Social Psychology Commons^™

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 …

The Fear Of Reinjury And Motivational Influences Contributing To An Athlete's Return To Sport, Erica Moyer

Capstone Showcase

ERICA MOYER

The Fear of Reinjury and Motivational Influences Contributing to an Athlete’s Return to Sport

Recovery from injury can be a difficult and lengthy process both physically and psychologically. Research that exists on the subject on injury recovery and return to sport mainly focuses on the importance of physical recovery, while discounting the psychological side. Fear of reinjury and motivation are two psychological concepts that contribute to an injured athlete’s decision of whether or not to return to sport. These factors are prominent during the recovery phase, up until and including a return to athletic competition. Self-determination theory provides …

Adapting Implicit Stereotype Expectation Through Perspective Distancing, Cheyenne Perez

Capstone Showcase

Investigated within this study is how stereotype expectations might be affected when violated or reinforced, and how distancing the self from the expectation via a different perspective can allow for recognition that it can be wrong and even changed. This research is motivated by an interest in how stereotype expectations develop throughout life and experiences, and how the tendency to defend them when challenged can hinder understanding of other views. In a real world setting, placing a person in a distanced perspective could allow for change in their personal expectations and become less prejudiced/more accepting. Within the lab setting, this …

The Impacts Of Migration On Myanmar Women’S Identity And Connectedness To The Land And Food, Allison Joseph

Scripps Senior Theses

In the 21st century, Myanmar has become the largest migration source country in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (Kusakabe & Pearson, 2010). To achieve its economic goals, the government has prioritized the confiscation and reallocation of communal lands, which has resulted in a growing class of landless and dispossessed citizens (Franco, Twomey, Ju, Vervest, & Kramer, 2015). This has resulted in the wide-scale process of Myanmar’s rural women’s disinheritance from the land and food, as they are expropriated from the home of their ancestors and forced to migrate to urban centers to earn a livelihood. The proposed study will examine and …

Perceived Threat And Left-Wing Authoritarianism: The Effect Of Framing On Persuasive Messages, James Donald Mcfarland

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Past research reveals a strong connection between feeling threatened and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). This relationship is considered to be an integral part of authoritarianism and the nature of its presence in the left-leaning populace is still being fully explored. This study examined the relationship between perceived threat and Left-Wing Authoritarianism (LWA) through the framing of persuasive messages. Participants (n = 256) were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and given a list of reward- or threat-framed statements concerning the possible ramifications of voting in future elections and then asked to rate the quality and persuasiveness of the respective statements. …

It Does Not Cost The Earth To Be Kind, Svetlana Feigin

Animal Sentience

The COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call on a global scale. What lessons we learn from this crisis will determine our survival as a species. The global health crisis calls for individual and collective changes in our agricultural practices and our consumption habits. Most important, it is a call for us as a species to move towards an empathic way of living and interacting with nature.

Beyond The Rainbow: Predicting Intra And Intergroup Political Attitudes Of Latinx And Black Americans And The Potential For Cooperation And Conflict, Randall Wyatt

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation uses social psychological theory and methods to better understand the political attitudes of whites, Blacks, Latinx Americans and Asian Americans in the contemporary United States. Using quantitative methodology and survey research, I estimate the potential for cooperation and conflict between racial minorities and the political implications that these measures may have. I show that perceptions of competition with immigrants are strongly associated with anti-immigration preferences even among racial minorities such as Blacks and Latinx Americans, of who have a long history of migration to the United States. However, I also show that there is potential for interracial cooperation …

Harry Potter And The Shy College Classroom Student: A Perceived Sense Of Belonging Through Social Identity And A Hogwarts House, Mickey D. Harrison Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines self-identifying shy college classroom students. Using social identity theory, identified shy students are studied based on their inclusion in a Hogwarts House from the Harry Potter book series. The purpose of this research is to examine how group identity can cultivate and create a sense of belonging for these students and lead them to academic and personal success. The stories shared by these shy learners reinforce the need and importance of belonging to a social identity group to strengthen an individual's sense of self and personal growth. This study encourages the use of a fictional social group—like …

Homeless With Breast Cancer On Skid Row, Los Angeles: A Review Of Services For Women, Eva Dittrich

Theses and Dissertations

This study reviews the literature on breast cancer in general and narrows to within the context of the homeless population of Skid Row, Los Angeles, positing that the experience of breast cancer while homeless is a compounded traumatic experience with complex and numerous practical challenges. It poses the following question: What services are available to homeless women on Skid Row, Los Angeles, the information about which can be found online? Which and how many services are dedicated to breast cancer screenings and treatment? Are other types of cancer screening and treatment services advertised on the included service organizations' websites? A …

Be Wary Of Simple Solutions To Complex Problems, Jesse Robbins

Animal Sentience

Wiebers & Feigin purport to show that the current Covid-19 outbreak provides evidence to support a variety of public policy recommendations. Closer examination of their argument reveals a number of flaws, including a failure to adequately define terms, acknowledge counterevidence, identify value-driven trade-offs and acknowledge the logical implications of their reasoning. Scientists should attempt to address these concerns when offering public policy advice.

