The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between how children are informed of their parents' divorce process decisions and (1) their emotional reactions to the news, (2) their view of their relationships with their parents and (3) how the children see their own general ability to cope. / Seventy parents, representative of recently divorced residents of Leon County, Florida, along with one child of each, between the ages of 7 and 17, were studied, using a highly structured interview research design. / Two relationships were found that could be considered significant. There was a statistically significant inverse relationship between the child's age when told about the divorce and the degree of unhappiness the child felt at the news. Based on the child's perception of whether it was told of the divorce pre-separation, and the assumption that children's fear of abandonment, if it were to change significantly, would only lessen with age, a one-tailed probability t-test showed a statistically significant inverse relationship between the child's age at parental separation and the child's fear of abandonment. / The results of analysis of the data did not support the hypothesis that if a child receives a one-sided account of the divorce decision, the child is significantly more likely to blame only one parent for it. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-03, Section: A, page: 1141. / Major Professor: Charles R. Figley. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

The current study was an investigation of extralegal factors in the perception of sexual harassment. Undergraduate students who were enrolled in introductory psychology classes watched a videotape of an interaction in a work setting. A male "harasser" made a comment to a female regarding her appearance and figure. The physical attractiveness of the harasser, the status of the harasser, and the gender of the subject served as the independent variables. Following the videotape, the subjects completed a questionnaire designed to measure their interpretation of the incident in both an indirect and direct manner. The dependent variables included the subjects' ratings regarding the emotional reactions of the victim to the harasser's comments, the actions that the victim should take in response to his comments, whether the incident was defined as serious, and whether the interaction was defined as sexual harassment. Subjects also completed an empathy measure, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and a scale that measured their tolerance for sexual harassment, the Sexual Harassment Attitude Scale (SHAS). / Contrary to predictions based on the "beauty is good" stereotype, the physical attractiveness of the harasser did not influence subjects' perceptions of the interaction. Regarding status, subjects were more likely to view comments from a supervisor (vs. coworker) as causing negative emotional reactions from the victim. Female subjects were more likely to suggest that stronger actions be taken in response to the incident. An interaction occurred such that male subjects were influenced by the status of the harasser on two dependent variables; males in the coworker condition were less likely to view the interaction as serious or as sexual harassment. However, females were just as likely to see the comments as serious and harassing, regardless of whether they were made by a supervisor or a coworker. Empathy scores on two subscales were positively correlated with the subjects' likelihood of perceiving the incident as sexual harassment. Subjects with a low tolerance for sexual harassment were more likely to define the incident as sexual harassment. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-05, Section: B, page: 2869. / Major Professor: Joyce L. Carbonell. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Recent investigations have demonstrated that alcohol use in connection with sexual activity is related to unsafe sexual practices known to increase the risk of HIV transmission. However, one is unable to ascertain from these studies whether covariation between these behaviors is due to direct causation or third variables. In this study, college students (N = 590) were asked about the circumstances surrounding their aggregate and event-level sexual behavior. Results showed significant associations between alcohol consumption and failure to use condoms among subjects' aggregate sexual behavior (lifetime and 30-days) and during their first intercourse with a most recent sex partner. Evaluation of a series of path analytical models allowed for a more focused examination of the direct and unique contribution of alcohol consumption in explaining condom use. These models demonstrated that correlations between drinking and sexual risk-taking were largely inflated by spurious covariation with underlying third variables. In particular, covariation between alcohol and condom use was partly accounted for by sensation-seeking and impulsivity personality factors. Results of this study also revealed that males' alcohol and condom use were partly explained by the expectancy that drinking leads to sexual risk-taking. The co-occurrence of alcohol use and risky sex among women, on the other hand, was partly explained by motives to use alcohol as a method of coping. Implications for AIDS prevention efforts were discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-12, Section: B, page: 7050. / Major Professor: Alan R. Lang. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

