Social Psychology and Interaction Commons^™

The Pulpit And The People: Mobilizing Evangelical Identity, Tim Moser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using ten sermons from five prominent and politically active evangelical megachurch pastors taken from the 2016 presidential campaign season, this case study utilizes frame analysis to understand the political relevance of modern evangelical sermonizing. An inductive frame analysis allows the concept of a collective action frame to be observed as a process and for patterns to emerge from the source text. Within these sermons, ministers offer self-identifying evangelicals a vocabulary with which to understand and describe their own identity. In this context, the Bible is a powerful cultural symbol that represents an allegiance to traditions that are framed as the …

Big Data In Social And Psychological Science: Theoretical And Methodological Issues, Lin Qiu, Sarah Hian May Chan, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Big data presents unprecedented opportunities to understand human behavior on a large scale. It has been increasingly used in social and psychological research to reveal individual differences and group dynamics. There are a few theoretical and methodological challenges in big data research that require attention. In this paper, we highlight four issues, namely data-driven versus theory-driven approaches, measurement validity, multi-level longitudinal analysis, and data integration. They represent common problems that social scientists often face in using big data. We present examples of these problems and propose possible solutions.

The Diffusion Of Tolerance: Birth Cohort Changes In The Effects Of Education And Income On Political Tolerance, Philip Schwadel, Christopher R. H Garneau

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Political tolerance—the willingness to extend civil liberties to traditionally stigmatized groups—is pivotal to the functioning of democracy and the well-being of members of stigmatized groups. Although political tolerance has traditionally been more common among American elites, we argue that as tolerance has increased, it has also diffused to less educated and less affluent segments of the population. The relative stability of political attitudes over the life course and the socialization of more recent birth cohorts in contexts of increased tolerance suggest that this diffusion of tolerance occurs across birth cohorts rather than time periods. Using age-period-cohort models and more than …

The Role Of Entitlement, Self-Control, And Risk Behaviors On Dating Violence Perpetration, Kimberly A. Tyler, Rachel M. Schmitz, Colleen M. Ray, Leslie Gordon Simons

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Dating violence continues to be pervasive among college students (Stappenbeck & Fromme, 2010). Given the paucity of research investigating the various pathways through which risk factors are linked to dating violence among different college campuses, we use multiple group path analysis to examine the role of child abuse, self-control, entitlement, and risky behaviors on dating violence perpetration among college students from one Southeastern and one Midwestern university. There were 1,482 college students (51% female) enrolled in undergraduate courses at 2 large public universities who completed paper and pencil surveys. Dating violence perpetration was directly associated with gender, child physical abuse, …

Weather Communication On Twitter: Identifying Popular Content And Optimal Warning Format Via Case Studies And A Survey Analysis, Joshua D. Eachus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The use of Twitter as a channel for weather information inspires a deeper analysis of key information nodes during episodes of high impact weather, especially local meteorologists. To optimize communication on the channel, it is important to understand what kinds of messages produce exposure and attention among users—which translates to knowledge that could improve the reach of a warning. Literature identifies two key models that well describe the cognitive processing of tweets and warnings. The Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) describes risk perception and the factors that enable or disable one from acting on a warning. Particularly through environmental and …

How And When Do Attributions Affect Relationship Satisfaction? Judgments Of Partner Suitability And Implicit Theories Of Relationships, Justus Rui Hao Wee

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Drawing on the traditional internal-external dichotomy embraced by attribution research in other non-relational domains, research on attributions in romantic relationships has largely focused on distinguishing between the impact of making partner (internal) and external attributions. Given that past research on relationship cognitions showed that people think in relationship specific ways (e.g., relational schemas; Baldwin, 1992), I propose the need for the inclusion for attributions that capture relationship-specific causes. With that in mind, the present research explored the incremental value of interpersonal attributions, which refer to the perception that a partner’s behaviors are caused by their love and care (or lack …

