Matching Items (15)
Description
Individuals differ in the extent to which they feel connected to their future selves, which predicts time preference (i.e., preference for immediate versus delayed utility), financial decision-making, delinquency, and academic performance. Future self-connectedness may also predict how individuals compare themselves with their past selves, future selves, and other people. Greater connectedness may lead to more self-affirming types of temporal self-comparison, less self-deflating types of temporal self-comparison, and less social comparison. Two studies examined the relation between future self-connectedness and comparison processes, as well as effects on emotion, psychological adjustment, and motivation. In the first study, as expected, future self-connectedness positively predicted self-affirming temporal self-comparison and negatively predicted self-deflating temporal self-comparison and social comparison. In addition, future self-connectedness had beneficial direct and indirect effects on adjustment, emotion regulation, and motivation. Unlike previous research, this study examined all three components of future self-connectedness, as opposed to only one. Exploratory analyses examined the items comprising the similarity-connectedness component and found that the relation of these items to the other variables in the model did not differ, though some of the relations in the model were moderated by college generation status. The second study tested whether increasing future self-connectedness would have similar effects on comparison, adjustment, emotion, and motivation. It implemented a pilot future self-connectedness manipulation, an established identity-stability manipulation, and a control condition. The pilot manipulation and identity-stability manipulation failed to affect future self-connectedness relative to control, and did not affect comparison, motivation, adjustment, or emotion. Future research should ascertain whether there is a causal link between connectedness and social comparison or temporal self-comparison processes. Overall, this research links future self-connectedness to social comparison and temporal self-comparison processes, as well as well-being, emotion, and motivation, which demonstrates the importance of connectedness in new, important areas.
ContributorsAdelman, Robert Mark (Author) / Kwan, Virginia S. Y. (Thesis advisor) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Aktipis, Athena (Committee member) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Friendships make us happy, keep us healthy, and can even facilitate our reproductive fitness. But most friendships are not forever—even when we want them to be. How do people maintain valued friendships? I propose that “friendship jealousy” arises when people perceive others as posing threats to valued friendships, and that this response can function to prevent friendship loss and friend defection. In preliminary experiments, I tested predictions derived from this functional view. As predicted, I found, first, that friendship jealousy is calibrated to friend value. Second, friendship jealousy predicts intentions to “friend guard” (i.e., engage in behavior to protect the friendship). Third, friendship jealousy has sex-differentiated features, which are consistent with sex differences in friendship structures and ancestral friendship functions. The present work pits against one another intuitive and functional predictions as to what drives friendship jealousy. Although intuition might lead one to expect greater jealousy when a friend spends more time with a new person, a functional view suggests greater jealousy when that new person threatens to fulfill the same function for one’s friend that one is currently fulfilling (i.e., to “replace” him/her). Preliminary studies revealed that greater friendship jealousy is evoked when friends form new same-sex friendships (which presumably pose greater replacement threat, but lesser time threat) versus new romantic relationships (which presumably pose lesser replacement threat, but greater time threat). The focal experiment explicitly and experimentally manipulates a version of “replacement threat” (whether the best friend “chooses” the new friend over you) and “time threat” (how much time the best friend spends with the new friend). In line with functional predictions, the amount of time the best friend spends with a new friend drives friendship jealousy—but only when direct information about replacement threat is unavailable. Regardless of the time threat posed, participants report high friendship jealousy when replacement threat is high, and low friendship jealousy when replacement threat is low. Results imply that friendship jealousy is calibrated to replacement threat (over time threat). Overall, findings suggest that friendship jealousy might be a functional response aimed at facilitating friendship maintenance.
ContributorsKrems, Jaimie Arona (Author) / Kenrick, Douglas T. (Thesis advisor) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Thesis advisor) / Aktipis, Athena (Committee member) / Ha, Phuong Thao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Humans help each other in times of need even when their acts are likely to go unreciprocated. This study examines altruism resulting from feelings of interdependence, and predicts that greater feelings of interdependence will result in greater willingness to help. Participants were split into four hypothetical situations (terrorism, drunk car crash, sober car crash, control) in which they were able to help. After assessing the subject-target interdependence and the neediness and blameworthiness of the targets in these various situations, participants rated their willingness to help. While results generally followed predictions, the effects were not large enough to be statistically significant. Participants willingness to give specific forms of help only differed significantly between the terrorism and sober car crash condition, however interdependence was a significant predictor of both general and specific forms of help across all conditions.
