Social Psychology and Interaction Commons^™

A Multi-Dimensional Model Of Enjoyment: Development And Validation Of An Enjoyment Scale (Enjoy), Shayn Davidson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Enjoyment of an activity is central to positive experiences and can determine future behavior toward the activity or object of interest. In the literature there has been no consensus on the definition and dimensionality of enjoyment. In this dissertation, to provide clarity to the construct, a new multi-dimensional model and definition of enjoyment is proposed. To investigate enjoyment, a new measure of enjoyment applicable to any activity was developed using current best practices of scale development and validation.

The new instrument measures enjoyment of any activity, called the ENJOY scale. The ENJOY scale has 5 subscales and demonstrated good content …

Situated Narratives: Hearing The Voices Of Jewish Adolescent Girls, Cheryl Weiner

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

The project offers an in-depth analysis of life story narratives from Jewish adolescent girls (McAdams, 1993) to better understand what Jewish identity means to them and how it shapes their feelings, attitudes and responses to inter and intra-personal issues regarding Whiteness, Judaism, social responsibility, gender and privilege. Findings from this project will contribute to the development of a conceptual framework for understanding Jewish adolescent girls’ identity development and as a means for engaging Jewish girls in important social justice work.

McAdams, D. P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. Guilford Press.

Evolutionary Game Theory Perspective On Dynamic Spectrum Access Etiquette, Mohammad Abu Shattal, Anna Wisniewska, Ala Al-Fuqaha, Bilal Khan, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In this paper, we describe the long-term evolution of societies of secondary users in dynamic spectrum access networks. Such an understanding is important to help us anticipate future trends in the organization of large-scale distributed networked deployments. Such deployments are expected to arise in support of a wide variety of applications, including vehicular networks and the Internet of Things. Two new biologically-inspired spectrum access strategies are presented here, and compared with a random access baseline strategy. The proposed strategies embody a range of plausible assumptions concerning the sensing capabilities and social characteristics of individual secondary users. Considering these strategies as …

Dating As An Occupation: Swipe Right For Occupational Therapy, Karen Mccarthy

Collected Faculty Scholarship

At a first glance, these may look like personal ads you might in the past have found in any newspaper classified section, yet they could be mini occupational profiles that represent your clients. Each profile contains information about the client, their interests and passions, their values, and their goals and dreams for meeting a partner.

Personal ads, once so public for everyone who opened a newspaper to read, have now moved onto the vast and complicated world of online dating. The game has changed, with 15% of adults in the United States reporting they have used online dating sites or …

Social Identity Theory And Public Opinion Towards Immigration, Maurice Mangum, Ray Block Jr.

Political Science Faculty Publications

Several scholars have called upon social identity theory to investigate the relationship between an American national identity and American public opinion on immigration. Lacking a uniform measure of American identity, by and large, scholars find that a two-dimensional conception of American identity influences these opinions. Our review suggests that the extant measures of American identity do not fully account for the various aspects of social identity theory. We capture more fully the different components of social identity theory. By doing so, we find that American identity has five dimensions. Therefore, in this analysis, we advance a more comprehensive measure of …

A System For Coding The Interaction In Focus Groups And Dyadic Interviews, David L. Morgan, Kim Hoffman

The Qualitative Report

Interaction among participants is the fundamental mechanism that generates data in focus groups. Despite calls for ways to analyze interaction in focus groups, there is still an unmet need to develop such tools. We present a coding system to investigate interaction by emphasizing how participants use the substantive aspects of the topics they discuss. We then apply it to the question of how conversations in dyadic interviews (with two participants) compare to discussions in focus groups (with four or more participants). We find that dyadic interviews are more likely to contain explicit connections to the content of the previous speaker’s …

Individual And Society: Sociological Social Psychology, Lizabeth A. Crawford, Katherine B. Novak

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

"Unlike the few other texts for undergraduate sociological social psychology courses that present 3 distinct traditions (or "faces") ... Symbolic Interactionist (SI), Social Structure and Personality (SSP), and Group Processes and Structure (GPS) by topic alone, this text initially discusses these "faces" by research tradition, and emphasizes the different theoretical frameworks within which social psychological analyses are conducted. With this approach, the authors make clear the link between "face" of sociological social psychology, theory, and methodology. And students gain an appreciably better understanding of the field of sociological social psychology; how and why social psychologists trained in sociology ask particular …

Role Of Social Environmental Protective Factors On Anxiety And Depressive Symptoms Among Midwestern Homeless Youth, Kimberly A. Tyler, Rachel M. Schmitz, Colleen M. Ray

