Social and Behavioral Sciences

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This collection includes scholarly output from both faculty and students in Social and Behavioral Sciences.

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Browsing Social and Behavioral Sciences by Author "Goodmon, Leilani B."

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    Actions speak louder than personality: Effects of facebook content on personality perceptions
    (North American Journal of Psychology, 2014-03) Goodmon, Leilani B.; Smith, Patrick L.; Ivancevich, Danica; Lundberg, Sofie
    More employers are using Facebook content to evaluate employee characteristics (such as personality) that might influence job performance (Karl & Peluchette, 2009) believing that personality assessment of Facebook users is actually quite accurate (Kluemper & Rosen, 2009). However, researchers have not examined the impact of specific content on personality perception. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to determine the influence of content (professional, moderately professional, unprofessional) on evaluations of a target Facebook user’s personality. Participants were exposed to three real Facebook profiles that varied in the amount of inappropriate content (e.g., drinking, use of profanity, etc.) and were asked to separately rate levels of the Big Five personality characteristics for each of the Facebook users. Overall, participants were better at assessing the personality of the professional Facebook user (with no inappropriate content) compared to the users who had either moderately-professional or unprofessional content. In addition, there appears to be a 'cost' associated with posting even a small amount of 'negative content,' in that participants exhibited inaccurate personality perceptions of the moderately-professional user. These findings may be particularly important when one considers that employers are using Facebook information to evaluate prospective employees in the hiring process. Given the massive distortions in personality perceptions found in the current study, caution should be taken by those using Facebook to evaluate personality and Facebook users should take caution when posting negative content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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    Branded: The effects of LGBTQ+ marketing on consumer and appetitive reactions to food
    (North American Journal Of Psychology, 2020-12) Ready, Emily J.; Smith, Patrick L.; Goodmon, Leilani B.; Welsh, Brianna C.; Pridgen, Miriam
    Social awareness of brands is an influential factor in marketing, as personal values can relate to emotionally-driven perceptions of the brand image. Previous research examined effects of companies who use views on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, plus (LGBTQ+) community in their advertisements, and subsequent impact of consumer responses. In the case of brands that promote food products, behaviors beyond consumer preferences are also influenced by brand advertisements. The purpose of the current study is to investigate relationships between LGBTQ+ attitudes in consumers and their relative ratings (consumer and appetitive) for a food product when it is associated with a pointed opinion about the LGBTQ+ community. Participants (n = 75) were prescreened for attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community (positively or negatively) and were subsequently given an ice cream sample from a fictional company. During this time, participants were exposed to a vignette that depicted pro-LGBTQ+, anti-LGBTQ+, or no reference to LGBTQ+ company values. Results showed that those identified as having pro- or anti- LGBTQ+ attitudes displayed significantly higher consumer ratings towards a brand that aligned with their beliefs. Marketed social issues can impact perceptions of brands, which in turn affects consumer decisions, but not necessarily how sensory features are perceived. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
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    The Burtynsky effect: Aesthetic reactions to landscape photographs that vary in natural features
    (Educational Publishing Foundation, 2018-02) Smith, Patrick L.; Goodmon, Leilani B.; Hester, Sarah
    Previous research has explored how the content of landscape photography (i.e., natural vs. human-made) and postmanipulation of photographs (e.g., clarity and color) can influence aesthetic judgments. Although natural landscapes are reliably rated as more likable compared with human-made landscapes, very little is known about combined natural and human-made landscapes that depict alterations of the natural world by human interventions. After categorizing the works of Edward Burtynsky as 'combined' landscapes along a continuum between natural and human-made landscape photographs, participants rated the likability and familiarity (i.e., whether landscapes were previously viewed or not) of all three types of images in a series of three experiments that measured likability and familiarity differences as a function of landscape type (Experiment 1), postmanipulation of color (Experiment 2), and postmanipulation of image clarity (Experiment 3). Natural photographs were rated significantly higher than all other photograph types (regardless of color or clarity manipulation), and combined photographs were significantly rated the lowest in all experimental conditions, especially those that were previously viewed. Across all conditions, previously viewed photographs were reliably discriminated from those that were not. The results suggest that the combined Burtynsky photographs fall outside a continuum of likability between natural and human-made extremes, and such a low aesthetic rating of previously viewed combined photographs may be because of negative social priming, an altered fluency processing, or both. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
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    Graphic Novelisation Effects on Recognition Abilities in Students with Dyslexia
    (Taylor & Francis, 2021-03) Smith, Patrick L.; Goodmon, Leilani B.; Howard, Jordan R.; Hancock, Rebekah; Hartzell, Kylie A.; Hilbert, Sarah E.
