This study was designed to investigate actor-observer differences in causal attribution to either situational or dispositional factors. A critical review of the literature suggests that stable directional differences may not exist. It was hypothesized that the informational needs of the audience hearing the attribution would be a major determinant of the nature of actor-observer differences. Specifically, as predicted, differences between self and other attributions disappeared when the audience was a stranger. The implications of these results were discussed with reference to the actor-observer attributional literature and theory as well as to attribution research in general. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The integration of philanthropy into corporate advertising and sales promotion campaigns is becoming a popular persuasion tactic. Companies are now using product advertising to portray themselves as benefactors of charities and social causes. The underlying marketing premise is that a firm can do better by "doing good." Philanthropic advertising can be grouped into two basic categories. One category ties consumer purchases to the corporate donation while the other communicates the firm's benevolence without a purchase connection. Causes perceived by consumers as personally relevant receive more cognitive elaboration than those causes perceived to have little relevance. On the surface, philanthropic advertising appears to be a "win-win" situation. The firm achieves an additional sale, or enhances its image, and the charity receives needed financial support. However, little is known as to how these messages influence consumer perceptions, attitudes and purchase likelihood. This study examined the effects of different forms of philanthropic messages, with varying levels of personal relevance, on consumer perceptions and behavior. It addresses these issues from an attribution theory viewpoint. Specifically, this study suggests that, given varying combinations of philanthropic advertising and personal relevance, consumers form different perceptions of the firm's altruism. These attributions influence consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. The study used an after-only, with control group, experiment to investigate the differential impact of the experimental factors. Two hundred and seventy-five graduate students responded to randomly assigned advertising stimuli and answered a questionnaire that measured their attitudes and purchase intentions. The initial hypothesis tests failed to show any significant results. Overall, subjects did not perceive any difference between the two types of philanthropic promotions. However, some effects emerged when the blocking factors were introduced. These results indicated that those who had a less favorable attitude toward business tended to respond unfavorably to philanthropic advertisements. Additionally, non-users of the product had more favorable responses for philanthropic advertisements than non-philanthropic advertisements. Messages of high personal relevance also produced more favorable responses than low relevance messages. Individuals who were not active contributors responded favorably to the purchase-linked messages. The results imply that these messages may have a different impact on various consumer segments. This message strategy can be useful in stimulating brand switching among current non-users.

Cultural identity is a construct from the literature on Minority Identity Development Theory. One's cultural identity provides one means of understanding one's psychological relationship to cultural communities with which one has ties. A new paradigm has been presented for understanding deafness as a cultural difference rather than a medical pathology. To draw out one implication of this new paradigm, a theory is presented for how audiologically deaf people develop culturally Deaf identities. Four stages of cultural identity development are described. Culturally hearing refers to people who hold the dominant culture's attitudes and beliefs about deafness. Culturally marginal refers to people who experience shifting loyalties or profound confusion regarding their relationship to the Deaf and hearing worlds. Immersion identity refers to a radical or militant Deaf stance. Bicultural deaf people have integrated their Deaf pride in a balanced way into their full humanity. Different paths of development are outlined dependent on the circumstances surrounding the hearing loss. An instrument, the Deaf Identity Development Scale (DIDS) is developed in both English and American Sign Language to measure Deaf cultural identity. The DIDS is administered to 161 subjects: 105 students from Gallaudet University and 56 members from an organization of late deafened adults. Support for the existence of the four distinct kinds of cultural identity is provided by acceptable reliability, interscale and item-to-scale correlations. Thirteen hypotheses pertaining to instrument construction and theory and test validity are tested. Test results are used to illuminate further the paths of deaf identity development. Suggestions for improvement in the DIDS are presented.

Two studies examined individual differences among persons of different adult attachment styles in desire and perceptions of social support. It was hypothesized that working models of self and other that comprise the attachment system are related to perceptions of social support interactions. Study 1 explored the desire for different types of social support of 244 college students. Preoccupied respondents reported a stronger desire than dismissing avoidant respondents for social support of all types with the exception of companionship. In contrast with the other attachment groups, dismissing avoidant individuals did not like any type of social support any more or any less than any other type of social support. Study 2 examined how helpful individuals of different attachment styles found emotional support, problem-focused support, esteem-bolstering support, and advice, and how these perceptions were related to behavioral choices. Secure subjects found all types of support more helpful than the insecure attachment groups. Fearful avoidant and preoccupied subjects were less likely than other subjects to choose to interact with a person providing esteem-bolstering support. Furthermore, dismissing avoidant and preoccupied subjects found advice less helpful than other groups. The findings of both studies lend support to the hypothesis that differences in working models of self and other are related to the way individuals perceive social support from others.

