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 41 - 50 of 97
Description
The literature has consistently established levels of adolescent maladjustment well above national norms for both socioeconomic (SES) extremes (Lyman & Luthar 2014). Yet literature on positive adolescent adjustment, and its protective or even corrective factors is lacking (Eisenberg, Zhou, & Coller, 2001). This study examined the effects of gender and SES on parent attachment in relation to reports of prosocial behavior. Eleventh grade adolescents (N = 397) were recruited from two public high schools for academically-gifted students who were either high or low-level SES (i.e. the extremes). The students provided passive consent and answered questions on their demographics, perceived relationship with their parents, and tendency to behave in a prosocial manner. Multivariate analyses of variance and follow up analyses of variance were run by gender and SES to determine main effects for gender and SES on parent attachment and prosocial behavior. Regressions following preliminary correlations analyzed whether parental attachment predicted higher levels of adolescent prosocial behavior. Results demonstrated that females communicated with their mothers significantly more and reported higher levels of prosocial behavior than their male counterparts. Findings with regard to SES revealed that high SES adolescents reported increased parent attachment, whereas low SES adolescents reported higher levels of community\u2014based prosocial behaviors. Finally, certain dimensions of parent attachment predicted increases and decreases only in specific prosocial behaviors. Because prosocial behaviors change throughout adolescence, future ventures should consider a longitudinal analysis to obtain a more comprehensive picture of adolescent positive adjustment.
ContributorsAli, Hira (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis director) / Infurna, Frank (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
The purpose of this thesis study is to widen the understanding of the effect culture on self-improvement. Past research found that Japanese students, when compared to their North American counterparts, are more likely to strive for self-improvement by persisting when they encounter academic setbacks. In addition to North Americans and Asians, this thesis examines South Asians as well. It is hypothesized that South Asians will have similar levels of self-improvement as East Asians. This thesis also looks at possible explanations for why culture affects self-improvement. Two variables, future self-connectedness and growth mindset, are proposed as these explanations. It is hypothesized that culture affects future self-connectedness and growth mindset, and those two variables in turn influence self-improvement.
For this thesis, 100 undergraduate and recent college graduates completed online self-report measures. Results of independent t-tests showed that there were no significant differences between South and East Asians in self-improvement, which is consistent with what was hypothesized. There were also no differences between South and East Asians in future self-connectedness or growth mindset. The two Asian groups were then combined and compared to North Americans. Further independent t-tests were run, and results found that while the trend was as expected and Asians exhibited higher levels of self-improvement than North Americans, they did not exhibit significantly higher levels. There were also no significant differences between North Americans and Asians in growth mindset, however, North Americans had significantly higher levels of future self-connectedness than Asians, contrary to expectation. Results of mediation regressions found that neither future self-connectedness nor growth mindset significantly explained the effect of culture on self-improvement.
For this thesis, 100 undergraduate and recent college graduates completed online self-report measures. Results of independent t-tests showed that there were no significant differences between South and East Asians in self-improvement, which is consistent with what was hypothesized. There were also no differences between South and East Asians in future self-connectedness or growth mindset. The two Asian groups were then combined and compared to North Americans. Further independent t-tests were run, and results found that while the trend was as expected and Asians exhibited higher levels of self-improvement than North Americans, they did not exhibit significantly higher levels. There were also no significant differences between North Americans and Asians in growth mindset, however, North Americans had significantly higher levels of future self-connectedness than Asians, contrary to expectation. Results of mediation regressions found that neither future self-connectedness nor growth mindset significantly explained the effect of culture on self-improvement.
ContributorsShaikjamaludeen, Shaikhameedha (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Shiota, Michelle (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
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) 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
Description
Emotions have been defined as coordinated and functional changes in subjective experience, motivation, physiological activation, instrumental behavior, expressive behavior, and cognition that are evoked by important threats or opportunities in the environment. The proposed study looks at cognitive changes associated with the experience of several positive emotions, with a specific focus on awe. Prior research shows that positive emotions tend to increase people's use of cognitive heuristics (i.e. mental shortcuts used to simplify information we intake from the environment) and changes how they apply rules of thumb from stored knowledge to make decisions. Stereotypes, or assumptions about the characteristics held by individual members of a group, are one such heuristic. Awe, in contrast to other positive emotions, has been found to reduce people's tendency to rely on heuristics, rather than increasing its use. Thus, awe should tend to reduce stereotyping specifically. Participants made judgments on three characteristics and two types of theoretically valuable true/false statements. However, for both our measures, awe had no significant effect on stereotyping. Participants in the enthusiasm condition were significantly more likely than those in the awe condition to correctly identify stereotype-inconsistent statements present in the biography, which is the opposite of the predicted direction. Patterns for all four emotion conditions trended similarly to our predictions for stereotype-consistent statements correctly marked as being absent in the biography. There were no significant differences in ratings of three traits. Implications for enthusiasm and awe are discussed in the context of stereotypes of social objects and schemas of nonsocial objects.
