Social Psychology Commons^™

Completing The Puzzle: Exploring Possible Antecedents To Rape Myth Acceptance, Skye A. Geeslin

Theses and Dissertations

Rape myths are commonly accepted, but usually false, attitudes and beliefs about the act of rape, the perpetrators, and most often the victims (Aronowitz, Lambert, & Davidoff, 2012). Studies have shown that the endorsement of rape myth attitudes influences not only the likelihood of a sexual assault occurring, but also whether or not the incident is reported, and how the victims view themselves and their experiences afterwards (Burnett et ah, 2009). The present study surveyed college students to assess their levels of social competence, semantic knowledge of sex, bystander attitudes, and rape myth acceptance (RMA). The purpose of this study …

Decision Making Theories Of Retaliation, Katlyn S. Farnum

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 2013, the Supreme Court decided, in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v Nassar, that Title VII retaliation claims should be interpreted under the stricter but-for causality instructions. This requires claims of retaliation to show that the plaintiff’s discrimination complaint (or involvement in a discrimination claim) is the direct cause of the adverse action, as compared to a motivating factor that is required under the less strict motivating factor causal instructions. The current research examines the role of regulatory focus (promotion v. prevention), causal instructions, employment action (promotion v. dismissal), and number of claims considered on both juror …

The Development Of Sexual Attitudes In The Family Of Origin And Sexual Satisfaction Later In Life, Bryant Christlieb

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to determine if variance for individuals’ sexual satisfaction as well as attitudes toward sexual instrumentality, sexual permissiveness, sexual communion and attitudes could be predicted by family sexual communication during adolescence as well as various demographic factors such as age, years together, gender, race, income level, religion, religiosity and sexual orientation. This was done by recruiting 250 people via Mechanical Turk (www.mturk.com) and through undergraduate courses at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The researcher used an enter-method multiple regression model and Kendall’s Tau for non-parametric data. The results of this study show that sexual satisfaction …

The Dark Triad And Hexaco Model Of Personality In Relational Aggression, Niki M. Knight

Master's Theses

Past research has linked relational aggression (RA) to many forms of psychological maladjustment among children and early adolescents. Although less is known about RA among emerging adults, there is a growing body of research demonstrating a number of adverse correlates. This literature has sparked an interest in examining the role of personality in RA. Most investigations to date have focused on the Five Factor Model; however, the six factor HEXACO model of personality (Ashton et al., 2004) may offer some advantages in studying RA. Moreover, the manipulative and often covert nature of RA among emerging adults has theoretical overlap with …

The Lipstick Effect Operates At The Level Of Automatic Visual Attention, Aaron M. Bermond

Honors Theses

Although general consumer spending usually decreases during economic recessions, Hill and colleagues (2012) found evidence that women concerned with economic recession demonstrated an increased preference towards purchasing products capable of enhancing physical beauty, thereby allowing them to appear more attractive to mates with resources. Referring to this phenomenon as the lipstick effect, these researchers suggested such purchasing preferences demonstrate evidence for an evolved female mating strategy. The current study was designed to more directly test whether the lipstick effect represents an evolved female mating adaptation by determining if it operates at the level of automaticity, specifically automatic visual attention (Fodor, …

The "We-Ness" And Empathy Of Liberalism, David Sparkman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most research in Social and political psychology focuses on the psychological antecedents to conservatism; the primary aim of this work was to investigate antecedents to liberalism. This led to an examination of we-ness and empathy as underlying mechanisms to liberal attitudes. Using perspective taking as a cognitive process common to both we-ness and empathy, I tested a model of we-ness and empathy as serial mediators of the effect of perspective taking on political attitudes. Results suggested that we-ness and empathy serially mediated the association between perspective taking and liberalism (and its Social and economic sub-attitudes), and empathy independently mediated the …

A Preliminary Investigation Of Positive Imagery Training To Reduce Risk For Suicidal Behavior Among Adolescent Girls, Sasha Micaella Rojas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents, with risk for suicidal thoughts and suicidal behavior emerging during adolescence particularly among girls. Consistent with theory and empirical evidence, the current study examined the effects of Socially-focused positive imagery training among a small sample of adolescent girls evidencing suicidal thoughts. This preliminary small n design also allowed for a detailed assessment of acceptability of imagery training for the adolescent sample. Risk for suicidal intent was indexed by 1) negative affect, 2) positive affect, 3) greater resting right (relative to left) prefrontal asymmetry, 4) perceived Social isolation, and 5) suicidal …

