<p>I examine female aggression as a competitive strategy for achieving reproductive success. In Chapter 1 an evolutionary theory of female aggression is presented. In Chapter 2 intrasexual competition for mates is considered by examining longitudinal links between aggression and dating behaviour among male and female adolescents. Results indicated that indirectly aggressive boys and girls were significantly more likely to have a dating partner at 1-year follow-up. Adolescents who reported being victimized by their peers were significantly less likely to have a dating partner at follow-up.</p> <p>In Chapter 3 I examine female mate-guarding behaviour. Results demonstrated that aggression toward peers and partners was greater among heterosexual females who perceived intrasexual competitors as being more attractive than them. These links were mediated by romantic jealousy. Females perceiving themselves as more attractive than peers frequently reported being targets of females’ peer-aggression. The findings of chapters 2 and 3 suggest that females actively compete to attain and retain mates.</p> <p>Chapter 4 examines implications for male victims of female aggression. We found that male victims of female partner violence were lower in testosterone than were non-victimized males. Participants held more negative attitudes toward male versus female victims. Males were less likely to seek-help and were more likely to minimize their perceived victimization. These findings suggest threats to male dominance and greater stigma likely reinforce males’ minimization and concealment of victimization.</p> <p>This dissertation contributes to the field of aggression by empirically demonstrating evolutionary-based motives and functions of female aggression as a strategy for bolstering reproductive fitness.</p> / Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Experimental aesthetics research has been conducted since the nineteenth century. Interestingly, however, few studies have examined the perceived beauty of naturally shaped objects. In the current experiment, 204 participants were presented with a set of ten snowflake silhouettes that varied in complexity (perimeter relative to area); they were similarly presented with ten randomly-shaped, computer-generated, solid objects that also varied in complexity. For each stimulus set, the participants selected the single snowflake or object that was the most beautiful (Fechner’s method of choice). The results for the solid objects replicated the findings of earlier research: the most and least complex objects were chosen as the most beautiful. Moderately complex objects were rarely selected. The results for the snowflakes were different. For these visual stimuli, the least complex snowflakes were almost never chosen; only the complex snowflakes were perceived to be most beautiful, with the aesthetic preference increasing with increases in complexity.

Life-stories offer an approach to understanding personality processes within a larger, developmental context. This study examines the role that one area of a person’s larger context (namely romantic relationships) plays in that person’s life-story. Specifically, the study examines whether this role changes over the lifespan. Nineteen students from a consortium of colleges in southern California, and an equal number of older adults living in a nearby retirement community, were interviewed about their romantic relationship history. The interview was semi-structured and asked participants about past and current relationships, and their most meaningful relationship overall. The interviews were coded for the themes of agency, redemption, and contamination, reported self-growth, and an additional variable called unprompted discussion of sexuality that was added based on a series of unexpected occurrences during the interviews. The results showed significant differences in both agency and unprompted discussion of sexuality between the romantic relationship narratives of young and older adults. However, no significant differences were found between the age groups on any of the other three variables, or between the sexes on any of the five variables. The results not only help us to better understand the ways in which our stories about our romantic relationships change across the lifespan, but also suggest significant differences between how younger and older adults think about love and sex.

Organizational justice and citizenship behaviors are important components that contribute to an organization’s overall effectiveness. Additionally, when an employee enters into a new organization, they form psychological contracts with their employer that consists of elements such as fairness and consultation. This study aimed to integrate the literature on organizational justice, psychological contract, and organizational citizenship behaviors, as well as look at the possible effects uncertainty may play. Specifically, it was proposed that psychological contract would mediate the moderating effects of uncertainty and justice in predicting prosocial behavioral intentions. Results did not support the hypothesis. Interestingly, however, identification with the university seemed to play a role in the uncertainty by fairness interaction in predicting perceived contract fulfillment.

Engagement is an increasingly important construct in organizational and educational settings. Research indicates that engagement is positively related to satisfaction, commitment, and performance in the workplace. This study investigated the relationship of Total Engagement to complete a thesis with Self-Determination Theory individual motivational constructs, the personality constructs of Psychological Capital and Core Self-Evaluations, and the experiential construct of Flow Propensity. The results indicated significant relationships between all constructs and engagement. Further, Psychological Capital and Flow Propensity explained 55% of the variance in Total Engagement to complete a thesis.

