Matching Items (25)
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- All Subjects: psychology
- All Subjects: Sexual abuse victims--Psychology.
- Creators: Burleson, Mary H
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
Envy may be an emotion shaped by evolution to resolve large resource disparities in zero-sum ancestral environments. Previous research has found evidence for two types of envy: benign envy, which drives greater effort and self-improvement; and malicious envy, which drives hostility toward the better-off target. We predicted that perceived resource scarcity would stoke either type, moderated by individual differences. Specifically, we predicted that high self-esteem would steer people toward benign envy and self-improvement, whereas narcissism would spark malicious envy. After completing the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and the Narcissism Personality Inventory (NPI-16), participants were randomly assigned to either read an article detailing severe cuts to university financial aid budgets (scarcity) or an article summarizing various forms of financial aid (control). Each article ended with the same envy-inducing paragraph about a particularly affluent scholarship-winner, after which participants completed a measure of both envy types, capturing feelings, appraisals, and behavioral tendencies. Results show that self-esteem predicts less malicious envy, while narcissism and scarcity predict more. Self-esteem and narcissism interact such that self-esteem dampens the effect of narcissism on malicious envy. Self-esteem predicted benign envy when narcissism was low, but not when it was high.
ContributorsDuarte, Jose L (Author) / Shiota, Michelle N. (Thesis advisor) / Kwan, Sau Y (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Life History Theory suggests that, in order to maximize reproductive fitness, individuals make trade-offs between allocating resources to mating and parenting. These trade-offs are influenced by an individual's sex, life history strategy, and environment. Here, I explored the usefulness of a Life History Theory framework for understanding endorsement of child support laws. This study experimentally manipulated sex ratio, and gathered information about participants' endorsement of child support, sexual restrictedness, and mate value. As predicted, women endorsed child support more than men, whereas men favored greater restriction of child support in the form of required paternity testing. However, in general, results do not support an effect of sex ratio, sexual restrictedness, or mate value on endorsement of child support. Results suggest sensitivity to exploitation in a male-biased sex ratio, reflected by an increase in men's endorsement of paternity testing requirements under a male-biased sex ratio prime. Women, on the other hand, report especially unfavorable beliefs toward paternity testing in a male-biased sex ratio. Although results of the current study are mixed, there remains much to be gained from applying an evolutionary perspective to understanding variability in endorsement of child support.
ContributorsWilliams, Keelah (Author) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Thesis advisor) / Saks, Michael (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Ellman, Ira (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), is a conversion disorder thought to be linked to unresolved emotional distress. While some studies suggest that PNES patients do not attribute their somatic symptoms to severe psychological experiences (Stone, Binzer, & Sharpe, 2004; LaFrance & Barry, 2005), it is unclear what PNES patients do think causes their seizures, and the psychological consequences of those attributions. The aim of the present study was to investigate PNES patients' attributions for their seizures, and to determine how these attributions relate to stress and emotion regulation. It was hypothesized that participants who attribute their seizures to something (i.e., have an explanation for their seizures) will have lower perceived stress and less difficulty with emotion regulation than those who are unsure of the cause of their seizures. Twenty-four PNES participants completed a questionnaire assessing seizure diagnosis, characteristics of seizure impact, perceived stress, psychological symptoms, emotion regulation, attributions for seizures, and coping resources. Contrary to the hypothesis, having an explanation for seizures, rather than being “unsure” of seizure cause, was related to greater perceived stress. While it would seem that attributing unpredictable seizure events to a cause would lower perceived stress and emotion regulation difficulty, this study indicates that an attribution to an unknown cause may be more beneficial for the individual.
ContributorsBarker, Mallory (Author) / Roberts, Nicole A. (Thesis advisor) / Miller, Paul A. (Committee member) / Burleson, Mary H (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The present study examined daily survey data collected from married couples over the course roughly 14 days. I investigated the relationships of the morning quality ratings of three distinct spousal interactions conversation (physical affection, and sexual activity) reported in mornings on later-day positive and negative affect, as well as next-day intensity of negative somatic symptoms (e.g. headaches, dizziness, aches and pains). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to estimate path models for both husbands and wives. Direct and indirect effects were observed. Results showed that quality of conversation and physical affection increased later-day positive mood for both husbands and wives; however, positive quality activity increased later-day positive affect for wives only. Quality of sexual activity decreased later-day negative affect for wives only. Less later-day negative affect decreased next-day intensity of symptoms for both husbands and wives. Lastly, quality of sexual activity decreased later-day negative affect, which decreased next-day somatic symptoms for wives. This was the only significant indirect effect. Implications are that high marital quality is important for maintaining psychological health for both spouses, and physical health, particularly for wives.
ContributorsVincelette, Tara (Author) / Burleson, Mary H (Thesis advisor) / Roberts, Nicole A. (Committee member) / Schweitzer, Nicholas J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Research into criminal fantasies has thus far primarily focused on homicidal. Here, we broaden the study of criminal ideation by examining a wide range of violent and non-violent criminal fantasies. Specifically, we aimed to compare the magnitude of sex difference in actual crimes to sex differences in crime fantasies. Using a questionnaire design, participants were asked about the frequency and recency of multiple categories of criminal fantasies, including violent and non-violent crimes. Reports of crime fantasies from this questionnaire were compared to national rates of arrest and incident for these actual crimes. Results indicated that men not only commit crimes more frequently than women do, they also fantasize about crimes more frequently. At the same time, such sex differences in crime fantasies were smaller than sex differences in actual crimes. Future studies should continue to explore the purpose of crime fantasies and their relation to behavioral regulation mechanisms.
