Although automatic partner attitudes are a critical predictor of long-term relationship outcomes, we know very little about their more immediate implications. Different theoretical perspectives suggest different possibilities—automatic partner attitudes may predict (a) daily interpersonal judgments, (b) judgments of alternative sources, such as mood, or (c) no daily judgments if these attitudes are unconscious. We assessed automatic partner attitudes implicitly and interpersonal evaluations and mood via self-report for 14 days in a sample of newlywed couples. More negative partner attitudes were associated with more negative daily mood and less positive daily mood but not daily evaluations of the relationship over the 14 days. These findings suggest that people (a) do have access to the content of automatic evaluations but may not always realize their source but (b) may protect desired beliefs by explaining away automatic evaluations that are undesirable. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 2, 2019. / Automatic partner attitudes, Dual process models, Implicit attitudes, Marriage, Mood / Includes bibliographical references. / James K. McNulty, Professor Directing Thesis; Andrea L. Meltzer, Committee Member; Greg Hajcak, Committee Member.

In light of dual-process models of social cognition, relationship scientists have utilized measures designed to bypass deliberative processing in order to capture spouses' more automatic attitudes about their partners and their relationships. Here, we review the theoretical distinctions between deliberative and automatic evaluations as laid out by dual process models of social cognition, discuss the implications of these distinctions in the context of romantic relationships, and present a meta-analysis of correlations between explicitly and implicitly-measured relationship evaluations. A fixed-effects meta-analysis of 65 correlations summarizing the relationship evaluations of 2688 total participants revealed that the overall association between the two types of measures was significant but small (r = .05), indicating that explicit and implicit evaluations capture distinct relationship phenomena. We end by discussing several theoretical implications, including when implicit versus explicit measures of relationships may be more appropriate, the contexts in which implicit and explicit relationship evaluations might be more or less correlated, and why studying romantic relationships can offer unique insights for dual process models of social cognition. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 5, 2017. / dual process models, implicit measures, meta-analysis, relationship evaluations / Includes bibliographical references. / James K. McNulty, Professor Directing Thesis; E. Ashby Plant, Committee Member; Chris W. Schatsneider, Committee Member.

Partner defection for an attractive alternative represents a threat to romantic relationships. Intimates’ behaviors to combat this threat are likely influenced by their attachment style. Attachment anxiety is characterized by fear of partner defection and thus intimates with relatively more (versus less) attachment anxiety likely perform more frequent mate retention. Conversely, attachment avoidance is characterized by apathy towards partner defection and thus intimates with relatively more (versus less) attachment avoidance likely perform less frequent mate retention. Moreover, given the partner-directed nature of mate-retention behaviors, such behaviors may have implications for intimates’ partners. We examined these possibilities in one cross-sectional study of undergraduates and one 3-year longitudinal study of newlywed couples. Across both studies, intimates with more attachment anxiety performed more frequent cost-inflicting mate-retention behaviors and intimates with more attachment avoidance performed less frequent benefit-provisioning mate-retention behaviors. Study 2 further demonstrated that both facets of intimates’ attachment insecurity were indirectly associated with decreased partner satisfaction over time through intimates’ over-performance of cost-inflicting mate retention and under-performance of benefit-provisioning mate retention. Implications and future directions of research are discussed. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 27, 2018. / Attachment, Mate Retention, Relationships / Includes bibliographical references. / Andrea L. Meltzer, Professor Directing Thesis; Jon K. Maner, Committee Member; Sara A. Hart, Committee Member.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Hmong refugees immigrated to the United States and have since experienced cultural differences that challenged their traditional way of living. The research problem for this study was Hmong refugees'€™ lived experiences in America because their experience was unknown and unexplored. Addressing this research problem was significant because it provided insight into their experiences and its impact on acculturation as well as distinct cultural experiences not acknowledged or noticeable with monolithic studies. The purpose of this study was to explore Hmong refugees'€™ lived experiences in America using Grove and Torbion's theory of sojourners as the theoretical framework to address research questions, what are the cultural experiences of Hmong refugees living in America? and how have acculturated challenges constructed Hmong refugees lived experiences? A qualitative phenomenological design with semi-structured interviews was employed to explore 8 refugees'€™ lived experiences and coded using Giorgi's 5-€step data analysis. Participants reported cultural as well as gender specific experiences that resulted in dissonance, adaptation, loss of ethnic practices, collective to independent lifestyle preferences and its impact on each participant's acculturative approach or cognitive and behavioral adjustments toward American culture. Based on these findings, possible implications for social change include researching ethnic groups separately in order to acknowledge distinct lived experiences related to specific cultural factors as well as healthy and effective methods of integrating immigrants into dominant cultural societies.

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Exposing participants to a victim with different racial identities (Asian American vs. African American vs. White American) under two different types of misfortunes (poverty vs. disease), the present study aimed to find whether the victim-blaming patterns differ depending on the victim’s race and whether the difference in victim-blaming tendency could be explained by the interaction between pre-existing stereotypes and situational relevance.

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