Browsing by Subject "Values"

Utilizing data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the current study examined the relationship between cultural values, coping behavior, and HIV risk behaviors among African-American/Black and Hispanic/Latino adolescents (N = 437). The goal of this research was to provide the first step towards testing the construct validity of a theoretical model in which values and cultural context contribute to coping behaviors and coping, in turn, mediates the association between values and HIV risk profile. African-American participants endorsed higher levels of Africentric and religious values than did Hispanic participants and endorsed higher utilization of religious coping. Cultural values including familismo and religiosity were associated with more adaptive coping behavior and lower sexual and substance use risk behaviors across racial/ethnic groups. Results for other cultural values were inconsistent. Coping behavior predicted substance use risk behaviors but was not associated with sexual risk behaviors. Mediation was not supported except in the case of religious coping and religiosity. Implications for HIV prevention and directions for future research are discussed.

This study investigates how actor status, moral foundations theory and Schwartz values influence the moral judgments of guilt and punishment. I argue that to understand individual values consequences for actions, they must be considered within organizational values and larger institutional logics frameworks. Building off Zerubavel’s conception of a three level cognition (Zerubavel 1999), I argue for a tri level conception of values and morality in order to more fully understand how moral judgements work as well as the social context in which they are shaped. Using original research, I offer evidence of three levels of morality. First, I evaluate actor status on judgments of guilt and punishment. I then evaluate individual moral culture using Schwartz Values (Schwartz 2012; Vaisey and Miles 2014). I evaluate the impact of the organization on moral culture measure through the use of status hierarchies (Sauder, Lynn, and Podolny 2012). Finally, I evaluate broader cultural morality using Moral Foundations Theory (Graham et al. 2016; Kesebir and Haidt 2010). Taken together, these three levels of morality present a more ecologically valid understanding of the ways in which moral culture works from the individual, through the meso-social level and to the broader culture. I demonstrate the complex ways in which moral judgments are influenced by universal concerns, organizational influences and individual characteristics. I find that moral foundations theory conceptions of harm does not predict judgments of guilt and punishment but that Schwartz Values do influence these moral judgments. I also find that it is the actor status that most strongly predicts the outcomes of guilt and punishment. The research provides a foundation for future research of how actor status influences moral judgments of guilt and punishment beyond the limited moral community of the current study.

This thesis explains the role universal values play in several aspects of American political life.

Children's internalization of parental values is differentially influenced by discipline and parent-child relationship quality. Beyond simply affecting values, parents can influence the development of underlying belief structures children use to make sense of behaviors and attributes. Parental values might lead children to experience domains as differentially important and then use this structure when building and judging the content of their self-concept. The intergenerational transmission of values may therefore also differentially influence appraisals of the self. Crocker and colleagues (e.g. Crocker, Sommers, & Luhtanen, 2002) present a model of self-esteem that emphasizes "contingencies of self-worth", which are domains on which individuals stake self-esteem. Although the existence of contingencies of self-worth (CSW) has been supported, their origin has not been addressed. This dissertation is a preliminary investigation into the origins of CSW. It is proposed that early adolescents' CSW will reflect parents' values in domains that carry a 'moral' weight due to parental socialization. The domains of physical appearance and academic achievements were of particular interest. Participants were 127 early adolescents (51% female) and their parents (102 mothers, 62 fathers) recruited from three populations in an effort to sample individuals for whom appearance and academics are differentially salient. Youth and parents each completed questionnaires addressing self-concept/self-esteem, CSW, parenting style, parent-child relationship, and domain-specific beliefs and behaviors. Results indicated that more negative ratings of transgressions in traditionally moral domains (kindness and honesty) as well as the non-traditional domain of academics were associated with higher ratings for these domains on the CSW. Parental discipline moderated the association between parents' and adolescents' ratings of transgressions in kindness, honesty, and academics, and parenting style and parent-child relationship quality moderated the association between parents' domain values and adolescents' domain ratings on the CSW. This suggests that the internalization of moral standards influences developing self-structure and that a domain that is not traditionally considered 'moral' can be raised to a 'moral' level. The results also indicate that parental socialization influences the importance adolescents' place on given domains when evaluating self worth and developmental theories regarding socialization of traditional values can also be used to understand the transmission of non-traditional values.

When behavior is directed toward activities, people, and experiences that people find most important in their lives, they are engaged in valued living. Given that valued living is associated with well-being, quality of life, and happiness, understanding ways in which value-concordant behavior can be promoted, enhanced, and maintained is of utmost importance. Two studies sought to examine the associations between mindfulness--as a dispositional trait and as developed through training--and valued living. In Study 1 dispositional mindfulness was strongly related to three aspects of valued living: the general tendency for people to understand their values and act in value-consistent ways; directing behavior toward valued activities; and clarity of, action toward, and feelings of success and satisfaction with action toward specific important values. Study 2 compared valued living scores of people participating in a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program to a control group. Mindfulness training was related to increased general valuing processes and value-relevant behavior but was not related to increased clarity of, action, or success or satisfaction with action toward specific values.

The two studies also explored the mechanisms underlying the relationship between mindfulness and valued living. In Study 1, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, and self-clarity each partially mediated the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and valued living, but decentering did not. In Study 2, change in attention mediated the relationship between group (MBSR or control) and valued living, but acceptance, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, self-clarity, and decentering did not. Lastly, both studies found that valued living mediated the relationship between mindfulness and well-being. Taken together, these findings add to the growing body of literature demonstrating the benefits of mindfulness and highlight the important influence that clearly identifying and behaving in accordance with important values has on well-being.