Social Psychology Commons^™

Coloniality Disrupted: Critical Knowledge Interventions Shift Decolonial Attitudes Among White Americans Via Collective Responsibility & Moral Outrage, Mejdy Jabr

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Epistemologies of ignorance and critical knowledge dialectically shape how individuals psychologically and politically orient themselves within oppressive social systems. Across three studies, I investigated the psychological mechanisms through which critical-historical knowledge about Indigenous peoples relates to and causally shifts support for (or opposition to) decolonization among America’s foremost settler population, White Americans. Study 1 utilized an Indigenous history test to assess the relationship between critical knowledge and support for decolonization (i.e., decolonial policies and practices; DCPPs), finding that critical-historical knowledge is positively associated with DCPP support and that this relationship is mediated by collective responsibility. Studies 2 and 3 built …

Who Gets To Be A Child And When? The Pervasive Yet Contextually Shaped Nature Of Racialized Adultification Across Perceivers And Contexts, Kevin M. Summers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Racialized adultification is a pervasive bias in which individuals tend to judge Black children as older and more adult-like than White children of the same age. This racial bias is discussed across many scientific domains in addition to popular media, yet there is relatively little empirical work documenting its existence, consequences, and boundary conditions. In the current work, I aim to develop an empirical foundation that advances scientific understanding of racialized adultification and in turn contributes to a growing model that elucidates the conditions under which individuals are disproportionately likely to express this pernicious bias. In the current work, I …

Stronger Together: A Mixed-Methods Examination Of Identity, Efficacy, And Emotions In Young Adults’ Collective Action, Kindy Insouvanh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Young adults are increasingly engaging in collective action for social change, yet we lack a clear understanding of the factors driving their participation in social movements. This mixed-methods study uses a social psychological framework to examine key quantitative factors related to young adults’ intentions to engage in collective action for racial justice, as well as their reasoning around their involvement. A survey of 373 racially and ethnically diverse young adults (18-35 years old) assessed the impact of racial justice ally identity, emotions (anger and contempt), and dimensions of efficacy on action intentions. Path analysis revealed that young adults’ identification as …

Institutionalized Ostracism, Danieli Evans

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Belonging is a fundamental need, like food or water. Hundreds of social psychology studies find that people who are ostracized (excluded, rejected, or ignored) experience severe pain and suffering. Ostracism threatens basic needs, triggers the same neurocognitive processing system as physical pain, and impairs functioning. Furthermore, ostracized people may cope in ways that beget “deviant” labeling and further ostracism.

Belonging and ostracism are prevalent themes in social psychology research, but these constructs have received relatively little attention in law. This Article begins to explore the implications of this research for law. I make three contributions: First, I name and describe …

College Students Learn How To “Take Action!” To Disrupt Racial Microaggressions, Justine N. Egan-Kunicki, Renee N. Saris-Baglama

Feminist Pedagogy

The topic of prejudice and discrimination may be addressed in a variety of disciplines. When these topics are discussed in the classroom, students may not recognize microaggressions as acts of explicit or implicit prejudice. We designed and evaluated an Apply and Take Action! assignment to help students recognize microaggressions and learn techniques to disrupt them. Students were asked to identify definitions, key terms, and examples of microaggressions and microinterventions, and apply this knowledge to address a hypothetical scenario. Students favorably evaluated and recommended the assignment’s use. This assignment may benefit students who are targets of microaggressions, as well as those …

Prison Social Organization: Applying Social Psychology To Explain Racial Grouping In Prison, Siobhan Wynn

University Honors Theses

Since the creation of the United States, minorities have been controlled through various laws and practices such as slavery, Black Codes, Vagrancy Laws, and Jim Crow Laws. While these laws have been abolished, minorities in the United States are still being controlled in various areas such as the criminal justice system. This thesis will examine how certain codes in prisons have controlled Adults in Custody (AICs), in addition to examining two theories: Uncertain Identity Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory to help explain the social psychological functions of how and why racial grouping in prisons happen.

Can Vice Make Us Virtuous? The Effects Of Greed Reminders On Charitability, Hayley Pitts

Honors Theses

Historically, society wishes to encourage people to be good – but also warns against being bad. There is little comparison between the two of which works: the threat of damnation through vice, or the promise of salvation through virtue. This study examines how each of these affect donation behavior. There are two studies within the present research, each with 149 participants randomly assigned into three categories: control, vice, and virtue. Participants were distracted then asked to view an image based on their randomly assigned category, followed by a donation question: would participants donate a $1.00 bonus to a local charity, …

A Longitudinal Investigation Of The Relationships Between Experiences With Sexual Harassment, Self-Objectification, And Self-Concept Clarity Among Women, Roxanne N. Felig

