Social Psychology Commons^™

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 …

Neurobiology And Treatment Of Relationships, Harvey Joanning

University Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper presents a neurobiological theory of how intimate human relationships develop over the life span. It begins with an exploration of affective neuroscience, the study of emotions, and applies these concepts to the stages of relationship development. It goes on to explore the role of neurobiology in parenting, family life, divorce, and death of a spouse. Therapeutic interventions appropriate to each stage of relationship development are also explored. Every attempt is made to make this theory scientifically sound by basing the concepts described on published scientific research. “Hard science” has been differentiated from “clinical lore.” The reader is invited …

Religion And Spirituality In Psychotherapy: A Personal Bedrock Of Faith, Edward Shafranske

Psychology Division Scholarship

Personal beliefs and values conjoin with professional training to influence clinical practice. This article examines the role of religion and spirituality (R/S) through the lens of the author’s personal experiences and illustrates the confluence of faith, belief, identity, and practice in professional life. An autobiographical “glimpse” introduces the author’s formative experiences as a Roman Catholic and illustrates how religious narratives furnished conceptions of suffering, forgiveness, and transcendence that contributed to authentic hope for the client. Although often seemingly silent, R/S may influence psychotherapy practice. Clinical supervision provides a context to examine these personal factors.

Sharing Culture In A Tech World: Grandparent–Grandchild Cultural Exchanges Over Video Chat., Doug Piper, Subul Malik, A-Nya Badger, C. Washington, B. Valle, Gabrielle Strouse, Lauren J. Myers, Elisabeth Mcclure, Georgene L. Troseth, Jennifer M. Zosh, Rachel Barr

School of Education Faculty Publications

Grandparents who were separated from their infant grandchildren during COVID-19 sought other ways to connect, including video chat. Video chat supports learning, and its features (e.g., contingent responsiveness) may allow for cultural exchange. However, technological problems may disrupt these exchanges. In a semi-naturalistic, longitudinal study, 47 families submitted up to three video chats and surveys. Families were predominantly White/Caucasian, highly-educated, and lived between 1 and 2700 miles apart. Multilevel models were used to predict the proportion of the sessions devoted to exchanging culture (e.g., holidays, parenting advice) and managing tech problems. Culture exchange did not change as a function of …

We Need More Than 'Luck': How Students Learn About Pleasure, Eliza Koch

Summer Research

Sex education primarily focuses on reducing the negative consequences associated with sex. Pleasure is often left unaddressed despite the impact it has on sexual and overall health. The present study investigated how people learn about sexual pleasure. Nine female and fem-identifying participants aged 20-24 completed interviews about their experiences learning about sex and sexual pleasure. Grounded theory was used to code interview transcripts. Participants identified flaws in learning from a variety of sources, including sex education, parents, friends, partners, and media. These flaws indicate a need for improvements to sex education, such as promoting communication and media literacy skills.

Psychology In The Modern World, Kutay Agardici

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus is created for the two courses I will be teaching at City College in the psychology dept. Topics include cognition, language, learning, memory, nature vs. nurture, abnormal psychology, social psychology, etc.

Harnessing Growth Mindsets To Help Individuals Flourish, Jeni L. Brunette, Crystal L. Hoyt, Joseph Billingsley

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Psychologists are uniquely positioned to help with our collective obligation to advance scientific knowledge in ways that help individuals to flourish. Growth mindsets may offer one such tool for improving lives, yet some research questions the potential to replicate key findings. The aims in the current work are to help explain mixed results and outline ways to improve intervention impact. To reach these goals, we first offer a brief overview of the links between growth mindsets and psychological flourishing. Second, we outline key theories of causal mechanisms and summarize sources of meaningful heterogeneity in growth mindset interventions, with a focus …

Emerging Adult College Students' Perceptions Of Immigrants: A Multisite Experimental Study, Alexa Dee Barton

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States (U.S.) has consistently had the largest populations of immigrants worldwide over the last two centuries, contributing to immigration’s ongoing importance as a political, social, economic, and health topic. A central point of focus has been attitudes toward immigration, which prior research has noted is influenced by both individual level and sociopolitical contextual factors. However, few studies have examined these attitudes comparatively across differing immigrant populations (e.g. nation of origin, type of immigration). Nor has the influence of perceivers’ stage of identity and social development been considered (e.g. emerging adult, generation of immigration, civic values). Utilizing quantitative methods, …

Resilience And Grit: Foundations Of Mindset Differences In Adult Children Of Alcoholics And Adult Children Of Non-Alcoholics, Christopher Vance

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Alcoholism is a destructive consequence of a combination of environmental, genetic, and social influences. While it is the choice of an individual to consume alcohol, their family is facing the consequences as well. Children of alcoholics (CoAs) face a unique set of challenges growing up with one (or two) alcoholic parents. This study seeks to investigate the presence of a difference in grit and resilience in adult children of alcoholics (ACoAs). Furthermore, the study aims to uncover the influence grit and resilience have on an individuals’ mindset; whether they maintain a growth or fixed mindset. A survey containing four different …

