Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2019, Educational Leadership

Teachers need a greater understanding of implicit (unconscious) bias and how these phenomena reinforce and support racist processes and systems. The current public education landscape in parts of the United States focuses too much attention upon data-based decision-making, integrated comprehensive systems, collaborative work in teacher teams, and so-called value-free improvement processes meant to enact system-wide changes in teaching. Unfortunately, there is not enough emphasis being placed upon altering teachers' implicit biases about African-American students. More research is needed to better understand the barriers teachers face in coming to the realization they harbor implicit bias toward African-Americans. This study offers an analysis of educators' perceptions and understandings of implicit (unconscious) bias by detailing their stories of how they came to the realization they possessed bias toward African-American students. My research question was: "What are the stories of educators who have come to the realization they possess implicit bias toward African-American students?" The title is somewhat of a misnomer because coming to the full realization of possessing implicit bias toward African-American students is quite difficult for Whites to attain. Three teachers in a diverse suburban school called Northfield High School -- adjacent to a "hypersegregated" Midwestern city -- were interviewed with the aim of understanding how they came to the realization they had implicit bias. The three participants answered questions in advance of being accepted into the study to demonstrate they had an interest in studying and an understanding of implicit bias. An initial interview was conducted to understand teachers' educational pasts, presents, and imagined futures without implicit bias. A follow-up interview gauged teachers' understandings of implicit bias on the basis of open-ended questions about readings. The findings indicated White participants possessed signific (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, Economics

I use data from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Florida Highway Patrol to test for racial bias in traffic stop outcomes and to analyze racial bias training in Pittsburgh. The primary empirical obstacles are selection and omitted variable bias. Selection occurs when officers select into patrol areas or individual interactions based on race, which leads to different racial groups of officers interacting with different distributions of motorists. The omitted variable problem arises from unobservable civilian factors which may be correlated with civilian race and receiving traffic citations or getting arrested after a traffic stop. I use high speeds on the highway and stops made in low visibility conditions to argue for random officer assignment to each interaction in Florida. I utilize fixed effects regressions to capture within-officer civilian race effects and then I compare civilian race effects across officer racial groups to combat omitted variable bias. I find suggestive evidence of widespread bias in both datasets, and that racial bias training in Pittsburgh may have backfired in the realm of traffic stop outcomes.

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2022, Computer Science

Education about implicit bias in clinical settings is essential for improving the quality of healthcare for underrepresented groups. Such a learning experience can be delivered in the form of a serious game simulation. WrightLIFE (Lifelike Immersion for Equity) is a project that combines two serious game simulations, with each addressing the group that faces implicit bias. These groups are individuals that identify as LGBTQIA+ and people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The project presents healthcare providers with a training tool that puts them in the roles of the patient and a medical specialist and immerses them in social and clinical settings. WrightLIFE games are distributed on both mobile and desktop devices and go through the entire cycle of providing healthcare professionals with experiential learning, which starts with defining the goals of the simulation and ends with collecting feedback. In this thesis work, cross-platform software frameworks like the Unity Engine have been used to develop survey scenes to comprehensively document users' pre- and post-simulation experience and attitudes towards implicit bias. Life course scenes were designed to convey an enhanced user experience that bridges the socio-technical gap between the real and virtual worlds. By applying existing user-experience design methodologies to design the survey scenes and life course scenes, it was possible to create an immersive experiential-learning assessment tool that has the potential to deliver data-driven and targeted learning.

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD), Wright State University, 2020, School of Professional Psychology

Inaccurate diagnoses due to clinician bias may lead to the facilitation of inappropriate mental health treatment and poor prognosis for treating clients presenting concern, as the cause of the disordered behaviors that led to their incarceration are not being addressed. The current study sought to determine whether clinician gender bias and clinician setting bias affects the diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder amongst clients in correctional settings. Determining whether bias affects diagnosis of these disorders amongst clients in correctional settings is important in order to assure clients are receiving appropriate mental health treatment. Incarcerated individuals who receive appropriate mental health treatment may have lower rates of recidivism, with obvious societal benefits. The current study surveyed a sample of 124 mental health professionals to determine whether manipulating gender and/or setting bias impacted mental health professionals' abilities to accurately diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder. Results suggest setting bias impacts mental health professionals' abilities to accurately diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder.

BA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

In this thesis, I describe research from multiple sources regarding juror bias and jury selection that requires the phrase “innocent until proven guilty” to be reexamined. Throughout this thesis, I examine juror bias in regards to social media and how information can easily be distributed to jury members that could harm the case, how jurors may be unaware of terminology and/or specific criminal justice topics and look to the Internet to teach them, and predispositions that they may have in terms of race, gender, sexuality. Next, I refer to issues with challenges during voir dire and how these challenges sometimes keep defendants from receiving a fair jury with their peers. I will discuss in detail how these challenges can negatively and positively affect cases. Lastly, I give policy and legislation recommendations to keep juror bias at bay, thus creating more fair and impartial trials for future defendants.