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal research investigates the nuanced relationship between sexual harassment and self-concept development among both men and women over a six-week period, presenting a unified model that integrates theories of self-objectification and self-concept clarity. Across three waves of data collection (N= 370, N=315, N=279, respectively), I find evidence that women experience higher rates of sexual harassment, greater self-objectification, and lower self-concept clarity than men. Across time, I find that experiencing sexual harassment predicts heightened self-objectification, which further predicts a disrupted sense of self among both men and women. Critically, this work investigates the reciprocal nature of self-objectification and self-concept clarity, …

Individual And Structural Contributors To Implicit And Explicit Anti-Muslim Bias In The United States, Aeleah M. Granger

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation consists of two manuscripts addressing the multifaceted nature of Islamophobia in the United States by examining explicit and implicit anti-Muslim bias on individual and structural levels. The first manuscript tests an ideology-threat-attitude-behavior model by estimating the simultaneous mediating effects of threat perceptions on the relationships between individual differences in ideology, Islamophobia (fear of Muslims), and support for an anti-Muslim police surveillance policy. This study (N = 603) finds that individuals who are higher in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right-wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and Nationalism are more likely to perceive Muslims as realistic (power), symbolic (value), and terroristic (safety) …

Under The Influence: The Dark Psychology Behind The Power Of Social Conformity And Obedience, Mary T. Howley

ENGS 15.11: Design and Education

My lesson, titled Under the Influence: The Dark Psychology Behind the Power of Social Conformity and Obedience intends to inform my students about the darker aspects of social psychology and the deeper, unconscious social influences that can lead good people to do terrible things in moments of conformity, obedience and group think. This course will cover professional laboratory experiments, real life historical examples, and psychological methods and tactics to give a broad range of information regarding this aspect of social psychology. With this information, the students will then have enough material to engage in group discussions regarding the deeper themes …

Investigating Various Personality Factors As Predictors Of Poor Belief Updating Regarding Controversial Political Issues, Eric E. Haseman Jr

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Belief updating is a research area investigating how individuals refine or fail to refine their preexisting beliefs when confronted with corrective sources. Understanding the various drivers of poor belief updating in a political context is essential to maintaining an informed democracy, as the ideal voter in a democratic nation updates political misconceptions and false beliefs when presented with corrective sources. Despite the importance of this topic, the literature examining potential factors that could contribute to poor belief updating in a political context remains particularly limited. I aimed to address this limitation by recruiting undergraduates from the University of Central Florida’s …

Is Cognitive Fatigue Pushing Peripheral Group Members Towards Extreme Attitudes?, James E. Robinson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Both cognitive fatigue and group membership impact how individuals respond to persuasive messaging. Cognitively demanding tasks cause mental fatigue, lessening the ability to effortfully consider persuasive messaging and increasing the likelihood of making automatic decisions based on heuristics (Schmeichel et al., 2003). Additionally, self-perception of prototypicality (i.e., level of group membership) impacts motivation to identify with and engage in group normative behavior (Hohman et al., 2017). This research project aimed to further the understanding of how prototypicality and cognitive fatigue interact and come to impact attitude and the effortful elaboration of persuasive messaging.

How Smoking Became A Moral Issue: A Complex Systems Perspective On Moralization, Matthew Vanaman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When something is morally wrong, it is in the moral domain; when something becomes morally wrong, it is moralized. But how do we know when something is in the moral domain, and how can we tell whether something is becoming moralized? The empirical study of morality, or a given person’s judgment of what constitutes moral virtue or vice, has historically approached these questions through one of three theoretical perspectives: cognitivism, which argues that people primarily or mostly use effortful thought to judge right from wrong; emotivism, which sees these judgments as flowing from emotion; and dual-process models, which …

The Psychology Behind The Marketing Of Alcohol And Tobacco: How We Convince People To Do Things That Are Bad For Them, Sophie Dvorkin

CMC Senior Theses

The marketing tactics of the alcohol and tobacco industry are inextricably linked through the psychological basis upon which these companies target their customers. Through the principles of reciprocity, social proof, scarcity, commitment and consistency, unity, and authority featured in Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (2021). The principle of reciprocity explains how companies get customers to buy in, social proof explains our dependence on our peers’ validation, and scarcity explains why we want what we can’t have. The principles of commitment and consistency explain how companies garner long-term customers that see themselves as an extension of a brand, …

Identification With All Of Humanity, Uncertainty, And Beliefs Toward Animals, Andrea Michelle Wilson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The current study aims to expand on the human-animal relations literature through a social identity lens, using 231 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Americans consume large amounts of meat, yet many people feel morally conflicted by enjoying meat, yet killing animals. These feelings can be tied to one’s identity, through identifying as a vegetarian, meat-eater, or animal lover. Humans tend to attach themselves to a social group, act on behalf of that group’s norms and values, and use their groups to reduce feelings of uncertainty by adopting group normative attitudes and behaviors. People who identify strongly with all of …

