Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Empathic Anger And Personal Anger In Response To Fairness Violations: Relations To Self And Other-Oriented Motivation And Behavior, Athena H. Cairo

Theses and Dissertations

Prosocial behavior research has shown that empathy-elicited compassionate concern often motivates actions performed with an ultimate goal of helping others even at cost to oneself, whereas empathic distress motivates low-cost help with an ultimate goal of helping oneself. Less is known about the motivational outcomes of empathic anger felt when witnessing injustice or harm to others. Though empathic anger predicts third-party compensation and punishment, it is unclear whether this motivation is ultimately self or other-oriented. Three experimental studies examined the empathic anger-altruism hypothesis, that empathic anger evoked when witnessing another being treated unjustly would evoke altruistic motivation to help the …

A Comparative Study Of The Influence Of Credential Attainment On Employment Outcomes In Rural And Urban Localities, Carrie S. Douglas

Theses and Dissertations

The significance of credentials has heightened considerably in recent decades with numerous federal and state policy initiatives aimed at increasing credential attainment. Various public workforce programs support these efforts, including the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which provided training to job-seekers from 1998 through 2015. Scholars point to human capital theory to explain how education investments yield economic gains. Screening, signaling, and credentialist theories provide a framework for examining the ways that credentials are used in labor markets. The literature on rural labor markets suggests that conditions are very different from their urban counterparts, with significant challenges existing in terms …

Swipe Right For Condoms And Testing: Differences In High-Risk Sexual Behavior And Sexual Health Beliefs Among Dating App Users Compared To Non-App Users, Shelby A. Smout

Theses and Dissertations

Millions of Americans are currently using smartphone dating applications (apps) to socialize and meet with others. In some cases, app-based conversations lead to sexual interactions. Previous research examining the relationship between the use of dating apps and sexual behaviors has found that individuals who use dating apps and meet with partners from the app are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors such as having multiple partners and inconsistent condom use. Individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 are the group most likely to be using dating apps compared to other age groups and are a high-risk group …

Effects Of A Self-Advocacy Intervention On The Abilities Of College Students With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities To Request Academic Accommodations, Katherine R. Brendli

Theses and Dissertations

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are pursuing college at higher rates than ever before. However, many of these students experience barriers to success in college and need to self-advocate for their needs, such as requesting academic accommodations. This study examined the effects of a virtually delivered self-advocacy intervention package on the abilities of college students with IDD to request their academic accommodations. This is the first study to virtually implement a modified version of the Self-Advocacy and Conflict Resolution strategy with college students with IDD. Using a single-subject multiple-probe across participants design, this study was implemented with three …

Impact Of A Culturally-Relevant Support Program And Latinx Adolescents' Help Seeking Services: An Academic-Latinx Community Service Partnership To Enhance Culturally Responsive Services For Latinx Immigrant Youth., Lisa S. Fuentes

Theses and Dissertations

Latinxs, in general, report logistical barriers that contribute to utilizing fewer healthcare services and/or not knowing how to navigate the healthcare system. In addition to underutilizing healthcare services, Latinx immigrant youth also report higher levels of negative attitudes towards mental health. However, little is still known regarding factors that impact these attitudes with Latinx immigrant youth, as well as the community support efforts that are available to this specific group. Using a semi-structured interview on 12 Latinx immigrant youth, this master’s thesis explored: (1) the attitudes towards mental health, (2) attitudes towards mental health services, (3) and the experiences of …

University Hackathons: Managerialism, Gamification, And The Foreclosure Of Creativity, Anthony L. Clary

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents a generative critique of hackathon events held in the contemporary research university. Through the analysis of cultural imaginaries and embedded techno-political forms, it works toward an assessment of whether these events support, foreclose, or redirect ideas of the future that might otherwise challenge technocratic, accumulatory, and/or hierarchal organization. Informed by institutional histories and firsthand field research at events, dynamics of entrepreneurialism, gamification, and techno-solutionism are extrapolated and problematized. Ultimately, this research draws on a historical materialist approach to understanding how and why hackathon events have flourished in the university setting. Corroborating recent theories of platform capitalism, vectoralism, …

Education Support For Foster Care Youth: The Impact Of Federal Spending On Employment Outcomes, Carlisle C. Bates

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the extent to which supportive services funded through the federal John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCP) are associated with academic success and employment in foster care youth. Studies suggest that this group experiences poorer employment outcomes (Gypen, Vanderfaeillie, De Maeyer, Belenger, & Van Holen, 2017; Okpych & Courtney, 2014) and earn less money annually (Gypen et al., 2017; Okpych & Courtney, 2014; Pecora, 2012). Despite a 29.4-billion-dollar annual budget for foster care services, individuals with a foster care history struggle after they transition out of care.

