Psychology Department Masters Theses Collection Copyright (c) 2013 University of Massachusetts - Amherst All rights reserved. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/psych_theses Recent documents in Psychology Department Masters Theses Collection en-us Fri, 25 Jan 2013 23:24:21 PST 3600 The Role of Family Routines and Rituals in the Psychological Well Being of Emerging Adults http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/965 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/965 Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:56:43 PST Adolescence and emerging adulthood are both critical transition phases wrought with developmental changes and challenges. One of the major developmental tasks that families of children, adolescents and emerging adults deal with is facilitating the development of emotion regulation. The practices that families engage in that attempt to create order and stability within the family—their routines and rituals—may be one key family variable that helps develop better emotion regulation. Family routines and rituals tend to create a more stable environment, which in turn may predict better outcomes for individuals (Crespo, Davide, Costa & Fletcher, 2008; Fiese, 2007; Leon & Jacobvitz, 2003). The current study examined the extent to which routines and rituals in the family of origin during adolescence contributed to longer term, post-adolescent positive psychological outcomes in emerging adults.

The current study used a sample of 492 college students between the ages 18-24 years old. The college students completed a series of online questionnaires about their family routines and rituals during adolescence, their current psychological well being and emotion regulatory skills. A subset of college student had their parents participate in the study who completed similar online questionnaires about their past family routines and rituals. When emerging adults ascribed greater meaning to past family routines and rituals, this was directly related to greater psychological well being. Emerging adults and parents ascribed a different level of meaning to the family routines and rituals, which predicted greater psychological well being of emerging adults. The results of the study showed that emotion regulation was a significant mediator of the relationship between family routines and relationships and emerging adults’ psychological well being. The findings of the current study support the notion that mechanisms such as family routines and rituals that families implement are related to better outcomes for individuals. When families engage in meaningful family practices during adolescence, the impact of these practices can carry over into emerging adulthood.

]]> Yoon, Yesel How Your Spouse May Save You: An Analysis of Early Environment, Physiological Stress Responses, and Spousal Support http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/946 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/946 Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:52:18 PST Growing up in an adverse early environment is related to a number of negative health outcomes later in life, and dysregulation of the HPA axis may serve as the means by which this process occurs (Repetti et al., 2002). Indeed, early environment has been linked to altered physiological responses to general stressors in adulthood, but it remains unclear whether physiological responses to marital stress are also affected. Thus, the present work addresses two central questions in 129 newlywed couples: (1) How does growing up in an adverse early environment relate to physiological stress responses (assessed by cortisol) to a relationship conflict? (2) Does having a supportive spouse moderate this relation? The results provide some support for the link between early environment and cortisol reactivity among husbands, and marginal support for the moderating role of spousal support.

]]> Roth, Dana P. The Psychometric Properties of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children: Disruptive Behaviors in Preschool-Age Children http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/945 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/945 Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:52:15 PST The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC-IV), specifically the disruptive behavior module for preschool-age children. The participants were 128 children (M = 4.43 years, SD = .54; Girls = 63) of African American (n = 37), European American (n = 41), Latino American (n = 38), and Mixed Ethnic (n = 12) background from Western Massachusetts. The overall internal consistency, concurrent validity, and predictive validity of the ADHD and ODD subsections were examined. Gender and ethnicity were examined as potential moderators of those as well. The DISC-IV and a behavior rating scale for teachers were administered at the beginning of the school year and the administration of the rating scale occurred again at end of the school year. The DISC-IV ADHD and ODD subsections exhibited acceptable overall internal consistency. The concurrent validity of the ADHD subsection was also found, but not for the ODD subsection. Most importantly, both DISC-IV subsections exhibited overall predictive validity, above initial teacher ratings. Partially supporting our hypotheses, ethnicity moderated the concurrent validity of the DISC-IV ADHD subsection, with DISC-IV scores of African American children having a stronger association with teachers’ ratings; boys also exhibited a stronger association than girls although not reaching significance. Also approaching significance, the DISC ADHD subsection appeared to predict year-end teacher ratings better for African American children than for European American and Latino American children. Overall, the DISC-IV was found to be a psychometrically reliable and valid diagnostic instrument for preschool-age children.

