Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Emotions In Work And War: Comparisons Of Emotional-Cultures Of New Deal Ccc Enrollees And Wwii U.S. Army Enlistees, 1933-1945, Maeve Losen

Master's Theses

Though the Great Depression and Second World War were consecutive eras and overlapped in numerous aspects, scholarship often overlooks the commonalities between these periods. To demonstrate these eras’ shared qualities, this thesis examines the relationship in emotional-cultures—the cultural norms that dictated how individuals felt and demonstrated their emotions—among Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees and U.S. Army enlistees during WWII.

The broad intent of this undertaking is to place the cultural history of the Great Depression and WWII in conversation and to show the advantage of inter- and multidisciplinary work by applying anthropological and historical theories of emotion. Though the historical …

The Thin Ideal And Body Positivity: How Do Influencers Affect Female Instagram Users?, Jeralynn Servos

Master's Theses

With the vast increase in social media use, there has also been an increase of exposure to body image ideals via photos shared online. Accordingly, it has become more important to understand the association between social media and how its users view their body image, as well as how social media users’ practices are affected by posted pictures. Therefore, this study employed three focus groups to explore young women’s perceptions of potential ideal images, how they compare themselves to these images, and how these ideas affect the practices used within their own Instagram accounts. An analysis of the qualitative data …

Impact Of Teaching Practices And Communication Climates On Participation In Computer Science Education, Jackie Krone

Master's Theses

One way to understand teaching is to view it as a people process rather than a presentation of knowledge. It follows that the role of an educator often extends beyond the primary subject matter and into the realm of classroom management. With this in mind, our research aimed to capture the various teaching practices, participation patterns, and communication climates that occur in virtual computer science classrooms. We sought to answer the following research questions related to virtual computer science classrooms at our institution: Who participates in virtual computer science classrooms, and is participation proportional to student demographics? Is there any …

Mindset Matters: The Relations Between Growth Mindset And Academic And Career Variables Among First-Generation College Students, Dillon Harper

Master's Theses

Can altering the perception of failure change future performance? Growth Mindset (GM) has been investigated for several decades, and studies have indicated that altering the way people perceive failure can impact certain levels of performance like academic achievement. The individual who endorses a GM views a challenge or failure not as a defeat and submission of inability, but a recognition that further growth, persistence, and effort are required to accomplish the desired task. This project aimed to understand more about first generation college students (FGCS) who endorse a growth mindset. Specifically, the intention of the study was to understand how …

The Impact Of Formal Education, Specialized Training, And Offense Type On Perceptions Of Employability: Can Bias Toward Hiring A Person With A Criminal History Be Mitigated?, Rheanna Standridge

Master's Theses

Gaining employment for returning citizens has been shown to reduce recidivism and contribute to a successful community reintegration. Yet, many employers remain skeptical when it comes to hiring formerly incarcerated job candidates for a variety of reasons. Though hesitations are often related to assumptions about a person’s dangerousness, there remain legitimate reasons, such as limited formal education and basic skills, that prevent returning citizens from finding work. Further, previous research suggests that hiring decisions are confounded by offense type, even if an employer would otherwise consider a person with a criminal history. Thus, it is unclear whether returning citizens’ level …

Virtual Teams During Covid-19: A Study On Group Perceptions, Emergent States, And Outcomes, Thomas Montagna

Master's Theses

Due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, university students were forced to transition to emergency remote learning that, for many, required an abrupt shift from traditional face-to face instruction. The current study leveraged the unique opportunity provided by the change in communication modalities to compare pre and post pandemic perceptions of teamwork. Using the input-mediator-output-input (IMOI) framework, this study sought to discover how group processes, emergent states, and outcomes differed for face-to-face and virtual group work. As part of a retrospective pretest design, a convenience sample of fifty-two graduate students from the University of New Haven completed a single survey that asked …

Translatina Immigrant Mental Health Wellness: Suggestive Intervention Strategies The City Of San Francisco Should Consider Adopting, Valeria Vera

