Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
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
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Adolescent Attributions About and Responses to Imagined Future Romantic Partners’ Behaviors: Links to Adolescent Attachment to Parents(2020) Fitter, Megan Haley; Cassidy, Jude; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Attachment theory states that experiences with primary caregivers influence other close relationships throughout the lifespan (Bowlby, 1969/1982). The quality of early caregiving experiences influences children’s mental representations of how others will treat them. These representations guide social information processing, the way that individuals remember, perceive, hold expectations, and make attributions about their social world. The present study is the first to examine how young adolescents’ attachment to parents influences their attribution biases about future romantic relationships. Attachment insecurity with mothers and fathers predicted negative attribution biases about hypothetical future romantic partners. Insecurity to fathers marginally predicted negative attributions above those predicted by insecurity to mothers. Negative attributions, in turn, predicted adolescents’ forecasting their own negative behaviors in a future relationship. Further, adolescents’ attachment avoidance (discomfort with closeness) across both parents predicted negative attributions. Results suggest that attribution biases could explain relations between attachment to caregivers and later romantic relationship functioning.Item The Development and Validation of the Costs of United States Corporate Capitalism Scale(2018) Sharma, Rajni; Shin, Richard Q; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Within the field of counseling psychology, which promotes values of social justice, the discussion of United States corporate capitalism (USCC) is limited. I provide evidence for the development and validation of the Costs of USCC Scale (CCC), a 24-item, self-report measure assessing the degree to which an individual attributes the cause of social problems in the U.S. to be structural (i.e. USCC) or individualistic (i.e. individual failure regarding work ethic, lack of motivation, effort, or ability). 1,010 individuals completed the CCC scale through an online survey distributed through MTurk. A three-factor structure emerged: a) USCC as Structural Cause of Costs, b) Individual Failure as Cause of Costs, c) Disagreement with Temporary Solutions to Costs. The CCC has acceptable criterion and discriminant validity, and reliability estimates for the full scale. Findings from this project may help inform future research on attitudes regarding USCC and their relationship with economic policy change.Item The Role of College Students' Perceptions of Effort Source on Self-Evaluations of Academic Ability(2016) Muenks, Katherine; Wigfield, Allan; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the present studies I investigated whether college students’ perceptions of effort source influenced their perceptions of the relation between levels of their own effort and ability in mathematics. In Study 1 (N = 210), I found using hypothetical vignettes that perceptions of task-elicited effort (i.e., effort that arises due to the subjective difficulty or ease of the task) led to perceptions of an inverse relation between one’s effort and ability, and perceptions of self-initiated effort (i.e., effort that arises due to one’s own motivation or lack of motivation) led to perceptions of a positive relation between one’s effort and ability, consistent with my hypotheses and prior research. In Study 2 (N = 160), participants completed an academic task and I used open-ended questions to manipulate their perceptions of effort source. I found that participants in the task-elicited condition endorsed no overall relation between effort and ability, and participants in the self-initiated condition endorsed an overall inverse relation, which is inconsistent with my hypotheses and prior research. Possible explanations for the findings, as well as broader theoretical and educational implications are discussed.Item The Impact of Couple Therapy for Abusive Behavior on Partners' Negative Attributions about Each Other, Relationship Satisfaction, Communication Behavior, and Psychological Abuse(2008-05-05) Hrapczynski, Katie Marie; Epstein, Norman; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Treatments for abusive behavior commonly include cognitive restructuring to modify negative attributions. Little is known about the extent to which interventions modify attributions, and whether cognitive changes are associated with behavioral and relationship satisfaction change. This study investigated the degrees to which cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBCT) and a usual treatment (UT) result in therapeutic changes in couples experiencing psychological and/or mild to moderate levels of physical abuse. A sample of community couples seeking assistance for relationship problems at a university-based clinic were randomly assigned to CBCT or UT. Twenty-four couples in CBCT and 26 couples in UT completed 10 weekly 90-minute sessions. This study involved analyses of pre- and post-therapy measures of psychological abuse, relationship satisfaction, communication, and negative attributions. Findings indicated that both conditions decreased psychological abuse and negative attributions, and increased relationship satisfaction. CBCT decreased negative communication. Couples therapy is an effective treatment modality for this specialized population.Item How Did You Get In? Attributions of Preferential Selection In College Admissions(2006-12-15) Bates, Archie Lee; Klein, Katherine J.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Minorities are often suspected beneficiaries (e.g., Heilman, 1994) of affirmative action--that is, they are individuals who attribute or perceive that others attribute their selection for a job or admission to a school, in part, to preference given to race or gender status. Experimental research has shown that suspected beneficiaries experience negative self-evaluations, yet little research has focused on performance outcomes. I draw upon attribution theory (e.g., Kelly, 1972) and stereotype threat theory (C. M. Steele & Aronson, 1995) to extend the literature by examining the emotions and academic performance of freshmen college students who are suspected beneficiaries. I hypothesize that racial minorities are more likely than are Whites, and women are more likely than are men, to be suspected beneficiaries of racial and gender preference, respectively. These attributions lead to decreased academic self-efficacy and increased evaluation apprehension and anxiety, which ultimately decrease academic performance. Additionally, I pose research questions to explore factors that mitigate the effect of attributions on these outcomes. I use structural equation modeling to test my hypotheses. The results suggest that racial minorities and women are more likely than Whites and men, respectively, to be suspected beneficiaries. Further, attributions of racial and gender preference lead to the hypothesized negative outcomes. I find that past academic performance moderates the relation between attributions of gender preference and anxiety, such that students who scored higher on the SAT and (perceive that others) attribute their admission to gender preference experience more anxiety than do students who scored lower on the SAT and (perceive that others) attribute their admission to gender preference. Additionally, social support moderates the relation between attributions of racial preference and evaluation apprehension, such that students who receive high levels of social support and (perceive that others) attribute their admission to racial preference experience less evaluation apprehension than do students who receive low levels of social support and (perceive that others) attribute their admission to racial preference. Overall, the results support the perception that uncertainty in the selection process can lead to attributions of preferential selection and harmful consequences for racial minorities and women.Item The Effect of Organizational Climate on the Attribution to Discrimination Process(2004-04-12) Leslie, Lisa Michelle; Gelfand, Michele J; Stangor, Charles; PsychologyResearch on the multi-stage attribution to discrimination process (construct accessibility, perceiving, and reporting of discrimination) focuses on individual difference antecedents and tends to examine one stage in each study (e.g. Major et al., 2002; Stangor, Sechrist, & Swim, 1999; Swim & Hyers, 1999). The current study extends research on this process by examining the interactive effect of individual differences and organizational climate on all three stages of the attribution to discrimination process in an organizational simulation study. Findings indicate that Climate for Intolerance for Discrimination interacts with individual based sensitivity to sexism to predict perceptions of discrimination. Furthermore, perceptions of discrimination fully mediate the relationship between the climate by sensitivity interaction and reporting of discrimination to the organization.