Play's Role In The Development Of Antisocial Behavior, Cheyenne Vazquez

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper is a literature review which examines the relationship between play and prosocial behavior. More specifically, it examines its inverse, questioning whether a lack of play in early childhood may be correlated to the development of antisocial behavior later in life. Comparing research from an abundance of psychologists, criminologists, and sociologists, this paper answers various questions pertaining to play and prosocial behavior: What happens if play is inhibited in childhood? Would different reasons for play to be inhibited result in different results (i.e. abusive childhoods, desperate situations such as homelessness and poverty, chronic illness, etc.)? Is a lack of …

Why Would I Want To Talk To Them? An Exploration Of Perceptions Of Talking Across Political Divides, Melinda Burrell

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Americans are increasingly reluctant to talk across the political divide, a problematic situation for a system predicated on a citizenry exploring a marketplace of ideas and arriving at policy consensus. This study seeks to illuminate this problem through a qualitative, exploratory study around the research question of how conservatives and liberals experience communicating across the political divide. Results are examined through a research framework that first posits the benefit of deliberative democracy (Habermas, 1996), then identifies two major challenges to such – the tendency to avoid uncomfortable political discussions (Eliasoph, 1998) and the emotional, identity-driven process of polarization (Iyengar and …

A Praise-Based Intervention Does Not Increase The Honest Reports Of Children, Adam David Moline

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Although lying is a major concern for many caregivers (Alwin, 1989; Gervais et al., 2000), there is little behavior analytic research on effective, practical interventions. Studies have shown that a moral story, instruction, or rule implying praise for honesty produced statistically significant improvements in children admitting a transgression (Lee et al., 2014; Talwar et al., 2015; Talwar et al., 2016). Although praise has been shown to function as a reinforcer (Dozier et al., 2012; Hall et al., 1968; Polick et al., 2012), it is unknown if an intervention package including praise for telling the truth would compete with reinforcement contingencies …

Ideology And Predictive Processing: Coordination, Bias, And Polarization In Socially Constrained Error Minimization, Nathan E. Wheeler, Suraiya Allidina, Elizabeth U. Long, Stephen P. Schneider, Ingrid J. Haas, William A. Cunningham

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Recent models of cognition suggest that the brain may implement predictive processing, in which top-down expectations constrain incoming sensory data. In this perspective, expectations are updated (error minimization) only if sensory data sufficiently deviate from these expectations (prediction error). Although originally applied to perception, predictive processing is thought to generally characterize cognitive architecture, including the social cognitive processes involved in ideological thinking. Scaling up these simple computational principles to the social sphere outlines a path by which group members may adopt shared ideologies and beliefs to predict behavior and cooperate with each other. Because ideological judgments are of specific interest …

The Nature Of Informal Roles In Interdependent Sport Teams, Jeemin Kim

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The degree to which athletes understand and execute their formal role responsibilities (i.e., prescribed by coaches) is important for individual and group functioning (Eys, Schinke, Surya, & Benson, 2014). Recent literature suggested that informal roles can emerge within sport teams more naturally without coaches’ explicit assignments (e.g., team comedians, distracters), and have significant influences on team functioning (Cope, Eys, Beauchamp, Schinke, & Bosselut, 2011). This doctoral dissertation examined the nature of informal roles within interdependent sport teams, focusing on their antecedents and outcomes. Three separate projects were conducted. Project One examined athletes’ personality in the big five dimensions (McCrae & …

(Subjective) Time Heals All Wounds: The Competing Roles Of Objective And Subjective Time In Reactions To Past Events, Sarah L. Williams

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although folk wisdom states that “time heals all wounds,” the truth of this claim is questionable and may be contingent on the nature of time in question. People think about and represent time in different ways: they consider how far away events (objectively) are, as well as how close or far away they (subjectively) feel. How close or distant a temporal event feels from the present is quite malleable and can be affected by a host of psychological factors independent of chronological time. However, little research has explicitly investigated the extent to which objective, calendar time, and one’s subjective sense …

Using Our Past To Predict Our Future: Applying Reference Class Forecasting To Debias Individual Project Completion Predictions, Rebecca Friesdorf