Master's Theses

Translatina immigrants in the United States often suffer from intersectional traumas due to their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and immigration status — putting them in a vulnerable position socially, psychologically, economically, and medically. Due to their positionality in the intersections of migration, criminalization, cissexism, and mental health, they are often more marginalized and have greater needs than communities with privileged sociocultural identities. As a particularly vulnerable group, they need guaranteed access to gender-affirming healthcare that is inclusive of mental health services. Despite Translatinas’ need for mental health services, there exist many barriers making services inaccessible and insufficient in San …

Growth Of Condition-Related Knowledge Among Youth With Spina Bifida: Associations With Neurocognitive Functioning And Self-Management Skills, Olivia Emery Clark

Master's Theses

Spina bifida (SB) is a congenital birth defect that may involve physical, medical, and neuropsychological complications due to central nervous system malformation (Copp et al., 2015). Ambulation problems, bladder and bowel dysfunction, and hydrocephalus require daily medical management tasks, including catheterization, bowel program management, and skin checks to avoid secondary complications. While self-management skills are typically gained during adolescence, executive dysfunction in SB may complicate gains (Dennis et al., 2006; Greenley, 2010). Indeed, evidence in other chronic conditions suggests that adolescent executive dysfunction is linked to poorer medical self-management. Condition-related knowledge has been identified as an important basis of medical …

How Self Relevance And Disclaimers Against Blame Affect Victim Blaming Of Sexual Assault Survivors, Lina Maria Flores Wolf

Master's Theses

Victim blame can have negative impacts on survivors of sexual assault, leading to increased rates of neurological disorders, like PTSD, depression, and anxiety (Orchowski et al., 2013). As such, it is important that psychologists focus on implementing and understanding the effects of interventions that seek to decrease victim blame. This study seeks to explore the effects of a potential intervention aimed at decreasing victim blame by introducing, together with information about an assault, an explicit disclaimer stating that victims are not to blame. I explore the relationship between self-relevance and blame, as well as whether an explicit disclaimer against victim …

A Process Evaluation Of Aunt Mary’S Storybook: Seeking To Improve The Relationship Between Incarcerated Parents And Their Children Through Literacy, Scott Charles Mcwilliams

Master's Theses

In response to the rise of incarceration in jails and prisons, and the number of children adversely impacted by their parents’ incarceration, in 1993, a nonprofit organized called Companions Journeying Together (“CJT”), created the Aunt Mary’s Storybook (AMS) program to foster positive connections between incarcerated parents to their children. What began as a Christmastime program for mothers in the Cook County Jail has grown into a year-round program operating in prisons and jails throughout Illinois. AMS provides those incarcerated with an opportunity to record themselves reading a book to their children, and AMS then mails/transmits the recording along with a …

The Role Of Identification In Black Individuals' Goals To Challenge Racism Through Confrontation And Collective Action, Efrata Sasahulih

Master's Theses

Anti-Black racism continues to harm Black individuals in the United States and throughout the world (e.g., police brutality, medical racism: Hoffman, Trawalter, Axt, & Oliver, 2016; Smiley & Fakunle, 2016; Stuber, Meyer, & Link, 2008). Psychological research has investigated the roots of prejudice and strategies to mitigate its negative consequences, including confrontation and collective action. However, research in this area has largely focused on ways that these strategies pose additional risk for targets of prejudice. This research determined if Black people who endorse individual-benefiting or group-benefiting goals following an instance of anti-Black racism use confrontation and collective action, respectively, to …

Abolition Is Not Abstract: Zines And The Transmission Of Revolutionary Cultural Capital, Austin Wonder

Master's Theses

Abolition as a theory and practice-whether in relation to the institution of the prison, systems of policing, or the carceral state as a whole-has received relatively little attention or serious appreciation within the discipline of Sociology. Calls for the abolition of policing and prisons are often taken for granted as naïve and radical demands, perceived as being disassociated from the material conditions of reality. Nonetheless, abolitionist analyses provide a unique and critical perspective from which to explore alternatives to addressing pervasive police violence and mass incarceration through strategies which do not rely upon, or increase the power of, the criminal …

