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 Moderating Effects of Critical Consciousness and Acculturative Stress on the Relation Between Racism and Low-Income Asian Americans’ Mental Health(2022) Lee, Eunmyoung Alice; Shin, Richard; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Anti-Asian racism has been a pervasive challenge for Asian American communities (Sue et al., 2007), which has increased by nearly 150% from 2019-2020 post the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Yam, 2021). An expansive body of research has found that racism is significantly related to an array of negative mental health outcomes among Asian Americans (Hahm et al., 2010). However, there remains a dearth of research specifically examining mental health outcomes among low-income Asian Americans, who may be at greater risk for stress due to exposure to both racism and classism. The present study examined the relation between racism and psychological outcomes amongst low-income Asian American adults. Critical consciousness and acculturative stress were examined as potential moderators in that relation. A sample of low-income Asian American adults (N = 365) participated in an online survey to respond to measures on demographic information, racism, psychological distress, psychological well-being, critical consciousness, and acculturative stress. Results showed that racism was a significant predictor of psychological distress and psychological well-being while controlling for age and subjective social status among low-income Asian Americans. The moderation analyses found that acculturative stress was a significant moderator in the association between racism and psychological well-being whereas critical consciousness was not a significant moderator in the association between racism and psychological well-being nor distress. Clinical implications and recommendations for future research are also discussed.Item THE BODY IMAGE CONCERNS OF SEXUAL MINORITY MEN ENCOUNTERING SEXUAL RACISM, SEXUAL FEMMEPHOBIA, & SEXUAL SIZEISM WHILE DATING ONLINE(2021) Vernay, Collin; Mohr, Jonathan J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Though mobile dating and hook-up apps show promise for circumventing historical barriers to partnering among sexual minority men (SMM), initial evidence suggests such app use may contribute to SMM’s relatively greater level of dissatisfaction with their bodies (Breslow et al., 2019) potentially via their exposure to discrimination online (e.g., Foster-Gimbel & Engeln, 2016). The present two studies were therefore developed to empirically examine the links between online sexual discrimination and the body image concerns of SMM using cross-sectional data gathered across two online surveys. In Study 1, three stable, single-factor measures assessing experiences of sexual racism, sexual femmephobia, and sexual sizeism were developed for use with SMM using exploratory factor analysis (n = 180). Predicted associations between these and validity measures provided initial convergent and divergent validity evidence in support of their use. This resulted in the retention of three novel 9-item measures of sexual discrimination. These measures were subsequently utilized in Study 2 (n = 530) to test a series of structural equation models that integrated elements of objectification and social comparison theory. Direct and indirect effects between app use variables, sexual discrimination, the internalization of appearance ideals, body surveillance, body shame, and body dissatisfaction were tested. Following model modifications, online sexual discrimination was found to be indirectly related to body dissatisfaction among SMM. The pathways by which this occurred varied by type of discrimination examined, with sexual racism related to dissatisfaction via the internalization of muscular ideals, and sexual femmephobia and sexual sizeism via the internalization of thinness ideals. App use behaviors were directly related to the reported frequency of sexual sizeism only and were not indirectly related to body dissatisfaction. Theoretical relationships among objectification theory variables were largely supported; however, a direct negative relationship between the internalization of muscular ideals and body dissatisfaction that had not been hypothesized also emerged as significant. The moderating potential of identity characteristics (e.g., racial identity, BMI) and appearance comparisons on tested relationships were examined. Higher levels of upward comparisons were found to strengthen relationships between body surveillance, internalization of thinness ideals, and body shame; all other moderation effects tested were non-significant.Item Emerging Adult East Asian Women Witnessing Racism Events: To Act or Not to Act(2020) Thai, Christina Jean; Hill, Clara E; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Racial discrimination acts continue to occur and impact the lives of people of color. One mechanism that may help in halting discriminatory behavior is bystander intervention. While there have been studies on bystander intervention during discriminatory events, there is little research on how other people of color intervene during these events. This present study focuses on bystander interventions by emerging adult East Asian American women. As Asian Americans, they are often perceived as more privileged than other people of color and as women they been socialized to “keep their head down.” This present study utilized a qualitative methodology to investigate how they determine whether or not to intervene when they witnessed racism events. Our results showed that participants had three response types: minimized response/did not react, nonaggressive challenged perpetrator, and supported the target. Some of our most interesting findings were that participants voiced that they were motivated to help because of their relationship with the target and/or perpetrator and were inhibited by their fear of retaliation, being unsure of how to respond, and difficulty determining if an event was racist.Item Innateness in the Sciences: Separating Nature, Nurture, and Nativism(2015) Engelbert, Mark; Rey, Georges; Philosophy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Scientists across the life sciences routinely appeal to notions of "innate" or "genetic" traits to explain developmental phenomena, and the idea of "innate" differences among people has figured prominently in some explanations of observed social inequality. This dissertation is an analysis of these concepts, which proceeds in two parts. Part I explores various philosophical issues related to the use of innateness as an explanatory concept, while Part II examines controversial claims that genetic differences among racial groups account for observed social inequality. I argue throughout that much disagreement about innateness arises from innocuous differences in explanatory