The CFCP is intended to help states improve education …

An Integrated Exploration Of The Contextual, Relational, And Individual Factors That Impact High School Completion Among African Americans, Lesley B. Winchester

Theses and Dissertations

African American students are consistently reported as having among the lowest high school graduation rates when compared to other races (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). While many studies have sought to explore the potential risks of high school dropout, the intention of this study is to examine the factors that support the exemplary resilience of those students who do complete high school. The present study adopts the framework of García Coll et al.’s, (1996) integrative model of developmental competencies in minority children, as it seeks to identity whether and how contextual (spiritual, educational, cultural); relational (caregiver psychological and physical …

A Gis-Based Risk Assessment For Fire Departments: Case Study Of Richland County, Sc, Tracy Whelen

Theses and Dissertations

Risk assessments enable fire departments to be better prepared for future incidents and to engage in more effective prevention activities. A combination of physical, demographic, and behavioral risk factors combined form a community’s level of risk. This research shows how spatial and nonspatial statistical methods can be used within a GIS framework to create such a risk assessment, with the Columbia-Richland Fire Department in Richland County, SC being used as a case study. Hot spot analysis and thematic mapping of incident rates were used to assess the first research question – what is the spatial variability of structure fires, carbon …

Dysfunctional Beliefs As Moderators Of The Association Between Personality Dysfunction And Negative Emotion, Syeda Zahura

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the potential role of dysfunctional beliefs as moderators of the association between personality dysfunction and negative emotion. Specifically, we focused on three negative emotions, depression, social anxiety, and anger. There was a total of 454 participants, 210 males, and 243 females, all 18 years of age or older, recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and SJU Psychology Department’s subject pool. We found that personality dysfunction and dysfunctional thinking are associated with negative emotional outcomes. Higher levels of personality dysfunction and higher levels of dysfunctional thinking were associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and anger. In a …

An Evaluation Of The Advance Directives-Live Action Simulation Training (Ad-Last) Program, Alexandra Rosa Spinelli

Theses and Dissertations

Advance Care Planning (ACP) is a process that captures a patient’s wishes in the case of future circumstances in which they are unable to express them. Studies show that less than one third of the general population has completed some type of formal Advance Directive (AD). There are barriers to completing ADs, and these barriers operate on multiple levels, including, patient, provider and institutional. To improve providers’ capacity to help patients complete ACP, and overcome these barriers, a provider-focused intervention was conducted. The current study is an analysis of archival data collected from the Advance Directives-Live Action Simulation Training (AD-LAST) …

Confirmatory Factor Analysis And Estimator Comparison Of Two Short Forms Of An Irrational And Rational Beliefs Scale Author(S): Joanne Raptis, Joanne Raptis

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined two abbreviated versions of the Attitudes and Beliefs Scale-2 (ABS-2) to compare their factor structure and ability to achieve model fit to the data. The original scale, a measure of irrational and rational beliefs as defined by REBT theory, was designed with 72 items reflecting irrational and rational beliefs and each involving one of four cognitive processes and one of three content areas. The ABS-2 had been criticized for its length and the inconsistency of findings regarding its factor structure. Two groups of researchers independently created short forms of the ABS-2 using 24 of the original …

Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Discrimination: An Examination Of The Role Of Blame Cognitions In Ptsd And Depression Symptoms, Timothy Stahl

Theses and Dissertations

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) emerging adults experience higher rates of trauma and discrimination, and subsequent PTSD and depression, than heterosexual emerging adults (Feinstein et al., 2012; Hatzenbuehler et al., 2008; Roberts et al., 2010). Our understanding of the relations between trauma/discrimination and psychiatric sequelae in LGB emerging adults is limited by: (1) uncertainty in the possible differential impact of LGB-specific trauma versus non-LGB-specific trauma, (2) uncertainty of the unique impacts of trauma and discrimination, and (3) lack of studies integrating cognitive theories of trauma (Brewin & Holmes, 2003) into Hatzenbuehler’s (2009) psychological mediation framework. This cross-sectional study included 82 …

Shades Of Aggression: What Role Does Race Play In Educational Decision-Making?, Ashley Oliver

Theses and Dissertations

Though there is an awareness of African American students being disproportionally overrepresented in special education, research is limited in the examination of the role of race on how school psychologists and special education decision-makers perceive and make educational decisions. The present study examined the perception of 547 practicing school psychologists and special education decision-makers who were randomly assigned to a video vignette (African American or White male child) displaying the same aggressive behavior in a classroom and were asked to report on the intensity of the aggressive behavior, view of the behavior as a problem, perception of academic functioning, utility …

Does Inhibitory Control And Emotion Regulation Alter The Degree To Which Aggressogenic Thought Is Expressed?, Jessica Lindsey Held

