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 Bullying and exclusion in intergroup contexts: The relation between social reasoning, social information processing, and personal experience(2007-05-09) Margie, Nancy Rawle Geyelin; Killen, Melanie; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As many as 77% of children and young adolescents are bullied (Hoover, Oliver, & Hazler, 1992), with short- and long-term negative consequences for victims and victimizers (Hawker & Boulton, 2000). While physical bullying is the most visible method, exclusion is used frequently to bully (Seals & Young, 2003). Despite a strong theoretical link indicating that bullying falls squarely in the moral domain (Killen & Nucci, 1995; Smetana, 2006; Turiel, 1983; Wolke, Woods, Stanford, & Schulz, 2001), few studies have examined how children evaluate bullying from a moral perspective. Additionally, how moral reasoning is related to experiences with bullying has not been empirically tested, although theoretical work suggests that the two are influenced by social information processing (SIP; Arsenio & Lemerise, 2004). Race/ethnicity may also influence evaluations of bullying. Little research has examined race/ethnicity as it pertains to bullying, however, except to determine prevalence rates (Hanish & Guerra, 2000). While studies have found that race/ethnicity affects moral reasoning and decision-making (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1998; Lawrence, 1991; Margie, Killen, Sinno, & McGlothlin, 2005), race/ethnicity's impact on reasoning about bullying, especially exclusion as a form of bullying, is unknown. The current study surveyed 265 European-American 6th and 9th grade boys and girls to examine the relation between children's social reasoning (SR), SIP, and personal experiences with bullying, and how children's SR and SIP is affected by the race/ethnicity of those involved. The survey assessed judgments, justifications, intent attributions, social goals, and response selection in same-race and cross-race peer interactions (European-American and African-American), and assessed personal bullying experiences. Children with more bullying experience rated bullies' actions less wrong; were more likely to justify the bully's action by blaming the victim and less likely to consider the victim's feelings; attributed more hostile intent; chose more aggressive and less assertive responses; and chose more aggressive and less relational goals for victims. Participants were more likely to attribute aggressive goals to bullies and select aggressive goals for victims in same-race than in cross-race situations. Aggressive victim goals and aggressive responses partially mediated the relation between bullying experience and judgments, blaming victim justification, and victim's feelings justification.Item The Social Information Processing Patterns of Peer-Victimized Children(2006-05-01) Groff, Sarah Katherine; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined social information processing (SIP) in peer-victimized children in ways that considered issues of measurement in what constitutes being a victim. A sample of 107 2nd and 3rd grade students completed self- and peer-reports of victimization and aggression, as well as a measure of SIP. The results indicated that self- and peer- reports of victimization were not significantly correlated. There was a modest but significant positive relationship between victimization and aggression, both within and across informants. Findings about the relationship between victimization and SIP were complicated by overlaps between victimization and aggression, lack of correlations across perspectives, and small sample size. Hostile intent attributions were modestly positively correlated to self-reported victimization, but not to peer-reported victimization. The results suggest that the relationship between victimization and SIP depends on how victimization is measured. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.