goals and interests among different scientific research programs. Nevertheless, some proponents of genetic racial differences rely on understandings of "genetic" traits that conflict with the moral commitments of a just society. Part I begins with arguments for a contextual and pragmatic approach to scientific explanation: in order for an explanation to be a good one, it must cite causes that are relevant to our interests in the explanatory context. I then apply this framework to biology and psychology, showing how different contexts call for different interpretations of innateness. I conclude Part I by responding to arguments that aim to establish a single meaning for "innate"/"genetic" across all explanatory contexts. Part II examines the use of "innate" and "genetic" concepts in developmental biology and population genetics, and applies the lessons of this examination to debates about alleged racial differences in genes for intelligence. I show that "hereditarians," who argue for innate racial differences, employ an explanatory framework that abstracts away from substantial complexity in developmental interactions between genes and environments. While this framework is adequate for certain purposes, it is poorly suited to designing interventions capable of eliminating racial IQ differences and attendant social inequality. I propose an alternative, mechanistic framework that promotes understanding of developmental complexity and design of effective interventions. I argue that a full commitment to racial equality demands that we adopt this latter framework, and to the extent that hereditarians resist doing so, their work exhibits some racist tendencies.Item White Guilt: Race, Gender, Sexuality and Emergent Racisms in the Contemporary United States(2010) Grzanka, Patrick Ryan; Parks, Sheri L; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)White guilt is a culturally and historically contingent emotion rooted in White people's recognition of unearned privileges and collective and/or individual roles in the perpetuation of racism. Situated within the context of neoliberal multiculturalism, this interdisciplinary dissertation investigates contemporary manifestations of White guilt in popular discourse and the lived experiences of young White adults in the United States. As a form of identity-based affect, White guilt may aid in the development of antiracist White people; however, because White guilt retains a focus on the White subject, it may offer limited potential to transform social relationships and systems of inequity. Three interrelated studies compose the methodological work of this project and undertake the task of empirically grounding White guilt so that we may better understand its forms, limits and consequences. The first study interrogates journalists' coverage of three moments of controversy in the early 21st century: Anderson Cooper's "emotional" reporting during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Don Imus-Rutgers University basketball scandal and Isaiah Washington's firing from Grey's Anatomy after allegedly calling a co-star a "faggot." Reporting on these episodes illustrates how multiculturalism manages and defers racial guilt and shame while simultaneously eliding the intersections of identity that structure experience. The second study is the creation and initial validation of a survey-based measure of White guilt (the Test of White Guilt and Shame or "TOWGAS"), which attempts to reconcile several limitations of extant research on racial affect - namely, the persistent conflation of guilt and shame. The third study centralizes the intersectionality of White people's experiences through in-depth interviews with 10 White college students. A modified grounded theory approach is used to explore how gender, sexuality and race together influence how these White people a) perceive Imus, Washington and Cooper and b) conceptualize their own Whiteness and the feelings associated with racism and inequality. Finally, the concept of "emergent racisms" is posited as a critical, working framework with which to investigate White racial affect. This theoretical approach emphasizes the complex interactions between identity, affect, attitudes and context (i.e., situation) that co-constitute the phenomenology of White guilt and shame.Item The cardiovascular and psychological effects of coping with perceived ethnic / racial discrimination.(2009) Gholkar, Radha; Smith, Barry D.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Most previous studies have demonstrated the superiority of active coping, but less is known about the role of coping in perceived ethnic and racial discrimination. The purpose of this study was to examine whether active or passive coping is more effective in situations of low vs. high perceived controllability over a discriminatory event. Fifty-two African-American participants were randomized to one of four conditions: High Control / Active Coping; High Control / Passive Coping; Low Control / Active Coping; and Low Control / Passive Coping. Before and after the coping task, participants played a simulated computer game in which they were ostracized due to race. Continuous measures of heart rate and blood pressure were collected, in addition to periodic measurements of mood, anxiety, and self-efficacy. It was first hypothesized that active coping and high controllability would be associated with greater decreases in cardiovascular reactivity / recovery, negative mood, and anxiety. Second, it was hypothesized that there would be an interaction between coping and control. Finally, it was hypothesized that individuals in the Low Control/Passive Coping condition would exhibit less cardiovascular reactivity / recovery, negative mood and anxiety, and higher self-efficacy when the uncontrollable discriminatory event was reintroduced. Data were analyzed using reactivity and recovery scores in a series of ANCOVAs. Results supported the benefits of active coping and high controllability, specifically in reference to negative mood. However, active coping was also associated with significantly longer diastolic blood pressure and heart rate recovery times. Furthermore, significant interactions were observed between coping and control for negative mood and anxiety. However, results did not support the hypothesis that the Low Control/Passive Coping group was more resilient during the second discriminatory event compared to the other groups, as this group scored significantly lower on subjective self-efficacy than all other conditions. Post hoc analyses largely confirmed these findings, but also demonstrated additional null results. Results suggest high controllability and active coping may be more advantageous for self-reported psychological than for cardiovascular indices, providing support for the concept of John Henryism. Implications for future work, including basic and applied research, are discussed.