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

People often predict that they will finish projects sooner than they actually do, i.e., exhibit the planning fallacy (e.g., Buehler et al., 2010). This bias has important consequences for everyday life, including failure to meet deadlines, taking on too many projects, and increased stress. Several solutions have been proposed, including interventions which ask individuals to take an “outside view” (e.g., Kahneman & Lovallo, 1993), such as using information from past completion times to make predictions for a current project (e.g., Buehler et al., 1994). In this work, we take a novel approach to helping individuals use past project information: recalling …

“This Is My Little World…”: Navigating The Group Exercise Experience Of Stay-Fit Members, Olivia Jones

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Objective

Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, with one in two Canadians expected to develop cancer over their lifetime (Canadian Cancer Society, 2019). Exercise is reportedly a safe therapy to help ease the common side effects of cancer and its treatments (Schmitz et al., 2010). Past research has shown the benefits of group exercise while in treatment for cancer, but there is a dearth of research regarding the impact of long-term group exercise programming for cancer survivors. This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of group exercise participation for individuals who previously had cancer and were enrolled …

Picture This: The Effect Of Imagery Perspective On Affective Forecasting, Giselle Durand

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis examines whether or not the perspective that one takes when visualizing a future event influences one’s affective forecasts about that target event. When imagining a future event, people can adopt a first person perspective (as they would see it through their own eyes as it was actually occurring) or a third person perspective (as an observer would see it). I ran five studies to test the hypothesis that the perspective adopted while visualizing a future event has a differential effect on the forecasts of self-conscious vs. hedonic emotions. Specifically, I hypothesized that people forecast stronger self-conscious emotions when …

Can I Have Your Number? Men's Perceived Effectiveness Of Pick-Up Lines Used By Women, Maryanne L. Fisher, Sarah Coughlin, T. Joel Wade

Faculty Journal Articles

We examined which pick-up lines that women may use on men, in the context of dating, are the most effective. Effectiveness was defined as success in securing a phone number or agreeing to meet again. We tested to determine which type of line (direct, innocuous, or flippant) was rated as most effective when attractiveness and perceived promiscuity of the women were manipulated. We predicted that direct pick-up lines would be the most effective when trying to pick-up men for the purpose of dating. We also predicted that men would rate the pick-up lines used by women rated high on attractiveness …

The Influence Of Self-Perceptions Of Attractiveness On Substance Use: Sex Differences In Predictors Of Alcohol Consumption In College Students, Ali Brenman, T. Joel Wade

Faculty Journal Articles

Prior research demonstrates the negative relationship between self-esteem and alcohol use (Emery, 1993; Page, 1995; Winter, 2017), and prior research demonstrates how self-perceptions of attractiveness are fundamentally important (Barkow 1978; Wade, 2000, 2003). However, there is a paucity of research regarding exactly how self-perceptions of attractiveness, and mate value, which are related to self-esteem (Wade, Thompson, Tashakkori, Thompson, & Valente 1989; Tashakkori, Thompson, Wade, & Valente, 1990; Wade, 2000, 2003), influence alcohol consumption habits in college men and women. Using undergraduates, (66.4% female, 83.4% Caucasian), the present study examined how self-perceived attractiveness, self-esteem, mate value, sociosexuality, and sex of participant …

A Choice Of Color: Does Lingerie Color Affect Perceived Attractiveness And Evolutionary Fitness?, Samantha Luzietti, T. Joel Wade

Faculty Journal Articles

Prior research examining the effect of color on perceived attractiveness is equivocal. Also, no research has examined how the color of lingerie affects perceptions. This research explored the effect of the color of lingerie that a woman was wearing on individuals’ perceptions of her attractiveness and evolutionary fitness. Three colors of lingerie were used in this study: Black lingerie, Red lingerie, and White lingerie. These images were presented to 72 men and 82 women. Participants rated the woman’s perceived physical attractiveness, sexual attractiveness, trustworthiness, nurturance, masculinity, femininity, dominance, healthiness, enthusiasm, social competence, affectionateness, intelligence, short term mate potential, long term …

Does Resilience Moderate The Impact Of Children’S Experiences Of Racial And Ethnic Discrimination On Internalizing Problems?, Dahlia Abbas

Dissertations and Theses

This study’s objectives were to investigate how children’s experiences of discrimination impact the severity of their internalizing symptoms, and whether the relation between discrimination and internalizing symptom severity is moderated by resilience. It was predicted that children who had experienced more discrimination would have more severe internalizing symptoms, especially when they have low levels of resilience. Children [N=20; Mean (SD) age= 11.83 (2.50)] receiving low-cost music lessons in northern Manhattan were recruited into a larger study examining how learning music affects cognitive and emotional development. Children were interviewed in-person about experiences of discrimination because of their race/ethnicity using the Perceptions …

