Social Psychology Commons^™

Fantasia On A Theme Of Purpose: Using A Music-Guided Scribble Technique To Support Meaning-Making In Older Adult Retiree Musicians, Sophia R. Smith

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

Within the population of older adults, overall well-being corresponds with the ability to self-actualize and seek meaning, but age-related changes combined with ageism and isolation can negatively impact this capacity to maintain a sense of purpose, especially following retirement. It may be that retired musicians are especially vulnerable to this experience later in life due to a loss of the primary method of creative engagement and community that is facilitated by musical performance in a group setting. Integrating phenomenological and ethnographic approaches, this study utilized a qualitative design to understand how music-guided art-making incorporating the scribble technique could support a …

Greater Traditionalism Predicts Covid-19 Precautionary Behaviors Across 27 Societies, Theodore Samore, D. M. T. Fessler, A. M. Sparks, C. Holbrook, L. Aaroe, Norman P. Li, Kai Lin Lynn Tan, Et Al

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

People vary both in their embrace of their society’s traditions, and in their perception of hazards as salient and necessitating a response. Over evolutionary time, traditions have offered avenues for addressing hazards, plausibly resulting in linkages between orientations toward tradition and orientations toward danger. Emerging research documents connections between traditionalism and threat responsivity, including pathogen-avoidance motivations. Additionally, because hazard-mitigating behaviors can conflict with competing priorities, associations between traditionalism and pathogen avoidance may hinge on contextually contingent tradeoffs. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a real-world test of the posited relationship between traditionalism and hazard avoidance. Across 27 societies (N = 7844), we …

The Resilient Families Project @ Wayside’S Hotel Louisville: Strategies For Building Resilience, Mindfulness & Happiness In At-Risk Adults, Lexi N. Frederick, Hannah Parker, Angela Ely, Lora Haynes

The Cardinal Edge

The Resilient Families Project (RFP) provides educational experiences to strengthen evidence-based habits of resilience, mindfulness, and happiness in at-risk individuals. RFP holds programs for adults facing homelessness and women in drug/alcohol recovery who are housed by Wayside Christian Mission in their Emergency Shelter or Hotel Louisville.

RFP programs work to promote healthy attachment relations, a sense of belonging/purpose, and interactive reading, and children’s storybooks serve as the foundation for designing programs. The book “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse'' was reviewed through content analysis to emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as RFP Core Ideas. Thanks …

If You Don’T Live By The Sea, You Won’T Talk About Sailing: An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach Of The Polish Immigrant Experience In Chicago And The Acculturation Of Racial Beliefs, Monica Zabinski

Dissertations

There has been a steady increase in research and focus on defining and understanding racism and the role it plays in the ongoing inequality and inequity between individuals of White descent and individuals who are Black, indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC). However, little research has focused on what changes with racial beliefs when individuals immigrate between various countries where racism, discrimination, and racial beliefs may appear differently. Our objective was to increase our understanding of how the acculturation process may impact or change racial beliefs over time. Our research sought participants of Polish descent in the Chicagoland area and …

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 …

Epistemic Virtue And Receptivity To Science In Policing, Braden L. Campbell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the underexplored relationship between character epistemology and its potential to explain behavior, decision-making, and culture within the criminal justice system, particularly the police. Building on the existing theoretical framework of evidence-based policing (EBP) and the recognized gap in understanding police receptivity to science, this study hypothesized that intellectual character at personal and collective levels positively correlates with science receptivity.

