PhD Dissertations - DO NOT EDIT
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/11704
2024-03-26T19:02:10ZA CULTURAL CONSENSUS ANALYSIS OF TYPE II DIABETES AND HYPERTENSION
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31662
A CULTURAL CONSENSUS ANALYSIS OF TYPE II DIABETES AND HYPERTENSION
There has been a dearth of information that explains group beliefs about chronic diseases. The overall aim of this study was to use both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand consensus in illness beliefs among diabetic and hypertensive patients. The cultural consensus and common-sense model of self-regulation were used to provide a theoretical framework for the findings. Older diabetic and hypertensive adults recruited from the community took part in a semi-structured interview and answered questionnaires. Results indicated that all participants shared a single cultural belief regarding these chronic illnesses. Contrary to expectations, there were no differences in cohesive beliefs between members of different socioeconomic statuses in each illness condition, nor were there differences between the two conditions. Qualitative data revealed that diabetic and hypertensive participants spent most of the interviews discussing their medical treatments; subjects focused on their prescribed medications as well as their diet and exercise regimes (or lack thereof). Many of the interviews also focused on the complications and symptoms that the participants experienced or had heard about, and only a small number of the interviews focused on the actual causes of their conditions. These results highlight the lived experience of the participants, focusing primarily on their daily actions and the consequences of having a chronic illness. In conclusion, via the qualitative data, the current study was able to shed light on participants’ beliefs and experiences of having a chronic condition, furthering research in this area. Future directions should focus on other factors, such as level of education, which may better explain differences in cultural beliefs among diabetic and hypertensive patients.
THE INFLUENCE OF DARK TRIAD TRAITS AND FRAMING EFFECTS ON COOPERATION IN NON-ZERO-SUM GAMES
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31323
THE INFLUENCE OF DARK TRIAD TRAITS AND FRAMING EFFECTS ON COOPERATION IN NON-ZERO-SUM GAMES
Over the past two decades, personality research has increasingly focused on describing the selfish, callous, and impulsive qualities that are present in individuals with higher levels of Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism). However, little is known about the situational factors that contribute to the selfish behavior of these individuals. The current investigation aimed to address this gap in the literature by combining personality and cognitive theories of decision making to examine the relationship between the Dark Triad traits and uncooperative behavior under different risk and valence framing conditions in one-shot non-zero-sum games. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions based on a 2 (gain vs. loss framing) × 2 (normal- vs. high-risk condition) between-subjects design. The prisoner’s dilemma game was used to represent normal risk and the chicken game was used to represent high risk. Overall, results supported prospect theory predictions regarding the effect valence framing has on decision making under risk and replicated previous findings regarding valence framing effects in the absence of risk. This investigation did not uncover a significant main effect of Dark Triad traits on cooperation. However, the Dark Triad traits and framing conditions did interact to predict differences in cooperation, partially supporting recent fuzzy-trace theory predictions. In addition, the current investigation uncovered nuances among the Dark Triad traits in relation to callousness and impulsiveness; and, in an exploratory analysis, a relationship between the Dark Triad traits and study attrition. Detailed findings and future directions are discussed.
2021-05-05T00:00:00ZEthnic Group Political Efficacy: Scale Development and Latino Political Participation
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31292
Ethnic Group Political Efficacy: Scale Development and Latino Political Participation
Latinos have grown to be the largest ethnic minority group in the U.S. since the 2000 U.S. Census count but have historically voted at lower numbers compared to White Americans. Two studies examined a new construct, ethnic group political efficacy (GPE), to understand better marginalized groups voting participation. Study 1 developed a group political efficacy scale (GPE). Using exploratory factor and item response theory analysis, results revealed that the scale has three factors: internal, external, and power GPE. More importantly, minorities’ voting intent was partially explained by ethnic GPE. Next, a focal second short-term longitudinal study with an online national sample of Latinos was conducted to examine Latino GPE further. Ethnic GPE was experimentally manipulated by priming participants' ethnicity and asking them to make a plan to vote for themselves and someone close to them. Study 2 results replicated and confirmed the scale development of ethnic GPE. Additionally, although participants in the treatment conditions were not more likely to vote in the midterm, they were more likely to vote with someone else instead of going alone and reported they would take someone to vote with them in the future. Findings suggest that politicians need to highlight the collectivism (group) in Latino culture when getting out the vote.
2023-05-24T00:00:00ZGreat Expectations: Anticipating a Reminder Influences Prospective Memory Encoding and Unaided Retrieval
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31248
Great Expectations: Anticipating a Reminder Influences Prospective Memory Encoding and Unaided Retrieval
Reminders are effective ways to improve prospective memory (PM) – our ability to remember to complete a future action – but reminder use may have unintended consequences. Recent work in retrospective memory has shown that expecting a reminder reduces unaided memory retrieval by reducing encoding effort (i.e., encoding effort hypothesis). However, previous research in PM varies as to whether encoding effort influences PM retrieval. We measured study duration (Experiment 1) and pupil size (Experiment 2), and manipulated depth of processing (Experiment 3) at encoding to examine whether encoding effort influences PM retrieval (i.e., encoding effort hypothesis). Across all experiments, we had participants complete four PM task blocks followed by a recognition memory task. Two reminder conditions had reminders for the first three blocks, but not on the fourth. A no reminder control never had a reminder. Critically, a non-expecting reminder condition was told they would not have a reminder prior to encoding targets in the fourth block, while an expecting reminder condition was told they would have a reminder. The encoding effort hypothesis was supported by showing expecting a reminder in the fourth block reduced unaided PM retrieval and target recognition (Experiments 1 and 2) and deep processing at encoding improved unaided PM retrieval and target recognition while negating the effect of expecting a reminder (Experiment 3). Our results suggest reminder expectations reduce encoding effort, and greater encoding effort improves unaided retrieval, but having reminders at retrieval offsets the negative effects of reduced encoding effort. We propose the PM Effort Monitoring and Control Framework that describes how when participants experience the low effort and effectiveness of retrieval with reminders, this awareness leads to a less effortful encoding strategy when they expect another reminder during a subsequent PM task.
2023-05-11T00:00:00Z