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We employ a social stress framework, which examines the influence of multiple stressors (e.g., physical abuse, foster care placement) on an individual’s ability to function (e.g., mental well-being), to longitudinally examine the effects of stressful life events on mental health and the role of the social environment in this process among 150 homeless youth. Results revealed that numerous stressors, such as physical abuse and running away from home more frequently, were associated with greater depressive symptoms and elevated anxiety. Having mentors and family and friends from home that youth can rely on resulted in more positive social support, which subsequently …

Lower Risk Of 10-Year Incident Cognitive Impairment For Mexican Americans Aged 75 And Older In 2004-05 Compared To 1993-94, Brian Downer, Marc A. Garcia, Mukaila Raji, Kyriakos S. Markides

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

There is growing evidence for a decline in the prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. These findings have been attributed to greater educational attainment, reduced incidenced of stroke, and better management of chronic health conditions. However, limited research has examined if the declining trend in dementia risk are also occurring in minority populations, especially Mexican Americans.

Methods: Data: This analysis used data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (H-EPESE) to examine differences in the 10-year risk of cognitive impairment for Mexican Americans aged 75 and older in 2004-05 compared to Mexican …

Struggling To Survive: Addressing The Graduation Rate Of Cal Poly's Black Men, Malcolm Saleem Mills

Social Sciences

This research project examines and addresses the 2012 6-year graduation rate of Cal Poly’s Black men. Given President Armstrong’s 2022 vision for Cal Poly to be an: “Enriching, inclusive environment where every student, faculty and staff member is valued”; “Create a rich culture of diversity and inclusivity that supports and celebrates the similarities and differences of every individual on campus”; and “Enhances student success,” there is a startling lack of research addressing this demographic of students. A review of the literature highlights the issue of Black male graduation rates in higher education on a broader scale and examines the impact …

Risk Factors For Forced, Incapacitated, And Coercive Sexual Victimization Among Sexual Minority And Heterosexual Male And Female College Students, Colleen M. Ray, Kimberly A. Tyler, Leslie Gordon Simons

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Although college students are at high risk for sexual victimization, the majority of research has focused on heterosexual students and often does not differentiate by victimization type. Thus, little is known about prevalence rates and risk factors for sexual victimization among sexual minority college students and whether the interaction between gender and sexual orientation differs by victimization type. To address these gaps, we examine whether risk factors for three types of sexual victimization (i.e., forced, incapacitated, and coerced) differ by gender (n = 681 males; n = 732 females) and sexual orientation (n = 1,294 heterosexual; n = …

Nebraskans Who Support And Oppose "Religious Freedom" Laws Actually Share Many Of The Same Values, Emily Kazyak, Kelsy Burke

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Religious freedom legislation highlights political division in the U.S., pitting conservative Christians against LGBTQ people and their allies.

As sociologists who study sexuality and conservative Christianity in the U.S., we decided to investigate whether and why people support or oppose these religious freedom laws with our co-author, Mathew Stange. Our recent study asks specifically about laws that protect business owners who refuse to serve gays or lesbians. This is the focus of the ongoing Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The case will decide the legality of a wedding cake baker’s refusal to make a cake …

An Evaluation Of The 2016 Election Polls In The United States, Courtney Kennedy, Mark Blumenthal, Scott Clement, Joshua D. Clinton, Claire Durand, Charles Franklin, Kyley Mcgeeney, Lee Miringoff, Kristen M. Olson, Douglas Rivers, Lydia Saad, G. Evans Witt, Christopher Wlezien

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The 2016 presidential election was a jarring event for polling in the United States. Preelection polls fueled high-profile predictions that Hillary Clinton’s likelihood of winning the presidency was about 90 percent, with estimates ranging from 71 to over 99 percent. When Donald Trump was declared the winner of the presidency, there was a widespread perception that the polls failed. But did the polls fail? And if so, why? Those are among the central questions addressed by an American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) ad hoc committee. This paper presents the committee’s analysis of the performance of preelection polls in …

Poor Parenting, Attachment Style, And Dating Violence Perpetration Among College Students, Brian Ermon Tussey, Kimberly A. Tyler, Leslie Gordon Simons

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Although dating violence is prevalent among college students, little is known about how both attachment style and participation in risky behaviors contribute to this pattern of violence. To address this literature gap, we examine the role of poor parenting, child abuse, attachment style, and risky sexual and drug use behaviors on dating violence perpetration among 1,432 college students (51% female). Path analysis results revealed that females were more likely to report greater attachment anxiety but lower attachment avoidance compared with males. Correlates of attachment anxiety included child physical abuse, witnessing parental violence, and poorer maternal relationship quality whereas attachment avoidant …