ContributorsBaldwin, Lauren (Co-author, Co-author) / Kenrick, Douglas (Thesis director) / Barlev, Michael (Committee member) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Besides acquiring group status via dominance or force, as in other animals, human beings can acquire status via prestige, which follows from other group members valuing one’s expert knowledge. Past research has shown a preference for prestigious leaders over dominant leaders. That is, people prefer leaders who are expert over those who are domineering. In this research, I explored whether the preference for prestige over dominance applies to preferences for actual political figures with facial features that appear dominant or prestigious. I also asked whether the same links between dominance, prestige, and voter preference would hold for both men and women. American participants (recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk) rated European politicians’ faces on traits associated with prestige and dominance and indicated their likelihood of voting for this person as a governor of their state. Findings suggest ratings of both prestige is a strong predictor of leadership preference than dominance. However, strong correlations between variables suggest prestige and dominance are two closely related concepts. In addition, participants indicated a marginal to significant preference for female leaders, depending on their perceived dominance and prestigiousness.
ContributorsMartos, Christopher Robert (Author) / Kenrick, Douglas (Thesis director) / Barlev, Michael (Committee member) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Adi, Wiezel (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
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
Infectious disease presents a serious threat to our fitness. The biological immune system provides several mechanisms for dealing with this threat. So too does another system: the behavioral immune system. This second system is proposed to consist of a set of evolved cognitive, affective, and behavioral strategies for reducing the likelihood of infection, including xenophobia, traditionalism, and food neophobia. In the present work, I investigate how another suite of fairly novel culturally-learned disease avoidance strategies, namely hygiene behaviors and knowledge of germ theory, are related to the behavioral immune system. Across two studies, I find that individuals who engage in more hygiene behaviors show less evidence of reliance on several elements of the behavioral immune system (i.e., xenophobia, traditionalism, food neophobia). Similarly, individuals who know more about germ theory show less engagement in behavioral immune system components. These findings suggest that effective cultural strategies for avoiding infectious disease may supplant older, evolved psychological strategies with the same purpose.
ContributorsWormley, Alexandra S (Author) / Varnum, Michael E.W. (Thesis advisor) / Cohen, Adam B (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Prior studies have demonstrated the positive impact of touch on both individualand relational well-being. In contrast, a history of trauma is associated with reductions
in well-being. Post-traumatic stress disorder caused by prior interpersonal trauma (IPT)
may cause individuals to avoid interpersonal touch, which may lead to many negative
outcomes. Additionally, prior studies found that experiencing more post-traumatic stress
symptoms (PTSS) is linked with worse romantic relationship quality. Accordingly, higher
PTSS may be a pathway through which more IPT leads to fewer touch behaviors, more
touch aversion, and worse relationship quality. Participants were 543 English-speaking females (64.8% White; mean age 30.3 years) recruited through online survey systems Sona and Prolific. The following
measures were used: Cumulative Stress and Trauma Scale (IPT); Brennan Touch Scale
(touch aversion); the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PTSS); CSE Scale for Trauma (CSET);
Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (expressive suppression); and Perceived Relationship
Quality Component Index (relationship quality). Mediation and moderated mediation
models were analyzed using the PROCESS macro v.3.4 in SPSS v. 27. The major hypotheses were that 1) more IPT would lead to fewer touch behaviors, greater touch aversion, and worse relationship quality through its links to greater PTSS; and 2) the pathways between PTSS and the outcome variables would be moderated by
expressive suppression (strengthening the association) and trauma coping self-efficacy
(weakening the association). The results showed that the overall associations between IPT and touch behaviors
and between IPT and relationship quality were not significant, but the indirect links via
PTSS were significant. The association between IPT and touch aversion was significant,
but the addition of PTSS as a mediator made that association nonsignificant. When moderators were added, there were mixed outcomes. The moderation term for CSET on the PTSS to touch behaviors pathway was significant. Because touch is important for healthy relationships, therapies should focus on reducing touch aversion for people with a history of IPT and high PTSS. Furthermore, therapy focusing on improving CSET and reducing expressive suppression may help increase touch behaviors, reduce touch aversion, and improve relationship quality in individuals with IPT.
ContributorsMunson, Aubrie A (Author) / Burleson, Mary H (Thesis advisor) / Roberts, Nicole A (Committee member) / Hall, Deborah L (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
As the use of social media becomes more prevalent, especially in adolescents and young adults, there is a growing need to understand how social media use affects psychological well-being in the emerging adult population. Prior research has found that exposure to nature reduces stress and increases attention in comparison to urban environments, but nature has not been studied as a way to reduce the potentially negative effects of social media. The current study aimed to determine if viewing social media or nature for a brief time affected psychological well-being, social comparisons, future self-identification, and awe, and to test whether viewing nature scenes could buffer the effects of viewing social media. Data was collected from 275 participants using a survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Results showed that emerging adults exposed to nature scenes had significantly less negative affect compared to those exposed to their social media feeds. Exploratory analyses showed that those who spent more time outside tended to experience decreased negative affect when they viewed both social media and nature photos, but those who spent more time outside experienced increased negative affect when only viewing social media. Those who used social media more often generally experienced lower negative affect. Findings show that relations between humans, social media, and nature, are complex, and further research into these relations and their underlying causes may be beneficial.
ContributorsHall, Megan (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Corbin, William (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / McMichael, Samantha (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2021-12