This dissertation studies the generic construct of critical consciousness, defined as the kind of awareness characterized by the independent and interdependent investigation of truth and meaning, both internally and in one's social environment, which allows an individual to disembed from it, engage in a critical moral dialogue with it, and become a moral and caring agent for positive change in his/her social world. The study subjects the broad phenomenon of CC to a rigorous empirical and developmental exegesis through descriptive accounts of the levels of its evolution in the life-span of interview subjects and secondary life histories from different cultural and historic contexts. It brings together Neo-Piagetian and Vygotskian understanding into an integrated model of the ontogeny of CC as an alterative, optimal developmental pathway of the evolving of adult social consciousness on the boundary of public and private. This study has established three levels in the CC pathway: Pre-CC, Conventional CC, and Postconventional CC. Each level is described in terms of a different range of tasks, concerns, and capabilities in their cross-cultural and socio-contextual variation. Converging theoretical and empirical evidence supports the empirical claim that the centrality of authentic moral concerns in the formation of consciousness is independent of the level of operant structural development, although the moral motivational dimensions are continuously elaborated throughout development. Hence, the ontogeny of CC is described as the synergistic outcome of the on-going interplay between moral motivation and the composite structural development of consciousness. The composite structural developmental component includes social-cognitive and ego development. Moral motivation is analyzed in terms of the interaction of four dimensions in the formation of personhood. They are: (1) the formation of a moral sense of identity and moral imperative; (2) the negotiation of external moral authority progressively internalized as moral responsibility and agency; (3) the formation of empathic and permeable relationships, and concerns with justice and not hurting, which grow into social consciousness; (4) the search for greater meaning in life than the individual self, which serves as a vantage point for self-reflection and critical examination of reality.

Many gender differences in nonverbal behavior have been identified, but the ontogeny of these differences has as yet not been explained. Status differences between men and women are often suggested as a likely cause, but recent evidence suggests that social norms operating within gender groups, and not between them, are responsible. The current project attempted to elucidate the relations among gender, status, and nonverbal facial expressions of emotion by testing two causal possibilities. The results of Study I suggests that effectively encoding gender-appropriate emotions may influence social status. The results of Study II suggest that men's, but not women's, status may influence their expressive behavior.

Many Vietnam veterans are currently suffering from PTSD. The vast literature on PTSD is grounded in the positivistic paradigm. Treatment approaches in the field of traumatology that are positivistic face significant limitations, including difficulty bearing witness to the survivor, forming a collaborative relationship, and crafting a coherent and meaningful survivor narrative. This author plans to listen to the stories of Vietnam combat veterans within the context of postmodern theory. Based on the theoretical frameworks of narrative and social constructionism, this author will conduct in-depth interviews with Vietnam veterans which will then be transcribed, crafted into narratives, and analyzed for thematic connections, similarities and other elements of narrative analysis. The author seeks to understand trauma in the context of the veteran's life narrative as constructed in interviews.

This dissertation study examined the causal attributions made by 30 adult children for their severely mentally ill parent's symptomatic behaviors. A retrospective methodology was used in order to explore the development of attributions from their first realization that their parent was behaving in a problematic manner to the present time. This study also explored the associations between attributions and participants' levels of coping and resiliency, as defined by their present functioning. The results of this study lend support to the use of an attributional framework in the study of children of the mentally ill. The data gathered using the Adult Children of the Mentally Ill-Attribution Scale (ACMI-AS) indicated reasonable internal consistency and expected intercorrelations of the attribution stems. A factor analysis of participants' responses to the ACMI-AS revealed three factors, including Internal to Self, Internal to Parent and Predictability. The data suggested that participants' attributions significantly changed from their initial realization of parental symptomatic behavior to the present time. The analysis indicated that maturity was not wholly responsible for the change in attributions. Rather, the subjective amount of information concerning mental illness as well as extra-familial support were significant contributing factors. The analyses between attributions and coping as well as between attributions and resiliency suggested a relationship between these variables. The data further suggested that attributions for parental control of the symptomatic behavior or personal control by the child were associated with increased psychopathology and lower self-esteem and self-efficacy in respondents. Attributions that highlighted predictability, external causation, and biological causation were associated with fewer somatic complaints and increased social self-efficacy.

Attachment researchers speculate that different working models of attachment contain within them different chronic interpersonal goals and that these goals guide behavior in ways consistent with each different model of attachment. The current study experimentally manipulated goals thought to be associated with different attachment prototypes and measured their effect on self-disclosure. 101 participants completed a priming task on the computer in which they were presented with neutral, intimacy-, or defensiveness-related words and were later asked to complete a questionnaire tapping their willingness to disclose personal information about themselves, and participate in an interview. Results indicate that although priming alone did not influence disclosure, it interacted with attachment style. Individuals low in dismissiveness and preoccupation were more likely to disclose information about themselves than those high in dismissiveness and preoccupation. These effects were moderated by priming condition. As dismissiveness increased, willingness to disclose decreased, but this effect was stronger for individuals primed with defensiveness-related words. Contrary to expectation, higher preoccupation predicted greater willingness to disclose in the defensiveness condition as compared with either the neutral or intimacy conditions. These results are discussed in terms of contrast and assimilation effects as they relate to working models of attachment.

Students from a large state university participated by responding to a survey on helping behavior. This research explored the effect of independence and interdependence on perceptions of obligation and the likelihood of helping. Results indicated that independence was associated with intrinsic motivation, whereas interdependence was related to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Furthermore, analyses confirmed that motivation served as a mediator between these orientations and the likelihood of helping. Interdependence predicted helping via intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, whereas independence only predicted helping via intrinsic motivation. Even when helping was more costly, and therefore more likely to be driven by personal rather than social motives, interdependence remained as strong a predictor as independence of intrinsic motivation and subsequently of helping. Interaction and main effects of gender, severity of need, and closeness of the relationship also are discussed.