The Relationship Between Infant-Family Routines, Number Of Caregivers And Infant Basal Cortisol, Vanessa Newell, Hannah B. White

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Background: Family routines have been found to be related to child adjustment, marital satisfaction, and parenting competence (Fiese, 2002). Persistent stress, and the resulting frequent activation of the body’s stress responses, can result in excessive wear-and-tear on the body and brain known as allostatic load (McEwen, 2000). In infants, basal cortisol levels act as an instrument to measure allostatic load (White, 2020). To our knowledge, no existing work on the impact of routines on infant development has examined the role of family structure. In traditional and minority cultures it is common for caregiving responsibilities to be divided among multiple individuals. …

Paternal Parenting Stress During Middle Childhood: The Impact Of Covid-19, Vanessa Newell, Kathryn E. Cherry, Emily D. Gerstein

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Background: Parenting stress is the unpleasant psychological reaction to the demands of parenthood, including perceptions of competence at and knowledge of the day-to-day and long-term tasks of parenting (Deater-Deckard 2006). While most research has examined mothers, father parenting stress is also critical to children’s development, predicting increased problem behaviors (Cabrera & Mitchell 2009) and poorer cognitive skills (Harwood, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic may increase parental stress in multiple ways, as parents are at home more with their children while fulfilling occupational and personal responsibilities. Parents have reported increased stress due to job loss, school closures, and other stressors (van Tilburg …

Adolescent Social Networks And Violence In Rural Colombia, Ana L. Rodriguez De La Rosa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines violence in adolescent social networks in the context of a rural and resource-limited community in the Caribbean region of Colombia. Utilizing mixed methods data (focus groups and surveys) from 242 school-enrolled adolescents, three empirical studies explored adolescent violence experiences in their community, school, and intimate partner violence relationships. Study one utilizes a social complexity framework and mixed methods design to address victimization. Social network data showed that adolescents' psychological and physical violence victimizations occurred across their community, household, school, and emotionally adverse relationships; and were more likely in girl-nominated relationships, a relationship that shared more alters or …

Well-Being In The Time Of Covid-19: Do Metaphors And Mindsets Matter?, Jeni L. Burnette, Crystal L. Hoyt, Nicholas Buttrick, Lisa A. Auster-Gussman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Communications about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) often employ metaphors, which can help people understand complex issues. For example, public health messages may focus on “fighting” the disease, attempting to rouse people to action by instilling a sense of urgency. In contrast, change-focused metaphors may foster growth mindsets and self-efficacy—cornerstones of well-being and action. We randomly assigned participants to read one of two articles—either an article about coronavirus that focused on fighting the war or an article that highlighted the possibility of change. In Study 1 (N = 426), participants who read the war, relative to the change, message …

How Multidimensional Is Emotional Intelligence? Bifactor Modeling Of Global And Broad Emotional Abilities Of The Geneva Emotional Competence Test, Daniel Simonet, Katherine E. Miller, Kevin Askew, Kenneth Sumner, Marcello Mortillaro, Katja Schlegel

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Drawing upon multidimensional theories of intelligence, the current paper evaluates if the Geneva Emotional Competence Test (GECo) fits within a higher-order intelligence space and if emotional intelligence (EI) branches predict distinct criteria related to adjustment and motivation. Using a combination of classical and S-1 bifactor models, we find that (a) a first-order oblique and bifactor model provide excellent and comparably fitting representation of an EI structure with self-regulatory skills operating independent of general ability, (b) residualized EI abilities uniquely predict criteria over general cognitive ability as referenced by fluid intelligence, and (c) emotion recognition and regulation incrementally predict grade point …

“They Let Me Loose, Will You Hold Me Tight?” Adult Adoptees And Their Romantic Partners' Experience Of Attachment After Participating In The Hmt Program, Bethany Baker

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Adult adoptees may be blocked from feeling securely attached to their romantic partners and they may not even know it or what to do about it. The literature shows adult adoptees being overrepresented in insecure attachment styles, and not enough attention has been paid to the effect this has had on adoptees in their romantic relationships. In fact, no known study, to date, has provided an attachment-based psychoeducational approach for this marginalized population. The purpose of this introductory qualitative study was to explore the experiences and meaning-making of attachment, specifically related to adoption, for the adult adoptee and their romantic …

"The Candy Problem, Solved!": White Children And White Parents Grappling With Dysconscious Whiteness, Lindsay E. Olson

