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- Creator:
- West, Andrea
- Description:
- Given the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), there is a need to examine social factors that may influence safer sex strategies in the context of romantic relationship style, specifically between monogamous, consensually non-monogamous, and casually dating individuals. Conley and her colleagues (2012, 2013) revealed that monogamist individuals are less likely to use condoms with their primary partners and/or non-consensual extra dyadic partners compared to consensually non-monogamist individuals. Since previous research emphasized that attitudes are the antecedent of behavioral intent and that an individual’s self-efficacy influences behavioral performance, the purpose of this study is to examine if self-efficacy and relationship styles (CNM, monogamy, casually dating) predict attitudes toward condom use (Azjen 1991; Bandura 1986). Specifically, it was hypothesized that the association between relationship style and attitudes toward condom use is mediated by self-efficacy. One hundred and twenty participants were administered a survey which examined condom use self-efficacy, infidelity, attitudes toward condom use and their current relationship styles. The results supported the proposed multicategorical independent variable mediation. Specifically, Sobel test revealed self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between relationship styles (casually dating vs. CNM: reference group) and completely mediated the relation between relationship styles (CNM: reference group vs monogamy) and attitudes toward condoms.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Buzdar, Nikki
- Description:
- The current study assesses how top-down processes (congruency expectations and attentional control) can modulate the rate of audio-visual (AV) integration in younger and older adults. It was hypothesized that the rate of AV integration will be affected by congruency expectations in both younger and older adults. Older adults were expected to require longer exposure to contexts before congruency expectations modify the rate of McGurk perception. the rate of AV integration in younger and older adults was also assessed during an attentional load task. It was hypothesized that exposure to irrelevant distractors will cause a larger decline in McGurk perception in older adults compared to younger adults. Analysis revealed that top-down processes in AV integration remain robust throughout older adulthood; the effect of context congruency and attentional load was shown to affect younger and older adults’ perception similarly. Context was shown to affect McGurk perception rapidly in both older and younger adults. to date, there has been very little research examining the link between multi-sensory integration and physical activity in older adults. in this study, we explored how physical activity influences AV integration. It was hypothesized that higher rates of physical activity will be associated with higher rates of AV integration within older adults. Analysis showed that physical activity was not able to predict rates AV integration within older adults. in general, we hope our findings provide greater insight on how AV integration processes change during adulthood.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Maldonado, Alberto
- Description:
- This study explores whether utilizing human stimuli (photos of the faces of real people) or animated stimuli (cartoon-like faces) are most advantageous in teaching these emotion recognition skills to children with autism. Participants included a sample (n = 16) of autistic children (ages 4 to 10) that were randomly separated into two groups. the methodology modeled real-life interventions that are used within the field of ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis), which follow a 1:1 format (therapist/client) through various phases in Discrete Trial Training (DTT). Participants were administered 10 sessions for the emotion recognition program (happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, and fear). Results from the independent samples t-test indicate that there was no statistically significant difference between the animated (M = 4.375, SD = 1.408) and human ( M = 3.250, SD = 1.753) conditions in the probe phase; t(14) = -1.415, p = 0.179. There was also no statistically significant differences when comparing the animated (M = 5.000, SD = 0.000) and human (M = 4.625, SD = 0.744) stimuli in the MT phase; t(14) = -1.426, p = 0.176. Finally, within the RR phase, we found that the difference between the animated condition ( M = 4.125, SD = 1.458) and human condition ( M = 2.375, SD = 2.066) was approaching statistical significance; t(14) = -1.958, p = 0.071. These findings add to our knowledge regarding the efficacy of using human vs. animated stimuli in teaching facial emotion recognition skills to children with autism.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Orozco, Erika N.
- Description:
- Research investigating sex differences in specific cognitive abilities has aimed to identify the extent to which intrauterine testosterone affects cognitive development in females, framed as the Twin Testosterone Transfer Hypothesis (TTTH) (Tapp, 2011). Previous twin research, however, has been limited in its attempts to disentangle prenatal and environmental factors influencing cognitive development by focusing on opposite-sex twin pairs who share both their prenatal and postnatal environments. in the present study, non-verbal and verbal cognitive performance in opposite-sex virtual twins (same-age unrelated siblings or VTOS), opposite-sex DZ twins (DZOS), and same-sex female twins (DZSSf) were compared to separate the biological and socio-environmental influences on verbal and nonverbal IQ scores. Although results did not replicate previous findings regarding the TTTH, results indicated that dizygotic opposite-sex female twins slightly outperformed VTOSf twins on Block Design, suggesting that the prenatal environment facilitated a specific dimension of non-verbal cognition. Further, results indicated that sharing the postnatal environment with a male co-twin does not facilitate or depress verbal ability. These biologically and environmentally informative kinships collectively offer a novel approach to understanding factors affecting human cognition.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Rowley, Christina A.
- Description:
- Although early preventive interventions that curtail the negative effects of chronic stress in childhood are needed, few preventive interventions exist for young children. the current study aimed to address this gap by testing the feasibility of a preventive intervention that teaches diaphragmatic breathing, a relaxation technique that counteracts the effects of physiological stress, to four to six-year-old children and their parents in a one-time group session. It was hypothesized that (1) diaphragmatic breathing would be successfully taught to young children and (2) multiple families in one single session, and that (3) parents would react positively regarding the intervention’s feasibility and acceptability. Three parent-child dyads participated, and data were collected at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and two-week follow-up. Parents reported on perceived understanding, acceptability, and feasibility of the intervention, interventionists rated the families’ ability to replicate diaphragmatic breathing, and parents and children rated the children’s social, emotional, and physical functioning. Overall, parents indicated that the intervention is understandable, acceptable for stress management, and feasible to implement, and successfully replicated the diaphragmatic breathing technique. All participants reported improvement in the children’s overall functioning. the present study contributed to existing literature by piloting a novel preventive intervention for young children and uncovering some unique challenges, primarily associated with recruitment, of leading an early childhood preventive intervention in a group format.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Stapley, Ashley L.