ContributorsReyes, Alyssa Danielle (Author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis director) / Sznycer, Daniel (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Gift-giving economies are economic models that freely give resources rather than barter for them or purchase them from market. Need-based transfers fit into this economic model by freely giving resources on the basis of need, provided the giver can spare the resources. The Maasai are an East African pastoral tribe that practices need-based transfers through a tradition they call osotua. If they have a partner with an established osotua relationship, then they will give any amount of cattle that partner request, provided they can spare the cattle. Cheating each other is unheard of in this tradition, but for this simulation I am introducing cheating into this economic model through feigning need. If a cheater is not in need, they will act like they are in need. If they are in need, then the cheater will request more cattle than what they need to survive. I am testing two different responses to cheating: walking-away and punishing. In the walk-away condition, the victim ends their osotua partnership and establishes a new one. In the punishment condition, a portion of the cheater's stolen cattle is destroyed.
ContributorsDunkelberger, Sophia (Author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Johnson, Kathryn (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Empathy includes multiple components, including empathic concern, perspective-taking, and motivation to empathize. Various perspective-taking interventions have been found to be useful in increasing empathy. Games can be utilized as such interventions, especially when they involve perspective-taking components. The similarities between tabletop roleplaying games and various empathy-building interventions suggests that tabletop roleplaying games may be an intervention option that is already played for enjoyment. This study examines the influence of tabletop roleplaying games on motivation to empathize. Participants played a short tabletop roleplaying game and then were asked to choose between describing and empathizing with refugee targets over a series of trials. There is a potential main effect of tabletop roleplaying games on motivation to empathize, but this main effect is absent when controlling for self-other-overlap. It appears that self-other-overlap influences motivation to empathize. However, this study was underpowered, and the main effect of roleplay may have been detected if more participants were involved. Thus, there is potential that tabletop roleplaying games may influence motivation to empathize, and future research should examine this while considering the limitations of this study.
ContributorsDraper, Kali Anne (Author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis director) / Guevara Beltran, Diego (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Pregnancy is often described as one of the most cooperative ventures that a woman can experience in her lifetime. But when one considers the biological changes that occur during pregnancy, it becomes clear that pregnancy is not as cooperative as it seems on the surface. The current research uses a genetic conflict framework to predict how underlying conflict between mother and fetus over resource transfers is expected to alter eating behavior and food preferences, and how these changes in eating behavior and preferences should then be associated with certain pregnancy complications. Across two studies, women who had recently had a baby (Study 1) or were currently pregnant (Study 2) recalled changes in their eating behavior during pregnancy as well as any pregnancy complications they experienced during that pregnancy. Providing partial support for the hypotheses, women who reported increased vomiting in response to maternal-favoring foods were more likely to experience preeclampsia during pregnancy. In addition, the results provided preliminary evidence that changes in pregnancy eating behavior were associated with an increased the likelihood of experiencing high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, and infections during pregnancy. Taken together, these studies show that the framework of genetic conflict makes testable predictions about the relationship between eating behavior in pregnancy and pregnancy complications, and that several pregnancy complications that are relevant to genetic conflict (high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and infection) are associated with changes in eating behavior in pregnancy. Future research should continue to investigate how genetic conflict influences the relationships between pregnancy eating behavior, pregnancy complications, and how these associations impact postpartum health.
ContributorsAyers, Jessica D (Author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis advisor) / Boddy, Amy (Committee member) / Kwan, Sau (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Cancer is a disease of multicellularity, with deep evolutionary origins. As such, the forces of both evolution and natural selection operate on multiple scales to govern tumor dynamics. As multicellular organisms increase in complexity, cellular-level fitness must be controlled in order to maintain organismal-level fitness. Mutations that might provide a benefit at the cellular level by allowing for rapid proliferation are subject to the same forces that function on the organismal level, wherein cancer suppression is a benefit – especially as organisms increase their body size and lifespan. In order to maintain these large cellular bodies and long lifespans, organisms must increase their means of cancer suppression, and it is likely that these two phenomena co-evolved together. On a smaller scale, the cooperative dynamics of circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters engage in cooperation to form networks of connected single cells that provide protection, stability, and cooperative sharing of resources to enhance their survival as they detach from a primary tumor and metastasize at secondary sites. This work seeks to explore the phenomenon of multi-level selection in neoplastic disease by examining A) the mechanisms of cancer suppression at multiple scales, B) the ecological resilience and stability of cooperating cellular clusters and C) a large-scale dataset on cancer prevalence across mammals, sauropsids (birds and reptiles), and amphibians, illuminating the evolutionary life history characteristics that explain the tradeoffs between cancer suppression and overall organism fitness. By taking an ecological and evolutionary approach to understanding cancer, novel strategies of cancer treatment may be discovered alongside fundamental discoveries about the fundamental forces of selection that govern evolutionary dynamics from the cellular to the organismal scale.