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of emotion dysregulation and inhibitory control on aggressogenic thought-behavior associations were investigated among 362 fifth- and sixth-grade boys (n = 195) and girls (n = 167) on Long Island, New York. Other-reported anger dysregulation and inhibitory control significantly qualified the relationship between all three cognitions (hostile attributions of intent, revenge goals in both ambiguous and unambiguous situations, and self-efficacy) and aggression. However, our predicted pattern for these 3-way interaction was supported only when the cognition involved self-efficacy—self-efficacy for aggression was most strongly associated with aggressive behavior under high levels of anger dysregulation and low levels of inhibitory control. …

Student Veterans: Factors Impacting Campus Adjustment, Allyssa Lynn Borak

Theses and Dissertations

Veterans represent a growing part of the student body on college campuses. Yet, retention rates continue to remain lower among student veterans in comparison to their civilian peers. A majority of research regarding the student veteran population focuses solely on the physical and mental challenges they face as they transition into student life. However, limited research has explored the relationship experiential avoidance and student engagement has on psychosocial functioning and reintegration difficulties, leaving a gap in universities empirical knowledge about how to successfully meet student veteran needs. Therefore, the current study examined the relationships between factors such as traumatic exposure, …

Neoliberalism, Violence And Capital Accumulation, Reem M. El Barbary

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation looks into the violent, self-serving legal (neocolonial) order that revolves around wealth accumulation and the defense and sustainability of the status quo. The starting point and core idea that guides my discussion is the “redemptive” ideological framework and commitment to free market economies and profit-making. I thus look into the narratives upon which an alliance between development, progress, human rights and neoliberalism rests, in a manner that limits and restricts involvement and action; and normalizes and legitimizes suffering, ill-doing and irresponsibility through law. I examine the interdisciplinary and multilayered reality of repression that state sponsored, and supported, bodies …

Perceived Racial Discrimination And Its Association To Unhealthy Consumption And Obesity, Julie Kittleman

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that both recent and lifetime racial discrimination along with discrimination subscales (social exclusion, work discrimination, stigmatization, and threat or physical harassment) is linked to unhealthy food consumption and health habits. Discrimination has been identified as a possible risk factor for unhealthy food consumption. Research has not yet clearly concluded if unhealthy consumption is a function of recent or chronic exposure to discrimination, the specific type of discrimination or if the effects of discrimination are independent of other life stressors such as neighborhood poverty and stress. Participants (n = 142) were …

Psychologists’ Conceptualizations Of Clients And Their Relation To Psychotherapy Outcomes: A Profile Analysis, Han Lim Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The aims of this research is to 1) quantitatively assess therapist perceptions of prototypically difficult and successful clients and assess whether characterizations of such clients vary as a function of therapist level of experience and sex, 2) examine whether clients who characterize themselves as more similar to the prototype show different rates of change in psychotherapy, and 3) evaluate whether clients’ self-reported personality and attitudes change in psychotherapy become more or less similar to the prototype profiles. There were no differences in prototypical difficult and successful client profiles as a function of therapist sex or level of experience. Clients’ improvements …

Identifying Mcmi-Iv Personality Disorder Subgroups Using Exploratory Factor Analysis And Latent Class Analysis, Amanda Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Patients diagnosed with personality disorders (PDs) have higher morbidity and mortality rates than those without PDs. The DSM-5 PD diagnoses and the cluster system lack a theoretical and empirical basis, which hinders the development of knowledge about PDs and interventions for PDs. This present study attempts to add to this literature by forming PD groups using a combination of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and latent class analysis (LCA) based on PD scores from the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV (MCMI-IV), a method recommended by Gorman and Primavera (1983). Participants were 251 English speaking males and females ages 18 to 75 seeking …

Parenting And Physical Aggression Across Infancy, Brooke Edelman

Theses and Dissertations

While physical aggression is known to be common in toddlerhood, new research suggests that aggression is evident even in infancy. Further, early aggression is stable and predicts maladaptive outcomes later in life. Research supports close associations between harsh, overreactive discipline and physical aggression in early childhood. Harsh discipline encourages and maintains coercive processes in which reciprocal, transactional interchanges escalate aversive behaviors in both parent and child. In accordance with a developmental system perspective, we hypothesized that the congruency between parenting and aggression would increase with age as a result of these transactional interactions on the dyad. A normative US sample …

Parent Stress And Externalizing Behaviors Are Related: The Reason They Are Related Depends On Child Age, Maura Francis

Theses and Dissertations

Children with externalizing disorders are typically found to be more challenging to interact with and are met with less patience, empathy, and distress tolerance in managing their symptoms compared to children with internalizing disorders. Not only are the symptoms of these disorders challenging for children but also for parents, which can cause a considerable amount of stress. These symptoms are typically addressed by different interventions that primarily require parent involvement to manage disruptive behaviors and non-compliance. There is also common comorbidity that often overlaps between externalizing and internalizing symptoms, which can make differential diagnosis and treatment planning more difficult than …