Andrews University’S Thought Leadership Communication On Linkedin: A Textual Analysis, Nana Ama O. Akoto-Boateng

Master's Theses

Thought leadership is fast becoming a powerful communication tool for most industries and sectors including higher education institutions (HEIs). This study employed textual analysis to determine how Andrews University's thought leadership on LinkedIn compares with four other top-ranking Adventist universities, namely Loma Linda University, Pacific Union College, Southern Adventist University and Walla Walla University. The text elements that were analyzed during the study were image posts and video posts on the respective LinkedIn pages of these institutions, spanning from January 2021 to June 2021. Among other findings, the results of the study revealed that Andrews University compares as the least …

A Study In The Effectivenss Of Factual Versus Emotional Interventions In Reducing Ambivalent Sexism In Hiring Decisions, Molly Jane Driscoll

Master's Theses

Ambivalent sexism – divided into the categories of benevolent sexism (BS) and hostile sexism (HS) – is imbedded in many parts of the workplace. This study aims to explore if ambivalent sexism influences hiring decisions and, if so, what can be done about it. After completing a series of surveys, participants were asked to read about an agentic female candidate who applied for a male-dominated position. Afterwards, participants went through either a factual or emotional intervention before reevaluating their decision. Major results showed that only the emotional intervention increased the likelihood of the candidate being hired but it is not …

Examining The Bidirectional Relations Between Psychological Functioning And Academic Outcomes Among College Students, Maya Hareli

Master's Theses

Emerging adulthood is a developmental period associated with a variety of transitions and changes, including rising rates of mental health concerns (Arnett, 2004, 2006; Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2020). The literature has established that both psychological and academic functioning are critical components of students’ lives, as mental health has been shown to interfere with students’ grades, graduation rates, and postgraduate employment (Hartley, 2010; Mojtabai et al., 2015), while poor achievement is associated with mental health challenges in college and beyond (Bruffaerts et al., 2018; Respondek et al., 2017). Additionally, women and men have been shown to experience these areas …

The Impact Of Perceived Discrimination And Stigma Consciousness On Connectedness, Trust, And Satisfaction In Healthcare Domains During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Devon Richardson

Master's Theses

This study will assess the relations between perceived experiences of discrimination within healthcare settings and connectedness, trust, and satisfaction with services in healthcare domains among African Americans. It will also examine if the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated this relationship. I predict that African Americans in the COVID-19 discrimination condition (versus the control condition) will report lower connectedness and trust with healthcare workers and lower satisfaction with healthcare services. I also predict that stigma consciousness will moderate this effect. For African Americans reporting lower levels of stigma consciousness, I expect there will be a negative relation between perceiving discrimination and connectedness, …

The Limits Of Healthy Habits: Exploring The Relationship Between Disordered Eating, Body Image, Mindfulness, Social Media, And Dysfunctional Exercise, Taylor A. Dinkel

Master's Theses

In recent decades, there has been an increase not only in full syndrome eating disorders, but also in subclinical presentations of disordered eating, many of which include dysfunctional relationships with exercise. Although not full diagnosable syndromes, disordered relationships with food and exercise, as well as a preoccupation with body image, can cause severe physical and psychological stress for individuals who present with these dysfunctional patterns. With the growth of fitness-related social media accounts, the increase in social media usage during the pandemic, and the increase in subclinical disordered eating presentations and dysfunctional relationships with exercise, it is important be aware …

The Effects Of Social Media On Anxiety, Reward Sensitivity, And Risk-Taking On Emerging Adults, Victoria Medrano

