Peer victimization is characterized by acts of physical, relational, and verbal aggression that can contribute to maladjustment. Youths’ responses to peer victimization are guided by social information-processing (SIP) skills that impact their adjustment. Maladjustment can contribute to biases in SIP. Biased processing occurs when youth rely on existing schemas without attending to cues from the immediate social context. These processing deficits contribute to the enactment of problematic responses that may lead to further maladjustment. However, not all youth exhibit SIP deficits. A recent study identified four adjustment clusters based on differences in aggression, anxiety, depression, social acceptance, and victimization within a predominantly African American sample of adolescents (Sullivan & Farrell, 2008). These clusters included aggressive-victims, passive-victims, neglected youth, and well-adjusted youth. Data suggest that cluster membership influences SIP and responses to peer victimization. This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) and the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) paradigm, a think-aloud approach to cognitive assessment, to examine differences in SIP between well-adjusted youth and subgroups of maladjusted youth in response to simulated peer victimization situations. Participants included a primarily African American sample of 523 sixth grade students who completed a series of self-report measures of adjustment. LPA identified a four-class solution that included: Aggressive-victims, Aggressors, Passive-victims, and Well-adjusted youth. This model closely approximated the clusters previously identified. However, the current solution includes a purely aggressive group whereas the prior solution contained a neglected group. A sub-sample of 176 students was then randomly selected to complete ATSS interviews. Logistic regression was used to examine SIP pattern differences across the groups. As hypothesized, aggressors and aggressive-victims were more likely to report intentions to engage in physical aggression compared to well-adjusted youth. In addition, aggressors were more likely to report beliefs that it is ok to fight in response to physical aggression compared to their well-adjusted peers. Further, well-adjusted youth were more likely to report intentions to behave nonviolently compared to their maladjusted peers. However, six of the ten hypotheses were not supported. Additional findings related to gender differences and situation-specific SIP patterns were identified. These findings have important implications for violence prevention interventions.

Beliefs about aggression play a key role in how youth interpret and respond to social situations and are related to aggressive behavior. Adolescents may report beliefs supporting aggression and engage in aggression due to reinforcement within their environment, rather than due to maladaptive social information-processing (SIP) biases. The purpose of this study was to examine adolescents’ patterns of beliefs about aggression and how these patterns relate to SIP. This study used latent class analysis (LCA), the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations paradigm, and a Problem Solving Interview to examine differences in SIP between adolescents with varying patterns of beliefs about aggression. Participants included 435 sixth and seventh grade students (45% male, 63% African American, 22% Caucasian) from two urban schools and a semi-rural school. A LCA of the beliefs about aggression measure identified four classes of adolescents: (a) a Beliefs Against Fighting (Against) class that opposed the use of aggression (21% of the sample); (b) a Fighting is Sometimes Necessary (Sometimes) class that endorsed beliefs that fighting is sometimes inevitable (31%); (c) a Beliefs Supporting Fighting (Support) class that supported aggression across multiple contexts (33%); and (d) a Low Responders class that disagreed with all items (12%). Differences among classes were found on gender and race/ethnicity. As hypothesized, significant differences were found such that the Sometimes and Against classes differed from the Support class in reporting that it is ok to fight in response to non-physical aggression and effectiveness ratings of physical aggression and effective nonviolent responses. The Sometimes class was also less likely than the Support class, but more likely than the Against class to report behavioral intentions for aggression, revenge goals, and aggression as a first response to problem situations. Contrary to the hypotheses, classes did not differ in several areas, including hostile and benign intent attributions and generation of prosocial responses. These differences suggest the need for using prevention approaches that address multiple patterns of beliefs about aggression, such as interventions that improve SIP for adolescents with beliefs supporting aggression and universal prevention programs that address school climate for adolescents with beliefs that fighting is sometimes necessary.