]]> Rolon Arroyo, Benjamin Dishes and Diapers: The Division of Labor and Marital Quality across the Transition to Parenthood http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/935 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/935 Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:36:26 PST This study examines relationships between the division of housework and childcare and marital love and conflict and perceived fairness as a mediator of those relationships. Gender role ideology is also examined as a moderator of the relationships between the division of labor predictors and perceived fairness. To this end 112 working-class, dual-earner couples having their first child were interviewed at three time points during the first year of parenthood after mothers returned to work. Findings indicate that wives’ reported greater marital love when their husbands performed more housework and more childcare, with fairness as a mediator of those relations. Husbands’ greater participation in both housework and childcare was directly related to their reports of marital love. For marital conflict, wives reported less conflict when husbands performed more childcare with perceived fairness as a mediator. Husbands reported less conflict when they performed a greater proportion of housework, with wives’ perceived fairness as a mediator. The division of childcare and perceived fairness were more strongly related for wives with egalitarian gender role ideology than for more traditional wives.

]]> Newkirk, Katherine E. Culture and the Emotion Socialization of Preschoolers http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/924 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/924 Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:24:32 PST Objective:The present study examined mothers’ emotion socialization of 3-year–old children with behavior problems, to determine whether emotion socialization practices, as well as the relation between these practices and child functioning, varied across ethnicities. Method: Participants were 156 preschoolers with behavior problems. Mothers were European American (n = 98), Latina American (n = 40; predominately Puerto Rican), and African American (n = 18). Audio taped mother-child interactions were coded for emotion socialization behaviors. Results: Overall, this study provided evidence for both differences and similarities across ethnicities on parental emotion socialization practices. Ethnic differences in use of emotion socialization practices were only found for mothers’ emotion focused reactions, minimizing reactions, and non-responses to negative affect. However, ethnic differences emerged in the relations between emotion socialization practices and child functioning. Several emotion socialization parental behaviors were differentially related to current child internalizing and externalizing problems across ethnic groups. Conclusions: Results provide some support for the existence of cultural differences in emotion socialization practices and their associated child outcomes.

]]> Lugo-Candelas, Claudia I. A Distibutional Analysis of Frequency and Predictability Effects on Fixation Durations in Reading http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/834 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/834 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 05:54:20 PDT The most important predictors of fixation durations in reading are a word’s frequency of occurrence (as measured by counts in large corpora) and its predictability in context (as measured by cloze probability). Two recent eye-tracking studies investigated distributional effects of word frequency (Staub et al, 2010) and word predictability (Staub, 2011) separately. The present study investigates the distributions associated with these two variables when they are manipulated in the same experiment. When considering the overall means, frequency and predictability showed significant main effects (LF>HF; LP>HP), with no interaction. In addition, we found evidence supporting the previous distributional findings where frequency and predictability affect all fixations (causing a shift in the distribution), but frequency also has a special influence on the longest fixations. Interestingly, the model fits suggested that there was an interaction between the predictors in first fixation duration. However, this effect was not visible in the vincentiles (which are plots of the actual data) and it appeared to be conditional on four particular subjects. Since we did not find convincing evidence of an interaction in our distributional analysis, the present findings provide support for theories of fixation durations whereby frequency and predictability combine additively.

]]> Benatar, Ashley The Priming Effects of Video Viewing on Preschoolers' Play Behavior http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/803 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/803 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 05:39:42 PDT This thesis investigates the relationship between educational television content and children‘s play behaviors immediately after viewing. Children ages 41-43 months of age were randomly assigned to view a television program with predominantly object-constructive or social dramatic content. All children participated in a period of video viewing, approximately 25 minutes in length, followed by a 30-minute play session. Each participant was subsequently administered a brief card sorting task to assess categorical knowledge of constructive and social activities. Each child‘s session was coded for looking at the television, toy choice, and play content (constructive or social-narrative). Video viewing condition and the interaction between categorical knowledge and condition significantly predicted children‘s subsequent play content. Taken as a whole, these findings imply that short-term priming effects of educational video viewing on children‘s play are present in 42-month old children but that these effects are moderated by children‘s categorical understanding of TV content.