Master's Theses

The increasing popularity of social media has led to 3.80 billion social media users worldwide (Kemp, 2020). The conception of social media has brought positive and negative effects to light. A tool originally intended to provide connection and build relationships has now also been described by many as a tool for bullying, peer pressure, mental health issues, and unrealistic views of others (Valkenburg & Peter, 2009). Research has shown a significant relationship between levels of social media usage and the likelihood for young adults to have increased reward sensitivity, risky behaviors, and anxiety levels (Vannucci et al., 2017; Vannucci et …

Three Method Tsunami Vulnerability Analysis Of The United States East Coast, Joshua Knolla

Master's Theses

The East Coast of the United States could be susceptible to tsunamis or even mega tsunamis. With this in mind it becomes essential to answer the question: Where is vulnerability to a tsunami greatest along the East Coast of the United States? To answer this question the following parameters have been set. First, the study will include county level subdivisions along the USEC that have coasts along the Atlantic Ocean. The possible source regions of a tsunami or mega tsunami are also noted. This analysis includes both social and physical factors with nine and five of them considered respectively. Three …

Not Ready To Make Nice: A Study Of The Intimate Relationship Of The Chicks' Music And Politics, Danielle Bishop

Master's Theses

In 2003, Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the band then known as the Dixie Chicks, made a political statement to an all British audience. Her statement was both critical of the Iraq War that America had just entered, and also critical of then-President Bush. The Chicks were immediately blacklisted, with audiences burning the Chicks merchandise and radio stations refusing to play any of the music penned by the Chicks. In this thesis, the causal factors behind this level of backlash will be evaluated. Previous studies have indicated the significant impact of gender and music and how this has an …

The Effect Of Group Identification And Emotion On Participation In Collective Action, Iryna Chaban

Master's Theses

In the last few years, the number of collective actions in the United States started to increase. These events have been ranging from peaceful to violent. The present research aims to understand what is causing groups to participate in collective action and become aggressive. It will expand understanding of group identification, emotion, and participation in collective action. The researcher hypothesizes that individuals who hold higher identification with a group are more likely to experience anger and participate in a protest. Data collection involved an online survey. Introductory psychology students read a passage describing a protest and respond to several short …

Positive Affect Facilitates Reduction In Depression Symptoms During A Mobile Mindfulness-Based Intervention, Andrew Rauch

Master's Theses

Depression negatively impacts the lives of many, and the rates are continuing to rapidly increase. Identifying patterns of modifiable affective psychological mechanisms that contribute to reducing depression symptoms is critical to improve the effectiveness of wellbeing interventions for individuals with depressive disorders. Depression has been characterized by valanced patterns of low positive affect and high negative affect, yet the extent to which these relative patterns of affectivity change in response to intervention remains less clear. The present study evaluated affective patterns in college students (n = 127) with elevated depression symptoms who participated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of …

The World Health Organization, The Trump Administration, American Public Opinion, And China: A Principal-Agent Problem, Megan Patrice Larson

Master's Theses

Why did the United States perceive the World Health Organization as ineffective during the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, this research delves into current principal-agent model literature to reproduce mechanisms present by the WHO and the United States. Current research fails to explain the WHO's effectiveness. By borrowing from realist theory and political psychology and analyzing various declarations made by the United States, this analysis found preliminary evidence that the idea of WHO's ineffectiveness was primarily shaped by the Trump Administration and American public opinion. Moreover, because of the disinformation and misinformation spread by the Trump Administration, the WHO …

Assessing The Discriminant Validity Between Integrative Complexity And Open-Minded Cognition, Madeleine Louise Kindler

Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to evaluate the discriminant validity between integrative complexity and open-minded cognition (OMC). That is, the aim of this study was to show that integrative complexity and OMC are conceptually distinct constructs. This online study randomly assigned 198 Loyola University Chicago undergraduate psychology students to read either six tenable, homogeneous written communication remarks or six untenable, heterogeneous written communication remarks, made during a hypothetical conversation about the inclusion of prayer/moments of silence in high school curriculums. Participants then listed their cognitive thoughts and responses to the communication in a free response format (integrative complexity measure) …