Problem Analysis In Community Violence Assessments: Reavealing Early Childhood Trauma As A Driver Of Youth And Gang Violence, Laurie Ross Phd, Samantha Arsenault, Sergeant Miguel Lopez

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Problem analysis conducted by a university-based research partner can provide communities with data-driven options to address the local drivers of serious youth and gang violence. Situated in Worcester, Massachusetts, this article describes how after early childhood trauma was identified as a potential driver of adolescent and young adult violence, problem analysis using local data confirmed that being the victim or witness of a traumatic incident before the age of 12 was significantly correlated with involvement in violence in adolescence or young adulthood. While there is a robust literature on the relationship between early childhood trauma and later delinquency, local decision-makers …

The Effects Of Gender And Self Construal On Perception Of Racism, Lauren S. Schapiro, Anne M. Schoenfeld, William C. Thomas

Celebration

When looking into the idea of if one's gender and their self-construal has an effect on how they perceive racism, we hypothesize that women will take a more interdependent self-construal and men will take a more independent self-construal. Based on how they identify, we believe that those in the interdependent condition will perceive more racism and those in the independent condition will perceive less racism.

The Peacock Effect: The Influence Of The Opposite Sex On Aggressive Behavior, Kira J. Mason

Celebration

Most widely-accepted models for aggression do not explicitly address an important variable that roots in evolutionary psychology: the presence of a potential mate. The current research investigates whether the presence of an attractive or unattractive member of the opposite sex influences hypothetical aggression. Participants (N = 1035) imagined themselves in front of an attractive or non-attractive member of the opposite sex (accompanied by pictures of corresponding attractiveness levels), and indicate their aggressive intentions after a provocation, or not. Results from the 2(sex) x 2(attractiveness) ANOVA showed that males viewing an image of an attractive female aggressed more when provoked than …

The Effect Of Historical Narratives And Flag Type, Maher A.R. Bigley, Alexandra E. Casella, Marike S. Sevigny-Morrissey, Amy E. Violante

Celebration

This research will examine the effect of mainstream or marginalized historical narratives and the Confederate or American flag on temporal distancing, patriotism, perception of injustice, and assimilationist national identity. We expect that participants exposed to marginalized narratives will indicate higher perceived distance, especially when exposed to the Confederate flag. We expect that participants exposed to mainstream narratives will be highest on blind patriotism, especially when exposed to the American flag. We expect that participants in the American flag marginalized narrative condition would perceive the most racism and would reject more assimilationist conceptions of national identity. For the dependent measures of …

Are Forgiving People Less Likely To Experience Cognitive Dissonance?, Jordan A. Barthel

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

People differ in the degree to which they are able and willing to forgive themselves after they have committed a transgression against another person (Thompson et al., 2005). The purpose of the current study was to see if individuals with lower levels of dispositional forgiveness would experience more attitude change toward a boring task than those who have higher levels of dispositional forgiveness, as a result of cognitive dissonance being induced. Participants completed a boring task that involved moving beads back and forth on an abacus, and then were either asked or told to mislead the next participant by telling …

Retrospective Emotional Interpretation Of Holocaust Victims: Case Studies Of Usc Shoah Foundation Testimonies, Rachel Gaufberg

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

Extensive research has been conducted on the emotional/psychological conditions of survivors post-Holocaust, specifically symptoms of trauma of which many have been grouped and coined into terms such as “survivor syndrome” and “concentration camp syndrome” (USHMM, 2015). In addition, the treatment of such conditions have been studied and implemented. Conversely, significantly less research has been conducted regarding the emotional/psychological experiences of victims during these events, as recollected by victims in the present. Personal narratives of Holocaust survivors shed light on the emotional and psychological implications of the Holocaust’s traumatic events on individuals. In this paper, Holocaust survivors’ retrospective descriptions of …

Pulling The Trigger: Dehumanization Of African Americans And Police Violence, Themal I. Ellawala

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

Police shootings and killing of African American targets has reached epidemic proportions and has captured the attention of the entire country. Research in social psychology has studied many dimensions of this layered issue, and has generated disparate findings regarding the role of racial bias in police violence. The process of implicit dehumanization of African Americans, especially youth, has been proposed as particularly salient in making shoot/don’t shoot decisions. This paper suggests that the paradigm of dehumanization could complete the understanding of racialized police violence and reconcile contradictory research findings, while highlighting areas for future research.