    Because of a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), elementary school systems are implementing material that is more complex in nature. However, children with learning disabilities like dyslexia may struggle with learning such content. Because studies have shown that children with dyslexia may benefit from more visually oriented materials, the purpose of this study was to determine if elements of graphic novelisation (i.e. graphic novel panels) improved short and long-term memory of brain structures and functions in children with dyslexia. Thirty-eight fifth-grade students (22 children diagnosed with dyslexia and 16 without reading difficulties) participated in the study. All children, including age-equivalent controls, exhibited higher recognition rates of brain structures and functions for graphic novel study materials (i.e. metaphorical definitions and illustrations). In children with dyslexia, the memory benefit for brain structures and functions resulting from exposure to the graphic novel panels was evident after the short interval. However, for children without dyslexia, this memory benefit was only marginally evident after the long interval. The results imply that image-based metaphors combined with text-based, scientific content may serve as an effective pedagogical supplement for children with or without reading disabilities.
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    Jumping to negative impressions again: The role of pessimism, information valence, and need for cognitive closure in impression formation
    (North American Journal of Psychology, 2017-12) Goodmon, Leilani B.; Howard, Jordan R.; Hintz, Bethany D.; Alden, Brittany L.; Vadala, Meghan E.
    The study was designed to determine the relationship between likability of a target, information valence, attributional style (optimism/pessimism), and the need for cognitive closure, which is an individual’s desire for a definite answer to a question, the avoidance of ambiguity, and the demonstration of closed mindedness (Chirumbolo, Areni, & Sensales, 2004; Webster & Kruglanski, 1994). Ninety-eight participants read a script that depicted a first-time conversation between a student and an advisor where the student disclosed either a positive or negative academic incident (as a manipulation of information valence). Pessimists gave similar likability ratings to the positive incident target, as optimists gave to the negative incident target, thus replicating the finding that it is more difficult to make a good first impression on a pessimist, even if one reveals responsibility for something positive (Goodmon, Kelly, Mauldin, & Young, 2015). Optimistic participants gave higher ratings to positive incident targets than to negative targets, regardless of the level of need for cognitive closure. However, only high need, pessimistic participants gave higher ratings to positive incident targets. The results imply that one may have a more difficult time making a good first impression on a pessimist who has a high need for cognitive closure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
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    Positive Psychology Course and Its Relationship to Well-Being, Depression, and Stress
    (Sage Publications, 2016-07) Goodmon, Leilani B.; Middleditch, Ashlea M.; Childs, Bethany; Pietrasiuk, Stacey E.
    The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of a positive psychology course on student well-being, depressive symptoms, and stress in a repeated measure, nonequivalent control design. As hypothesized, the positive psychology students reported higher overall happiness, life satisfaction, routes to happiness, and lower depressive symptoms and stress compared to students in the control course. These findings replicate previous research on the benefits of positive psychology courses on well-being and extend previous research by showing that the benefits generalize to other reliable and multidimensional measures of happiness as well as measures of depression and stress. Our results indicate that a positive psychology course may be one way to improve students' mental health.
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    The effect of landscape photograph type on aesthetic judgments, attention, and memory in children with dyslexia
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2019-11) Goodmon, Leilani B.; Parisi, A.; Smith, P.; Phillips, E.; Cox, T.; Dill, L.; Miller, A.
    Given the link between visual stimuli and memory, children with dyslexia could benefit from research discovering what visual stimuli they find more pleasing and memorable. People like natural landscapes (e.g.,forests) more than human-made (e.g.,cityscapes) or "combined" landscapes (i.e.,combination of human-made and natural components, e.g.,tires in a meadow). The purpose was to determine if the greater likability for natural generalized to children with dyslexia and age-equivalent controls and if photograph type impacted recognition rates after the short and long term. All children liked natural landscape photographs the most but paid longer attention to combined landscape photographs. Both groups recognized all photograph types at a high rate after the short retention interval, but after the long interval, the children with dyslexia had better memory, especially for combined photographs. On the basis of these results, we advise educators to incorporate images of natural landscapes into the learning context in order to create a more aesthetically pleasing environment or to infuse combined images for a more engaging and memorable environment. (© 2019 John Wiley& Sons, Ltd.)
