Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa. / Bibliography: leaves 168-174.

Fairness theory represents a widely cited framework for modeling the cognitive processes that underlie the formation of fairness perceptions in the workplace. Nonetheless, imprecise language and scant empirical research limit its ability to further organizational justice research. Therefore, in this dissertation I provide a review and critique of fairness theory suggesting several revisions. I then build upon this revised model to develop a new model of fairness perception formation. The developed model is tested via a laboratory experiment and a field study, both of which provide initial evidence in favor of the proposed model.

No description available.

Raters' response toward victim and perpetrators in the context of rape is examined. More blame is attributed to a female than a male victim by all raters, particularly if the female victim is described only as being raped. Detailed description of different forms of injury resulting from the rape tends to act as a mediating factor in the amount of blame assigned to victims. Whereas the delineation of injury tends to decrease the amount of blame assigned to the female victim, this pattern is reversed for the male. Raters also claim a physically injured rape victim would require a substantially longer recuperation time than one whose injuries are psychological or unspecified.

Motivated by recent claims from youth that older generations are jeopardizing their future, the purpose of this thesis is to study potential explanations for the variation of intergenerational blame attribution among Swedish youth. Ordinary least squares regression analysis is conducted on survey data, especially focused on young participants, to test several hypotheses about how perceived economic threats and one’s value orientation can impact young people’s motivation to blame elderly generations for economic difficulties. The thesis does not find statistical support that one’s birth cohort - used as a proxy for childhood socialization during different economic conditions - moderates the effect of perceived threat on intergenerational blame attribution. However, when a person’s value orientation is explicitly measured in a regression model, the findings indicate that characteristics acquired earlier in life can alter a person’s reaction to presently perceived threats. The result shows that authoritarians are more prone to attribute blame towards older generations as a matter of habit, but also that libertarians are susceptible to changing their attitudes to liken authoritarians given a tangible threat. Furthermore, the study provides empirical evidence suggesting that libertarians and authoritarians react to perceived economic threats differently. These findings are evaluated in relation to measuring perceived threat in a survey context and the linear interaction effect assumption in multiplicative linear models.

No description available.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pressing global issue that endangers women worldwide. Societal reactions to this type of violence are deciding factors for victims’ mental health and help-seeking behaviour.Previous research has shown that victim-blaming attitudes in IPV remain prevalent, especially among men and individuals with sexist beliefs. Considering the recent rise in popularity of online content supporting traditional gender roles and sexism among young people, it begs the question of whether such content influences victim-blaming, and if content supporting contrasting ideas has the opposite effect. Using an online questionnaire containing a hypothetical scenario on IPV, this vignette study analysed how agreement with sexist online content and feminist online content influence both victim-blaming and perpetrator responsibility attitudes among a predominantly young sample (N=210).Results indicate that agreement with sexist online content is associated with an increase in victim-blaming and a decrease in perpetrator responsibility attribution, however, these effects lose their statistical significance when variables measuring general sexist attitudes are included in the regression. Agreement with feminist online content is also associated with a statistically significant increase of perpetrator responsibility attribution and a decrease in victim-blaming, although statistical strength and significance are once again lost when general sexist attitudes are accounted for. These results suggest that general sexist attitudes, specifically hostile sexist attitudes, have a stronger influence on victim-blaming and perpetrator responsibility attribution compared to agreement with sexist and feminist online content, potentially due to a mediating or moderating effect of the latter.Future research should analyse the causal relationship between sexist attitudes and exposure to various types of online content as well as study how different constellations of IPV might be influenced by the consumption of sexist or feminist online content.

