Matching Items (28)
Description
In most social networking websites, users are allowed to perform interactive activities. One of the fundamental features that these sites provide is to connecting with users of their kind. On one hand, this activity makes online connections visible and tangible; on the other hand, it enables the exploration of our connections and the expansion of our social networks easier. The aggregation of people who share common interests forms social groups, which are fundamental parts of our social lives. Social behavioral analysis at a group level is an active research area and attracts many interests from the industry. Challenges of my work mainly arise from the scale and complexity of user generated behavioral data. The multiple types of interactions, highly dynamic nature of social networking and the volatile user behavior suggest that these data are complex and big in general. Effective and efficient approaches are required to analyze and interpret such data. My work provide effective channels to help connect the like-minded and, furthermore, understand user behavior at a group level. The contributions of this dissertation are in threefold: (1) proposing novel representation of collective tagging knowledge via tag networks; (2) proposing the new information spreader identification problem in egocentric soical networks; (3) defining group profiling as a systematic approach to understanding social groups. In sum, the research proposes novel concepts and approaches for connecting the like-minded, enables the understanding of user groups, and exposes interesting research opportunities.
ContributorsWang, Xufei (Author) / Liu, Huan (Thesis advisor) / Kambhampati, Subbarao (Committee member) / Sundaram, Hari (Committee member) / Ye, Jieping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Performance is a public speech act that can present the experience of difference and generate relations across lines of difference. In personal narrative performance, performers do not just tell stories, the stories they tell are strategic hailings that call attention to discourses that produce the conditions of their exclusion and form intimate relations in public. Personal narrative performance renders the private public. Performers take to the stage, the space of the public, to offer their stories, their bodies, and their relations to audiences for collective consideration. In turn, the act of performance generates further relations: among performers and audiences, and between performance and discourse. This study analyzes these two layers of relation in performance through looking at the ways neoliberalism and performance interanimate one another. Through looking at three sites of neoliberal relationality--same-sex marriage, family, and immigration and multiculturalism, it asks questions of how performers narrate and represent non-normative experiences within neoliberalism, the historical and cultural context through which they are living and narrating. In order to understand the cultural work, the resistive and relational potential, of the relations that occur in and through personal narrative performance, we also need to understand the political, cultural, and historical conditions under which narratives in performance are produced. My argument is that in and through performance intimacy is queered: it takes the private--the stuff of the personal presented as aesthetic communication--and renders that private very public. In public and through relations, performance can raise awareness and shift consciousness, reify orders of relation or generate alternate imaginaries. This is to say that a lot of different types of work are done in performance, and although performance is often seen as resistance, under the weight of neoliberalism, it is important to tend to what arguments performances are making and how in turn that shapes the relations that occur in the site of performance. Queer intimacy offers a way of engaging performance, an analytic that considers the text of performance as well as the relational context among performers and audiences, and turns back on larger cultural questions of belonging. The potential of performance, of the concept of queer intimacy, provides a lens to read performance, to tend to the conditions that give rise to and inform performance in the current historical moment. It brings together the critical impulse of intercultural communication and cultural studies with performance studies. From a critical cultural perspective, it tends to the structural in performance, and through performance emphasizes the lived experience as narrated and embodied as and through communication. Coupled with the impulses of queer theory, queer intimacy offers both resisting normativity and imagining beyond it. To consider queer intimacy in performance is not only to recognize that relations are made possible, but to tend closely to the belongings we are making.
ContributorsPérez, Kimberlee (Author) / Corey, Frederick C. (Thesis advisor) / Brouwer, Daniel C (Committee member) / Honegger, Gitta (Committee member) / Langellier, Kristin M (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Prior research has looked at the effects of low self-control, unstructured socializing, and risky behaviors on victimization. In previous studies, however, the differences between routine activity and lifestyle theory have been overlooked. The aim of this study is to test the unique characteristics of both theories independently. Specifically, this study addresses: (1) the mediating effects of unstructured socializing on low self-control and victimization and (2) the mediating effects of risky behaviors on low self-control and victimization. Data were collected using a self-administered survey of undergraduate students enrolled in introductory criminal justice and criminology classes (N = 554). Negative binomial regression models show risky behaviors mediate much of the effect low self-control has on victimization. Unstructured socializing, in contrast, does not mediate the impact of low self-control on victimization.