How Black Are You?: The Influence Of Racial Centrality On Stereotype Threat In The Courtroom, Kendall Cathleen Redwood

Master's Theses

The current study explores whether stereotype threat, or fear of confirming negativestereotypes about one’s in-group, might manifest in the criminal justice system. This study specifically asks whether the threat of confirming stereotypes connecting race and crime manifest, among Black defendants, in nonverbal behaviors that might be perceived by observers as guilt. This research further explores whether racial centrality, the degree to which one identifies with one’s race, moderates effects of stereotype threat. Black female-identifying college students, who rated their degree of racial centrality, were randomly assigned to experience the activation of the race-crime stereotype or to a control condition. They …

Investigation Of A Misophonia And Fluid Intelligence Relationship: Sound Spectrum Variation Impact On Fluid Intelligence Task Responses, Leslie Watson

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT Studies of misophonia have not assessed the impact of music and sound complexity on intelligence in individuals with misophonia. Edelstein et al. (2013) have provided work which pools trigger sound characteristics including sound repetitiveness yet does not include a substantial music subcategory. Utilizing the Cattell–Horn–Carroll model of intelligence, the current study explores the nature of music and music complexity on fluid intelligence, as described by Sternberg (2012). The hypotheses for this study focused on the relationship that complexity and music might have with misophonia. The rate of misophonia in the Mechanical Turk population was hypothesized to be 20%. The …

Influences Of Latino Caregivers’ Input And Acculturation On Children’S Bilingual Development: A Speech Sample Analysis, Jordan Sierra Perry

Master's Theses

Interactions with caregivers are important for children’s development. In particular, the language input that young dual language learners (DLLs) receive from their primary caregivers affects their cultural knowledge and their bilingual language outcomes. However, relatively little research has been conducted to investigate the cultural contexts that influence Latino caregivers’ bilingual language use at home, including their acculturation level. Thus, the present study examined the relation between caregivers’ acculturation and their children’s bilingual (Spanish and English) language use, and whether this relation varied as a function of caregivers’ bilingual language use. Parent-report measures of bilingual language use, in addition to video …

The Effect Of Foreign Direct Investment On Colombia’S Economic Growth And The Role Of Human Capital: Does Foreign Direct Investment Foster Growth?, Jean K. Plantin

Master's Theses

Abstract: Since the pioneering work of John H. Dunning on the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the economic growth of the United Kingdom, many experts have debated the growth effect of FDI in an economy. This study investigated the impact of FDI on Colombia’s economic growth from 1990 to 2019. Moreover, it explored whether the Colombian economy has benefited from positive spillover from FDIs. Additionally, the paper examined how the stock level of human capital conditioned the effect of FDI on GDP per capita growth. To this end, the analysis separated tertiary enrollments from the human capital …

Risk Perception And Response Among International Students Of The University Of Southern Mississippi, Elida Lopes Souza Rocha

Master's Theses

Given the exposure of university campuses to hazards, disaster mitigation is a critical element of higher education policy. Although U.S. higher education institutions are leaders in the global education market, emergency warning systems give little consideration to how international students perceive risk, prepare for hazards, or access warning technologies available to them. This poses several questions regarding the suitability of hazards mitigation practices and the welfare of international students.

This thesis investigates the relationship between USM international students and natural hazards. Responses from online surveys and semi-structured interviews data were analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methods to document the extent …

Collateral Damage: How Expanding Public Charge Policy Influences Adult Esl Enrollment, Allison M. Eckert

Master's Theses

This study used statistical analysis of enrollment records for ESL programs at community colleges throughout California from 2015-2019 to determine whether adult immigrants’ participation in public ESL programs was reduced under President Donald Trump. Immigrant families’ lesser use of public education services and means-tested federal benefits has been widely documented in the wake of Trump’s expansion of the public charge rule, which counted immigrants’ use of a wider array of public benefits against their case for residency in the United States than had any previous iteration of the rule. Failing the public charge test can block an immigrant’s entry into …