Importance Of Knowledge Of Behavior In Predicting Parent Perception Of Problem Behaviors, Ronnit Nazarian

Theses and Dissertations

The influence of familial factors (e.g., child-related, parental, and environmental characteristics) on child problem behaviors has regularly been studied. An under-researched area is how these variables work to predict how well parents understand their child’s problem behavior function. 338 parents, recruited through MTurk and Facebook, of children between 3 to 5 years old displaying early onset problem behavior participated in this research. Of the 338 children, 206 (61%) indicated significantly problematic behaviors. This research examines parent knowledge of behavior and their understanding of the function of their child’s problem behavior. Moreover, whether a parent’s understanding of the function of their …

Examining The Relationship Between Alzheimer’S Disease, Depression, And Social Support, Marko Lamela

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between Alzheimer’s Disease and depression to determine whether a correlation existed and whether depression led to greater outcomes of Alzheimer’s Disease. Depression-Alzheimer’s relations have been mixed in previous research. Data from an existing data set of visitors to the Alzheimer’s Disease Centers with three or more visits (N= 19, 652) was used to test correlations between depression and Alzheimer’s, later odds of developing Alzheimer’s, and possible moderating effects of social support. A positive correlation was found between depression and Alzheimer’s Disease. Patients with depression were found to be more likely to have Alzheimer’s. There was …

Team Building Challenges And Opportunities After A Public Agency Merger, Andrea A. Severson

Theses and Dissertations

This study used a mixed-method design to gather data about team building after a public agency merger. This study found that teamwork, role clarity, and clear decision processes were the most important factors impacting goal accomplishment post-merger. Prioritizing team building before, during, and after a public agency merger can address some of the most common challenges presented by a merger or acquisition.

What Role Can Social Cognitive Neuroscience Play In Promoting Prosocial Behaviors In Organizations, Lynne Forbes-Zeller

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to establish a correlation between the integration of Social Cognitive Neuroscience (SCN) frameworks (e.g., The SCARF model) into day-to-day social interactions in the workplace. The study also sought to determine whether SCN practices can increase prosocial behaviors and improve a leader's influence. This qualitative study had four phases: an educational video, a self-assessment, a learning workshop, and an experiential learning exercise. Data were collected through eight interviews. This study revealed that understanding the brain's influence in social environments increased prosocial behaviors and positively impacted leader thoughts and actions. Data showed taking the self-assessment, learning …

"Thanks For The Free Products! #Ad": The Effects Of The Number Of Followers And Sponsorship Disclosures On The Credibility Of Instagram Influencers, Allison Renee Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Instagram influencers regularly promote products for brands. Some influencers follow Federal Trade Commission rules on advertising disclosures, such as putting "ad" or "sponsored" in a visible line of text, whereas others do not. Disclosures alert users that they are viewing an ad. Many social media users view influencers as authentic, trusted information sources, so it is important they are aware when viewing paid ads. How disclosures affect source credibility remains unclear. This study used 2 x 2 factorial design to evaluate the roles of two possible credibility enhancing factors: number of followers and advertising disclosures. Instagram users (N = …

Career Trajectory And Leadership: The Role Of Personal Adversity, Kristina E. Kovacs

Theses and Dissertations

Adversity is part of life and certainly contributes to human development. This study seeks to explore the impact of personal adversity on career trajectory and leadership. A qualitative study based on 12 interviews with a narrative approach is presented. Key themes were identified among high-level executives around career evolution, perception of leadership, and how those experiences impacted their way of leading. The study concludes with a brief discussion of limitations and the findings that raise questions for additional research and provide some support for leadership and career development, counseling, and training.

Treatment Of Infidelity As A Clinical Issue In Couple Therapy: A Critical Review Of The Literature, Wilhelmina Emma Stamps

Theses and Dissertations

Infidelity is perhaps the most challenging issue confronting couple therapists and has a high prevalence amongst couples in both clinical and community settings. Despite significant expansion of this field of research in recent years, there has not been a comprehensive review of the literature since 2005. Without such a review, it is problematic for clinicians and researchers to determine best practices and areas needing further inquiry. This article builds on the two most recent reviews (Allen et al., 2005; Blow & Hartnett, 2005) and provides a systematic critical review of the literature on infidelity published in the last 15 years. …

The Role Of Mirror Neurons In Relational Dysfunction In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Andrew Walker

Theses and Dissertations

American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has created a new generation of veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It has repeatedly been noted that these returning veterans have a particularly difficult time reconnecting with family and friends. Because of these findings, the impact of multiple deployments and prolonged combat exposure is shifting from the individual veteran to its effects on their ability to reestablish intimate relationships after the completion of their service.

Over the last 20 years, numerous studies have directly observed the firing of the same neurons of non-human primates while seeing a member of their species …