ContributorsWattanaporn, Katelyn A (Author) / Reisig, Michael D (Thesis advisor) / Holtfreter, Kristy (Committee member) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Attachment relationships serve a variety of important functions for infants and adults. Despite the importance of attachment relationships in adults, the mechanisms that underlie the formation or maintenance of these kinds of relationships outside of romantic relationships remains chronically understudied. The current research investigated whether the mechanism of synchrony, which is associated with attachment formation in the parent-infant literature, may still be tied to attachment in adults. To measure this association, these studies showed participants videos to prime synchrony, and then measured activation of attachment concepts in a word completion task. The results of Experiment 1 showed that attachment style moderated the effects of the video prime such that those who were securely attached showed activation of attachment concepts while watching the Synchrony video. Those with a preoccupied attachment style showed activation of attachment concepts when they viewed the Asynchrony video. Those with a dismissive attachment style showed an unhypothesized activation of social distance concepts when viewing the Synchrony video. Experiment 2 suggested an overall effect of the Synchrony video on activation of attachment concepts. However, there was no effect of attachment style on these results. Limits of these studies and future directions are discussed.
ContributorsYee, Claire Ida (Author) / Shiota, Michelle L (Thesis advisor) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas T. (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Romantic relationships are often viewed as an important, meaningful part of a person's life. Most romantic relationships do not last forever. Research regarding romantic relationship satisfaction and quality have thus grown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether individuals who train for endurance events such as running, cycling, or triathlons with their romantic partner have greater relationship satisfaction and quality than do individuals who do not train with their romantic partner. Participants, 54 males and 60 females whose mean age was 33.4, completed a demographic questionnaire, the Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI), the Perceived Relationship Quality Component (PRQC), the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS), and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS). Of these 114 participants, 52 trained with their romantic partner. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that individuals who trained with their romantic partner reported higher relationship satisfaction and quality compared to those that did not train for an endurance event with their romantic partner. There were no statistically significant differences in relationship satisfaction or relationship quality between men and women or between married individuals and dating individuals. These findings suggest that couples may benefit from engaging in shared activities.
ContributorsMinopoli, Erica M (Author) / Robinson-Kurpius, Sharon (Thesis advisor) / Kinnier, Richard (Committee member) / Randall, Ashley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
An offender's expression of remorse plays an important role following relational transgressions, yet it is not well understood how the experience and expression of remorse relate to both victim responses to hurt and forgiveness in close relationships. This study uses a social functionalist framework to investigate the role of remorse in the forgiveness process and tests whether offender remorse experiences mediate the associations between victim responses to hurt and remorse expressions. Undergraduate participants (N=671) completed questionnaires about a time when they hurt a close relational partner and reported their partners' responses to hurt, their own experiences and expressions of remorse, and their perceptions of forgiveness. Results indicated that victims' sad communication positively predicted offenders' other-oriented and affiliation remorse experiences; victims' threatening communication positively predicted offenders' self-focused remorse experience; and victims' conciliatory communication and withdrawal positively predicted offenders' affiliation and self-focused remorse experiences. Results of the mediation analyses revealed that self-focused remorse fully mediated the relationship between victim threatening communication and low status behaviors; other-oriented remorse partially mediated the association between victim sad communication and apology/concern behaviors; and affiliation partially mediated the relationship between victim conciliatory communication and connection behaviors. Victims' withdrawal behaviors and offenders' use of compensation were not related. Finally, offenders' apology/concern and connection behaviors associated positively with perceptions of forgiveness, whereas low status behaviors negatively predicted forgiveness. Use of compensation following a hurtful event was not significantly related to forgiveness. Results are interpreted within the framework of evolutionary psychology and further validate the functional approach to studying emotion.
ContributorsGracyalny, Monica (Author) / Mongeau, Paul A. (Thesis advisor) / Guerrero, Laura K. (Committee member) / Shiota, Michelle N. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Same-sex couples establish and maintain relationships for many of the reasons heterosexuals do, even without widespread acceptance. The manner in which couples maintain their relationships constitutes a subject of considerable research, though such research has primarily examined heterosexuals. Yet, two studies have evaluated relational maintenance behaviors for same-sex couples and heterosexuals: Haas and Stafford (1998, 2005). Although these studies found similarities between heterosexual and homosexual relationships, significant differences emerged involving social networks and meta-relational talk. Haas and Stafford attributed these differences to the lack of societal and legal support. The present thesis examined empirically the link between perceived social approval, and relational maintenance behaviors, focusing on differences between cross-sex and same-sex involvements. Dainton and Stafford's (1993) typology of social network compositions, measures of social approval and encouragement based on Felmlee (2001), and Canary and Stafford's (1992) five behavior relational maintenance typology tool with Haas and Stafford's (2005) measures of meta-relational talk were utilized for an online survey. A total of 157 online, geographically diverse surveys were collected from heterosexual and homosexual individuals involved stable, intimate relationships. Unique to this study, results demonstrate significant correlations between overall social approval and the use of relational maintenance behaviors for both heterosexual and same-sex couples. Previous literature has linked lack of social approval with the use of unique maintenance strategies employed by same-sex couples; however, findings from the present study do not support this. Interestingly, increases in overall social approval, not decreases, are positively correlated with the use of meta-relational talk for same-sex couples.
ContributorsMcDonald, Patrick (Author) / Alberts, Jess K. (Thesis advisor) / Canary, Daniel J. (Thesis advisor) / Guerrero, Laura (Committee member) / Trethewey, Angela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Researchers have found inconsistent effects (negative or positive) of social relationships on self-control capacity. The variation of findings may depend on the aspects of social relationships. In this study, rather than examining overall social relationships and self-control, characteristics in social relationships were clearly defined, including social support, social connection and social conflict, to determine their specific effects on self-control. An online survey study was conducted, and 292 college students filled out the survey. For data analysis, path analysis was utilized to examined the direct effect and indirect effect from social relationships to self-control. Results showed social connection and social conflict may indirectly associate with self-control through stress, but social support does not. It may suggest, in traditional stress buffering model, it is the social connection in social support that really reduce the stress. Concerning the direct effects, social support and social connection were significantly associated with self-control directly, but social conflict does not. This result may support the Social Baseline Theory that positive social relationships have direct regulating effects. Results are good for guidance of experimental manipulation of social relationships in study of social influences of self-control.
ContributorsGuan, Xin (Author) / Burleson, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Roberts, Nicole (Committee member) / Schweitzer, Nicholas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The current study is the first qualitative investigation aimed solely at understanding what it means to communicate conditional forgiveness in serious romantic relationships. Conditional forgiveness is forgiveness that has been offered with the stipulation that the errant behavior cease. It is a provocative topic because some argue genuine forgiveness is not conditional, but recent discoveries that have associated its use with severe transgressions and relational deterioration suggest it is a critical site for investigation. This inductive analysis of open-ended data from 201 anonymous surveys identified both distinctions between and intersections of conditional forgiveness, forgiveness, and reconciliation. A relational dialectics analysis also revealed that reconcilable-irreconcilable was the overarching tension for conditional forgivers and six additional tensions also were also discovered: individual identity-couple identity, safety-risk, certainty-uncertainty, mercy-justice, heart-mind, and expression-suppression. Of particular intrigue, the current analysis supports the previous discovery of implicit conditional forgiveness--suppressing conditions, sometimes in response to physical and substance abuse. Ultimately, the current analysis contributes to the enduring conversation aimed at understanding the communication and pursuit of forgiveness and reconciliation. It addresses one of the basic instincts and paradoxes of existing with others--the balance between vulnerability and protection.
ContributorsKloeber, Dayna Noel (Author) / Waldron, Vincent R. (Thesis advisor) / Kelley, Douglas L. (Committee member) / Kassing, Jeffrey W. (Committee member) / Fisher, Carla L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Municipal courtrooms are brimming with a variety of positive and negative emotions from defendants who are primarily encountering the criminal justice system for the first time. Municipal court judges and bailiffs must work together and find ways to communicate important information about courtroom processes to up to 70-120 defendants a day. This dissertation investigates how municipal court judges and bailiffs from two municipal courthouses respond to three organizational challenges associated with emotion--defendant confusion about courtroom processes, handling high caseloads while treating defendants as customers of the court, and managing the serious and tedious emotional moods of the courtroom environment. Using qualitative methods of observation and informal and formal interviews, this dissertation analyzes how emotion cycles between judges and bailiffs help give sense to and break sense of defendants while simultaneously helping them navigate the challenges of their work. Findings detail the nature of work in municipal court--explaining the challenges associated with emotion that judges and bailiffs face on a daily basis. The data also describes the emotional roles that judges and bailiffs employ in the courtroom. The judges' emotional roles include tension relievers, order enforcers, and care takers. Bailiffs' emotional roles comprise rule enforcers, toxin handlers, and do gooders. The heart of the analysis explores how judges and bailiffs give sense to defendants when unexpected situations manifest in the courtroom and break sense of defendants who hold incorrect or less favored beliefs about courtroom procedures. The emotional displays and responses of judges, bailiffs, primary defendants (defendants before the judge), and third party defendants (those watching in the audience) enable sensegiving and sensebreaking to occur. The emotion cycles allow courtroom staff to impact the sensemaking process of defendants in a fast and efficient manner. Theoretical implications include extensions of emotion cycle research through a consideration of the displays and responses of primary agents, intermediate agents, and primary recipients of emotional displays. Practical implications describe how specific training practices and space for employee discussion could enhance the workplace wellness of judges and bailiffs.
ContributorsScarduzio, Jennifer A (Author) / Tracy, Sarah J. (Thesis advisor) / Corley, Kevin G. (Committee member) / Waldron, Vincent (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012