physical and mental health, especially as it pertains to exploring the impacts of economics on eating disorder rates and societal messaging toward women. This thesis investigates a novel theory linking economic uncertainty and downturn to the spread of pro-eating disorder content online, positing that economic uncertainty may coincide with a “conservative …

U.S. Military Veteran Identity And Civilian Adjustment, Darren A. Sosa

Pacific Journal of Health

U.S. military veterans transitioning back into the civilian sector often experience a variety of challenges and need to readjust into non-military environments. In order to examine the psychological challenges involved in the transition and readjustment processes among U. S. active military veterans, a qualitative study was conducted. For 6 months, data was collected from veterans in California, Nevada, Texas, Florida, and New York. Following an IRB approval, semi-structured open-ended self-developed interviews were developed and conducted with sixteen military veterans who have served in 4 branches of the U.S. Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Data and information …

Radical Youth Work: A Community Based Approach To Working With Youth, Young Adults And Families, Weston J. Robins

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Radical Youth Work: A Community Based Approach to Working with Youth, Young Adults and Families

A focus on experiential mentoring, humanistic counseling and community engagement as a way to work with youth, young adults and families to provide true holistic therapeutic support and guidance.

Do Professor Characteristics Influence College Students' Mental Health Disclosure?, Giselle Solorio, Kenneth Barideaux Jr.

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

Previous studies have provided some evidence that college students may hesitate to disclose their mental health status because of social stigma; however, more research is needed to identify and understand the factors that influence students’ willingness to disclose. For example, it is unclear how professor characteristics impact the likelihood of disclosure. In the current study we examined whether the gender of the professor (male vs. female) and the professor’s teaching discipline (STEM vs. humanities) affected students' likelihood to disclose a mental health problem. Participants read a fictitious syllabus where the professor was either male or female and taught a chemistry …

Game Addiction, The Impostor Phenomenon, And Social Adjustment Among Young Adults In India, Jessy Fenn, Jain P Jegi, H Deva Nandan

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

During the COVID-19 pandemic, online gaming grew rapidly, becoming a social lifeline for many youths confined to their homes while turning others into gaming addicts. Online gaming not only led to connections with other youths but also opened the gates to fantasy worlds filled with adventures and missions that could be accomplished with quick thinking and quick fingers. Success there could lead to further addiction and inversely affect gamers’ real-world social life. Could the gap between their online success and their social adjustment in the real world manifest itself as feelings of being an impostor? The aim of this research …

Deliberate Practice To Improve Behavioral Parent Training Skills Among Clinical Trainees, Olivia Anne Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

Deliberate practice (DP) is a method in which structured activities are done to specifically improve performance in a given domain. Training programs, like DP, can incorporate different learning experiences to assist trainees in developing not only competency but improving client outcomes in specific therapies, like behavioral parent training (BPT). The current study examined the impact of an online-simulated DP training component on the competency among trainees, and parent-reported child outcomes after brief, virtual BPT. Eight trainees/parents were randomly assigned to the intervention group or comparison group. All trainees received didactics in BPT, with the intervention group receiving additional DP training …

Proteomic Profiles Of Cytokines And Chemokines In Moderate To Severe Depression: Implications For Comorbidities And Biomarker Discovery, Kathleen T. Watson, Jennifer Keller, Caleb M. Spiro, Isaac B. Satz, Samantha V. Goncalves, Heather Pankow, Idit Kosti, Benoit Lehallier, Adolfo Sequeira, William E. Bunney, Natalie L. Rasgon, Alan F. Schatzberg

Psychology Division Scholarship

Objective: This study assessed the proteomic profiles of cytokines and chemokines in individuals with moderate to severe depression, with or without comorbid medical disorders, compared to healthy controls. Two proteomic multiplex platforms were employed for this purpose. Metods: An immunofluorescent multiplex platform and an aptamer-based method were used to evaluate 32 protein analytes from 153 individuals with moderate to severe major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls (HCs). The study focused on determining the level of agreement between the two platforms and evaluating the ability of individual analytes and principal components (PCs) to differentiate between the MDD and HC groups. …

Autism-Related Support Services On Mental Health And University Connectedness, Adeline E. P. Rogers

Scripps Senior Theses

College is notoriously challenging, with many student concerns associated with adapting to the new expectations for lifestyle, workload, and socializing that come with transitioning to college and/or university (Gelbar et al., 2015). For college students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the impact of these changes can be far more challenging, as their needs can be different from their neurotypical peers. This study implemented an online survey to gather data on autistic students’ feelings of depression, anxiety, stress, university connectedness, experiences with university autism support programs, and basic demographics. Unfortunately, the results found from this study were contaminated by a large …