Past research demonstrates that fearful faces lead to an increase in temporal and a decrease in spatial gap detection, an effect proposed to be caused by a flow of input to the magnocellular pathways from the amygdala to the visual system (Bocanegra & Zeelenberg, 2009). The amygdala is also active for positive and arousing stimuli, including happy faces. The current study extends past research by presenting happy facial cues just before a gap detection task. Facial stimuli (i.e., happy/neutral faces) were presented in the periphery of the receptive field and quickly followed by a Landolt circle. Half of the participants were asked to detect a temporal gap and half a spatial gap. Response accuracy of gap detection was measured using signal detection theory. Consistent with past research on fearful faces, positive expressions were expected to facilitate temporal gap detection but not spatial gap detection when happy faces were used as cues in gap detection tasks. The current study found no difference in spatial or temporal gap detection given the emotional cue that preceded gap detection on each trial. Positive emotion did not appear to have the same impact as fear on the amygdala and visual areas involving attention.

Narcissists are not generally thought of as altruistic individuals. There are certain conditions, however, that may meet the needs of narcissistic individuals and thus elicit altruistic behavior. These conditions include recognition for the act, or adding to narcissists’ already high opinion of themselves through executing the act. Because narcissists also demonstrate impulsivity, it is also possible that a time pressure may induce narcissists as well as impulsive individuals to act altruistically. The aim of this study is to determine in what context, if any, narcissistic and impulsive individuals may display acts of altruism, specifically charitable giving. This study uses a 2 (recognized vs. unrecognized) x 2 (time limited vs. time unlimited) between groups design. Participants will complete a Stop Signal task, a charitable giving task in which recognition and time limit are manipulated, demographic questions, and two measures of narcissism. The expected results are that higher scores on overt narcissism will lead participants to donate in conditions in which they receive recognition for their donation. Higher scores on covert narcissism will lead participants to donate in conditions where they are not recognized. Individuals with higher impulsivity scores as determined by the Stop Signal task will donate in time pressured conditions over time unlimited. And furthermore, impulsivity will act as a mediator between narcissism and charitable giving in time-limited conditions. Finally, implications of these results and future directions for research are discussed.

The last few decades have seen a growing body of research on narcissism, however few studies have examined the relationship between subclinical narcissism and future orientation. The proposed study will examine how grandiose and vulnerable types of narcissism influence future orientation, and whether anxiety, depression, impulsivity and sense of control play mediating roles in this relationship. It is hypothesized that anxiety will play a mediating role between future orientation and vulnerable narcissism, but not between grandiose narcissism and future orientation. Finally, it is hypothesized that grandiose and vulnerable narcissism will be correlated within individuals. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) will be used to test the hypotheses, and the a priori model is expected to have a good fit to the data. This study will further our understanding about how narcissists view their futures, and whether this is influenced by mediating factors.

Research has suggested that the Five Factor Model (FFM) is useful in describing personality pathology as well as personality traits. However, there appears to be disproportionate implications of the five domains for problems in living. Previous empirical research concerning the differential direction and magnitude of the relationship of the FFM domains to problems in living and personality disorder symptomatology has perhaps been limited in part by the use of a measure of the FFM that itself includes a disproportionate representation of maladaptive personality functioning across the domains. The current study also tests the hypothesis that the relationship of the FFM domains to problems in living parallels the definition of personality disorder as provided in the American Psychiatric Association’s (2000) diagnostic manual, concerning social impairment, occupational impairment, and distress. These hypotheses were tested in a sample of 79 persons who were within psychiatric treatment. The current study indicated that problems in living relate to the FFM domains in a meaningful manner and that these relationships correspond to the definition of personality disorder. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed.

Previous research on information avoidance has revealed that people choose to avoid negative health information, but that this effect is interrupted by self-affirmation (Howell & Shepperd, 2013). The current study aimed to contribute to the field’s understanding of the conditions under which self-affirmation reduces information avoidance by using a unique affirmation: secure attachment figures. I hypothesized that activating a secure attachment would serve as the affirmation necessary for participants to choose to view their risk information for a fictitious enzyme deficiency. However, when given a choice, participants in both the experimental and control conditions chose to view this information. At best, these results demonstrate that psychological resources of a social nature were effective in protecting people from undesirable health risk information. At worst, they present a failure to replicate previous research. Explanations for why the results were unexpected and future modifications to the paradigm are discussed.