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. 

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Benefits of high intelligence: Potential moderating effects of emotion regulation and friendship quality

Description
Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts or actions are on the rise in adolescents (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015; Bridge, Asti, & Horowitz, 2015). Parents, school administrators, and therapists are searching for resiliency factors with in at-risk groups to aid students in need. In previous work, Luthar and Zigler (1992)…

Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts or actions are on the rise in adolescents (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015; Bridge, Asti, & Horowitz, 2015). Parents, school administrators, and therapists are searching for resiliency factors with in at-risk groups to aid students in need. In previous work, Luthar and Zigler (1992) reported that intelligent youth are more resilient than less intelligent youth under low stress conditions but they lose their advantage under high stress conditions. This study examined whether intelligence (reflected in grade point average; GPA) and maladaptive (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) behaviors are negatively related in adolescents, and tested whether level of stress, reflected in emotion regulation and friendship quality, moderated that association. It also probed whether the relationships differ by gender. Sixth-graders (N=506) were recruited with active parental consent from three middle schools. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires Regarding demo graphics, maladaptive behaviors, emotion regulation, and friendship quality, and GPA data were collected from the school. Regression analyses found that GPA was negatively related to externalizing symptoms. Girls with poor friendship communication report significantly higher maladaptive behaviors. This relation was more pronounced for girls with high GPAs, as predicted. Results support the theory that intelligent female adolescents are more reactive under adverse circumstances. Future efforts should follow students through middle school into high school to evaluate whether friendships remain important to adjustment, hold for boys as well as girls, and have implications for relationship interventions.
ContributorsGonzales, Ashlyn Carol (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Infurna, Frank (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
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Humor Based Coping: For Which Negative Emotions Do We Use Humor?

Description

People use a variety of emotion regulation strategies to cope with difficult situations. Although there is research supporting humor as an effective emotion regulation strategy, less is known about what circumstances lead people to use humor and what negative emotions humor seems to be the most helpful in mitigating. The…

People use a variety of emotion regulation strategies to cope with difficult situations. Although there is research supporting humor as an effective emotion regulation strategy, less is known about what circumstances lead people to use humor and what negative emotions humor seems to be the most helpful in mitigating. The current study aimed to determine to what extent specific negative emotions lead people to choose humor as an emotion regulation strategy. Participants wrote about a neutral situation and then selected from four card decks with different stimuli (funny, pleasant, awe-inspiring, or neutral). Participants were then randomly assigned to a negative emotion condition (sadness, embarrassment, anxiety, or anger) and wrote about a situation in which they have experienced that specific emotion. They then completed the card selection task again. We compared the number of funny cards chosen between the neutral vs negative emotion trials for each emotion. We found that card selection did not change significantly from the neutral-affect trial to the negative emotion trial across any of the negative emotions. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
ContributorsLigas, Kaitlyn (Author) / Shiota, Michelle (Thesis director) / Corbin, William (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Pages, Erika (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2021-12
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Law Enforcement Officer Burnout and Marital Satisfaction: An Examination of Emotional Processes

Description
Emotion-related processes are a pivotal piece in establishing a holistic evaluation of interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes due to stress. These processes are especially relevant for law enforcement officers (LEOs) who are required to regulate their emotions in the context of their personal lives and their job. The emotion suppression tendencies…

Emotion-related processes are a pivotal piece in establishing a holistic evaluation of interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes due to stress. These processes are especially relevant for law enforcement officers (LEOs) who are required to regulate their emotions in the context of their personal lives and their job. The emotion suppression tendencies fostered by LEO culture may be exhibited in marital interactions, especially if LEOs perceive that their spouse does not understand their job (described here as spousal job misunderstanding [SJM]). The associations between LEOs believing their spouse misunderstands their job and their reported marital satisfaction and burnout levels may be explained through emotion suppression tendencies when with their spouse. This study examined whether the extent LEOs felt their spouse misunderstood their job was associated with marital satisfaction and burnout; whether those associations were mediated by the extent LEOs hid their feelings from their spouse; and, for burnout, whether effects were conditionally mediated at different levels of social support. Study analyses were conducted in separate groups according to gender, using survey data from 76 male and 26 female LEOs. In line with hypotheses, significant relationships between SJM and LEOs hiding their feelings were found. Mediation analyses revealed significant associations between SJM and marital satisfaction in both males and females, and this association was mediated by the extent LEOs hid their feelings from their spouse in male LEOs only. In a conditional mediation model, SJM was not associated with LEO burnout, but conditional indirect effects were found for male LEOs. Unexpectedly, indirect effects of LEOs hiding their feelings from their spouse were significant at mean and high levels of social support, but not at low levels. These results indicate the relevance of emotion regulation in the context of burnout, marital satisfaction, and social support, and how the opportunity for solving issues in policing and LEO-specific emotional difficulties may be found in novel interventions focused on these constructs.
ContributorsBurnett, Aaron (Author) / Roberts, Nicole A (Thesis advisor) / Burleson, Mary H (Committee member) / Hall, Deborah L (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021