The Effects Of Peer Pressure On Social Conformity, Jeniffer Zou, Kayla Colley, Abby Westbrook, Caroline Grace Coey, Meg Combs

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

The urge to be a member of a group, to fit in, and peer pressure can lead to many unexpected and unwanted repercussions. We see evidence of such consequences around us and even within ourselves daily. Social media can easily contribute to this problem by either allowing users to present their lives as something they are not, a deceptive representation of their true wants, or by allowing them to express their opinions in a way that denigrates those of others. To examine the link between peer pressure and social conformity, researchers have been studying whether strength of attraction to a …

Reducing Prejudice Through Law: Evidence From Experimental Psychology, Sara Emily Burke, Roseanna Sommers

Articles

Can antidiscrimination law effect changes in public attitudes toward minority groups? Could learning, for instance, that employment discrimination against people with clinical depression is legally prohibited cause members of the public to be more accepting toward people with mental health conditions? In this Article, we report the results of a series of experiments that test the effect of inducing the belief that discrimination against a given group is legal (versus illegal) on interpersonal attitudes toward members of that group. We find that learning that discrimination is unlawful does not simply lead people to believe that an employer is more likely …

Examining And Exploring Social Constructs, Conflict Management Style, And Workplace Conflict Among Workers In The United States, Keith Boyd

Dissertations

This mixed-methods study explored social constructs, conflict management style (CMS), and workplace conflict among workers in the United States. Workers do not understand the connections between social constructs, CMS, and workplace conflict. A lack of information on workers' experiences and representation in conflict literature supports the gap in understanding (Aquino, 2000; Bourdieu, 1986; Hayes, 2008; Herr & Anderson, 2005; Lin, 2001; Long, 2007; Meng et al., 2019; Mertens, 2003, 2009, 2018; Sosa, 2019). The study used a transformative-emancipatory explanatory sequential design focused on workers. There were 82 convenience sample participant surveys and 12 purposive sample low-level cooperativeness CMS participant interviews …

Algorithms Vs. Human Nature: A Tale Of Selective Exposure, Dené E. M. Wamsley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The public’s turn towards news websites and social media for news consumption has sparked anxiety over echo chambers, avoidance of opinion-challenging content, and potentially fragmentation and polarization among sociopolitical groups. Algorithms have specifically been blamed for increasing the ease of filtering out counter-attitudinal online content and potentially exacerbating selective exposure tendencies. However, longstanding classic psychological research has demonstrated the ubiquitous phenomenon of cognitive dissonance and selective exposure far before the internet became the primary tool for news consumption. Research investigating how algorithms directly influence online approach and avoidance behavior is unfortunately scarce. This dissertation work aimed to analyze the impact …

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 …

A Technology-Based, Mixed Methods Approach To Examining The Psychosocial Determinants Of Maternal Health Disparities, Hannah M. Ming

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Exposure to racism and discrimination in the U.S. increases Black women’s risk for experiencing maternal health disparities. Additionally, racism and discrimination affect maternal psychosocial well-being, creating evidence for a biopsychosocial relationship between racism and maternal health outcomes. However, current research does not define the psychosocial Black maternal self well. Given the dynamic relationship between racism, psychosocial well-being, and Black maternal health outcomes, research must comprehensively examine the Black maternal self. The operationalization of a comprehensive construct for Black maternal psychosocial well-being can improve understanding of the relationship between racism, psychosocial well-being, and Black maternal health outcomes.

Purpose: …

Teachers’ Attitudes Toward The Impact Inclusion Classrooms Have On Nondisabled Students’ Social, Emotional, And Academic Well-Being, Kristee Nicole Knouse

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Inclusive educational settings were developed in the United States to help encourage and facilitate grade-level and appropriate social, emotional, and academic interactions for all students with the assistance of their teachers regardless of aptitude, skill, or disability. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to investigate teachers’ attitudes toward the impact inclusion classrooms have on the nondisabled students’ social, emotional, and academic well-being compared to students with special educational needs (SEN) and special education needs and disability (SEND) students. Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior was used to guide the study to determine whether there is a relationship between the …

Comedians Are Leaders: Comedians' Use Of Humor Makes Us Feel Like We Matter, Matthew Burt

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This research examines funny functions of shared group membership – how content that clearly demarcates ingroup membership may be at the root of humor. Participants in this study listened to a recording of a stand-up comedian who was defined as being either a fellow college/university student (ingroup) or a non-college student (outgroup). Additionally, the audio either contained audience laughter or no audience laughter. Upon finishing the recordings, participants were asked to answer survey questions about their experience with the comedian, rate their overall sense of shared group identity with the comedian, their level of positive affect, distinctiveness from an outgroup, …

The Psychological Allure Of Alford: Why Innocents Plead Guilty, Johanna Hellgren

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Alford plea allows defendants to maintain their innocence while accepting a plea. Although this plea is more prevalent than jury trials, it is largely unknown to both lay people and researchers (Redlich & Özdoğru, 2009). Legal scholars have argued that the Alford plea may present an undue influence on innocent defendants who may not otherwise accept a plea, while other assert that the Alford plea is a beneficial alternative for defendants who want to preserve their reputation (Ronis, 2009; Ward, 2004). However, no research to date has explored either of these assumptions.