ContributorsMurwin, Paige Elizabeth (Co-author) / O'Neil, Makenzie (Co-author) / Shiota, Michelle (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
The frontostriatal reward circuit serves an underlying role in reward processing, cognitive planning, and motor control in the context of achieving a goal. Furthermore, research suggests a relationship between the reward circuits and behavior expressed in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); however, the specific structural differences of the reward circuits in those with ADHD remain ambiguous. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) techniques were used to analyze diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) data in order to examine the structural connectivity of frontostriatal reward pathways in ADHD adolescents compared to typically developing (TD) adolescents. It was hypothesized that measures of impulsivity would be predicted by white matter tract integrity measures in frontostriatal tracts related to affective processing (ventromedial prefrontal cortex to ventral striatum, vmPFC) in adolescents with ADHD, and that there would be reduced tract integrity in tracts related to executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex—dlPFC and ACC, respectively). Frontostriatal tracts as well as the hippocampus and amygdala were examined in relation to age and impulsivity using both correlation and regression models. Results indicated that impulsivity declined with age in the TD group while no significant trend was identified for the ADHD group. The hypotheses were not supported and results for both predictions on the affective and executive circuits showed opposite trends from what was expected.
ContributorsHarrison, Sydney Rae (Author) / McClure, Samuel (Thesis director) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects nearly 10% of adult women in general population samples. In populations of impoverished ethnic minority women, those lifetime prevalence rates may possibly exceed national averages due to lack of mental health resources. Mothers with PTSD are more likely to exhibit negative parenting styles and experience higher levels of perceived parenting stress, both of which are associated with poor child outcomes. However, there is a lack of evidence on how maternal PTSD may affect parenting for ethnic minority mothers. This study evaluated the prevalence of lifetime PTSD and its effects on parenting stress and infant problem behaviors in a sample of 322 low-income Mexican-American mothers (mean age = 27.8; 86% born in Mexico). Lifetime PTSD diagnoses were assessed at a prenatal home visit (24-36 weeks gestation) using the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Mothers reported parenting hassles at 24-weeks postpartum (PDLH; Crnic & Greenberg, 1990), and child problem behaviors at infant age one-year (BITSEA; Briggs-Gowan et al., 2004). I hypothesized that 1) women with PTSD would report more parenting stress than women without PTSD, 2) women with PTSD would report more infant problem behavior symptoms than women without PTSD, and 3) parenting stress mediates the relationship between PTSD and infant problem behavior. Results found that 16.5% of women met criteria for past or present PTSD. Compared to women without PTSD, women with PTSD reported more parenting stress but a similar level of infant problem behaviors. Parenting stress significantly mediated the relationship between maternal PTSD and infant problem behaviors. Study findings suggest a need for mental health screenings during prenatal care in order to promote the healthy development of high-risk children.
ContributorsPreves, Ashley Maria (Author) / Luecken, Linda (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Mauricio, Anne (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
This paper explores the idea of xenophilia and the circumstances under which it may occur. Xenophilia is the preference for an outgroup member over an ingroup member. This preference does not have to be amicable, and in fact can be exploitative under certain circumstances. Previous research indicates that xenophobia is much more common, but a few researchers have found support for the existence of xenophilia. To experimentally test the circumstances under which xenophilia might occur, I conducted a survey-based experiment on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. This consisted of directed visualizations that manipulated participant goal (self-protection vs. mate acquisition) and the resources offered by both a fictitious outgroup and the hometown ingroup, followed by measures of ingroup/outgroup preference. I hypothesized that when the resource offered by the group addressed the participants’ goal, they would prefer the group with the “matched” resource—even if it was the outgroup providing that resource. My hypothesis was not supported, as the univariate analysis of variance for preference for the outgroup was not significant, F (2, 423) = .723, p = .486. This may have occurred because the goal manipulations were not strong enough to counteract the strong natural preference for ingroup members.
ContributorsDrury, Margaret E. (Author) / Neuberg, Steven (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In the early-twentieth-century United States, Jewish and European immigrant scholars, musicians, and composers dominated the academic, orchestral, film and popular music scenes. While some of these musicians immigrated voluntarily, others, having fled the genocide of the Holocaust, were forced into exile due to religious and political persecution. Musicians were often targeted by the Nazi regime for performing and advancing banned music, composing modernist works, or for their religious or political beliefs. The United States upheld strict, pre-World War Two immigration quotas and laws that limited relocation. Specialized rescue agencies arose to help these exiles settle in the United States.
Meanwhile in 1924, American composer Mark Brunswick (1902-1971) moved to Europe and later studied with Nadia Boulanger. He found his niche among members of the Second Viennese School. Brunswick returned to the United States in 1938 and founded the National Committee for Refugee Musicians (NCRM), originally called the Placement Committee for German and Austrian Musicians, to aid in the relocation and job placement of at-risk musicians and their families during World War Two.