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

During an amplification of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, white children and parents have faced multiple interruptions to their protective territory of dysconscious whiteness—an uncritical approach to a structural status quo that favors white lives. Through semi-structured activities and interviews with ten children ages 3 to 9 and nine of their parents who observed these activities, I discovered a parent–child subsystem of dysconscious whiteness. White children and parents revealed aspects of this subsystem by grappling with dysconscious whiteness (grappling) as they struggled to avoid implicating skin color in resource inequality. Through grounded theory analysis of the process of grappling, …

The Role Of Faculty In Fostering Psychosocial Wellbeing Among University Students, Kelley Wick

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The transition to college represents a major life event, and successfully navigating this shift has implications for students’ psychosocial wellbeing. While there is ample support for the idea that social relationships can facilitate student wellbeing during the transition to college, there is limited understanding of the unique role faculty may play in supporting students. The aim of this study was to determine the relation of faculty support to student wellbeing and self-efficacy, independent of peer support and student level of stress. Additionally, the primary questions were to examine whether self-efficacy mediated the relation of faculty support to student wellbeing, and …

Gender Differences In Moral Influences On Adolescents’ Eyewitness Identification, Toni Spring, Herbert D. Saltzstein, Leeann Siegel

Publications and Research

In this study, 232 (89 11- to-12-year-olds, 71 13- to-14-year-olds; 72 15- to-16-year-olds) students recruited from grades 6th–11th in an urban public high school participated in a study of eyewitness identification. The focus of this study was on the effects of age, gender and moral orientation on decisional bias and, as a secondary outcome, on accuracy (using signal detection analysis). The primary purpose of this and previous studies in this series is to uncover implicit moral decision-making in decisional bias. In this study the perpetrator, the bystanders and the foil were all females. Prior to completing the eyewitness identification task, …

Psychosocial Factors Promoting Personal Growth Throughout Adulthood, Masahiro Toyama, Heather R. Fuller, Joel M. Hektner

Psychology Faculty Research

Personal growth is essential in the lives of adults of any age and is associated with a variety of well-being outcomes. Building on previous research on psychosocial factors associated with personal growth, the present study aimed to investigate whether and how psychosocial factors (including working, generativity, positive interpersonal relationships, and spirituality) could affect aging adults’ personal growth longitudinally. Using three waves of Midlife in the United States data from adults with baseline ages of 20–75, two-level hierarchical linear modeling analyses were conducted to examine the effects of psychosocial factors as well as age and gender on levels and trajectories of …

Parental Nurturance In Childhood And Adolescence Correlated To Anxiety In College Students, Julianne R. Urban

Senior Honors Theses

Parental nurturance is important for individuals in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. In general, high levels of parental nurturance helps individuals to be well-adjusted. However, anxiety disorders are prevalent among emerging adults, so the present study investigated a potential correlation between parental nurturance and college student anxiety. Participants consisted of undergraduate students who were at least 18 years old and enrolled in at least one psychology course. They were asked to complete the Parental Nurturance Scale and Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale. The results indicated a significant negative correlation between the two variables. Specifically, increases in parental nurturance were …

The Project Talent Twin And Sibling Study: Zygosity And New Data Collection, Carol A. Prescott, Ellen E. Walters, Thalida Em Arpawong, Catalina Zavala, Tara L. Gruenewald, Margaret Gatz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The Project Talent Twin and Sibling (PTTS) study includes 4481 multiples and their 522 nontwin siblings from 2233 families. The sample was drawn from Project Talent, a U.S. national longitudinal study of 377,000 individuals born 1942–1946, first assessed in 1960 and representative of U.S. students in secondary school (Grades 9–12). In addition to the twins and triplets, the 1960 dataset includes 84,000 siblings from 40,000 other families. This design is both genetically informative and unique in facilitating separation of the ‘common’ environment into three sources of variation: shared by all siblings within a family, specific to twin-pairs, and associated with …

Gender And Ethnicity: Are They Associated With Differential Outcomes Of A Biopsychosocial Social-Emotional Learning Program?, Ronnie I. Newman, Odikia Yim, David Shaenfield

Psychology Faculty Publications

Context: Social-emotional learning (SEL) program outcomes may be enhanced when programs take into account gender and ethnicity differences, yet few studies directly examine these variables. The limited literature further suggests improved outcomes accrue by integrating physiological techniques, such as yoga and meditation, directly into SEL curricula to reduce stress.

Aims: This study investigated the association between outcomes of a yogic breath-based biopsychosocial SEL intervention across gender and ethnicity.