La présente recherche porte sur « l’attribution de la responsabilité » auprès d’une population de 166 adolescents auteurs d’agression sexuelle âgés de 12 à 19 ans. Le but premier de cette investigation est de déterminer quels aspects psychologiques (âge, stress post-traumatique, distorsion cognitive, estime de soi, aliénation, immaturité) influencent trois types d’attributions de la responsabilité, soit la culpabilité, l’attribution externe et l’attribution interne, et ainsi sur quels niveaux focaliser le traitement. Les résultats des régressions multiples ont mis en avant deux modèles. Pour le modèle prédisant la culpabilité, une seule composante est retenue, le stress post-traumatique. Ce modèle explique 26% (ajusté) de la variance de la culpabilité (R2=0,29, F(6,120)=8,35, p<0,01). Le modèle prédisant l’attribution externe est composé de l’âge et des distorsions cognitives et permet d’expliquer 25% (ajusté) de la variance (R2=0,28, F(6,122)=8,03, p<0,01). L’attribution interne ne présente aucune corrélation avec les variables étudiées. Le deuxième objectif est d’estimer l’efficacité de la prise en charge du jeune pour modifier l’attribution de responsabilité, selon les différentes modalités qui sont le « milieu de prise en charge », la « durée du traitement » et « l’approche thérapeutique » afin de choisir le programme le plus adéquat. En utilisant l’analyse de la variance (ANOVA), il a été possible de déterminer qu’aucune de ces modalités n’influence l’attribution de la responsabilité. Cette étude présente des limites, notamment la puissance statistique. Comme piste pour de futures recherches, le lien entre l’attribution de la responsabilité et la récidive pourrait être examiné. / This research is about blame attribution of 166 juvenile sex offenders between the age of 12 and 19. The first goal is to determine which psychological aspects (age, post-traumatic stress, cognitive distortions, self-esteem, alienation, immaturity) influence the 3 types of blame attribution (culpability, external attribution and internal attribution) as well as to determine the focus level of treatment. The results of the multiple regressions show two models. The model predicting culpability is only composed by post-traumatic stress. This model explains 26% (adjusted) of the culpability variance (R2=0,29, F(6,120)=8,35, p<0,01). The model predicting external attribution is composed by age and cognitive distortions. It explains 25% (adjusted) of variance (R2=0,28, F(6,122)=8,03, p<0,01). Internal attribution hasn’t shown a correlation with the studied variables. The second goal is to estimate the efficiency provided by different services to modify blame attribution according to the care environments, length of treatment and therapeutic approach in order to come up with the best set up. Thanks to ANOVAs, it was possible to find out that none of the modalities have an impact on blame attribution. This research has some limits, especially statistical power. For consideration of future studies, links between blame attribution and recidivism could be investigated.

La crise de la COVID-19 a provoqué des bouleversements majeurs dans la vie des populations du monde entier et a suscité des réactions sociales importantes. La propagation du virus contagieux de la COVID-19 a été rapidement suivie d’une « épidémie » d’explications et de discours tentant de donner un sens à la crise. Lorsqu’un événement dévastateur se produit, les gens se demandent ce qui se passe et ce que cela signifie. Le premier but de cette recherche est de suivre l’évolution de la dynamique du blâme et de la désignation de boucs émissaires au fur et à mesure que la pandémie de COVID-19 se déroule. Le deuxième but de cette recherche est d’évaluer l’intérêt d’utiliser l’Allocation de Dirichlet latente (ADL), un modèle de mélange/classe latente génératif bayésien, dans l’analyse de questions ouvertes. Les données ont été recueillies auprès d’un échantillon représentatif de 3617 Canadiens selon un devis de recherche longitudinal intensif (avec 12 temps de mesure). Neuf thématiques ont été identifiées, dont six sont récurrentes à différents temps de mesure. Les résultats indiquent que, durant les premiers mois de la pandémie, les Canadiens blâment majoritairement les collectivités distantes, telles que la Chine et les marchés aux animaux vivants (wet markets). Au fil du temps, ils blâment de plus en plus les collectivités locales, tels que les individus qui ne respectent pas les mesures sanitaires. Cette recherche met en évidence le rôle de la proximité géographique et de l’évaluation du risque dans la manière dont le public perçoit la pandémie. / The COVID-19 crisis has caused major disruptions in the lives of populations around the globe and provoked important social responses. The spread of the contagious COVID-19 virus was quickly followed by an outbreak of explanations and discourses trying to make sense of the crisis. When devastating events occur, people ask themselves what happened, why the event happened and what it means. The first goal of this paper is to track the changing dynamics of blame attribution and scapegoating as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds. The second goal of this paper is to evaluate the relevance of LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation), a Bayesian generative mixture/latent class model, to analyze open-ended survey responses. Data was collected from a representative sample of 3,617 Canadians following an intensive longitudinal research design (with 12 waves). Nine topics were identified, six of which were recurring. Canadians mostly blame distant collectives in the early months of the pandemic, especially China and wet markets. Over time, they increasingly blame local collectives, such as individuals who do not comply with sanitary measures. This study highlights the role of geographic proximity and perceived risk in shaping public perceptions of the pandemic.

This study investigated how the age of an environmental movement organisation and its degree of institutionalisation impacted the usage of threat-related framing and blame attribution in regards to environmental issues. Environmental discourse has lately developed a rhetoric that embraces urgency and severity, but how different types of environmental movement organisations have approached this, historically and today, has not been widely studied. A mixed-methods approach was therefore employed that thematically examined texts from the Swedish branch of Extinction Rebellion and The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation at several points in time. The analysis indicated that the degree of institutionalisation had an influence on the organisation’s blame attribution, whilst age did not. Furthermore, no conclusive implications followed the analysis of the organisation’s framings. The study concluded that the degree of institutionalisation is an important factor behind how environmental movement organisations choose their blame attribution. The study provided insights into how institutionalisation affects strategic choices of movement organisations, possibly providing a foundation for future research in the field.