Discovery Orientation, Cognitive Schemas, And Disparities In Science Identity In Early Adolescence, Patricia Wonch Hill, Julia Mcquillan, Amy Spiegel, Judy Diamond

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Why are some youth more likely to think of themselves as a science kind of person than others? In this paper, we use a cognitive social-theoretical framework to assess disparities in science identity among middle school–age youth in the United States. We investigate how discovery orientation is associated with science interest, perceived ability, importance, and reflected appraisal, and how they are related to whether youth see themselves, and perceive that others see them, as a science kind of person. We surveyed 441 students in an ethnically diverse, low-income middle school. Gender and race/ethnicity are associated with science identity but not …

Conditions Of Personhood And Property, Zachary James Acree

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper seeks to demonstrate that a more robust understanding of personhood both reveals flaws in the underlying assumptions of modern property law, and orients that law to a more just application. To do this, the law needs not only a better definition of what persons are, but also a better understanding of how persons function in their society. First, in order to provide some context to the issues at stake, there is a brief historical introduction to some of the problems that personhood inquiries have faced. After the introduction, this paper is divided into four sections. Part I summarizes …

Donne, Emigrazione E Prostituzione In Europa: Non Si Tratta Di “Sex Work”, Anna Zobnina, Chiara Carpita

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Political Stability In The Open Society, John Thrasher, Kevin Vallier

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

We argue that the Rawlsian description of a just liberal society, the well‐ordered society, fails to accommodate deep disagreement and is insufficiently dynamic. In response, we formulate an alternative model that we call the open society, organized around a new account of dynamic stability. In the open society, constitutional rules must be stable enough to preserve social conditions that foster experimentation, while leaving room in legal and institutional rules for innovation and change. Systemic robustness and dynamic stability become important for the open society in a way that they are not in the well‐ordered society. This model of the open …

A Method For Assessing The Success And Failure Of Community-Level Interventions In The Presence Of Network Diffusion, Social Reinforcement, And Related Social Effects, Hsuan-Wei Lee, G. Robin Gauthier, Jerreed D. Ivanich, Lisa Wexler, Bilal Khan, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Prevention and intervention work done within community settings often face unique analytic challenges for rigorous evaluations. Since community prevention work (often geographically isolated) cannot be controlled in the same way other prevention programs and these communities have an increased level of interpersonal interactions, rigorous evaluations are needed. Even when the `gold standard' randomized control trials are implemented within community intervention work, the threats to internal validity can be called into question given informal social spread of information in closed network settings. A new prevention evaluation method is presented here to disentangle the social influences assumed to influence prevention effects within …

Advocating For Integration: Acculturation In A Non-Profit Serving Immigrants Organization, Daniel Calderon

SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement

This paper presents acculturation practices in a non-profit, serving immigrants organization in a Midwestern city in the United States. Although the programs and services offered at this organization become pertinent vis-à-vis the welfare of the immigrants, their expected outcomes seem to foment the Americanization of the organization’s clients.

Through a critical examination, certain services and practices within this organization respond to a unidirectional process of acculturation, in which the immigrants turn out to be the ones who have to acquire certain sociocultural and linguistic repertoires for them to adapt and fit in the U.S. mainstream society.

The utilization of the …

Die-Logue: Elderly Isolation And The Need To Talk About Death, Mark Lin

Social Space

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the elderly population of Singapore—often manifested as articles about the “silver tsunami” as well as an ageing population’s impact on the economy, workforce and healthcare. However, there are much fewer discussions that touch on how a growing number of people are dying, and how these deaths can pose signifi cant challenges in themselves. At the macro level, the general belief is that an economy can be kept going as long as businesses raise productivity and expand their market presence through “gamechanging” innovations. However, when it comes to addressing a problem like …

"This Isn't For You, This Is For Me": Women In Cosplay And Their Experiences Combatting Harassment And Stigma, Christopher M. Lucas

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In the past two decades, cosplay, or “costume play,” has become increasingly popular among fans of anime, manga, and video games. Despite the community’s nature of embracing social difference, problems persist with regard to gender discrimination and breaching of consent boundaries. Discussion in the extant literature on cosplay has yet to address the views of women in the community, specifically the idea of cosplay and popular culture conventions being a “boys’ club.” The principle research questions of this study are: (1) What are the lived experiences of women cosplayers at anime conventions? (2) To what degree have they had to …