Age, Period, And Cohort Effects On Death Penalty Attitudes In The United States, 1974–2014, Amy L. Anderson, Robert Lytle, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In this article, we further the understanding of both changes in public opinion on capital punishment in the United States and changes in the factors associated with public opinion on the death penalty. Support for the death penalty may be motivated by events happening during specific time periods, and it can vary across birth cohorts as a result of cohort-specific socialization processes, demographic changes, and formative events that are specific to each generation. An explication of the sources of and variation in death penalty attitudes over time would benefit from the accounting for the age of the respondent, the year …

Housing Diversity In Children’S Literature, Carla Earhart

Charleston Library Conference

Previous studies have examined diversity in children’s literature: Gender diversity, racial diversity, religious diversity, and diversity in family composition. This project examines an often overlooked diversity issue in children’s literature: Housing diversity. In the stories they read and the accompanying images, children need to see a variety of housing environments and need to see the settings and the people portrayed in a positive manner.

Renting an apartment is an increasingly popular housing option for many families. However, many children’s books glamorize living in a traditional house. Using a rubric designed by the course instructor, students in a university immersive learning …

Grandmothers As Child Caregivers: A Unique Child Care Arrangement, Kathy L. Reschke, Susan K. Walker

Occasional Paper Series

This paper draws attention to grandmothers who provide child care and the parents and children they serve, by sharing the results of a study of a group of employed mothers from rural, low-income families who used grandmother care on a regular basis. Although their experiences cannot represent those of all mothers who use grandmother care, they are valuable in understanding the perspective of many women with few feasible options who depend on this type of care.

Unpacking The Mind Of Evil: A Sociological Perspective On The Role Of Intent And Motivations In Genocide, Timothy Williams, Dominik Pfeiffer

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

For quite some time, theories on the role of intent in genocide were conceptually frozen in polarised liberal and post-liberal, or purpose- and knowledge-based approaches, respectively. In accordance with recent criminological thought that moves beyond the narrow debate, this article develops a new sociological perspective on the role of intent in genocide. Drawing on frame analysis it is argued that intent is mainly relevant for framing genocidal action at the macro level. However, individual low-level perpetrators act from a large number of different motivations, of which ideologies of intent are only one. Others range from obedience to authority, coercion and …

Needle Acquisition Patterns, Network Risk And Social Capital Among Rural Pwid In Puerto Rico, Ian Duncan, Patrick Habecker, Roberto Abadie, Ric Curtis, Bilal Khan, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) take on significant risks of contracting blood-borne infection, including injecting with a large number of partners and acquiring needles from unsafe sources. When combined, risk of infection can be magnified.

Methods: Using a sample of PWID in rural Puerto Rico, we model the relationship between a subject’s number of injection partners and the likelihood of having used an unsafe source of injection syringes. Data collection with 315 current injectors identified six sources of needles.

Results: Of the six possible sources, only acquisition from a seller (paid or free), or using syringes found on the …

Responding To Infertility: Lessons From A Growing Body Of Research And Suggested Guidelines For Practice, Karina M. Shreffler, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Infertility is a common, yet often misunderstood, experience. Infertility is an important topic for family scientists because of its effects on families; its relevance to research in related areas, such as fertility trends and reproductive health; and its implications for practitioners who work with individuals and couples experiencing infertility. In this review, we focus on common misperceptions in knowledge and treatment of infertility and highlight insights from recent research that includes men, couples, and people with infertility who are not in treatment. The meaning of parenthood, childlessness, awareness of a fertility problem, and access to resources are particularly relevant for …

Peer Punishment Promotes Enforcement Of Bad Social Norms, Klaus Abbink, Lata Gangadharan, Toby Handfield, John Thrasher

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Social norms are an important element in explaining how humans achieve very high levels of cooperative activity. It is widely observed that, when norms can be enforced by peer punishment, groups are able to resolve social dilemmas in prosocial, cooperative ways. Here we show that punishment can also encourage participation in destructive behaviours that are harmful to group welfare, and that this phenomenon is mediated by a social norm. In a variation of a public goods game, in which the return to investment is negative for both group and individual, we find that the opportunity to punish led to higher …

Selfie-Takers Prefer Left Cheeks: Converging Evidence From The (Extended) Selfiecity Database, Lev Manovich, Vera Ferrari, Nicola Bruno

