College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Relation between Adolescent Callous-unemotional Traits and Subjective and Physiological Reactions to Social Exclusion(2017) Augenstein, Tara M; De Los Reyes, Andres; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., lack of empathy and guilt toward others) occur dimensionally, across the age range, and in both clinical and nonclinical populations. Among adolescents with co-occurring conduct problems, elevated CU traits are linked to multiple negative outcomes. Yet, little is known about the potential negative or positive impact of CU traits among adolescents at low-risk for displaying conduct problems. Prior research suggests the unique constellation of cognitive, emotional, and biological characteristics associated with CU traits may buffer adolescents’ negative emotional reactions to distressing social situations. In the current study, I tested this idea by examining whether the severity of CU traits impacted adolescents’ experience as victims of a negative social interaction, namely social exclusion. Specifically, I examined the impact of CU traits on adolescents’ self-reported distress following social exclusion, and physiological arousal during exclusion. Participants included a mixed community-based and clinical sample of 86 adolescent-parent dyads. Dyads completed measures of adolescent social anxiety and CU traits. Next, adolescents completed a computerized social exclusion task during which I collected measures of adolescent physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate). Adolescents then completed a subjective distress scale to assess mood and distress following the social exclusion task. Adolescent males and those with clinically elevated levels of social anxiety displayed significantly higher CU traits relative to females or those without clinically elevated levels of social anxiety. Surprisingly, adolescent CU traits were not significantly related to differences in self-reported distress following exclusion. Adolescents’ physiological arousal varied throughout the social exclusion task, with adolescents experiencing increased arousal transitioning from social inclusion to social exclusion, and heightened arousal persisting through the remainder of the task. Adolescent gender and CU trait severity significantly predicted overall physiological arousal during the social exclusion task. Specifically, as CU trait severity increased, adolescent males displayed decreased physiological arousal, whereas no differences in arousal were observed for adolescent females, regardless of CU trait severity. These findings suggest that among male adolescents at low risk for conduct problems, elevated CU traits may serve to buffer negative emotional reactions to aversive social situations.Item Are “Thinkers” More Ethical Than “Doers”? How Regulatory Mode Influences Unethical Behavior(2018) CHERNIKOVA, MARINA; Kruglanski, Arie; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Unethical actions can have a significant impact on both individuals and societies; thus, it is critical to identify factors that can predict such actions. The current research investigated two potential predictors of unethical behavior: locomotion and assessment regulatory mode (Kruglanski et al., 2000). Locomotion refers to the desire for continuous progress or movement in goal pursuit, while assessment refers to the desire to critically evaluate and compare among goals and means. Locomotion was expected to increase individuals’ tendency to behave unethically, whereas assessment was expected to decrease this tendency. Guilt proneness was expected to mediate these effects, such that assessors should be more prone to experiencing guilt, and should behave more ethically; locomotors, on the other hand, should be less prone to experiencing guilt, and should therefore behave less ethically. Furthermore, the effect of locomotion on unethical behavior was expected to be stronger when the unethical action saved more (vs. less) time. The effect of assessment on unethical behavior was expected to depend upon the presence of social standards for such behavior: assessors should act less ethically if there is a strong (vs. weak) social norm for unethical actions. Six studies that utilized a variety of designs and different measures of unethical behavior were carried out in order to test these hypotheses. The results were generally inconsistent with the hypotheses. Some potential explanations and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.Item Comparing Multi-Informant Assessment Measures of Parental Monitoring and Their Links with Adolescent Delinquent Behavior(2014) Augenstein, Tara Marie; De Los Reyes, Andres; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research has identified links between parents' poor monitoring of adolescents' whereabouts and activities and adolescents' increased engagement in delinquent behaviors. This study extended prior work by examining differential relations between parental monitoring measures (i.e., behavioral vs. knowledge measures) and informants (parent vs. adolescent) and adolescent self-reported delinquency. Seventy-four caregivers and adolescents completed survey measures of parental monitoring and parental knowledge, and adolescents completed self-report surveys of delinquent behavior. Adolescents' delinquent behavior related to measures of parental monitoring behaviors and parental knowledge; however, the magnitudes of these relations varied by informant. That is, I observed stronger magnitude relations between adolescent delinquent behavior and parental knowledge measures for parent-report relative to adolescent-report. Conversely, I observed stronger magnitude relations between adolescent delinquent behavior and measures of parental monitoring behaviors for adolescent-report relative to parent-report. These findings inform measurement selection in research and clinical assessments of parental monitoring and adolescent delinquent behavior.