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2019, Psychology

Engagement in the three good things positive psychology exercise is associated with improvements in mental health (e.g., Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005), yet the mechanism of change in this exercise has yet to be investigated (Quoidbach, Mikolajczak, & Gross, 2015). Researchers have hypothesized that the exercise is beneficial because it trains attention toward positive information in life (Peters, Vieler, & Lautenbacher, 2016; Watkins & McCurrach, 2016). The present study investigated this hypothesis in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 78) using data from an emotional Stroop task before (Time 1) and after completing the three good things exercise for one week (Time 2). Participants also completed measures of depression, positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, and happiness at Time 1, Time 2, and at 1-month follow-up (Time 3). It was hypothesized that individuals would have a greater positive attentional bias (mean reaction time [RT] to positive words minus mean RT to neutral words) at Time 2 than Time 1, and the positive attentional bias at Time 2 would significantly predict outcome variables. Results indicate that happiness and life satisfaction significantly increased from Time 1 to Time 2 but were not significantly different from Time 2 to Time 3. There were no significant differences across time for depression or positive or negative affect. In addition, there were no significant differences in positive attentional bias from Time 1 to Time 2. Positive attentional bias at Time 2 did not significantly predict any of the outcome variables. Exploratory analyses revealed that mean RT to positive words significantly decreased across time and predicted outcome variables at Time 3. This finding may be interpreted in terms of the broaden and build theory of positive emotions (Frederickson, 1998, 2001) and suggests a need to reevaluate and clarify the effects of the three good things exercise and positive emotions on attention.

Master of Science in Industrial and Human Factors Engineering (MSIHE) , Wright State University, 2015, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering

In today's world, many business transactions and interactions are conducted cross-culturally. When going to a business meeting, it is essential avoid a major cultural faux pas in order to not offend your business partners. The Cultural Lens model is used to understand the origins of cultural mismatches. An individual must adjust their approach to a situation to create a cultural match. In adjusting this approach, cognitive biases are a potential result in cross-cultural scenarios. We investigate the Mirror Imaging Bias, which has been found to be a common result of a shortcut to decide how to act in a situation. Physiological metrics were used to see if these biases can be detected in a non-invasive manner. It was found that pupil diameter is a reliable indicator of when Mirror Imaging Bias is present. By understanding how individuals process information and are influenced by Mirror Imaging Bias, we can help create applications as well as provide training to help avoid cultural faux pas.

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2015, Psychology

Abstract The present study investigated the relationship among explicit biases against Arabs/Arab Americans, diagnosis, prognosis, and perceived cultural competence. Individuals of Arab descent are at heightened risk for prejudice and discrimination due to events such as those that occurred on September 11, 2001 (Moradi & Hasan, 2004; The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, 2009). The participants for this study included 161 advanced psychology graduate students and predoctoral interns. For participants who were of the traditional age (25-34 years old) for advanced graduate psychology training, a small negative relationship was found between perceived cultural competence and less explicit biases towards Arab individuals in the predicted direction. This negative relationship between perceived cultural competence and explicit biases towards Arabs was also found within the ethnic minority participants. Higher perceived cultural competence predicted a lower severity of diagnosis of a hypothetical Arab client, but only for the 25-34 years old participants. Higher levels of explicit biases against Arabs predicted a better prognosis of a hypothetical Arab client, but only for the male participants. This relationship had a small effect size and it was not in the predicted negative direction. These results contribute to the current literature, as this topic has previously been unexamined in the literature. These findings may offer implications for diversity education for graduate programs and internships.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Business Administration

This dissertation examines three distinct questions within the international portfolio choice literature. In chapter one, I study the change in the equity home bias during the financial panic of 2008. Using a sample of 45 countries, I document that the equity home bias fell. This is puzzling because theories of home bias and portfolio choice under uncertainty predict that during a crisis, the home bias should increase. With a novel methodology, I show that the active trades of investors, which increased the home bias, were subsumed by the passive valuation changes in their portfolio holdings, which decreased the home bias. I find evidence consistent with a role for portfolio rebalancing, increased information asymmetries, and the familiarity bias in portfolio allocations during the crisis. In chapter two, I analyze the impact of aggregate changes in U.S. demand for foreign stocks on U.S. firm-level stock prices. Separating U.S. net flows into outflows and inflows, I document that stocks with higher sensitivity to outflows earn significantly lower risk-adjusted returns. High outflows-beta firms tend to be smaller, younger, more volatile, and less globally diversified. Using firm-level, risk-adjusted returns, I find that the significantly negative premium is not subsumed by these characteristics or others commonly associated with misvaluation or limits to arbitrage. I show that the return on an outflows-mimicking portfolio is predictable and largely concentrated during periods when the demand for foreign equity is likely to fall, i.e., following reduced wealth, increased uncertainty, and reduced sentiment. The results are consistent with sensitivity to aggregate changes in U.S. demand for foreign stocks affecting firm-level U.S. stock returns. In chapter three, I study why U.S. investors' foreign portfolio share nearly doubled from 1994 to 2010. Using a sample of monthly bilateral equity holdings between investors in the U.S. and 45 countries, I document that (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2023, Educational Leadership