- Description:
- Research suggests that a critical cognitive mechanism involved in false memory is semantic memory. Humans are highly susceptible to false memory error which poses a problem for the reliability of eyewitness testimony. To combat this problem researchers have investigated how metacognitive monitoring and warnings can mitigate false memory formation. Warning individuals about memory errors showed decreases in false recall and recognition; however, the efficacy of warnings is still debated. The current study seeks to determine the extent of the effects of semantic interference on eyewitness memory, and to study which methods of warning are most effective at reducing false memory errors brought about by semantic interference. Participants were given one of three different warning types before beginning the experiment. All participants watched the pilot episode of the television show 24 to simulate a witnessed event. Participants then completed a semantic interference task that was followed by a memory test and confidence measures. Results indicated that those in the semantically related semantic interference task (SIT) condition performed better on the memory test indicating that the task facilitated rehearsal rather than promoting internally generated information. Participants given a warning exhibited poorer performance with decreased memory accuracy and higher false memory errors. This indicates that the warning might have made individuals overconfident in their ability to discern false memories from veridical memories.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379862
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Krupa, Lauren M.
- Description:
- This study examines the relationship between social anxiety and self-concept clarity. Previous research has shown that social anxiety and self-concept clarity are related, and that low self-concept clarity is a unique predictor of social anxiety. There has not been research on the mechanism behind this relationship, which is what the current study intended to do. Three research hypotheses were tested: (1) socially anxious individuals selectively attend to social threat information, (2) those with low self-concept clarity have increased social anxiety, and (3) information processing biases and self-concept clarity are both predictors of social anxiety, with self-concept clarity being the moderating predictor. In order to investigate attention biases, an Emotional Stroop task was used. The Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) crowdsourcing platform was used to recruit 132 participants. Hypotheses 1 and 3 were not supported by the results. For hypothesis 1, social anxiety as measured by the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS) was not significantly correlated with reaction time on social threat word trials of the emotional Stroop task. For hypothesis 3, a hierarchical multiple regression found that while the first model with social threat trial reaction time on the emotional Stroop task and self-concept clarity, measured by Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS) scores, as individual predictors was significant, the second model with the addition of the interaction term was not. Hypothesis 2 was supported in that self-concept clarity was significantly negatively correlated with social anxiety.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379909
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Phillips, Kristen
- Description:
- Fibromyalgia (FM) is a pervasive chronic pain condition that affects almost every aspect of daily life. Symptoms can be debilitating and severe, leading to precautionary and inactive lifestyles for those diagnosed. Perceived social support from loved ones has been shown to alleviate these negative symptoms and encourage pro-healthy behaviors. However, older adults with FM may react to both physical and psychosocial symptoms by reducing their participation in leisure activities, further limiting available sources of social support. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the influence of FM status and leisure activity on social support. by conducting secondary analyses on a sample of 240 older adults with and without fibromyalgia, it was hypothesized that FM status would moderate the relationship between social support and leisure activity. Results revealed that participants with fibromyalgia did report significantly less available social support compared to the healthy control group. Additionally, a positive association between leisure activity and social support was found when controlling for FM status. However, FM status did not moderate the relationship between leisure activity and social support. Despite this lack of impact by FM status, these findings provide additional support to the current literature suggesting that social support is linked with both chronic pain and leisure activity.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379749
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Fleming, Helena Elizabeth W.
- Description:
- This study was grounded in the I3 theory of aggression, which examines factors that make aggression more or less likely to occur. This study focused on intimate partner violence within the I3 framework. in particular, negative mood regulation (NMR) expectancies–which are people’s beliefs that they can improve their negative moods–were considered as a possible inhibiting factor for intimate partner violence. Participants were 186 men in romantic relationships, who completed the study online. They filled out measures of NMR expectancies and dispositional aggression, anger and hostility. They then completed a Stroop task, for which they indicated the color font in which words were presented. Participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental condition, in which some Stroop words had aggressive meanings, or a control condition, with all neutral words. Participants next were provoked by imagining scenarios in which their romantic partner flirted with another person, after which they were given the chance to behave violently by sticking pins into voodoo dolls representing their partner. Results showed NMR expectancies were negatively correlated with aggression, anger, and hostility. However, multivariate analyses predicting intimate partner violence were not significant. a major limitation of the study is that it was conducted online, and there was no way to control participants’ attention or limit outside distractions. Future research could be done in person and measure behaviors with participants’ actual romantic partners instead of using imaginary scenarios and symbolic aggression.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379893
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Jurkiewicz, Olivia
- Description:
- Digital interactions can provide rich and novel information for psychological research. An influential form of digital communication is online reviews. Individuals supply critical judgments and opinions to facilitate the decision-making process of their fellow consumers. Psychological factors (emotional, social, and cognitive) extracted from review language may elucidate important direct or indirect signals of informational value during the decision-making process. Psychological semantics were extracted using latent Dirichlet allocation (a dimension reduction technique) and using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) dictionary from 3,000 and 50,000 randomly selected Amazon book reviews, respectively, to predict perceived informational value. The final regression model using the LIWC factors demonstrate that negative emotion and inhibitory language negatively influence perceived informational value, while social and analytic language positively influence perceived informational value F(6, 49985) = 14445.19, p < .001. The data-driven approach demonstrated that topical information in book reviews can be unhelpful, while impressions or thoughts about features of the book can be helpful. Both methods produced unique but complimentary results important in distinguish which emotional, social, and cognitive cues within language can impact helpfulness during the decision-making process.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379695
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology