Social Psychology Commons^™

Consumer Xenocentrism And Consumer Cosmopolitanism: The De-Velopment And Validation Of Scales Of Constructs Influencing Attitudes Towards Foreign Product Consumption, Steven James Lawrence

Wayne State University Dissertations

Like many other attributes, consumers exhibit varying degrees of preference with regard to foreign and domestic products. Some consumers have preferences for domestic products while other, seemingly similar, consumers prefer the foreign counterpart. Product quality differences aside, we aim to investigate the attitudinal constructs behind the varying preferences among consumers as they relate to foreign and domestic products.

The author created two new scales for the measurement of the consumer xenocentrism and consumer cosmopolitanism constructs. The consumer xenocentrism scale is intended to measure consumers' favorable orientations to products from outside their membership group. The consumer cosmopolitanism scale is designed to …

Examining The Role Of Identity In Negotiation Decision Making: The Case Of Cyprus, Cigdem Sirin

Departmental Papers (PS)

This study examines the effects of ethnic and social identities on negotiation decision making in the context of the Cyprus conflict. I conduct a theory-driven case study of the 1959 Zurich-London agreements on Cyprus, analyzing the positions of Turkey, Greece, Britain, and the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities during the negotiation process. I find that even in the presence of adversarial ethnic ties, decision makers who have a shared (and salient) social identity are more likely to employ collective-serving decision strategies and seek evenhanded solutions that will not jeopardize their mutual interests. In contrast, decision makers with severe ethnic fragmentation …

Theory Building Through Praxis Discourse: A Theory- And Practice-Informed Model Of Transformative Participatory Evaluation, Michael Allen Harnar

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Stakeholder participation in evaluation, where the evaluator engages stakeholders in the process, is prevalent in evaluation practice and is an important focus of evaluation research. Cousins and Whitmore proposed a bifurcation of participatory evaluation into the two streams of transformative participatory and practical participatory evaluation (T-PE and P-PE respectively). T-PE stems from a social justice perspective and P-PE has more of a use orientation. T-PE is an underdeveloped evaluation theory with relatively low operational specificity. Case examples provide some understanding of it in practice, but comprehensive empirical support is still forthcoming. This study aims to develop a greater understanding of …

Accessibility For Aggression And Negative Self-Views Following Ostracism, David Eric Oberleitner

Wayne State University Dissertations

Previous research has found that ostracism (being excluded or ignored by others) can cause deleterious effects to one's sense of belonging, control, meaningfulness of life and self-esteem, as well as increasing negative moods. Exclusion has been studied using several methodologies including Cyberball and the Life-Alone task. Additionally, research has demonstrated that individuals react more aggressively following an ostracism event as compared to an inclusion event. Other research finds that ostracized individuals have greater accessibility for aggressive words, and negative self-descriptive words as compared to individuals who are included. These domains have not, however, been explored together to examine how these …

Development And Initial Psychometric Evaluation Of A Culturally- Sensitive Beliefs About Personal Weight Survey, Stephanie Pickett

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF

A CULTURALLY-SENSITIVE BELIEFS ABOUT PERSONAL WEIGHT SURVEY

by

STEPHANIE PICKETT

December 2012

Advisor: Dr. Rosalind Peters

Major: Nursing

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to develop and perform initial psychometric evaluation of an instrument that measures beliefs about personal weight in young African American women. Beliefs about personal weight were defined as a multidimensional concept consisting of the convictions regarding the descriptive characteristics, causal attributions, and consequences of one's personal weight. The theory of self-care (Orem, 2001) was used to conceptualize concepts and conceptual relationships.

The Beliefs about Personal …

Young And Older Adults’ Beliefs About Effective Ways To Mitigate Age-Related Memory Decline, Michael Horhorta, Tara T. Lineweaver, Monique Ositelu, Kristi Summers, Christopher Herzog

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This study investigated whether young and older adults vary in their beliefs about the impact of various mitigating factors on age-related memory decline. Eighty young (ages 18–23) and eighty older (ages 60–82) participants reported their beliefs about their own memory abilities and the strategies that they use in their everyday lives to attempt to control their memory. Participants also reported their beliefs about memory change with age for hypothetical target individuals who were described as using (or not using) various means to mitigate memory decline. There were no age differences in personal beliefs about control over current or future memory …

