Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item SOCIAL CATALYSTS AND SOCIAL GOAL PURSUIT(2020) Irions, Amanda L; Hample, Dale J; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)People pursue goals but do not always successfully attain them. Existing theories of goal pursuit such as field theory and the goals-plans-actions model regard goal pursuit as a solitary activity that results either in success or frustrated failure. In stark contrast to this solitary-actor, sink-or-swim model of goal pursuit are observations from several social domains show that people ask other people to help them reach their goals instead of abandoning their goals entirely. This dissertation presents the quantitative findings from two studies of these helpers, and argues that analyzing and developing a theory of helpers is critical to a more complete and accurate model of goal pursuit. By introducing the constructs of resource improvement (helpers increase resources, diversify resources, and show their pursuers new paths around obstacles blocking goal pursuit) and the substitutability of helpers’ willingness and skills, this dissertation demonstrates the utility of unifying goal-pursuit theories with the social-support framework and situating those ideas in a social context. Study 1 reports an investigation of wingpeople, those offensive and defensive helpers (also called wingmen) who use communication to help people initiate or terminate initial romantic relationships. Key findings include that both offensive and defensive wingpeople use communication to help pursuers move toward a desired potential romantic partner and away from an undesirable one and that, in line with evolutionary psychological predications, wingpeople provided differential help to male and female pursuers. Notably, some participants in Study 1 spontaneously reported being helpers in social domains other than courtship. Study 2 investigated the generalizability of the helping phenomenon across social domains. Key findings include: participants reported being helpers in more than a dozen different social domains (e.g., academic, physical health, creative pursuits, and service) and more than 90% reported helping in domains other than courtship; participants used social support messages to improve their pursuers’ resources; and no differences between offensive and defensive helpers were observed on the personality traits measured. This dissertation concludes by using the evidence from the studies to make a case for helpers as social catalysts.Item VIRTUAL YOUTH SPACES IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES: DEVELOPING AN EVALUATIVE FRAMEWORK(2013) Valdivia, Claire Suzanne; Subramaniam, Mega; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study explores the successes and challenges of the virtual space component of the 21st Century Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the MacArthur Foundation. This study synthesizes the literature on informal learning for youth that motivated these learning labs and analyzes existing evaluative approaches to public library initiatives. The author adopts a grounded theory approach and conducts semi-structured interviews with learning lab staff from four sites that received the 21st Century Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums Grant. Key concepts from the literature guide the analysis of the interviews to produce a foundational evaluative framework that can be used by public library staff to design and evaluate goals for their virtual learning lab. This framework considers both the overall mission of virtual learning labs and contextual factors that influence the library.Item From One to Many: Toward an Understanding of Multiple Means and Multiple Goals(2013) Etkin, Jordan; Ratner, Rebecca K.; Pocheptsova, Anastasiya; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Consumers often use products, services, and behaviors to help them pursue their multiple goals. They eat fresh produce to be healthy, buy suits to look professional at work, and buy movie tickets to relax and have fun. These goal-related products and services are collectively referred to as "means" to goal attainment. Prior research to-date has primarily focused on the use of a single means to pursue a single goal. This one-to-one relationship between a single means and a single goal, however, is an overly simplistic perspective. Consumers typically utilize multiple means for goal pursuit, and have multiple goals they wish to pursue at the same time. My dissertation adopts this more realistic framework for understanding how consumers use means to pursue their goals. In three essays I explore how the relationships among multiple means and multiple goals, which I define in terms of variety, impact consumer motivation. The first two essays of my dissertation examine how the degree of variety among consumers' multiple means impacts goal-directed motivation. In Essay I, I consider how the motivational impact of having more (vs. less) varied means evolves over the course of goal pursuit, as consumers move from perceiving low to high progress towards goal attainment. Relatedly, in Essay II I consider how adopting a near versus far future time horizon for goal pursuit moderates the impact of variety among means on motivation. Finally, Essay III examines how perceived variety among consumers' multiple goals influences evaluations of means to goal attainment. I identify incidental mood as one factor spontaneously influencing consumers' perceptions of variety between goals. My research has a number of implications for marketers. Highly motivated consumers are more likely to make repeated purchases within goal-related product categories, and also tend to have higher willingness to pay. Thus, from the perspective of marketers, motivated consumers are desirable consumers. These findings suggest how marketers might strategically manage consumer motivation in order to achieve such desirable outcomes. Perceptions of variety, among means and among goals, are malleable. Marketers may thus encourage consumers to perceive their product offerings, or associated goals, as more or less varied depending on consumers' position relative to goal attainment, their adopted time horizon for goal pursuit, and presence use of incidental mood appeals.Item When Guidelines Become Demands: Highly Restrictive Standards Promote Self-Regulatory Failure(2011) Buzinski, Steven G.; Sigall, Harold; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Self-regulation is often defined as the process of altering one's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors in order to attain, or maintain, some desired standard (Vohs & Baumeister, 2004). As such, the standards or goals that one commits to influence the likelihood of self-regulatory success or failure (Baumeister, Schmeichel, & Vohs, 2007). Three experiments were conducted to explore whether framing a goal as highly restrictive leads to decrements in self-regulation (hypothesis 1), and whether or not these goals increase ego depletion (hypothesis 2). Study 1 demonstrated that a highly restrictive goal frame caused an increased valuation of goal-damaging temptations. Study 2 replicated and extended Study 1 by demonstrating that highly restrictive goal framing caused greater temptation indulgence as well. Study 3 tested whether or not highly restrictive goals increase levels of ego depletion, a state associated with self-regulatory failure (Schmeichel & Vohs, 2009), but did not support the hypothesis. The role of psychological reactance (Brehm, 1966; Brehm & Brehm, 1981) in these results, as well as possible future research, is discussed.Item MULTIFINAL NO MORE: DEACTIVATION OF THE BACKGROUND GOAL CAUSES (PRICE) DEVALUATION OF MULTIFINAL MEANS(2010) Schultz, Jeremy; Kruglanski, Arie W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Motivation has been of interest to psychological researchers going back as far a Kurt Lewin (1936), but recent advances using the "New Look" in motivation paradigm have led to an explosion of research over the past fifteen years. One such new theory, goal systems theory (Kruglanski et al., 2002), predicts that multifinal means will lose their advantaged valuation over unifinal mean when the background goal they facilitate is deactivated. Seven studies sought to provide evidence that this will occur whether the goal is deactivated due to loss of desirability, loss of attainability, or due to attainment of the goal. Evidence was obtained suggesting that goal attainment does in fact deactivate the goal and eliminate the valuation advantage, although evidence obtained from testing the the mechanism of goal desirability was not supportive of the theory. The evidence for the role of goal unattainability deactivating the goal and eliminating the overvaluation was mixed, suggesting a potentially more complex mechanism than had been theorized. These studies provide insight not only on a basic psychological process, but to illustrate potential applications in consumer and financial markets as well.Item A Roles Approach to Conflict Strategies: Modeling the Effects of Self- and Other-Role Enactment on Conflict Strategies Through Goals and Emotion(2008) Xie, Xiaoying; Cai, Deborah A.; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation addresses how, in a conflict situation, individuals enact different roles and how their responses to the other party's role enactment affect the strategies they choose to handle the conflict. A model is proposed to delineate the cognitive and emotional process through which the focal individual and the other party's role enactment affect the focal individual's conflict strategies. The model was first examined using the data based on participants' recall of a past conflict and their answers to questions that assessed behaviors (N = 265). Next, a laboratory experiment was used to test a model in which a conflict was induced and each participant interacted with a confederate to complete a decision making task (N = 261). The focal person's obligation to his or her general role and the other party's expectation violations were manipulated. Participants' embracement of their situated roles, perceived goal importance, emotion, and the use of four types of conflict strategies were measured. Results indicated that obligation predicted the use of relational-protective strategies through the mediating effect of relational goal importance. Embracement of the situated role was found to directly predict the use of a relational-protective confronting strategy but indirectly predict the use of a relational-disruptive confronting strategy through situated goal importance. The other's expectation violation changed the perceived goal importance and the emotion of the focal individual, which predicted the use of relational-disruptive strategies. However, the main reason for the effect of expectation violation on relational-disruptive strategies was individuals' direct reaction to the other's behavior rather than anger. Interpretations and implications of the results, the limitations of the study, theoretical and methodological contributions of the study, and future directions were discussed.Item Longitudinal Prediction of Domain Satisfaction and Global Life Satisfaction: Test of a Social Cognitive Model(2005-04-09) Singley, Daniel; Lent, Robert W.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The experience of life satisfaction has been studied at a global level and in specific domains of life such as work, marriage, and academic satisfaction. Global life satisfaction has been described as a predictor of, as well as an outcome of, domain-specific life satisfaction. "Top-down" conceptualizations of well-being indicate that one's level of overall satisfaction is essentially a personality trait, whereas "bottom-up" approaches assert that the experience of satisfaction in different domains of life combine to yield an overall sense of satisfaction. In order to integrate these two approaches, the current study utilized a longitudinal methodology and structural equation modeling to address how personality traits, domain-specific social cognitive variables, and life satisfaction (both general and domain-specific) relate to each other over time. A model of the hypothesized psychological processes involved in goal evaluations, life satisfaction, and positive affect is outlined. Of particular interest was the extent to which social cognitive variables (self-efficacy, social supports, and goal progress) account for unique variance in subsequent life satisfaction and domain-specific life satisfaction after controlling for personality effects (positive affect). In this study, 769 university students completed an online survey of their goals, academic satisfaction, and general life satisfaction at two points in time 8 weeks apart. Based on previous theory and empirical research on domain-specific satisfaction, this integrative model is cognitively-based and posits that if one has positive perceptions (high self-efficacy, resource availability, progress in goal pursuit) regarding one's goals in a particular life domain (e.g., family, work), then one will experience higher levels of satisfaction in that domain. Global life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction were hypothesized to have reciprocal effects on each other over time, as were goal progress and goal self-efficacy. Results generally supported the proposed model. The social cognitive variables accounted for significant variance in subsequent global and domain-specific satisfaction even after controlling for the effects of personality. Goal-oriented perceptions may, therefore, nurture a sense of satisfaction independent of personality traits. Self-efficacy and goal progress were found to have reciprocal effects, whereas global life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction did not. Results and implications for future research are discussed.