Tasseography From Jung's Perspective, Avetisian, Elizabeth

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Approaching from Jung’s perspective this paper aims to understand how the unconscious communicates through symbolism that may be the basis for synchronicity arising from mantic procedures. A particular ritual of divination called tasseography will be studied whereby the seer interprets patterns in coffee grounds intuitively and by following a standard system of symbolism to foretell the seeker’s future life events or provide answers to seeker’s pressing life questions. The paper will examine various processes involved in the experience of tasseography and its ritual that enable the reader to predict the seeker’s future or bring light to the present or past …

Bully Be Gone: What Is Workplace Bullying And Why Does It Matter?, Lynne Curry

Social Space

We have all met at least one in the course of our careers. He, or she, is the angry, aggressive bully who insults you to your face and behind your back. You would expect that at some point they would tire of this behaviour, but bullies thrive on demeaning and belittling you. Meanwhile, being bullied saps your emotional and physical energy until you fi nally resign from a job you once loved.

What Is My Role In Changing The System? A New Model Of Responsibility For Structural Injustice, Robin Zheng

Women's and Gender Studies Program: Faculty Publications

What responsibility do individuals bear for structural injustice? Iris Marion Young has offered the most fully developed account to date, the Social Connections Model. She argues that we all bear responsibility because we each causally contribute to structural processes that produce injustice. My aim in this article is to motivate and defend an alternative account that improves on Young’s model by addressing five fundamental challenges faced by any such theory. The core idea of what I call the Role-Ideal Model is that we are each responsible for structural injustice through and in virtue of our social roles, i.e. our roles …

Good Enough To Love, Emma Croft

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

In rare moments, I recall the days of not caring. Imagine: when your favorite shoes were white, Velcro-fastened Mary Janes, worn with lace-trimmed socks and pink, striped Oshkosh overalls. When your hair--a golden curly mess that stood on end each day as you jumped from your bed--never bothered you until your mother tried to fix it, pulling at knots as you wailed and wept.

Sourcing Enchantment: From Elemental Appropriation To Imaginal Symbolics, Schwartz, Michael

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Critical theorists and social commentators agree that modernity and postmodernity suffer from historical pathologies of world disenchantment. What might be done? Drawing on John Sallis’ phenomenology of the elemental and Tibetan Buddhist teachings on elemental practices, this paper investigates the imagination in its doubling as imaginal in generating a symbolics of the self, world, and other that is always already enchanted; an aesthetics of existence where the world itself shows forth like a work of art replete with exorbitant logics.

Examining Jordanians' Attitudes Towards Five Types Of Developmental Disabilities, Najah Zaaeed, Mohammad Mohammad, Peter Gleason, Khaled A. Bahjri, Naomi Modeste

Public Health, Food Studies, and Nutrition

Background: The diagnosis and reported rates of persons with developmental disabilities (PWDDs) in Jordan is steadily increasing. Although initiatives have been implemented to improve the lives of PWDDs, attitudes towards PWDDs hinder successful inclusion in the Jordanian society.

Objectives: To examine the relationship between Jordanians socio-economic status and attitudes towards persons with developmental disabilities: autism, blindness, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and muscular dystrophy.

Methods: Jordanians (N=259), ages 18-65 were recruited for this convergent parallel, mixed-methods study. Participants completed the modified 40-item Community Living Attitude Scale-developmental disability (CLAS-DD) and the modified Intellectual Disability Literacy Scale consisting of five vignettes, representing each …

Mutual Gaze Among Strangers, Allie Vaknin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reactions people experienced when engaged in extended eye contact with a stranger. Artist Marina Abramović and an organization entitled The Liberators International have demonstrated a spectrum of reactions, many emotionally-charged, that have occurred from the opportunity to sit across from and gaze into the eyes of a stranger. Current research on eye contact has been predominantly quantitative, with no available research that qualitatively investigates the scenario in focus. The design of this study involved interviewing 35 people who participated in "The World’s Biggest Eye Contact Experiment," where individuals paired with a …

Juvenile Curfews, Katherine Hazen, Eve Brank

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

A curfew is a regulation that prohibits members of a certain population, such as juveniles, from being in public during a specified time. The primary purpose of a curfew is social control. Juvenile curfews generally prohibit minors, persons under the age of 17 or 18, from being in public spaces at night. The form of the regulations and their requirements vary by time, place, and age. However, many regulations are based on the Dallas ordinance, which prohibits juveniles under the age of 17 from being on the street between 11 :00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. on weekdays and 12:00 a.m. …