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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Early Adolescent Socialization: The Effects of Internet and Technology Use in Grades 7-8

Description
Early adolescence is a pivotal stage of social and emotional development. Socialization traditionally occurs in person, but social interactions via technology (e.g., social media, video games) have grown in popularity. However, little research has been conducted on how early adolescents interact with technology and how these interactions relate to their…

Early adolescence is a pivotal stage of social and emotional development. Socialization traditionally occurs in person, but social interactions via technology (e.g., social media, video games) have grown in popularity. However, little research has been conducted on how early adolescents interact with technology and how these interactions relate to their socialization as well as other factors such as reading habits or academic achievement. Seventh and eighth grade students (n = 719) completed a survey that captured information about their technology use, their academic habits and performance, and extracurricular involvement. It was hypothesized that those involved in more extracurricular activities would use the internet more socially and that internet use would be negatively correlated to both academic performance and recreational reading. Responses indicated that a majority of students have access to technology (e.g. internet, computers, television, gaming consoles, and tablets) in their homes. Social media use differed drastically between platforms. Analyses indicated a relation between amount of extracurricular activities on social television watching and social internet use, but not on social gaming. A significant negative correlation was found between recreational reading and time spent socializing online, but there was no significant effect of these factors on academic performance. Thus, hypotheses were partially supported by the relation between amount of extracurriculars and social internet use and the negative correlation between time spent socializing online and recreational reading.
ContributorsHorner, Kate Elizabeth (Author) / McNamara, Danielle (Thesis director) / McCarthy, Kathryn (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
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Hostility Versus Benevolence: Evocative Language as a Moderator of Knowledge Revision on Twitter

Description

I studied how hostile and benevolent language influences one’s ability to change their misconceptions. Participants were less likely to revise their misconceptions when reading tweets with hostile language than those exposed to benevolent language, which stresses adopting a neutral or benevolent tone to increase the likelihood of successful revision. This…

I studied how hostile and benevolent language influences one’s ability to change their misconceptions. Participants were less likely to revise their misconceptions when reading tweets with hostile language than those exposed to benevolent language, which stresses adopting a neutral or benevolent tone to increase the likelihood of successful revision. This may be due to a shift of memory resources from the less engaging Tweet information to the more engaging, evocative hostile language.
ContributorsOloughlin, Connor (Author) / McNamara, Danielle (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Ha, Thao (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2023-05

Mental Health Misconceptions on Twitter: The Effects of Justification Type on Credibility and Knowledge Revision

Description

Misconceptions about mental health can have negative effects on therapy, education, and social interactions. Misconceptions about mental health can be formed through misinformation being spread online from a variety of sources. The current study manipulates and examines the effects of social media users’ justification for knowing on participants’ perceived credibility…

Misconceptions about mental health can have negative effects on therapy, education, and social interactions. Misconceptions about mental health can be formed through misinformation being spread online from a variety of sources. The current study manipulates and examines the effects of social media users’ justification for knowing on participants’ perceived credibility and knowledge revision. Justification for evidence was manipulated within subjects. There were 3 types of justifications: personal experience, professional experience, or no justification. To test the effects of evidence justification, we used two dependent variables: perceived credibility and knowledge revision. MTurk participants (n = 111) completed pretest assessments regarding mental health and general science knowledge. They then read 11 experimenter-derived Twitter threads, each containing a misconception, two tweets with a refutation, and a statement of justification for the refutation. After each Twitter thread, participants were asked to rate the perceived credibility of the refutation texts. Participants were later given a posttest to measure knowledge revision as well as a series of questions that measured epistemic belief systems. We hypothesized that participants would be more likely to revise their misconceptions when the justification was personal expertise compared to when the justification was professional expertise or no justification is given. The findings did not support these hypotheses, instead indicating that the highest perceived credibility rankings came from professional expertise while knowledge revision occurred in all conditions.
ContributorsHsu, Claire (Author) / McNamara, Danielle (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Gewirtz, Abigail (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2022-12