Ample research shows that revenge goals are correlated with maladjustment and retaliation is an important factor driving youth violence. Still, in environments with limited institutionalized interventions revenge might be an indispensable tool to maintain social equilibrium. This qualitative secondary analysis of 50 (30 Boys) revenge scenarios from a larger longitudinal study (N=358 dyads of youth/maternal caregiver) expands existing one-dimensional knowledge of revenge from closed-answer vignettes to the rich real world experience of 10-16 year old youth from an urban community sample. Key findings showed significant qualitative differences in both cognition and emotions of revenge scenarios. Ten distinct patterns emerged and were discussed in relation to the revised model of Social Information Processing (SIP) by Lemerise and Arsenio (2000). Specifically, importance of reputation, retaliation as a public event, confidence in non-violent solutions, parental messages, and the influence of intense emotions were important themes. Gender differences and implications for prevention are discussed.

Crick and Dodge’s SIP theoretical model proposes that children use previously stored memories, past experiences, and formed representations that influence six mechanisms that are in turn used in deciding how to act in social situations (Crick & Dodge, 1994). Research has demonstrated a strong link between social information processing (SIP) and child aggression. Furthermore, SIP has been shown to mediate the relation between several parenting practices and child aggression. Research has also shown a strong relation between interparental conflict and child aggression. The focus of the current study was to determine if SIP serves as a mediator between parental conflict and aggression in children. This study conducted secondary analyses of longitudinal data from the Child Development Project. Participants were children, parents, and teachers across three sites and two cohorts who were recruited as the child participants entered kindergarten. Data were collected across seven waves from child ages 5 through 11. Interparental Conflict was assessed using mother and father reports on the Conflict Tactics Scale and four SIP steps were measured using four paper and pencil measures. Child aggression was assessed by mothers and teachers using the aggression scales on the Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Report Form, respectively. Longitudinal mediation models following guidelines outlined by McKinnon (2008) were used to test SIP as a mediator between interparental conflict and aggression. Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the creation of latent variables for SIP and child aggression. A composite score was calculated and used for interparental conflict in the SEM models. SEM revealed that interparental conflict did not predict changes in SIP or changes in child aggression. For the most part, SIP also did not predict concurrent child aggression or changes in child aggression over time. Direct effects of aggression on interparental conflict, indirect effects of aggression on SIP and of SIP on interparental conflict, and total effects in the models were not significant. The data did not support the hypothesis that SIP mediates the relation between parental conflict and child aggression. Study strengths and limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies / Soo-Hye Han / Advancements in technology, particularly the introduction of online social networking sites, have expanded the modes available when handling the death of a loved one. This study examines how individuals use the Facebook profile pages of deceased persons to cope with loss and maintain relationships with them. An extensive content analysis of Facebook profiles of ten deceased individuals was conducted to investigate what the living discuss in their messages to the deceased in the semi-public setting of a Facebook profile page and if this content changes over the course of time. This analysis revealed that messages to the deceased reflect three themes: 1) processing the death, 2) remembering the deceased, and 3) maintaining the relationship. In addition to these dominant themes, the data also indicated that the content of messages shifted over time. Messages that contained the processing of death remained consistent over time, while posts that reflected remembrance of the deceased decreased, and messages that demonstrated relationship maintenance increased with time. This study utilizes the theoretical frameworks of continuing bonds and social information processing to draw implications of these findings. By examining the content written and how messages change over time, this study provides insight into how people cope with loss and maintain relationships with their deceased loved ones in the digital age.

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Past models (i.e., Crick and Dodge, 1994) of children’s social information processing (SIP) have neglected to include the role of emotions in children’s reasoning during social situations. A recent reformulation (Lemerise and Arsenio, 2000) updated Crick and Dodge’s model to incorporate emotions and their impact on children’s processing. Since then, studies have examined the influence of emotion in children’s SIP, but few have investigated the impact of children’s affective ties with their peers. This study explores the effect of the participant’s relationship with the provocateur on subsequent consequential reasoning concerning possible hostile, passive, and competent response; in addition, it addresses gaps in the literature by utilizing a different age range and investigating the response decision step of SIP. A sample of second and fifth graders (N=101) completed a social cognitive interview in which they reasoned about competent, hostile, and passive responses when the provocateur was a friend, neutral peer, or an enemy. Results indicated multiple relationship effects and gender differences, which illustrated the impact relationships can have on SIP.