]]> Lavigne, Heather J. Coalition or Competition?: The Effects of Category Salience on Inter-Minority Prejudice http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/793 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/793 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 05:26:06 PDT Traditionally, the discourse on race relations in the U.S. has focused on relations between Whites and ethnic minorities, with little being known about the antecedents and consequences of inter-minority prejudice. This paper will present results from two studies that were conducted with Asian, Black, and Latino undergraduate students, assessing motivations to embrace a collective identity with ethnic minorities (versus express prejudice towards other ethnic minority groups). Blacks,’ Asians’, and Latinos’ ethnic group identification, as well their identification with a superordinate "people of color" (POC) category were assessed. POC identification was found to be closely aligned with one's political beliefs (e.g., perceptions that the system is unjust, and that racial minorities face discrimination in the U.S.) For Asian participants, POC identification predicted more positive attitudes towards other ethnic minority groups perceived to face similar discrimination in the U.S. (e.g., Latinos and Blacks.) However, Blacks' identification as POC actually predicted negative attitudes towards Asians, who were not seen as facing the same barriers to upward mobility as other racial minority groups in the U.S. The results indicate that the politics of POC identification might actually contribute to increased tension between ethnic minorities in the U.S.; implications for more effecting coalition building between racial minorities in the U.S. are also discussed in this paper.

]]> Gupta, Manisha The Influence Of Perceptual Narrowing On Emotion Processing During Infancy http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/778 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/778 Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:15:30 PDT During the first year of life, infants’ capacities for face processing are shaped by experience with faces in their environment; a process known as perceptual narrowing. Perceptual narrowing has been found to lead to a decline in infants’ abilities to identify and differentiate faces of other races. In the current study, it is hypothesized that this decline may also lead to differential processing of emotion information in own- versus other-race faces. In the current research, we recorded electrophysiological data (Event-related potential; ERP) from 5- and 9-month-old infants while they were presented with paired emotion non-verbal sounds and faces. ERPs in response to the sounds suggest that both 5- and 9-month old infants differentiate happy and sad sounds. The pattern of results, however, is different across ages. ERPs in response to the faces suggest that whereas 5-month-olds exhibit differential responses to happy and sad faces for both the N290 and P400 components, 9-month-olds did not differentiate happy and sad faces. Nine-month old infants did exhibit a great P400 in response to own- relative to other-race faces. These results suggest that although both 5- and 9-month olds differentiate happy and sad emotional sounds, their processing of emotion faces differs.

]]> Vogel, Margaret W. Responses to Group-Based Provocations: The Role of Identification and Emotion Regulation http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/771 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/771 Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:14:32 PDT The studies originated from research on group-based emotions and examine emotions and emotion regulation in the context of group-based provocations. In addition, the studies examined the ways in which people identify with their group and how that affects responses to group provocations. I hypothesized that the process of ruminating in contrast to reappraising would increase anger and negative action intentions and attitudes towards the provoking outgroup. I hypothesized that individual differences in ingroup glorification and trait emotion regulation would moderate the relationship between a group provocation and affective and attitudinal responses such that high glorification and high rumination would lead to more anger and more negative attitudes and behavioral intentions. The participants were University of Massachusetts-Amherst undergraduates in the psychology participant pool who identified as United States citizens. Study 1 was an experimental three-level design (rumination, reappraisal control). Study 2 was an experimental three-level design (provocation, no provocation, control). Study 1 demonstrated that response to provocation was affected by the emotion regulation manipulation and level of ingroup identification. Study 2 revealed that individual differences in chronic emotion regulation style and identification interacted to predict responses to the provocation. Implications of the research are discussed.

]]> Steele, Rachel R.