This study investigated the relative contributions and the potential interactive effects of interpersonal dependency, intimacy, and control, as they relate both to the initiation and maintenance of current and chronic depression, and to the perceived marital satisfaction, of wives between the ages of 25 and 44. Subjects included 89 married female volunteers employed by the school system of a rural southeastern town. Seven self-report instruments assessed the impact of eleven predictor variables on five criterion variables. / Multivariate analyses consisted of seven canonical correlations and two separate causal models. Findings included the following: (1) Perceived discrepancies between actual and desired amounts of marital control did not contribute significantly to either depression or marital satisfaction. Gaps on the vacation decision, alone, were inversely related to marital satisfaction. (2) Perceived discrepancies between actual and desired levels of emotional, recreational, and intellectual intimacy were inversely related to marital satisfaction. (3) Wives who were interpersonally dependent upon their husbands were also more likely to experience depression. Emotional reliance was not significantly related to marital satisfaction. (4) The first path analysis demonstrated that the presence of emotional support is a critical causal factor for marital satisfaction, while its absence is critical in producing depression. Similarly, emotional reliance is a causal factor for depression. (5) The second path analysis separated out from emotional support the "Conventionality" or the "My relationship must look good" factor. The contribution of emotional support to either criterion variable diminished dramatically, while the relationship between emotional reliance and depression held. These findings and their implications for future research are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-06, Section: A, page: 1561. / Major Professor: Gary W. Peterson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Students do not always use available help to accomplish their goals in an academic environment. Traditionally, academic help-seeking has been viewed as an act of dependence involving a public interaction between a student and a teacher or peer. Recent advances in technology have led to the re-conceptualization of help-seeking as a private act that supports independent achievement goals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two treatments that promote task involvement, task-involving instructions and instructor modeling on help-seeking behavior. Help-seeking behavior was defined as the number of times a student accessed program help while learning to use a programming system. It was hypothesized that students who received either the task-involving instruction treatment, the instructor modeling treatment or a combination of these treatments would seek more program help than students who received traditional instructions without instructor modeling. / Three instructors and a total of 106 technical professionals employed by an information technology company participated in this study. Students were grouped into eight classes that were open for registration by any technical employee through a computer registration system. Employees registered themselves for class dates and locations and classes were assigned to instructors. Two different instructors were assigned to each condition in this study. / The research was conducted as a 2 $\times$ 2 quasi-experimental design with four possible conditions. The treatment effects for help-seeking were analyzed using the two-way analysis of variance procedure. A main effect was supported for the instructor modeling treatment, F(1,102) = 18.32, p $<$.05. The results indicate that students who received the instructor modeling treatment sought more program help than students who did not receive instructor modeling. / This study suggests that instructor modeling may be an appropriate strategy to promote academic help-seeking. Educators should consider the effects of task-involving strategies on the attitudes associated with help-seeking behavior. Teachers can affect these attitudes and enhance the learning experience by modeling the use of program help to answer questions or solve problems. Future research should investigate relationships between increased help-seeking and other indicators of learning and performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4364. / Major Professor: John M. Keller. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Thesis advisor: Donnah Canavan / This study examines the relationship between shyness/social phobia and other personality traits, as manifested in college students. Very few studies have compared shyness and social phobia, and even fewer have contrasted them. However, we believe that there are several important differences between the two. Mainly, one hypothesis is that social phobics long to be more extroverted and, thus, are more conflicted in many aspects of their personalities. Moreover, very few studies have found a conclusive link between shyness or social phobia and self-esteem. One of our main hypotheses is that there is a link between shyness/social phobia and low social self-esteem, although not necessarily overall self-esteem. We sought support for these hypotheses and others in the analysis of data obtained through a survey, composed of several standard questionnaires, as well as original material covering areas of self-image, behaviors, emotions, and personality traits. The results did indicate substantial differences between shyness and social phobia, with social phobics having higher levels of extraversion and, overall, more conflict within themselves. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Donnah Canavan / Abstract Energy is an emerging concept in social psychology. Baumeister et. al., likening energy to a muscle, have defined exertion of self control as an energy depleting behavior. Energy depletion is measured by reduced performance on a subsequent self-control task. In contrast, Canavan's work on social energy focuses on energy generation and replenishment. Social energy is produced when two or more people are intrinsically interested in the same thing and form a satisfying relationship over this interest. Individuals high in social energy exert more effort, persist longer, and perform better. The present study was conducted in a 2x2 ANOVA design with Social Energy and Depletion as the independent variables and persistence and performance as the dependent variables. Participants worked in groups of two or three groups and were randomly assigned to conditions. In High Social Energy, they imagined managing The Beatles. In the No Social Energy, they imagined managing a cover band playing Beatle's songs. The participants then performed either a depleting or non-depleting proofreading task. Afterwards, the dependent variables were assessed in several tasks: a handgrip task and a measure of creativity and persistence. The results indicate: (1) no significant effect of depletion on the handgrip task and (2) no significant effect of social energy on any of the behavioral measures (i.e. handgrip task or creativity measure). In conclusion, the results did not support either the Depletion or Social Energy behavioral predictions. In the questionnaire data differences between Social Energy and No Social Energy showed significantly higher energy states, social energy, intrinsic motivation, flow, and most important more effort and hard work. The study does improve upon former Social Energy studies in terms of its conceptualization because it successfully manipulated No Social Energy and presented a more sophisticated conceptualization of energy. The manipulations of Social Energy and Depletion interfered with each other making it impossible to test the hypotheses. Paper to be presented at the annual Psychology Honors Conference, Psychology Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, May 2005. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2005. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Feldman Barrett / The aim of the present study was to examine whether individual differences in Time Insensitivity are related to subjective experiences of emotion and cognitive performance. Sixty-five undergraduates (52% female) completed self-report measures of cognitive flexibility and provided subjective self-reports of emotions following two time pressured cognitive tasks. As predicted, Time Insensitivity was related to self-reported cognitive flexibility, better cognitive performance during a time pressured task, as well as less negative subjective experience in response to these tasks. The results of the present study suggest that Time Insensitivity may have some beneficial outcomes. Limitations and implications for future directions are discussed. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

During collaboration, people communicate using verbal and non-verbal cues, including gaze cues. Spoken language is usually the primary medium of communication in these interactions, yet despite this co-occurrence of speech and gaze cueing, most experiments have used paradigms without language. Furthermore, previous research has shown that myriad social factors influence behaviour during interactions, yet most studies investigating responses to gaze have been conducted in a lab, far removed from any natural interaction. It was the aim of this thesis to investigate the relationship between language and gaze cue utilisation in natural collaborations. For this reason, the initial study was largely observational, allowing for spontaneous natural language and gaze. Participants were found to rarely look at their partners, but to do so strategically, with listeners looking more at speakers when the latter were of higher social status. Eye movement behaviour also varied with the type of language used in instructions, so in a second study, a more controlled (but still real-world) paradigm was used to investigate the effect of language type on gaze utilisation. Participants used gaze cues flexibly, by seeking and following gaze more when the cues were accompanied by distinct featural verbal information compared to overlapping spatial verbal information. The remaining three studies built on these findings to investigate the relationship between language and gaze using a much more controlled paradigm. Gaze and language cues were reduced to equivalent artificial stimuli and the reliability of each cue was manipulated. Even in this artificial paradigm, language was preferred when cues were equally reliable, supporting the idea that gaze cues are supportive to language. Typical gaze cueing effects were still found, however the size of these effects was modulated by gaze cue reliability. Combined, the studies in this thesis show that although gaze cues may automatically and quickly affect attention, their use in natural communication is mediated by the form and content of concurrent spoken language.

According to theory of the mind, individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are unable to interpret the social cues of others, which results in anxiety and social behavior deficits . Individuals with ASD are currently using canine Companion Service Animals (CSAs) in order to practice developing attachment bonds ; however, no known quantitative studies have demonstrated the efficacy of CSA in improving social behaviors in ASD populations. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the extent to which exposure to CSA impacts social skills and social interaction in children and adolescents with ASD as measured by the parent self-reports on the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS) and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), respectively. MANOVA results of a matched-paticipant, equivalent, posttest-only design ( n = 122) showed that CSA users had fewer deficits in social skills and social interaction. There were no differences in age, IQ, or comorbidity CSA scores for social interaction or social skills based on MANOVA analysis. Results suggest that attachment bonds between the CSA user and an associated CSA provide an opportunity to engage in social interactions despite social skill deficits. This study contributes to social change by increasing awareness of the impact of CSA on the daily social functioning of children and adolescents with ASD.