The Motivational Effects Of Goal Orientation, Self-Efficacy, And Perceived Choice, Charles N. Elliott

Symposium of Student Scholars

The present research explores relationships between intrinsic motivation, choice, autonomy, and self-efficacy. Intrinsically motivated individuals have increases in perceived choice, as well as self-efficacy while completing tasks autonomously. New research suggests the type of goal an individual sets effects their motivation for completing a task and their self-efficacious behavior while performing it. The present research manipulates goal orientation with either an approach-mastery goal or with an approach-performance goal manipulation. We predicted that mastery goals would lead to increases in achievement motivation and perceived choice, because of self-efficacy. Feedback was manipulated using informative slightly positive versus very positive conditions (Ryan, 1982). …

The Effects Of Racial/Ethnic And Gender Discrimination On College Students' Self-Esteem, Elizabeth Silva, Colin Silverthorne Phd

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

College-aged participants (N=239, 57 men and 182 women) completed two measures, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale—assessing global self-esteem, and the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS)—assessing their perceptions of discrimination based on racial/ethnic stereotypes and/or gender stereotypes. The first hypothesis was that negative racial/ethnic discrimination would have a negative impact on self-esteem. The second hypothesis was that negative gender discrimination would negatively impact an individual’s self-esteem.

Results on the EDS showed that men had more experiences with perceived discrimination than women (t(239)=2.41, pF(4, 234) = 4.275, p = 0.01). A significant negative correlation was found between the two measures, ( …

Influence Of Authority On Attitude Change Due To Vicarious Dissonance, Kendrick Settler Jr.

Scholars Week

Recent research has suggested that watching others behave in an inconsistent or inappropriate manner can cause dissonance, particularly when one identified with the person behaving inappropriately (Norton, Cooper, Monin, & Hogg, 2003). To examine the differences is vicarious dissonance on attitude change, undergraduate students (N = 123) participated in an experiment, which consisted of a pre and post 24-item dissonance-relevant test (Elliot & Devine, 1988), to measure affect change, the participate was asked to write about either a friend or teacher they respected most, a pre and post Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale (Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992) …

The Influence Of Gender And Language Complexity On The Credibility Of Expert Witness Testimony, Darcy Egan

Undergraduate Theses

With the increased use in expert witness testimony in civil trials, the decisions that jury members have made based on those testimonies have become very controversial. Previous research indicates that when a testimony is particularly complex, mock jurors will rely on cues outside the content of the testimony in order to determine the credibility of the witness. Research shows that there are different cues that are associated with higher credibility the expert. Common cues include the gender, occupation, and level of language complexity of the expert witness. This study used these three different cues as the independent variables, with two …

Teen Perception Of Texting And Driving In Rural West Virginia, Daniel Scott Kahn, Frank Fofie, Grant S. Buchanan, Md, Zain Qazi, Md, Timothy Wilson-Byrne Md, Tracy Legrow, Psyd, Franklin D. Shuler, Md, Phd

Marshall Journal of Medicine

In the last decade, texting and driving has evolved into a serious problem among the adolescent population. The goal of this study was to determine if education can effectively raise awareness of the dangers of texting and driving and positively influence the behavior of rural West Virginia teens. A 25 question survey designed to asses teen driving behavior was administered to 143 rural West Virginia high school students before and after and educational session. The educational session was designed to explain how texting and driving impairs driving ability and show graphic images of accidents and injuries that resulted from this …

"Women On Women Aggression" Predictors Of A Belief In Double Standards, April D. Crabtree

Scholars Week

"Woman on Woman Aggression": Predictors of Beliefs in Double Sex Standards

The presence of double standards is a topic that has been widely researched for the past several decades. Sexual double standards are based on the belief that sexual behaviors by women are viewed differently than when similar behaviors are exhibited by men. Early research stated that double standards were no longer much of an issue as seen in archival research by Crawford and Popp (2003). As they pulled research from previous decades, they concluded that double standards were not much of an issue in the 1970’s but resurfaced a …

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: Militaristic Video Games On Nationalistic Attitudes And Violence, David I. Crittendon

Scholars Week

From arcade rooms to individual gaming consoles, video gaming has gained in popularity over the past decade. As graphics have improved, the games have taken on life like characteristics, and have exposed the new age gamer into a world of virtual reality. Multiple studies have shown that priming (the exposure to a stimulus to activate attitudes/behaviors) using the media has been shown to increase feelings of National Identity, and priming in video games has been shown to increase violence in the individual. In addition to these priming studies, immersion into an avatar viewpoint tends to desensitizes individuals to real-life experiences …