Understanding Jurors’ Judgments In Cases Involving Juvenile Defendants: Effects Of Confession Evidence And Intellectual Disability, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Juveniles are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes, particularly if they are intellectually disabled. We conducted a mock trial experiment to investigate the effects of a juvenile defendant’s confession and status as intellectually disabled on jurors’ decision making. As expected, jurors discounted a juvenile’s coerced confession: Jurors’ judgments were similar for a juvenile who was perceived to have confessed under coercion and a juvenile who did not confess. In general, these effects were explained by the fact that, compared to a juvenile who was perceived as having confessed voluntarily, a juvenile who was perceived as having confessed under …

You Had Me At Helen: The Name Letter Effect In Judgments Of Humor, Jenna Ryan

Dissertations

The present study demonstrates that implicit egotism is relevant to not only letter attractiveness ratings on the Name Letter Test (NLT), but also to judgments of humor--albeit to a lesser degree. Respondents participated as "mock" judges in a simulated cartoon caption contest and evaluated writers' caption submissions for two cartoons. It was hypothesized that participants would exhibit biases toward captions submitted by writers with whom they shared a first initial letter, and additionally, their gender. A name letter effect was found in participants' judgments of humor and on the NLT. Shared gender with a caption writer--when coupled with a shared …

Deconstructing The "Power And Control Motive": Developing And Assessing The Measurability Of Internal Power, Shelly Marie Wagers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the increased social recognition, law and policy changes within the criminal justice system, and the widespread use of court mandated batterer intervention programs (BIPs) domestic violence continues to be a persistent problem. The lack of significant decline in incidence rates along with a growing body of empirical evidence that indicates BIPs are, at best, only moderately effective raises serious concern. Effective policies and programs are based upon empirically tested theory. The assertion "the batterer's motive is power and control" has become fundamental to almost all of our currently used and accepted mainstream theoretical explanations regarding domestic violence. However, the …

Nostalgic Identities: A Study In The Interactive Process Of Mexican/ Mexican American Users In Facebook, Daniel Dominguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Online social networking is a growing phenomenon. All over the globe people engage in disembodied interactions with one another taking for granted a compression of time and space. Most social analysis of online settings has been studied from a symbolic interactionist perspective in which the concept of multiple/pluralized identity helps explain how users identify themselves in disembodied contexts.

This paper intends to discover how the Mexican / Mexican American identity is presented, managed and produced by users in the Social Networking Site Facebook using the concept of nostalgia in how identity is presented in a disembodied context.

Social Job Characteristics And Older Workers: Effects On Job Satisfaction And Job Tension, Jennifer Rae Rineer

Dissertations and Theses

The workforce in most industrialized countries is aging and becoming more age diverse, but few studies have examined the implications of age differences in the design of jobs. This study examined the role of age as a moderator in the relationship between job characteristics and two individual outcomes, job satisfaction and job tension. Specifically, the study focused on the relationship between social characteristics of the job (given social support, [received] social support, interdependence, interaction outside the organization, and feedback from others) and job tension and job satisfaction among Portland Water Bureau employees. Based in Socioemotional Selectivity (SES) theory (Carstensen, 1991), …

Psychological Culture: Ambivalence And Resistance To Social Change, Alexander Etkind

Russian Culture

"National character," "modal personality," "collective unconscious," "ethnic mentality," "cultural identity" -- these and similar notions are designed to capture psychological traits that distinguish one social group from another. Attempts to isolate such hypothetical qualities are not different in principle from efforts to describe religious, legal, or other social patterns found among people who have lived together for a length of time, except that psychological constructs tend to focus on subjective characteristics and are somewhat harder to identify. For the first time, the link between culture and psychology came under close scrutiny in the nineteen century. German linguists Steinthal and Lazarus …

Multi-Generational Differences: Bridging The Gap, Leigh Mcmaster Bowes

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Today's business market is experiencing several trends such as organizational restructuring, corporate takeovers, changes in technology, mid-life career changes becoming more common, older employees choosing partial retirement rather than full retirement and the aging oftoday's largest workforce. As a result, the business community is faced with a new dynamic environment comprised ofmulti-generational difference and it is imperative that managers understand the generational differences and use their knowledge as a tool to create more employee productivity, innovation and loyalty (Fogg. 2009). This thesis used Constructive-Development Theory and Generational Cohort Theory to guide this research. Survey results concluded that managers did observe …