Information technology (IT) professionals are continually placed in diverse employment arrangements as organizations continually look for ways to cut costs, enhance performance and maximize organizational goals. Organizations are using strategies beyond hiring permanent employees to achieve objectives in alternative sourcing. Even though the cost differential is positive when employing non-permanent individuals instead of permanent employees, little is known about the effects on the IT professional.This field study was designed to test the effects of employment arrangements on the IT professional's psychological contract and the effects of the level of fulfillment of their psychological contract on their organizational citizenship and innovative work behaviors using psychological contracts and social information processing theories. IT professionals were sampled from four different employment arrangements.The empirical findings show that there are differences in the IT pro proessional's psychological contract as explained by their employment arrangement, as well as by their perceptions of the characteristics of their particular employment arrangement. Permanent full-time IT professionals consistently had higher perceptions of their employer's obligations to them, than did IT professionals from the other employment arrangement categories. The level of fulfillment of the IT professional's psychological contract explained differences in their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) as a collective, with significant differences in the advocacy participation and obedience citizenship behaviors. This study also found significant relationships with the level of fulfillment of the IT professional's psychological contract and their innovative work behavior, as well as their organizational citizenship behaviors individually, specifically loyalty, advocacy participation, obedience, and functional participation. The primary predictors of the dimensions of OCB were the levels of fulfillment of the psychological contract as it relates to the scope, focus, and tangibility dimensions.The exploratory analysis into the characteristics of the employment arrangement provides a clearer understanding as to what encompasses the actual employment arrangement for IT professionals of differing categories. Independent contractors indicated significantly more job control than permanent full-time and contract company workers. Permanent full-time and permanent part-time have greater job stability than do independent contractors and contract company workers. Permanent full-time have greater benefits provided than the other three categories of IT professionals.

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Satisfying interpersonal relationships are an important and beneficial part of life. However, despite that fact that most people desire close interpersonal relationships, some people are less successful at forming and maintaining these relationships than others. One plausible explanation for such individual differences is that people differ in their levels of interpersonal competence – their ability to consistently enact behaviors that are effective, socially appropriate, and satisfying to others. The present research sought to examine different approaches to understanding and assessing interpersonal competence. A comparison of these approaches led to the creation of an Integrated Interpersonal Competence Model (IICM) that sought to maximize the strengths of each individual approach. This new model was tested in two studies (total N = 348) with the goal of understanding why people receive higher (or lower) interpersonal competence (IC) scores and how competence is related to successful interpersonal functioning. Both Studies 1 and 2 examined how the individual components of the IICM contributed to one’s overall IC score. Both studies found that the ability to accurately process social information was related to one’s likelihood of receiving a high IC score. In addition, how an individual evaluated response options seemed to play the largest role in determining whether or not the person would enact the response. Finally, IC appeared to be composed of a blend of interpersonal warmth and dominance. Study 1 also examined the relationship between IC and daily life outcomes. Results showed that higher competence individuals tended to experience a greater frequency of positive events, higher levels of prosocial feelings and satisfaction, and enacted fewer hostile and submissive behaviors on a daily basis. Study 2 investigated how IC was perceived by others. Individuals who were higher in IC were perceived to have fewer antisocial feelings, and be less selfish by peers and parents, and had higher quality relationships with their parents. Interestingly, processing abilities were unrelated to daily and informant-reported outcomes, but personality-like tendencies toward enacting friendly and hostile behaviors were consequential. Overall, the integrated model produced insights into interpersonal competence and can provide a useful guide for future investigations of interpersonal competence.