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    The power of the majority: Social conformity in sexual harassment punishment selection
    (Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., 2020-08) Goodmon, Leilani B.; Gavin, David J.; Ursini, M.; Akus, Sierra N.
    Abstract In his famous social conformity experiments in the 1950's, Asch found 75% of participants conformed to confederates' incorrect answers at least once, with an overall conformity rate of 32%, revealing that humans are highly likely to conform to group behavior even when that behavior is clearly wrong. The purpose of this study was to determine if the social conformity effect generalized to scenarios involving sexual harassment punishment selections in the workplace. Participants read various workplace sexual harassment scenarios and then witnessed four confederates chose one of three types of punishments (verbal warning, 1-week suspension, or termination). The confederates stated aloud punishments that were either appropriate (i.e., similar to normative data) or inappropriate (i.e., deviating either too harshly or leniently to normative data). Participants then provided their punishments selection aloud, and confidentially rated their decision confidence. We found an overall conformity rate of 46%, as 82.67% conformed at least once to harsh or lenient punishment selections. Participants who conformed to incorrect punishment selections exhibited lower levels of decision confidence, indicating that conformity may have been due more to social normative influence. The current results imply the social responses of others (i.e., coworkers, supervisors, or HR) can impact responses to sexual harassment. The results imply that social influence may be a significant contributing factor in mislabeling, misreporting, or inappropriately punishing sexual harassment in some organizations. CAPTION(S): Appendix. Byline: Leilani B. Goodmon, David J. Gavin, Medhini Urs, Sierra N. Akus
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    Theoretical implications of extralist probes for directed forgetting
    (American Psychological Association, Inc., 2010) Sahakyan, Lili; Goodmon, Leilani B.
    In 5 experiments, the authors examined the influence of associative information in list-method directed forgetting, using the extralist cuing procedure (Nelson & McEvoy, 2005). Targets were studied in the absence of cues, but during retrieval, related cues were used to test their memory. Experiment 1 manipulated the degree of resonant connections from associates of the target back to the target. Experiment 2 varied the degree of connectivity of associates of the target. Experiment 3 varied the size of the associative neighborhood of the target. Experiment 4 varied the direct target-to-cue strength, and Experiment 5 varied the indirect strength between the cue and the target. Reliable directed forgetting impairment emerged in all experiments. Furthermore, directed forgetting reduced the effects of the associates contributing to the target activation strength (Experiments 1-2), and it also reduced the effects of the associates contributing to the cue-target intersection strength (Experiments 3-5). Together, these results support the context account and challenge the inhibitory interpretation of directed forgetting. Keywords: directed forgetting, context change, cued recall, independent probes DOI: 10.1037/a0019338
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    Too much on my mind: Cognitive load, working memory capacity, and framing effects.
    (North American Journal Of Psychology, 2019) Urs, Medhini; Goodmon, Leilani B.; Martin, Jordan
    When an option emphasizes positive aspects and gains (i.e., positive frame), people are more risk averse; when an option focuses on the negative aspects, and losses (i.e., negative frame), people are more risk seeking, even when the expected value of both options remain the same (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981; Whitney, Rinehart, & Hinson, 2008). Although individual working memory capacity (WMC) differences should be considered in framing effect studies, previous researchers failed to address WMC differences (De Martino, Kumaran, Seymour, & Dolan, 2006; Guo, Trueblood, & Deiderich, 2017; Igou & Bless, 2006; Whitney et al., 2008) and may have failed to induce a significant amount of cognitive load to impact the magnitude of framing effects (Whitney et al., 2008). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if framing effects varied as a function of WMC under situations of high cognitive load (induced by a Reading Span Task). Consistent with the Cognitive-Affective Tradeoff account of framing (Gonzalez, Dana, Koshino, & Just, 2005), we found no effect of frame on rates of risk aversion and risk- seeking, for either high or low WMC individuals under high working memory load. However, participants were more riskseeking in response to high starting value conditions. In addition, the highest rates of risk-seeking were observed in the high WMC participants in negative frame - high starting value condition. These findings are somewhat consistent with Fuzzy Trace Theory (FTT) (Reyna, & Brainerd, 1991), and suggest that contrary to previous research on decision-making, in some situations (and in some experimental designs), high WMC participants may be more likely to fall prey to framing effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)