The Impact Of Technology And Teachers' Perceptions Of Changes In Student Learning, Sandra Marie Aggen

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Today’s cell phones are small computers in their own right, many having the capability of Internet searching and downloading information, exchanging data, taking and storing pictures, and its most popular function with the current generation of young people: text messaging. While on the surface it appears that text messaging has brought users together and improved communication, its effects on learning and social relationships are cause for concern. Personal interviews and online surveys conducted with over 100 educators present a real and sometimes disturbing look at new challenges in teaching and communicating with today’s students. Reading and writing ability is declining, …

Perceived Partner Commitment And Implicit Self-Esteem Predicts Connectedness Accessibility In Response To Relationship Threat, Norma L. Reyes

Master's Theses

The current research examined the impact of perceived partner commitment, implicit self-esteem, and relationship threat on connectedness. The present study predicted that individuals with high (versus low) implicit self-esteem are more likely to access connectedness goals (on an unconscious level) after experiencing a relationship threat, when they perceive their significant others are highly committed to the relationship. This relation between implicit self-esteem and connectedness goal accessibility will not be evident in the control condition. The findings reveal perceived partner commitment moderated the relation between implicit self-esteem and relationship threat on accessing connectedness goals. However, people with high implicit self-esteem were …

Illinois Mental Health Courts: Intra-Group Dynamics In The Courtroom Work Group, Shanti J. Raman

Master's Theses

This study was intended to gain insight into key social psychological constructs in an unexplored work-group context: one premised on true team structure. Exploratory information on intra-group dynamics in Illinois mental health courts addressed levels of trust, communication, coordination, efficacy, and conflict resolution within mental health court teams.

A survey assessed how court group members associate these central variables with their teams. All reported relatively high levels of trust and team efficacy, and solid capacities for communication, coordination, and conflict resolution. No notable differences emerged in these variables relative to length of courts' operation. Team members from multiple disciplines held …

Do It Because I Said So ... Please? : The Connection Between Supervisor Interpersonal Justice, Perceived Power, And Employee Reactions, Ellen Weissblum

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this set of studies was to investigate the linkage between interpersonally just or unjust behavior on the part of a supervisor and the perception of referent, coercive, and legitimate power as perceived by subordinates. It was proposed that lower levels of interpersonal justice on the part of a supervisor would result in the perception that the supervisor possessed a greater degree of coercive power and a lower degree of referent power. It was furthermore proposed that, consistent with prior research, referent power would be positively related to task commitment; coercive power would be positively related to reactance; …

Gossip And The Group: A Self-Categorization Perspective, Dana Turcotte

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Gossip is a little studied topic and even fewer studies have examined gossip from the perspective of social identity and self categorization theories. However, many of the functions of gossip have significant implications for group processes, including bonding, norm transmission and reinforcement, marginalization of deviants, and social influence. Particularly for those on the margins of the group, gossip may be used as a tool to gain acceptance in the group, as gossip is an effective way to express group loyalty and adherence to group norms. Study One investigated the extent to which being a prototypical member of one's group was …

Seeing Stars: Emotional Trauma In Athlete Retirement: Contexts, Intersections, And Explorations, Scott P. Tinley

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Few areas of modern sport are as misunderstood in popular and academic literature as that of retired professional and elite athletes. While the subject has been studied, the case of the retiring athlete has yet to be fully explored in a detailed, qualitative, and interdisciplinary study focusing on nuanced contexts affecting the quality of an athlete's exit from sport. Utilizing 3 participant groups--29 elite athletes (16 sports, 18 males, 11 females), 9 professional sport administrators, and 8 sport media journalists--over an 18-month period, extensive semi-structured interviews resulted in 1,436 raw data themes that constituted 13 direct, 3 indirect, and 3 …

Concept Mapping As A Buffer Against Evaluative Flexibility, Keith Welker

Wayne State University Theses

Attitude relevant knowledge is a central component to evaluative consistency and attitude representation. One way to assess the degree to which individuals deliberate and represent their knowledge is through concept mapping. Therefore, the present research investigated whether concept map deliberation moderated attitude consistency in a two-part experiment. Participants (N = 172) completed an online survey assessing personality, attitudes, and attitude strength toward physician assisted suicide (PAS). In a second onsite sessions participants were randomly assigned create an attitude-relevant or attitude-irrelevant concept map, and were randomly assigned to work with a fictitious partner who had a positive, negative, or unknown attitude …