Methods: Fifty-nine high school students were evaluated on 4 positive (self-esteem, identity formation, anger coping ability, planning, and concentration) and 3 negative SEL outcomes (impulsivity, distractibility, and endorsement of aggression). Using a …

Putting Adversity In Perspective: Purpose In Life Moderates The Link Between Childhood Emotional Abuse And Neglect And Adulthood Depressive Symptoms, Andree Hartanto, Jose C. Yong, Sean T. H. Lee, Wee Qin Ng, Eddie M. W. Tong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Background: Childhood emotional abuse and neglect is linked with a host of adverse outcomes later in life, including depression. However, potential psychological resources that may mitigate the adverse outcomes of childhood emotional abuse and neglect are not well-understood. Aims: Drawing from the insight that having a sense of purpose can help individuals deal with setbacks and difficulties better, we propose that purpose in life can also help sufferers of childhood maltreatment cope more effectively and reduce the onset of depressive symptoms. Methods: Participants were drawn from two large, nationally representative studies comprising a total of 3664 respondents. Purpose in life, …

Awareness Of Sex Offender Registration Policies And Self-Reported Sexual Offending In A Community Sample Of Adolescents, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Hayley M. D. Cleary

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Sex offender registration laws are widely implemented, increasingly restrictive, and intended to serve both specific and general deterrent functions. Most states have some form of policy mechanism to place adolescents on sex offender registries, yet it remains unclear whether adolescents possess the requisite policy awareness to be deterred from sexual offending. This study examined awareness of sex offender registration as a potential sanction and its cross-sectional association with engagement in several registrable sexual behaviors (sexting, indecent exposure, sexual solicitation, and forcible touching) in a community sample of 144 adolescents. Results revealed that many adolescents were unaware that these behaviors could …

The Role Of Dreams, Intuition, And Social Influences On Conscious Decision-Making Processes, Robert Bouffard

Senior Honors Projects

The average person makes approximately 35,000 conscious decisions per day, which, accounting for the daily amount of sleep a person gets, is equivalent to a decision madeevery two seconds. Upon realizing the frequency, I sought to find a distinctive connectionbetween the conscious and unconscious when it pertains to how people make decisions. I hypothesized that people make decisions regarding their personal relationships with the help of intuition, which I considered to be the ultimate link between our dreams and our conscious thought. I also believed the concept of intuition was entirely dependent on our processing and decoding of dreams. In …

The Effects Of Being Labeled Smart By Friends: Burden Or Benefit?, Lauren Feldman, Isaac Abrams, Charlotte Bernot, Alexa Delmonte, Deegan Miller

Psychology Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Aging, Gaze Direction, And Context On Emotion Discrimination Performance, Alyssa Renee Minton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined how younger and older adults differ in their ability to discriminate between pairs of emotions of varying degrees of similarity when presented with an averted or direct gaze in either a neutral, congruent, or incongruent emotional context. For Task 1, participants were presented with three blocks of emotion pairs (i.e., anger/disgust, sadness/disgust, and fear/disgust) and were asked to indicate which emotion was being expressed. The actors’ gaze direction was manipulated such that emotional facial expressions were depicted with a direct gaze or an averted gaze. For Task 2, the same stimuli were placed into emotional contexts (e.g., …

The Impact Of Microaggressions And Minority Stress On The Psychological Well-Being Of Emerging Adult Sexual Minorities Of Color, Michelle G. Thompson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microaggressions impact psychological well-being (PWB) among sexual minorities and people of color (POC). Research to date has explored this relationship among White sexual minorities and POC independently, and not among sexual minorities of color (SMPOC). SMPOC may be at an even greater risk for low PWB due to compounded microaggressions. Emerging adults are also at risk for low PWB, but little is known about PWB among SMPOC emerging adults. The current study examined microaggressions and PWB among emerging adult SMPOC; it also examined outness and PWB among adult sexual minorities. It was hypothesized that: a) SMPOC would report greater microaggressions …

Discovering Themes: Disability Identity Development As It Pertains To People Born With Spina Bifida, Elizabeth H. Scriven

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

To date, disability identity development is a highly understudied construct. There are many models of disability, each interpret disability through a specific lens, but do not address the influence of disability on identity development. The few theories of disability identity that do exist have not been widely adopted. In addition, there is a lack of empirical evidence to support them. Another difficulty is that these theories do not separate different disability groups. Rather, the theories are applied to a broad heterogenous group of disability types. This is a problem because each disability type is quite distinct from the others and …

Juror Gender And Confession Evidence: An Exploratory Study Of Effects On Empathy And Trial Outcomes For Juvenile Defendants, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jennifer N. Weintraub

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Objectives: We explored how relations among juror gender, confession evidence, and empathy impacted verdicts for a juvenile defendant accused of a serious crime. Methods: Jury-eligible women and men (N = 128) participated in a mock trial involving a girl defendant who had either maintained her innocence, confessed voluntarily, or confessed under coercion. Participants reviewed case materials, received juror instructions, and reported their verdict and empathy for the girl defendant. A manipulation check ensured participants attended to details surrounding the confession and participants were grouped by whether they perceived the confession as voluntary or coerced. A logistic regression analysis examined main …