This thesis briefly explores Brunswick’s life, and then more closely addresses the formation of the NCRM, its members, those who received aid, and partnering organizations. Finally, cases in point illustrate the varied ways in which the NCRM helped musicians in exile. Brunswick and the Committee played a major role in American musical history, yet no major studies have focused on them. With the NCRM’s assistance, many refugees thrived in and contributed to America’s musical landscape. By exploring letters, memoranda, and other unpublished archival documents, I will show how Brunswick and the NCRM affected U.S. musical life beginning in the 1930s. The positive effects of this germinal group endure today.
Meanwhile in 1924, American composer Mark Brunswick (1902-1971) moved to Europe and later studied with Nadia Boulanger. He found his niche among members of the Second Viennese School. Brunswick returned to the United States in 1938 and founded the National Committee for Refugee Musicians (NCRM), originally called the Placement Committee for German and Austrian Musicians, to aid in the relocation and job placement of at-risk musicians and their families during World War Two.
This thesis briefly explores Brunswick’s life, and then more closely addresses the formation of the NCRM, its members, those who received aid, and partnering organizations. Finally, cases in point illustrate the varied ways in which the NCRM helped musicians in exile. Brunswick and the Committee played a major role in American musical history, yet no major studies have focused on them. With the NCRM’s assistance, many refugees thrived in and contributed to America’s musical landscape. By exploring letters, memoranda, and other unpublished archival documents, I will show how Brunswick and the NCRM affected U.S. musical life beginning in the 1930s. The positive effects of this germinal group endure today.
ContributorsKurland, Jayme Michael (Author) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Oldani, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The percussion jazz ensemble is a long-established yet rare component of 21st century percussion studios in the United States. While many American collegiate programs have percussion ensembles that perform jazz-based pieces, none are identified as a “percussion jazz ensemble.” This may be for a variety of reasons. Professors may not have considered adding a percussion jazz ensemble to their program because of its scarcity in American universities. Including such a class would be challenging if the instructors did not feel comfortable or familiar enough with jazz idioms and vernacular. Additionally, very few compositions or arrangements are available for this group. While there are several method books on jazz vibraphone, there are no pedagogical resources designed specifically for the percussion jazz ensemble. The purpose of this document is to provide historical context, curricula, resource materials, and arrangements necessary for establishing a percussion jazz ensemble at the collegiate level. The end result will be to demonstrate the importance of an ensemble such as this for aspiring percussionists and motivate institutions focused on Western classical music to incorporate jazz elements into their percussion program. Research conducted for this project was limited to academic universities, pedagogical approaches, and ensembles found only in the United States and will not include a survey of those outside this country.
ContributorsMoreau, Danielle (Author) / Smith, Jeffrey (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Swoboda, Deanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
ABSTRACT
Torse III (1965) by Akira Miyoshi, Two Movements for Marimba (1965) by
Toshimistu Tanaka, and Time for Marimba (1968) by Minoru Miki have remained “tour de force” pieces in the marimba repertoire since their inception nearly fifty years ago, yet they continue to present significant performance and interpretative issues to each new generation of marimbists. This document will serve as both a performance guide for advanced marimba performers, as well as provide insight into the aesthetic qualities that contribute to their lasting artistic significance.
Each piece will receive a designated chapter discussing the historical context, technical challenges, and general performance practices. The author will also present a designated chapter discussing the three over-arching aesthetic characteristics found in all three pieces: the use of the entire range of the instrument, the use of extreme contrasting dynamics and timbre, and the use of a common harmonic language.
Torse III, Two Movements, and Time were famously performed by Keiko Abe on her first classical marimba recital in 1968. This document will also help bring to light the enormous impact this recital had on the history of the marimba, as marimbists throughout the world today are forever indebted to Abe’s efforts.
Torse III (1965) by Akira Miyoshi, Two Movements for Marimba (1965) by
Toshimistu Tanaka, and Time for Marimba (1968) by Minoru Miki have remained “tour de force” pieces in the marimba repertoire since their inception nearly fifty years ago, yet they continue to present significant performance and interpretative issues to each new generation of marimbists. This document will serve as both a performance guide for advanced marimba performers, as well as provide insight into the aesthetic qualities that contribute to their lasting artistic significance.
Each piece will receive a designated chapter discussing the historical context, technical challenges, and general performance practices. The author will also present a designated chapter discussing the three over-arching aesthetic characteristics found in all three pieces: the use of the entire range of the instrument, the use of extreme contrasting dynamics and timbre, and the use of a common harmonic language.
Torse III, Two Movements, and Time were famously performed by Keiko Abe on her first classical marimba recital in 1968. This document will also help bring to light the enormous impact this recital had on the history of the marimba, as marimbists throughout the world today are forever indebted to Abe’s efforts.
ContributorsHolm, Matthew Douglas (Author) / Smith, Jeffrey B. (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016