acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

An experiment tested the hypothesis that cognitive load had a direct effect on the ability to mood regulate. Two variables were manipulated to test this relationship: Cognitive load (high vs. low) and mood management (instruction vs. no instruction). After undergoing a negative mood induction, all subjects were randomly assigned to one of four conditions created by the cross of the between subjects variables. Subjects rated their mood both before and after the cognitive load and mood management manipulation. Although some marginal evidence indicated that subjects in low cognitive load conditions were able to mood regulate and subjects in high cognitive load conditions were not, a clear interpretation of this finding was prevented by an unexpected sampling break prior to the load manipulation. Hypotheses related to the mood management manipulation were not supported. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for further research on mood repair / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Racial stereotypicality refers to the degree to which an individual looks like a "typical" member of their ethnic or racial group by considering multiple phenotypical features such as skin tone and nose width. Prior studies have utilized real and photoshopped images to assess perceptions of individuals high in racial stereotypicality. However, no known studies have allowed participants to engage in the self-assessment of their own facial features outside of skin-tone. In the present study, I develop and investigate the underlying structure of a scale which allows Black individuals to self-assess their perceived degree of racial stereotypicality. I accomplished this by developing items, soliciting expert feedback, conducting cognitive interviews, disseminating the proposed scale, and conducting an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on a sample of 308 Black adults. EFA results produced a three-factor structure influenced by item wording and reverse coding. Findings also indicated that items which assessed one's overall degree of stereotypicality loaded onto a singular, separate factor as originally theorized. Results suggest that reverse coding, item wording, and response labeling may influence factor structure and negatively impact scale validation procedures. Additionally, items assessing overall stereotypicality may address something distinctly different from other items which assess individual features. Therefore, perceived overall racial stereotypicality should be further tested and considered in future research since it performed fairly during exploratory analysis, aligns with proposed theory, and ultimately homes in on perceptions that may have major implications for understanding how Black phenotypical features impact the lives, outcomes, and experiences of Black individuals.

<p>The Romantic Construal Model proposes that people interpret actions as romantic to the extent that they perceive that those actions take the receiver’s idiosyncratic likes and dislikes into account (personalization), are out of the ordinary in terms of either frequency or the manner with which they are enacted (specialness), and convey that the person values the receiver and the relationship (conveyed value). This model was tested in two studies.</p> <p>In Study 1, 132 participants (67 men and 65 women) were instructed to modify generic behaviors to make them either more or less romantic. These modifications were then coded for personalization, specialness, and conveyed value. The results showed that higher mean levels of personalization, specialness, and value were found when participants were asked to make a behavior more rather than less romantic. Furthermore, regression analyses predicting participant ratings of romance for the modified actions were significantly predicted by the levels of specialness and conveyed value, but personalization was not related to romantic ratings.</p> <p>In Study 2, 132 participants (67 men and 65 women) read 8 vignettes describing potentially romantic behaviors that experimentally manipulated all combinations of high or low personalization, high or low specialness and high or low conveyed value. Participants rated each vignette for how romantic they thought the behavior was; the degree to which the behavior was personalized, special, and conveyed value; and how good, committed, and loved would they feel if their partner enacted that behavior in their relationship. The results of Study 2 showed that although personalization and specialness were successfully manipulated in the vignettes, value was not. Furthermore, significant effects of personalization and specialness, but not value, were obtained on romantic ratings for half of the vignettes. In contrast, participants’ subjective ratings of the romanticness of the behaviors were predicted by their ratings of value but not personalization or specialness. The implications of this study for the Romantic Construal Model are discussed and evaluated within the context of previous findings on the communication of affection</p> / Dissertation

<p>Since the cognitive ability to process information is limited, people often rely on stereotypes to help them make sense of their social environment. These knowledge structures allow people to utilize past experiences and social learning to infer the characteristics and behaviors of individual group members. Stereotypes provide their holders with scripts, specifying how to interact with members of specific social groups (e.g., what products to choose or avoid and how certain actions may be interpreted). Despite the prevalent use of stereotypes in daily life, little research in consumer behavior has examined the role of stereotypes from this perspective. I propose that consumers use stereotype knowledge to navigate interpersonal interactions through adjusting their self-evaluations and product choices to match the needs of the social situation. My research suggests that both the stereotypes applied to the self and those applied to others have implications for how consumers strategically leverage this socially shared knowledge when interacting with others. </p><p>In Essay 1, I examine how consumers use stereotypes to guide their self-evaluations when preparing to interact with someone who may stereotype them. Most interestingly, consumers are selective in what aspects of the stereotype they take on, depending on whether they have more interdependent or independent self-construals. In three studies, I demonstrate that individuals with more interdependent self-construals engage in selective self-stereotyping and that these shifts in self-evaluations are specifically tailored to the preferences and expectations of the interaction partner. However, I find that individuals with more independent self-construals engage in selective counter self-stereotyping in order to distance themselves from the constraints of the stereotype and also to rebuff the expectations of the interaction partner. </p><p>Essay 2 examines the various impression management concerns that arise when consumers choose products to share with others. I find that when the consumer has little information regarding his consumption partner, stereotypes related to the consumption partner's social group are used to guide product choices. Whether the chosen products are stereotype consistent or inconsistent depend on the consumer's social goals and the consumption partner's expectations. Across four studies, I take both the perspectives of the consumer making the choice and the consumption partner to examine the various strategies adopted for making joint consumption choices and also to evaluate the interpersonal consequences of these strategies.</p> / Dissertation

<p> Technological shifts in recent decades have allowed individuals working in electronic instrument design access to resources and information regardless of their affiliations with academia or other institutions. Women have historically had limited involvement in electronic instrument design due to a number of social factors; a few elements are crucial to supporting the endeavors of women and girls interested in contemporary electronic instrument design, including deinstitutionalized access to resources and information, supportive mentorship and the availability of role models, and the acknowledgement and deconstruction of social factors that hinder the progress of women in the field of music technology. The intent of this research is to explore the social forces that serve to limit the involvement and achievement of women in the field of electronic instrument design by examining the practices of individual women involved in this discipline alongside sociological and psychological research on the implications of social constructions of gender, technology, creativity, and intelligence. My hope is that this research will serve to further discourse and open a dialogue on the necessity of dismantling and examining social constructions of gender and technology.</p>

Research in consumption behavior often assumes emotion to be an antecedent or consequence of consumption rather than an integral part of consumption as it occurs. Psychological approaches to emotion often magnify this issue by using a cognitive model focussed on emotion as an outcome. This paper proposes a conceptualization of emotion as a process and an integral part of the consumption experience, perhaps even the reason for the experience. The focus is not specifically on emotional outcomes and their subsequent impact on behavior but on the process by which we experience emotion in a consumption environment and how that process is affected by emotional antecedents and results in emotional outcomes. Using a process trace method, a means of understanding emotional experiences as they occur is presented. The model is tested using a multilevel analysis method that preserves the time series nature of process measures by modeling at both the individual and group levels.

This dissertation posits an entirely new approach for understanding the reference price phenomenon. It is proposed that Festinger's (1957) theory of dissonance reduction provides a practical framework for studying situations in which consumers' encountered prices are significantly different from their expectations. The three modes of dissonance reduction initially proposed by Festinger (to change one's attitude or cognition, to seek consonant information, or to trivialize some element of the dissonant relationship) are experimentally manipulated. These three modes of dissonance reduction are then evaluated for their impact on consumers' perceptions of value and consumers' purchase intentions. A computer-controlled shopping experiment is utilized to test the hypotheses.