Social Psychology Commons^™

The Stigmatization Of Mental Illness And Drug Addiction Among The Criminally Involved, Brenda Arsenault

Master's Theses

This study examined the perceived stigma of mental illness compared to drug addiction among a sample of criminally involved persons who receive probation services through the Cook County Adult Probation Department. The first section of the study surveyed current probation clients using a modification of the PSAS scale by Luoma, Rye, Kohlenberg, Hayes, Fletcher & Pratte (2010), and assessed levels of stigma consciousness with a modified version of the SCQ (Pinel, 1999). Three groups of participants were surveyed for their perceptions of stigma and stigma consciousness. The first group consisted of drug probation case management clients with no known mental …

Development And Validation Of The Workplace Intergenerational Atmosphere Scale, Scott P. King

Dissertations

This dissertation details the development and validation of the Workplace Intergenerational Atmosphere (WIA) scale over two studies. Given the growing number of older adults in the American workforce and the possibility of four generations working side by side, the WIA scale was designed to measure attitudes and perceptions about workers of different ages in the workplace. In Study 1, using a sample of workers from a non-profit organization, 23 initial items were reduced to 18, including five subscales: Intergenerational Contact, Workplace Intergenerational Retention, Positive Affect, Workplace Generational Inclusiveness, and Lack of Stereotypes. The relationships between WIA scores and mentoring, perceptions …

The Impact Of Person-Centered Communications On Political Candidate Evaluation: An Experimental Investigation, Randall A. Renstrom

Dissertations

"Person-centeredness" refers to how empathetic and warm a person's communication style is. Although the role of person-centeredness has been documented in various areas concerning interpersonal relations, person-centeredness has not been explored in the political realm. This project investigated how person-centered communications can influence impressions and evaluations of political candidates. In the first study, person-centered (PC) messages were shown to impact candidate trait ratings. Candidates using low PC messages were associated with more instrumental traits but fewer socio-emotional traits, while high PC candidates were assumed to have more socio-emotional traits but fewer instrumental traits. Similar results were found when participants rated …

The Mirror Is Not You: Objectification And Eating Disordered Behaviors In Classical And Contemporary Dancers, David Matthew Doyle

Master's Theses

The current study extended the tenets of objectification theory to a population considered to be at risk for poor body image--professional dancers. Furthermore, differences in self-objectification and its sequelae due to participation in classical versus contemporary dance companies, styles with differential exposure to objectifying cues, were explored. Forty professional dancers and thirty-nine non-dancers completed measures of objectification and its sequelae. Differences in levels of self-objectification did not fit the predicted pattern, with dancers evidencing lower levels than non-dancers; however body shame levels were elevated among dancers. The proposed model of objectification fit both groups, with body shame mediating the relationship …

Creating A Balance In Sentencing Offenders: A Step Towards Restorative Justice, Lindsay Nichols

Master's Theses

Public sentencing preferences often determine the sentencing statutes created by legislators. Extracting public opinion is typically done through mass public opinion polls; however, research has found that these polls often produce misleading findings. In order to accurately dissect the various layers of laypersons' sentencing choices, a victim impact statement (VIS) and a statement of offender remorse were manipulated within a crime scenario depicting moderately severe crimes. A total of 215 participants were randomly assigned to one of the 16 conditions in this 2 (crime type: residential burglary or unarmed robbery) x 2 (VIS: absence or presence) x 2 (offender remorse …

Public Responsiveness To Victim's Recommendations In Their Sentencing Decisions: Role Of Victim's Race, Victim Impact Statement And Judge's Instructions, Mary Elizabeth Talbot

Master's Theses

A total of 191 participants completed the 2 (Race of victim: African American, Caucasian) x 2 (Content of Victim Impact Statement (VIS): Sentence Recommendation Only, Both Sentence Recommendation and Harm Statement) x 2 (Jury Guidelines for VIS: No guidance, Explicit instructions to weigh the harm statement with other aggravating and mitigating factors) between subjects factorial design study. The study assessed the relationship between the victim's race (African-American or Caucasian), the content of victim impact statements, and the judge's guidelines/instructions for interpreting/using the Victim Impact Statement (VIS) in the sentencing phase of a defendant's trial for burglary and aggravated battery. The …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Team Coaching, Performance Feedback, And Collective Efficacy On Small Group Performance, Rachael Nichole Martinez

Master's Theses

Research has demonstrated that there are a variety of factors that influence group performance such as team coaching, feedback, and collective efficacy. A study was conducted to determine whether consultative team coaching improves performance and at what point--beginning or middle--it is most beneficial to the team. One hundred eleven dyads, comprised of 222 students, participated in this study. The dyads performed a task twice in which they were given team coaching before the first attempt, after the first attempt, or not at all. In addition, feedback was manipulated such that teams received positive or negative feedback after their first attempt …

Social Experiences Of Adolescents With High Functioning Autism (Hfa) And/Or Asperger Syndrome (As) - Their Perceptions And Their Views Of Their Caregivers: An Exploratory Study, Patricia Anne Kunz

Dissertations

This study used the Grounded Theory methodology to investigate, through an exploratory manner, the social experiences of adolescents with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and/or Asperger's Syndrome (AS) as shared by the adolescents themselves, and the views of their parent/caregivers regarding this experience. In addition the adolescents and parents shared their thoughts on having and managing a diagnosis of HFA/AS and the current adaptive behaviors of the adolescents.

Seven adolescents and their respective parent/caregivers participated in video-taped paired interviews. The themes emergent from the interviews regarding the diagnosis of HFA/AS for the parents were: rejection, feeling blamed, emotional toll and management …

Effects Of Misassignment On Bias In The Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity, Kelci M. Price

Dissertations

The question of whether social interventions are effective has become an ever more important concern as programs are asked to justify their funding and theories of action. Although the randomized control trial (RCT) is a rigorous choice of design with regards to establishing causality, there are many reasons a researcher might want to consider an alternative design. One design which has been shown to provide unbiased estimates of the program effect is the regression discontinuity (RD). However, a major problem encountered when using RD is that participants must be assigned to groups strictly based on a cutoff score - a …

Relating Color Blind Racial Attitudes, Social Dominance Orientation And Just World Beliefs, Jennifer Marie Kestner

Dissertations

This research study explored the relationship between Just World Beliefs, Social Dominance Orientation, and Color-blind Racial Attitudes. Beliefs in Just World (BJW) asserts that people believe in a world where, in general, good things happen to those that are good and bad things happen to those that are bad. Research has shown that just world beliefs can be adaptive and protective, but unhealthy behaviors and attitudes can develop in an effort to defend these beliefs. For example, individuals with high beliefs tend to blame victims, deny the reality of social inequality, and hold prejudiced attitudes. Similar constructs related to attitudes …

Toward A Cleaner Whiteness: New Racial Identities, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The article re-examines racial and ethnic identity within the context of pedagogical attempts to instill a positive white identity in white students who are conscious of the history of white racism and white privilege. The paper draws heavily from whiteness studies and developmental cognitive science in arguing (against Henry Giroux and Stuart Hall) that a positive notion of white identity, however postmodern its construction, is an oxymoron, since whiteness designates less a cultural/ethnic ethos and meaningful way of life than a pathological structure of privilege and narrowminded cognitive habitus.