The goals of the current research were …

Research On Climate Change In Social Psychology Publications: A Systematic Review, Kim-Pong Kam, Angela K. Y. Leung, Susan Clayton

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There is a strong scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is happening and that its impacts can put both ecological and human systems in jeopardy. Social psychology, the scientific study of human behaviours in their social and cultural settings, is an important tool for understanding how humans interpret and respond to climate change. In this article, we offered a systematic review of the social psychological literature of climate change. We sampled 130 studies on climate change or global warming from 80 articles published in journals indexed under the “Psychology, social” category of Journal Citation Reports. Based on this sample, …

Social Psychology Of Climate Change In The Asian Context: Introduction To Special Issue, Kim-Pong Tam, Angela K. Y. Leung, Susan Clayton

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing many countries in the Asia Pacific. Asia as a whole is a primary contributor to carbon emissions. According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020, the Asia Pacific region alone accounts for more than half of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. This represents an increase in consumption of oil, gas, and coal in Asia Pacific from 44.5% in 2009 to 50.5% in 2019. According to the review, compared to the rest of the world, Asia Pacific had the highest growth rate (2.7%) of carbon emissions between 2008 and …

The New Normal Of Social Psychology In The Face Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Insights And Advice From Leaders In The Field, Kim Pong Tam, Angela K. Y. Leung, Sammyh Khan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Revisiting the history of social psychology, one noticeable trend is that the agenda of social psychologists is interwoven with events that happen in society and the world (Ross et al., 2010). For example, the Holocaust during World War II stimulated social psychologists’ interest in ethnocentrism, aggression, and obedience, just as increasing globalization became one of the impetuses for investigations into the role of culture in human behaviour, and hence the emergence of cultural and cross‐cultural psychology. Considering its immensity, we believe that the COVID‐19 pandemic will likely be a trigger for profound and consequential changes in social psychology (Khazaie & …

Tramitación Social Después Del Trauma Colectivo: Un Análisis De Las Respuestas Colectivas En Torno El Trabajo De Las Abuelas De Plaza De Mayo De Argentina Después De La Última Dictadura Cívico-Militar / Social Processing After Collective Trauma: An Analysis Of The Collective Responses Around The Work Of Argentina’S Abuelas De Plaza De Mayo After The Most Recent Civic-Military Dictatorship, Sarah Horwitz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este ensayo investiga las respuestas colectivas al trabajo de las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo en la Argentina. Las Abuelas son un grupo de mujeres con hijos y nietos que fueron desaparecidos sistemáticamente junto con 30.000 personas durante la última dictadura cívicomilitar de 1976 a 1983. En 1977, las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo se juntaron para encontrar a sus nietos y nietas, muchos de los cuales habían sido entregados a familias cercanas a la dictadura. Aunque al día de hoy han recuperado más de 100 nietos y nietas, todavía falta más de 300. Esta investigación utiliza entrevistas personales y …

The Effects Of Ingroup Threat On The Anchoring And Adjustment Heuristic, Mattie V. Hedgebeth

Theses and Dissertations

Since its introduction in 1974, the anchoring and adjustment heuristic has been a topic of interest within the field of decision making. Although much work has examined factors that affect the process of the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, very little has been studied about the self-processes that may influence how individuals anchor. More specifically, self and ingroup motivations have yet to be explored. This research sought to identify whether an individual’s magnitude of adjustment from an anchor can be affected by either an enhancement or threat of the individual’s ingroup. I hypothesized that ingroup enhancing information would induce a smaller …

Factors And Alleviation Of Learned Helplessness In The Elderly, Ashley Eckett

Capstone Showcase

Learned helplessness is a condition caused by maladaptive thinking related to a sense of powerlessness. It can result from lack of control in the face of life challenges leading to a loss of hope, motivation, and an inability to take action. Learned helplessness can have negative effects on an individual both mentally and physically. In regards to the elderly population, it can cause premature death. Gaining a better understanding of learned helplessness can play a lead role in preventing it and its negative effects in the geriatric population. The aim of the literature review was to answer how to recognize …