Epistemic character was defined through the aggregation of four traits: open-mindedness, defensiveness, insouciance, and groupthink. Science receptivity was measured by openness to change, desire to learn, reliance on intuition, and mistrust of science. Data were collected through surveys …

You Hurt My Feelings: Autonomic And Behavioral Responses To Social Exclusion And The Moderating Effect Of Psychopathic Traits, Liat Kofler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Humans have a fundamental need to form and maintain social connections, and thus experiencing social exclusion is extremely distressing as it threatens this basic human need. Individuals who are socially excluded often respond aggressively, not only towards their ostracizers but also towards innocent bystanders, with ostracism being implicated in extreme acts of violence such as school shootings. However, individual differences in behavior exist within the context of social exclusion as not everyone responds aggressively after being ostracized. Identifying risk factors for retaliatory aggressive behavior following experiences of social exclusion may facilitate the development of targeted interventions aimed at mitigating such …

Bargaining In The Shadow Of The Truth: How Client Assertion, Perception Of Guilt, And Predictive Inaccuracy Influence Plea Recommendations, Anna D. Vaynman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past few decades, the largely hidden, secretive, and widely used system of plea bargaining has caught the fervent attention of scholars. The Shadow of the Trial model has been central to much of the plea-bargaining literature, despite significant critiques about its oversimplification. The model posits that defendants and their attorneys make plea decisions based largely on the estimated probability of conviction and the severity of the sentence to which the defendant could be exposed at trial.

The model, however, assumes that all actors are rational, equally risk averse, have no competing interests, and possess high predictive accuracy. It …

More Than An Athlete: The Impact Of Athletic Identity On African American Male Ncaa Di Collegiate Student-Athlete Help-Seeking Attitudes, Pattric Davis

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

A marginalized racial identity, a male gender identity, and an athletic identity have all been significantly linked to mental health seeking and attitudes. African American male collegiate student-athletes continue to use mental health resources at insufficient rates when compared to their White counterparts, even though they experience mental health impairment at comparative rates. The purpose of this study was to critically examine factors that contribute to the underutilization of mental health resources by African American collegiate NCAA DI student-athletes. At the intersection of race, gender, and athletic identity this study dives into the lived experiences of African American collegiate NCAA …

Constructing The Life Skills Education Experiences Of Maldivian Adolescents: Exploring Personal Narratives Of Transition, Challenge, And Becoming, Aishath Nasheeda Dr., Steven E. Krauss Dr., Haslinda Abdullah Dr., Nobaya Ahmad Dr.

The Qualitative Report

Life skills have been shown to help young people cope with challenges and facilitate their transition into adulthood. Few studies have explored life skills programs from the lived experiences of youth themselves. Using a retrospective narrative analysis approach, this study uses social construction and social learning theories to investigate how young people construct their experiences of life skills education in the context of their embedded social environments, including their relationships with family, school, and peers. The study incorporates a series of in-depth, face-to-face, and social media-based interviews with two young adults from the Maldives who had very different experiences …

Young Arabs In Canada: Ethnic Identity And Intersectionality, Rama Eloulabi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Arabs make up almost 2% of the population in Canada, and their numbers are growing rapidly. Yet, literature on Arabs in Canada is sparse, both from academic and governmental sources. Using ethnic identity and intersectionality frameworks, this study explores the meanings of Arab identity for youth in Ontario, Canada, and the interactions between their Arab identity and their other identities. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in Arabic and English with 30 participants (ages 18-30) who are from, or whose background is from, the Arab world. Findings highlighted the diversity of the population, and the themes that emerged regarding self-identification with …

Opportunity Discrimination: Resettlement Efforts Made By Ngos In The United States, Sarah Rauf

Capstone Collection

Social identity plays a key aspect in life. This research tests whether homogeneity between refugees and their host communities correlates to the immigration process and resettlement success. The analysis helps form a conclusion that people want to help those who look like themselves before those who appear more foreign. This is related to the central theories of social identity and prejudice stemming from stereotyping. Data collection comes from interviews with staff at a number of NGOs in the United States. The immigration and resettlement policies of these NGOs have been researched, and members were interviewed on the reformation of their …

Culturally Diverse Literature And Social Inclusion In Elementary Classrooms, Amanda Works

The Kabod

This qualitative study explored the use of culturally diverse literature in correlation to social inclusion, which is crucial for students’ social, emotional, and academic well-being. The purpose was to identify if culturally diverse literature could effectively promote social inclusion in diverse classrooms.

Presented at the National Collegiate Research Conference at Harvard University, January 2023.

See Senior Honors Thesis.