Exploring Psychological Factors Behind Consideration Of Cosmetic Surgery Through The Lens Of Social Comparison Theory, Noriene Verma

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Cosmetic surgery refers to an extreme form of appearance modification whose sole purpose is to improve the appearance of the chosen area. Despite psychological concerns associated with repeated perform of cosmetic surgery, rates of cosmetic procedures are likely to increase in the coming years (American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2020) and it warrants the need to study the potential motivators that encourage someone to opt for such procedures. Motivators of cosmetic surgery explored in this study are social media usage and self-esteem through the lens of Social Comparison Theory. Social comparison theory can explain the mechanisms behind one’s desire to …

Loneliness Is The Nucleus For Psychopathology: Relationships With Cognitive, Social, And Personality Disorders, Natalie S. Byrd

Soaring: A Journal of Undergraduate Research

Loneliness is not just a phenomenon observed in clinical practice but is a core issue in the study of mental disorders more broadly – psychopathology. Loneliness is the key to the study of all mental disorders as many have shown significant relation to loneliness either as a risk factor for developing or maintaining the disorder, or as a co-occurring condition of the disorder. In other words, loneliness is both a cause and a consequence of mental illness. Specifically, this review explores the relationships of loneliness in cognitive disorders (Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder), social disorders (social anxiety disorder, …

The Role Of Bicultural Identity Integration In The Relationship Between Discrimination And Well-Being, Jasmine Chananna

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Previous research indicates that experiencing discrimination from dominant group members and having a less integrated bicultural identity are associated with negative psychological outcomes for bicultural individuals. Further, bicultural identity integration (BII) has also been found to mediate the relationship between discrimination from dominant group members and well-being. However, there is insufficient research exploring the impact of discrimination from one’s heritage group members. Thus, this study aimed to explore the impact of in-group discrimination on psychological adjustment and self-concept clarity. This study also aimed to explore BII as a mediator between in-group or out-group discrimination and psychological outcomes. Correlational analyses supported …

The Integrated Behavioral Model Of Mental Health Help Seeking (Ibm-Hs): A Health Services Utilization Theory Of Planned Behavior For Accessing Care, Joseph H. Hammer, David L. Vogel, Patrick R. Grzanka, Nayeon Kim, Brian T. Keum, Claire Adams, Sarah A. Wilson

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

This article introduces the integrated behavioral model of mental health help seeking (IBM-HS), a theoretical model for understanding the constructs (e.g., systemic, predisposing, and enabling factors; mental health literacy; illness perceptions; perceived need; stigma; shame; perceived benefits, motivation) that influence people’s decision making around seeking professional mental health care and their ultimate access to formal treatment. The IBM-HS is a help-seeking-specific adaptation of the empirically supported integrated behavioral model and integrative model, which are themselves evolutions of the theory of planned behavior and theory of reasoned action. The IBM-HS posits that help-seeking determinants (e.g., structural forces; cultural influences; past help-seeking …

Fantasia On A Theme Of Purpose: Using A Music-Guided Scribble Technique To Support Meaning-Making In Older Adult Retiree Musicians, Sophia R. Smith

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

Within the population of older adults, overall well-being corresponds with the ability to self-actualize and seek meaning, but age-related changes combined with ageism and isolation can negatively impact this capacity to maintain a sense of purpose, especially following retirement. It may be that retired musicians are especially vulnerable to this experience later in life due to a loss of the primary method of creative engagement and community that is facilitated by musical performance in a group setting. Integrating phenomenological and ethnographic approaches, this study utilized a qualitative design to understand how music-guided art-making incorporating the scribble technique could support a …

Women Objectifying Women: The Impact Of Social Power, Sarah E. Attaway

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Objectification Theory (OT) states that women’s humanity is reduced to being a physical object whose sole purpose is to give men physical pleasure; OT explains why men objectify women, and why women objectify themselves, but does not explain why women objectify other women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Research has found that participants primed to experience high- or low-power objectified others in a work relationship more than those primed to experience equal-power (Schaerer et al., 2018). The current study aimed to examine if this finding would replicate to women engaging in sexual and beauty objectification and dehumanization towards other women. 330 …

The Influence Of Intersectionality On Identity And Resilience, Stephanie Washburn

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Co-occurring multiple minority group membership (e.g., ethnic/racial minority and sexual/gender minority) has come to be referred as intersectionality. The purpose of this study was to explore if intersectionality is related to identity and resilience in undergraduate adults. The participant pool consisted of college students from a large metropolitan university in the Southeastern United States, (N = 340), who took an anonymous online self-report survey battery in exchange for course credit. Higher levels of resilience were associated with lower levels of identity distress. Further, identity commitment, but not identity exploration, predicted resiliency. Sexual/Gender Minority (SGM) individuals had lower resiliency than …