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Description
Emotion regulation repertoire, or the number of emotion regulation strategies one is able to employ when needed, is an important element of emotion regulation flexibility. Emotion regulation flexibility, the ability to regulate in accordance with changing situational contexts and demands, is predictive of emotion regulation success. Currently, little is known about emotion regulation repertoire and its association with emotional health and well-being. In particular, more can be learned about how the different strategies in one’s repertoire interact, and which strategies show stronger relationships with mental health. The current study aimed to assess the relationship of different emotion regulation strategies to mental health, including their individual and combined influence. In addition, the interaction between the use of specific emotion regulation strategies and emotion regulation flexibility with respect to mental health was examined. I hypothesized (1a) reappraisal and (1b) acceptance, two strategies previously associated with positive psychological outcomes, would be significant predictors of mental health, and (2) better flexibility would predict better mental health. In addition, I hypothesized that (3) strategies often found to be maladaptive (suppression, distraction, rumination, and experiential avoidance) would have an inverse relationship with mental health. Finally, (4) maladaptive strategies would be associated with worse mental health for those lower in flexibility. These hypotheses were tested through a questionnaire as part of a larger in-lab study. Results revealed that reappraisal and rumination were the strongest predictors of mental health. Emotion regulation flexibility did not predict mental health or moderate the relationship between individual emotion regulation strategies and mental health. Results from this study suggest some emotion regulation strategies are stronger predictors of mental health than others. This will guide future research on specific emotion regulation strategies in a repertoire as well as their combined effect on mental health. Creating a clearer picture of how different strategies interact and influence mental health will also be vital for clinical interventions.
ContributorsSchmitt, Marin (Author) / Roberts, Nicole A. (Thesis advisor) / Burleson, Mary (Committee member) / Robles-Sotelo, Elias (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Social discounting underlies individual altruistic decision-making, and it is frequently measured as the amount of hypothetical money one is willing to forgo for another person as a function of social distance. In the classic social discounting task, individual participants are asked to imagine their friends along a continuum of social distance, that is then used to estimate participant’s social discounting rate. While an ever-growing proportion of social interactions takes place over social media, no research has yet characterized social discounting in that context. Moreover, no research has estimated social discounting rate using real persons’ social distance, instead of the hypothetical continuum described above. Using existing social media indicators of social distance, it is now possible to estimate social discounting rate based on real people, which may lead to more accurate social discounting measurements and may expand the discounting model to real-life situations. Specifically, using computer algorithms to estimate the social distance from social media data makes it possible to assess the utility of numeric social distance indicators and the most appropriate ways to represent them. The proposed study examined the extent to which a hyperbolic model for social discounting fits social distance information retrieved from Facebook pages; and assessed whether there were differences in discounting rate when real or hypothetical social distance is used; also to further investigate whether discounting rates based on real persons are in fact based on perceived social distance by the participant, or on the imaginary social distance scale (i.e., an experimental artifact.)
It was found that the social discounting model can be applied in the social media context, even when real Facebook friends’ profiles were used as substitutes of numeric social distance indicators. Additionally, people showed similar altruistic tendencies in both the numeric and profile social discounting tests on the Facebook environment. These findings were qualified, however, by a high rate of nonsystematic data for the profile group; a rate much higher than traditional numeric paradigm. This discrepancy suggested that the allocation rates between numeric and profile approaches need further investigation to determine the factors affecting individuals’ generosity as a function of social distance indicators.
It was found that the social discounting model can be applied in the social media context, even when real Facebook friends’ profiles were used as substitutes of numeric social distance indicators. Additionally, people showed similar altruistic tendencies in both the numeric and profile social discounting tests on the Facebook environment. These findings were qualified, however, by a high rate of nonsystematic data for the profile group; a rate much higher than traditional numeric paradigm. This discrepancy suggested that the allocation rates between numeric and profile approaches need further investigation to determine the factors affecting individuals’ generosity as a function of social distance indicators.
ContributorsJiang, Linle (Author) / Miller, Paul A. (Thesis advisor) / Robles-Sotelo, Elias (Committee member) / Silva, Yasin N. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Political party identification has an immense influence on shaping individual attitudes and processes of reasoning to the point where otherwise knowledgeable people endorse political conspiracies that support one's political in-group and simultaneously disparage an out-group. Although recent research has explored this tendency among partisans, less is known about how Independents respond in comparison. Previous research fails to identify the Independent as a unique type of voter, but rather categorizes this group as ostensibly partisan, not a separate phenomenon to investigate. However, most Independents purport neutrality and, by recent polls, are becoming a substantial body worthy of concerted focus. Many questions arise about who Independents really are. For example, do all who identify as Independent behave in a similar manner? Are Independents ideologically different than what is represented by a partisan label? Is the Independent category a broad term for something entirely misunderstood? A thorough investigation into the greater dynamics of the political environment in the United States is an enormous undertaking, requiring a robust interdisciplinary approach beyond the focus and intent of this study. Therefore, this study begins the journey toward understanding these phenomena; do Independents, as a whole, uniformly respond to statements about political conspiracy theories? To explore these possibilities, explicit responses are bypassed to evaluate the implicit appeal of political conspiracy theories. An action dynamics (mouse-tracking) approach, a data rich method that records the response process, demonstrates Independents are not in fact a homogeneous group, but rather seem to fall into two groups: non-partisan leaning and partisan leaning. The analysis exposes that relative to the baseline and control stimuli: (1) Non-leaning Independents reveal an increased susceptibility to implicitly endorse bi-partisan directed conspiracy theories when compared to leaners. (2) Republican-leaners demonstrate a stronger susceptibility to endorse right-wing aligned conspiracy theories (against Barack Obama), similar to Republican partisans. (3) Democrat-leaners, unlike Democrat partisans, do not demonstrate any particular susceptibility to implicitly endorse either right/left-wing aligned conspiracy theories (against Barack Obama or George W. Bush). Drawing from major theories from social, political, and cognitive psychology will contribute to an understanding of these phenomena. Concluding remarks include study limitations and future directions.
ContributorsJohnson, Chelsea (Author) / Duran, Nicholas D (Thesis advisor) / Robles-Sotelo, Elias (Committee member) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Magnocellular-Dorsal pathway’s function had been related to reading ability, and visual perceptual learning can effectively increase the function of this neural pathway. Previous researches training people with a traditional dot motion paradigm and an integrated visual perceptual training “video game” called Ultimeyes pro, all showed improvement with regard to people’s reading performance. This research used 2 paradigms in 2 groups in order to compare the 2 paradigms’ effect on improving people’s reading ability. We also measured participants’ critical flicker fusion threshold (CFFT), which is related to word decoding ability. The result did not show significant improvement of reading performance in each group, but overall the reading speed improved significantly. The result for CFFT in each group only showed significant improvement among people who trained with Ultimeyes pro. This result supports that the beneficial effect of visual perceptual learning training on people’s reading ability, and it suggests that Ultimeyes pro is more efficient than the traditional dot motion paradigm, and might have more application value.
ContributorsZhou, Tianyou (Author) / Nanez, Jose E (Thesis advisor) / Robles-Sotelo, Elias (Committee member) / Duran, Nicholas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015