Betrayal trauma theory (see Freyd, 1996) posits betrayal events often require "betrayal blindness" in order to limit awareness or memory of information regarding the betrayal. This occurs in order to maintain a connection that is necessary for survival. BTT may be applied to events that generally would not be considered traumatic, such as adultery or discrimination. In order to maintain connections within relationships, institutions, and social systems upon which there is a dependency, people (acting as victims, perpetrators, and witnesses) may show betrayal blindness. This dissertation consists of two studies investigating betrayal blindness and betrayal trauma history as they relate to charitable behavior. Study 1 included 467 college students at the University of Oregon who completed self-report measures of trauma history and a behavioral measure requesting a hypothetical donation. Contributions were requested for three scenarios that varied in level of betrayal: natural disaster, external genocide, and internal genocide. Results indicated no significant main effects for trauma history or type of event. However, people were less willing to donate to the group of recipients and the genocide conditions at low levels of emotional arousal. Additionally, those who have experienced high betrayal traumas also were less likely to donate at low emotional response values. Given the lack of significant findings in this experiment, a second study was conducted using a repeated measures design. Study 2 involved 634 undergraduate students at the University of Oregon. In addition to the measures from Study 1, participants also completed additional self-report measures assessing trait measures of prosocial tendencies, social desirability, personality, emotion regulation, and betrayal awareness. There were no main effects on charitable behavior for personality traits, prosociality, emotion regulation, social desirability, or betrayal awareness. Significant order effects were observed when comparing the type of event and betrayal level of event. A between-subjects approach revealed people donated less money to the higher betrayal versions of both types of scenarios. Across both studies, increased affect, particularly guilt, was associated with more charitable behavior. Although there are several limitations of these studies, the findings represent an important first step exploring prosocial behavior within a betrayal trauma framework.

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Sonya Britt / The purpose of this research study was to investigate the determinants that explain and predict Christian’s intentions to make lifetime gifts to charities. The research was guided by the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) utilizing an expanded model that anticipated Christians who have (a) a favorable attitude toward giving, (b) a perceived pressure from social norms, (c) high levels of perceived behavioral control in their ability to make gifts, (d) a positive moral responsibility toward charitable giving, (e) a history of charitable giving, and (f) a faith based spiritual desire to pursue the Christian way of life would be more inclined to have giving intentions. Survey data were obtained through two pilot studies and a main study (N = 250). The pilot study participants were recruited through the researcher’s social network. The main study participants were enlisted through a contract with Qualtrics, an online survey organization that maintains panels of likely research subjects. Hierarchical linear regression identified support for traditional and expanded models of the theory of planned behavior. In the traditional model, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, all predicted donative intent. In the expanded model, not moral norms, past behavior, and the Christian way of life predicted donating intentions; however, perceived behavioral control a significant predictor in the traditional model, did not predict donative intent. The traditional theory of planned behavior accounted for 65%, and expanded predictors added 11% to the explanation of intention to donate to non-profit organizations in the coming year. The current research has both theoretical and applied implications. Consistent with Fishbein and Ajzen’s (2010) encouragement to improve the traditional model, the expanded model enhanced the predictive ability of the theory of planned behavior with a new determinant, the Christian way of life. The current research also reaffirms the predictive ability of the previously tested factor past behavior and not moral norms. Non-profit organizations may apply these findings by targeting the salient beliefs that are foundational to all predictors of intentions. The current research has identified beliefs associated with attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioral control, moral norms, past behavior, and the Christian way of life that offer non-profit organizations educational opportunities to intervene with donors to improve charitable behavior.

There are negative correlations between prosocial behaviors and loneliness and negative correlations between thinking about prosocial behaviors and loneliness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of thinking about engaging in charitable behaviors on immediate feelings of social and emotional loneliness, as measured by the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale (SELSA). To compare influences of thinking about charitable behaviors and not thinking about charitable behaviors, an experimental design was used. The theoretical framework was a mediational model in which thinking about engaging in a specific charitable behavior leads to perceived ability to participate in positive social interaction, which leads to increased sense of belongingness, which leads to decreased loneliness. This was based on the spreading activation theory and Peplau and Perlman’s social psychological theory of loneliness. A sample of 171 adults age 18 or older living in the United States completed an online questionnaire consisting of 1 of 3 randomly assigned writing prompt conditions: charitable thoughts writing prompt, control writing prompt, and no writing prompt. Data were analyzed through planned contrasts within a one-way ANOVA. Planned contrasts revealed no significant difference in social or emotional loneliness scores between participants in the experimental group and participants in either control group. Thinking about engaging in charitable behaviors does not lead to immediate reduction in loneliness, opening new questions for researchers to investigate what does lead to immediate reduction in loneliness. Nonsignificant findings help health professionals make informed decisions about how to help clients. They need scientific evidence to distinguish between what does and does not work.

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