Exploring The Lived Experience Of People With Dementia Through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Helen F. Johnson

The Qualitative Report

Dementia is arguably one of the biggest challenges facing society today, impacting millions of people worldwide. Nonetheless, there is only a relatively small body of research exploring what it is like to live with dementia from the perspectives of people who have this condition. This is partly because of the (implicit or explicit) belief that people with dementia lack insight into their condition and cannot talk about their experiences clearly. In this article, I argue that such beliefs are typically both erroneous and unhelpful, and that there is great value in seeking to illuminate the lived experiences of people with …

A Mturk Facial Inference Study, Janine Swiney, Anthony Stahelski, Mary Radeke

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

This survey is one in a series of studies utilizing Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to investigate the facial inference process. Participants in this study were asked to infer the emotions and personality traits shown in three facial expressions (angry, sad, happy) of young white females and males in six photographs. Each picture was presented for 10 seconds followed by four questions about the individual in the picture. The first question asked participants to identify the emotion shown, from a list of six emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise). The next three questions consist of condensed sets of the Big …

A Mturk Facial Inference Study, Janine Swiney, Anthony Stahelski, Mary Radeke

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

This survey is one in a series of studies utilizing Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to investigate the facial inference process. Participants in this study were asked to infer the emotions and personality traits shown in three facial expressions (angry, sad, happy) of young white females and males in six photographs. Each picture was presented for 10 seconds followed by four questions about the individual in the picture. The first question asked participants to identify the emotion shown, from a list of six emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise). The next three questions consist of condensed sets of the Big …

Humor Production And Humor Receptivity In Relationship Satisfaction, Conflict And Quality, Elizabeth Herring

Honors Projects

In his book, The Mating Mind, evolutionary psychologist, Geoffrey Miller, argues that women and men are differentially attracted to mate characteristics due to their adaptive qualities. Specifically, Miller argues that women find men who are intelligent to be desirable, in part, because intelligence is a signal of a healthy brain. A healthy brain is a desirable mate characteristic over the course of evolutionary history, in part, because it would have enabled men to provide resources for his mate and his family, thus, allowing the female to pass on her genes. Similarly, men find females who are physically attractive to be …

Public Perceptions Of Privacy Toward The Usage Of Unmanned Aerial Systems: A Valid And Reliable Instrument, Rian Mehta, Stephen Rice, Scott Winter, Julie Moore, Korhan Oyman

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

No abstract provided.

Deindividuation In Social Media, Rebecca Rohmeyer, Amy Bradshaw, Christina Frederick

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

Deindiviuation in social media is increasing as more social media applications, such as Yik Yak, allow you to post anonymously. The deindividuation theory suggests that people who are anonymous in a group setting tend to act more aggressively than if their identity was known. It is important to understand why people do such actions while they are anonymous versus if their identity were known. For this study, Yik Yak posts from college students who attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University were collected to analyze. Seven participants were then given an Excel spreadsheet to sort and categorize each Yik Yak post into Content …

Consumer Perceptions About Cabin Depressurization During Hijackings, Rian Mehta, Stephen Rice, Scott Winter, Korhan Oyman

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

No abstract provided.

Middle Schoolers’ Texting Behaviors: A Look At Individual Differences And Parental Attachment, Bradford Schroeder, Griselda Alavez, Valerie K. Sims

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

The present study was conducted to assess individual differences in middle schoolers’ texting behaviors. Individual difference variables of interest were attachment to parents, gender, and age. Participants were recruited from a public middle school in Florida, and received permission from their parents to participate in this study. Once they provided their assent, they completed several self-reports which assessed the frequency and endorsement of texting behaviors, and their attachment to parents. The texting scale that was included for this study is based on a six sub-type texting scale which was normed on multiple groups of college students in Florida and derived …

Using Implicit Associations To Reveal Hidden Biases Toward Robots, Ashley Reardon, William Volante, Tracy Sanders, Peter Hancock

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

Previously, the Implicit Associations Test (IAT) has been used to measure attitudes toward different human variables (i.e. race, religion, age) (Fazio, R. H., & Olson, M. A., 2003). In this present study, we extend this research to examine biases toward robots by assessing the association between humans and robots with negative and positive stimuli. Participants were recruited at a large southeastern university in the U.S. (n = 23, M_age = 19). The IAT was created in the Qualtrics survey engine where it contains 7 tasks. An improved scoring algorithm was used to examine reaction times from tasks 3, …