Theses and dissertations

This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students. 

Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
Filtering by

Clear all filters

152639-Thumbnail Image.png

Role of cognitive shift in resilient adaptation to difficult events

Description
Sometimes difficult life events challenge our existing resources in such a way that routinized responses are inadequate to handle the challenge. Some individuals will persist in habitual, automatic behavior, regardless of environmental cues that indicate a mismatch between coping strategy and the demands of the stressor. Other individuals will marshal…

Sometimes difficult life events challenge our existing resources in such a way that routinized responses are inadequate to handle the challenge. Some individuals will persist in habitual, automatic behavior, regardless of environmental cues that indicate a mismatch between coping strategy and the demands of the stressor. Other individuals will marshal adaptive resources to construct new courses of action and reconceptualize the problem, associated goals and/or values. A mixed methods approach was used to describe and operationalize cognitive shift, a relatively unexplored construct in existing literature. The study was conducted using secondary data from a parent multi-year cross-sectional study of resilience with eight hundred mid-aged adults from the Phoenix metro area. Semi-structured telephone interviews were analyzed using a purposive sample (n=136) chosen by type of life event. Participants' beliefs, assumptions, and experiences were examined to understand how they shaped adaptation to adversity. An adaptive mechanism, "cognitive shift," was theorized as the transition from automatic coping to effortful cognitive processes aimed at novel resolution of issues. Aims included understanding when and how cognitive shift emerges and manifests. Cognitive shift was scored as a binary variable and triangulated through correlational and logistic regression analyses. Interaction effects revealed that positive personality attributes influence cognitive shift most when people suffered early adversity. This finding indicates that a certain complexity, self-awareness and flexibility of mind may lead to a greater capacity to find meaning in adversity. This work bridges an acknowledged gap in literature and provides new insights into resilience.
ContributorsRivers, Crystal T (Author) / Zautra, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Kurpius, Sharon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
155005-Thumbnail Image.png

The strong situation hypothesis: an examination using interpersonal theory

Description
As methods for measuring the relationship between personality and behavior have become more sophisticated, so too has the interest in better explaining the role that environments play in this relationship. Recent efforts have been made to clarify the hypothesized moderating role of environments on this relationship and Cooper and Withey…

As methods for measuring the relationship between personality and behavior have become more sophisticated, so too has the interest in better explaining the role that environments play in this relationship. Recent efforts have been made to clarify the hypothesized moderating role of environments on this relationship and Cooper and Withey (2009), in particular, have provided evidence for the paucity of empirical research that explains the ways in which strong and weak situations may differentially affect the relationship between personality and behavior. They contend, through a thorough review of the literature, that the intuitive nature of the theory provides promise and that there is likely some substantive basis for the assertion that environmental strength should moderate the relationship between personality and theoretically relevant behaviors. The current study was designed to test the moderating influence of interpersonal environment on the relationship between interpersonal personality and interpersonal behavior, specifically whether the evidence exists for the hypothesis that moderation differentially exists for strong and weak environments. No evidence was provided for the moderating role of environments. Evidence was provided for the predictive utility of traits in all models.
ContributorsPrimé, Dominic (Author) / Tracey, Terence JG (Thesis advisor) / Bernstein, Bianca L (Committee member) / Thompson, Marilyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016