Associations Of Protective And Acquisitive Self-Monitoring With Consumer Attitudes And Behaviors, Alexis Nicole Lovaas

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Acquisitive self-monitors are motivated by gaining social standing (getting ahead, standing out), whereas protective self-monitors are driven by avoiding social disapproval (getting along, blending in; Wolfe et al., 1986). Extending prior research on these orientations and their associations with consumer attitudes and behaviors, participants in Studies 1a (MTurk; N = 156) and 1b (undergraduates; N = 143) completed the Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974) and various consumer scales. In these two studies, regression results revealed support for the hypotheses that protective self-monitoring was related to communal consumerism, socially-conscious consumerism, frugality, and conspicuous consumption, whereas agentic consumerism and self-interested values were related …

“The Power Of Love": The Role Of Sexual Communal Motivations And Relationship Power In Sexual Risk Taking, Robert Vincent Phillips

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

College-age students are an at-risk population for an unplanned pregnancy. Current sexual health interventions focus on methods of preventing pregnancy but fail to address communal motivations (being oriented towards the needs of others) which are important in relationships. Current interventions are long and require an increased attention span which is less effective today because the current generation of adolescents has a decreased attention span. The present study develops a WISE sexual health intervention (a simple yet targeted intervention) that incorporates sexual communal motivations to reduce unplanned pregnancy in college-age students. It was hypothesized that participants will have increased condom use …

Effects Of Involvement (Target Versus Observer), Gender, Protectiveness, And Priming On Perceptions Of Sexual Harassment, Kendall P. Dary

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study looks at reporting rates of sexual harassment in regard to affect, involvement, gender, protectiveness, and priming. Four hundred and forty-six participants were randomly assigned to read either an event described as occurring to themselves or to a friend before answering questions about friendship and what they read. Participants were more likely to label an event as sexual harassment if they used negative words to describe that event. They were also more likely to label an event as sexual harassment after being primed with the words “sexual harassment,” if they were female, and if they were high in …

Examining The Qualities Of Online And Offline Friendships: A Comparison Between Groups, Christina M. Frederick, Tianxin Zhang

Publications

Online social technologies are now used by a majority of individuals in the U.S. (Pew, 2018a). Sending emails, texting, posting on social media sites, and connecting with others through online gaming open up our social networks to a wider range of individuals. As a result, it is not uncommon to develop friendships with others that are conducted primarily in an online environment. However, we know little about the qualities of online friendships and how they may, or may not, differ from traditional face to face friendships. The present study focused on exploring friendship quality in online and offline domains using …

Development Of A Strengths And Empowerment Focused Group Intervention For Marginalized Populations With A Focus On Women, Low-Income, And Racial-Ethnic Minorities, Kristin Goradietsky

Theses and Dissertations

Members of marginalized groups face numerous stressors, including racism, discrimination, and a lack of access to quality mental health and medical care. Members of marginalized groups are also at a higher risk of developing mental health issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. There is a lack of literature regarding effective mental health treatment for members of marginalized groups, including those who are homeless or low income; Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC); and women. A literature review indicated interventions based in empowerment, positive psychology, mindfulness, and critical consciousness may be particularly applicable to vulnerable populations. Therefore, …

A Comparison Of Bdsm Sadism And Everyday Sadism In Multiple Adult Populations, Jennifer Erickson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Research has begun to investigate subclinical levels of sadism including “everyday sadism:” an enjoyment of cruelty in normal, everyday situations. Thus far, subclinical sadism has been conceptualized as inherently antisocial, as with Internet trolls. I examined a potentially prosocial manifestation of sadism: self-identified sadists in the BDSM community who cause pain only to consenting partners. 532 BDSM practitioners and nonpractitioners completed measures of everyday sadism with consent explicit, nonconsent explicit, or consent ambiguous, and known correlates of everyday sadism (empathy, HEXACO traits, and Dark Triad traits). Consistent with hypotheses, the general adult sample demonstrated negative correlations between everyday sadism and …

The Emotions Of Science: Using Social Media To Gauge Public Emotions Toward Research Topics, Cole C. Freeman

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Online and in the real world, communities are bonded together by emotional consensus around core issues. Emotional responses to scientific findings often play a pivotal role in these core issues. When there is too much diversity of opinion on topics of science, emotions flare up and give rise to conflict. This conflict threatens positive outcomes for research. Emotions have the power to shape how people process new information. They can color the public's understanding of science, motivate policy positions, even change lives. And yet little work has been done to evaluate the public's emotional response to science using quantitative methods. …