UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Worlds Unto Themselves: Tightness-Looseness and Social Class
    (2017) Harrington, Jesse Ryan; Gelfand, Michele J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Past research has convincingly demonstrated that social classes are culturally distinct entities with their own identities, values, beliefs, and customs. In short, they are “worlds unto themselves.” In this dissertation, I argue that social class cultural differences—particularly between the middle class and the working class—are also expressed in terms of tightness-looseness, or the degree to which a cultural entity has strong norms and low tolerance for norm deviance (tight) or weak norms and high tolerance for norm deviance (loose). Specifically, it is predicted that the working class is comparatively tighter relative to the middle class. In a series of six studies using survey, archival, and behavioral methods, this prediction found support. The working class had tighter perceptions of general life and specific domains (e.g., the workplace), endorsed tighter values, perceived rules more positively, were higher in traits like need for structure, conscientiousness, and conventionalism, perceived moral “transgressions” to be less justifiable, exhibited lower creativity, and were exposed to higher ecological threat. Working class adults were also found to exhibit higher explicit bias toward socially “deviant” individuals and greater xenophobia, and working class children were quicker and more likely to protest normatively incorrect actions made by a peer. Finally, it was found that working class students exhibited poorer outcomes in their first year of college due to a greater preference for simplicity—a psychological trait related to working class tightness. Overall, this research suggests that tightness-looseness is an important cultural difference between social class groups.
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    Tightness-Looseness in the United States: Ecological Predictors and State Level Outcomes
    (2014) Harrington, Jesse Ryan; Gelfand, Michele J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This research demonstrates wide variation in tightness-looseness (strength of punishment and degree of permissiveness) at the state level in the United States, and its association with various ecological and historical factors, psychological characteristics, and state-level outcomes. Consistent with theory and past research, ecological and man-made threats--more natural disasters, greater disease prevalence, fewer natural resources, and greater external threat--predict increased tightness at the state level. Tightness is also associated with higher trait conscientiousness and lower trait openness. Compared with loose states, tight states have more social stability, indicated by lowered drug and alcohol use, lower rates of homelessness, and lower social disorganization. However, tight states also have relatively higher incarceration rates, greater discrimination and inequality, lower creativity, and lower happiness. In all, tightness-looseness provides a parsimonious explanation of the wide variation seen across the 50 states of the United States of America.