Terror Management And The News: An Exploration Into The Effects Of Framing On Mortality Salience, Peter Montwill

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The present study explores the link between Terror Management Theory and the use of its principles within news media. Political news media in the digital age undergoes a variety of framing effects, more specifically episodic and thematic frames of stories. To induce mortality salience, college-aged participants were presented with stories framed from the perspective of an individual’s experience or a general theme of experiences regarding the controversial pro-life topic and a non-controversial hiking topic. These stories are presented in the style of Instagram posts to mirror how college-aged people consume news media. The stories also contain wording designed to induce …

For The Love Of Teaching: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experience Of Moral Education, Anne Marie Foley Ruiz

Doctoral Dissertations

Moral aspects of teaching arise each and every day, yet we lack information about how prepared teachers feel about this critical aspect of teaching. This multi-case study explores perceptions of five pre-service teachers in an elementary teacher education program in Western Massachusetts. A series of interviews explore their histories prior to the program and their experiences in the program as related to the pre-service teachers’ orientations to the moral work of teaching. Research questions address the awareness and self-efficacy of student teachers in implementing the moral aspects of teaching. Using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006), this study explores beliefs …

The African American Dream Deferred: Exploring The Relationship Between The “American Dream” And The Black American Millennial Reality, Simonleigh P. Miller

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this qualitative study is to highlight and bring understanding to the lived experiences of Black American millennials. This study was conducted from the constructivist and critical research paradigms and utilized Reflexive Thematic Analysis methods to analyze qualitative data. The study places specific focus on Black or African American millennials’ associated thoughts and feelings regarding their current reality and positionality within the American context, and its relation to the idealized reality of the American Dream. The influence of the American Dream on the African American millennial reality was explored to gain a better understanding of how, or if …

Identifying Associations Between The Family Environment And Anxiety And Depression Among Children Ages 0-17 In The United States, Reagan A. Richardson, Nicole M. Holt

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

This study analyzes whether physical, emotional & neurological, family environment, or community-related factors display the strongest association with anxiety and depression among children ages 0-17 in the United States.

Using IBM SPSS v. 27, we conducted a univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis on data from the 2017 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) with a sample size of 21,599. Our independent variables included 30 questions from the NSCH which were compared to a mental health index score.

Our study shows that about 10.6% of children suffer from either anxiety, depression, or both, and the univariate model found that 19 …

How Gender Roles Impact The Social Perceptions Of Sexual Assault, Autumn Zwakenberg

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study set out to examine how different factors such as the gender of the victim, the gender of the perpetrator, and the scenario of sexual assault, can influence an outsider’s opinion of the sexual assault. There were two main hypotheses: the first is male and female participants would perceive the push-away scenario as sexual assault at equal rates, but significantly more female participants would perceive the victim allowing the perpetrator to unbuckle their pants scenario as sexual assault. The second is male and female participants would view the male perpetrator scenarios as sexual assault equally, but significantly more female …

Parental And Individual Correlates Of Work Ethic In Young People In Albania, Eljona Elmazi

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the work ethic strength, dimensions, and correlates in young people in Albania. The review of the available research concluded that, regardless of the attention that youth-related topics have received in the last decade, there was a considerable gap in the understanding of the state and correlates of the work ethic in this group. Using the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile – Short Form, the work ethic strength and dimensions were explored in an Albanian sample of (N = 501) 18 to 24 years old, otherwise known as Generation Z. Data were collected via …

Emotion Recogniton In Students With Social Anxiety: Loving-Kindness As An Intervention, Audrey Darnbush

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Deficits in emotion recognition can often be found in individuals who have elevated social anxiety—decreasing positive social interaction and increasing social avoidance. Some possible causes for these deficits include: (1) negative interpretation biases for ambiguous social stimuli and (2) negatively biased self-focused and others-focused attention in social situations— which can impede an accurate appraisal of how one is being evaluated. Mindfulness-based interventions target attentional awareness, and some have empirical support for treating anxiety-related issues. However, little research has been conducted to determine the possible therapeutic effects of loving-kindness meditation for social anxiety disorder. Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is a specific subtype …