Publications and Research

According to previous reports, selfie takers in widely different cultural contexts prefer poses showing the left cheek more than the right cheek. This posing bias may be interpreted as evidence for a right-hemispheric specialization for the expression of facial emotions. However, earlier studies analyzed selfie poses as categorized by human raters, which raises methodological issues in relation to the distinction between frontal and three-quarter poses. Here, we provide converging evidence by analyzing the (extended) selfiecity database which includes automatic assessments of head rotation and of emotional expression. We confirm a culture- and sex-independent left-cheek bias and report stronger expression of …

Tackling The Health Gap: The Role Of Psychosocial Processes, Nancy E. Adler, Jacinth J. X. Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In The Health Gap, Michael Marmot describes how, starting even before birth, social conditions set individuals on trajectories that eventuate in inequities in health and longevity. In addition to race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status linked to income and education plays a major role in determining health trajectories. The effects emerge not only at the very bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum, but across the whole range.1 The fact that health effects persist at levels where resources are more than adequate to fulfill material needs suggests that the health gap is not due only to material privation associated with poverty, but also …

The Behavioral Effects Divorce Can Have On Children, Wanda M. Williams-Owens

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

According to a statistical study (Cherlin et al. 1991) 40% of children who live in the United States will experience parental divorce before they reach the age of 18. Consequently, many children are affected by the process of divorce and its finalization. When my daughter was just nine years old, she asked incredulously why my husband and I were the only married couple in our neighborhood? After twenty-two years of marriage, I realized long-term marriages in my community are not conventional. When parents’ divorce, children often face the loss of one parent's constant presence and economic stability; as a result, …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Ethnic Identity Development, Cognitive Complexity, Differentiation Of Self, And Reports Of Racial And Ethnic Microaggressions, Deshae C. Gatti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although individuals may not engage in racism consciously due to social undesirability, they may have biases that manifest in more subtle and unconscious ways. Research has found that people of color experiencing different racial and ethnic microaggressions in their everyday lives are subject to pervasive and negative impacts on their mental health, though little is known about the influence of one’s ethnic identity formation, affective processes, and cognitive processes. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the degree to which ethnic identity development, cognitive complexity, and differentiation of self were associated reported experiences of microaggressions. The analysis indicated that …

The Dynamics Of Participatory Monitoring And Evaluation (Pm&E) In Traditional Pakistan., Aamer Shams

Capstone Collection

This research seeks to explore the interpretation and application of Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) in the context of Educational Empowerment by analyzing insights gathered from multiple stakeholder groups in four cities of Pakistan, Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta, and Peshawar. Analysis of the findings reveals nuances of PM&E, including “Equality and Equity, Respect and Tolerance” (pg. 58-61) that limit the potential of this transdisciplinary empowerment process. Empowerment and educational programs often employ the continuous processes of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) to gain an understanding of the implementation, efficiency, impact, and overall performance of the program. M&E also provides valuable information about …

Upstanders, Whistle-Blowers, And Rescuers, Martha Minow

Utah Law Review

Communities of responsibility and the cultures that nurture them take many steps to build. An important step is to honor remarkable individuals with courage and commitment. Raphael Lemkin, Benjamin Ferencz, Luis Moreno Ocampo, Emmanuel Uwurukundo, Samantha Power, filmmaker Edet Belzberg, and Victor Koningsberger deserve recognition and honor. At the same time, we need to emphasize that an upstander does not need extraordinary qualities. Ordinary people can and do stand up in small and big ways against oppression and injustice. Education can help. Speeches can help. When we honor heroes, we should not simply recognize individual courage. Doing so can help …

Global Corporate Responsibility In Domestic Context: Lateral Decoupling And Organizational Responses To Globalization, Alwyn Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper examines how the domestic reception of global corporate responsibility is significantly shaped by institutionalized differences among state, business and civil society actors in the domestic context. In the global diffusion of ideas and practices, the decoupling of global policies and domestic practice is endemic, a process that this paper argues results from competing domestic interests and orientations. I examine this process of ‘lateral decoupling’ in a case study of the reception of the United Nations Global Compact among corporate responsibility practitioners in the city-state of Singapore. Differences in ceremonial, pragmatic and non-adversarial orientations towards global corporate responsibility generated …