ContributorsHarris, Valerie (Author) / Maley, Carlo C. (Thesis advisor) / Aktipis, Athena (Committee member) / Boddy, Amy M. (Committee member) / Compton, Carolyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Previous work suggests that lower-income individuals are more likely to engage in mutual aid as a means to manage risk, giving rise to a psychology that is other-oriented, including an empathetic disposition and a proclivity to help people in need. While no study has directly investigated whether helping in times of need increases dispositional empathic concern over time, this assumption is deep-seated among social psychologists. Employing a two-year longitudinal survey of US adults (N = 915), I show that people who experience more needs report helping others when in need a greater number of times, in turn leading to a small but positive increase in their empathetic disposition. This study also identifies the types of needs that elicit empathic concern (i.e., those that arise from unpredictable sources of risk), and shows why cultivating an empathetic disposition is likely to pay off in the long run: those who provide help are more likely to receive help during future times of need. Moreover, this study identifies the types of targets for whom providing help might cultivate an empathetic disposition: those with whom people are likely to share lower interdependence. While previous theoretical frameworks posit that empathic concern selectively directs investment towards interdependent others, providing help to non-interdependent targets might allow people to build positive interdependence with prospective risk pooling partners. Cultivating an empathetic disposition and building interdependence with prospective risk pooling partners can allow people to manage needs that arise from unpredictable sources of risk.
ContributorsGuevara Beltran, Diego (Author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Shiota, Michelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
There is a long, ongoing search for the best way to measure and promote creativity. In this study, participant’s self-reported interdependence with elicited members of their social life (Same-Sex Best Friend, Same-Sex Acquaintance, Sibling (or Relative), and Enemy) were collected alongside their performance on several iterations of J.P. Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task. It was predicted that higher scores obtained on the fitness interdependence scale would predict higher scores on the creativity tasks, and lower scores on the former would also predict lower scores on the latter. Ultimately, the results did not support our hypothesis that creative efficiency is predicted by an individual’s self-reported interdependence with members of their social circle. Although higher scores on the Same-Sex Best Friend Interdependence, Sibling (Relative) Interdependence, Acquaintance Interdependence, and Enemy Interdependence categories were found to significantly predict a higher number of alternative uses submitted in a creativity task, the fact that these four subcategories predicted the Total Volume score and not the Total Originality score shows that a better design, and more robust methods, must be used to investigate the relationship between interdependence and creative outcomes.
ContributorsTavarez, Aaron (Author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis director) / Munoz Castro, Andres (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Humans engage in many forms of cooperation within social groups, creating the ability for people help others when they are in need. One specific type of cooperation helps alleviate need and manage risk in both kin and non-kin relationships. However, how people ask for help or notice when someone else is in need have not received systematic investigation. In this study, participants’ self-reported socioeconomic status (SES) was collected along with information about their willingness to engage in a variety of help-seeking behaviors in certain situations. Participants’ general emotions and attitudes associated with certain aspects of asking for help were also collected. It was predicted that people with lower SES would be more reluctant to ask due to more negative emotions associated with and more instances of needing to ask for help. People with higher SES were predicted to be more likely to ask for help due to fewer negative emotions associated with asking and less need to ask for help overall. We found that people with lower SES were generally less willingness to engage in help-seeking behaviors compared to those of higher SES. However, results did not support the hypothesis that people with lower SES would experience more negative emotions associated with asking for help. Considering these results, further studies should investigate willingness to seek financial help versus other types of help in personal relationships and from institution-based assistance programs. Future research should also seek to determine how feelings of entitlement in individuals with higher SES affect willingness to ask for and offer help.
ContributorsHighstrete, Lauren G (Co-author) / Highstrete, Lauren (Co-author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis director) / Ayers, Jessica (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05