Existing literature has shown that disproportionality in special education remains a persistent and significant issue that has garnered attention in educational research. Asian American students were found to be underrepresented in the identification of Specific Learning Disability (SLD). The consequences of disproportionality can be detrimental, leading to educational inequity, limited opportunities, and potential long-term negative impacts on students' academic and socioemotional development. Research evidence has suggested that disproportionality can arise due to various factors, and educators' biased perception is one of the contributors. This research aimed to examine the extent to which school psychologists make decisions based on their explicit and implicit attitudes toward Asian American students and investigate whether knowing the existence of risk for under-identification impacts their evaluation outcomes. A survey was designed, consisting of a hypothetical case vignette, the Internalization of the Model Minority Myth Measure (IM-4) of model minority stereotype, and a set of demographic questions. A total of 552 responses from school psychologists and school psychologist interns nationally were collected and analyzed. The binary logistic regression results showed that the interaction of student's race and the risk ratio prompt significantly impacted school psychologists' identification decisions for SLD, suggesting the existence of racial bias during the decision-making process. However, these two factors did not affect their confidence levels. Additionally, this research also explored school psychologists' perceptions about Asian American students. Results showed that participants reported that they tend to neither disagree nor agree with the Model Minority Stereotype (MM)-Achievement Orientation and somewhat disagree with the MM-Unrestricted Mobility belief. A MANOVA test revealed that participants' roles and the percentage of Asian American studen (open full item for complete abstract)

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

This study explores the intersection of social science and design research using virtual reality (VR) to experience virtual spaces. The purpose of this study is to investigate how visual bias is replicated in virtual spaces using photorealistic virtual characters from Metahuman to determine if the appearance of the virtual character affects the comfort level of participants in VR scenarios. A sample of 16 college students participated in VR scenarios with virtual characters displaying different weight and gender. The level of comfort with each virtual character was measured using self-reported comfort level, heart rate, and distance. The results, though not statistically significant, suggested that, as hypothesized, participants felt more comfortable with Metahumans that displayed low weight and a gender match with the participant. This study also highlights the potential of using VR to model interactions that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to recreate in physical scenarios. Finally, this study also provides recommendations for the use of VR in future research.

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Communication Disorders

Parkinson Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative motor disorder that often affects phonation, articulation, and prosody. As demonstrated in other communication disorders, negative perceptions associated with differences in speech production and fluency can lead to stigmatization and feelings of isolation that negatively impact quality of life. Prior research suggests that self-disclosure can reduce negative perceptions of speech disorders and result in more positive social evaluations. The purpose of the current study was to determine the extent to which listeners make negative explicit and implicit social judgments about speakers with Parkinson disease and to determine how knowledge of a PD diagnosis impacts these perceptual judgments. Participants made a series of social judgments related to the confidence, friendliness, naturalness, intelligence, and intelligibility of spoken utterances produced by talkers with and without PD. Mouse trajectories were recorded to examine the extent to which implicit bias affected the response trajectory during the task. Listeners were significantly more likely to make negative social judgments about talkers with PD. After exposure to an informative statement describing how PD could affect voice and speech, listeners were significantly less likely to make negative judgments about talkers with PD. However, an analysis of the cursor trajectories indicated that listeners exhibited greater deviations toward the negative judgment response option when selecting a positive judgment about talkers with PD than those without PD. The results highlight the need to address bias toward talkers with PD and reduce negative perceptions and stigma associated with this disease.

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

The enclosed study examines the systemic equity of classical dance training by questioning the existence of implicit bias, its impact on teacher identity, and its role in building pedagogical practices that reflect experiences with implicit bias in ballet training. Motivated by the ongoing conversation about the lack of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), it departs from conventional student deficit-centered reasons. Instead, in it you will find a qualitative, self-reflective, actionable study that focuses on the teacher roles in equity-facing change determined through Critical Action Research methods. The study uses focus groups comprised of ballet practitioners who have experience studying, teaching, observing, and accompanying ballet classes that serve inclusive student bodies. Because of the affective construction of implicit bias; furthermore, the study employs a proprietary conceptual framework, Contemporary Intentional Change (CIC) shaped by pre-data collection, self-reflective examinations of identity undertaken by participants. Focus group participants provided description-rich data that is organized in a resulting Taxonomy of Implicit Bias in Classical Dance Training. As an insightful schema into what comprises implicit bias in ballet training, it will be foundational to further, post-study inquiry to determine long and short-term, equity-facing interventions that foster inclusion, increased student engagement, and organizational change.

Doctor of Education, Miami University, 2022, Educational Leadership

Asking the question, “Am I racist?” is a hard thought to process, one that can even be offensive to some, unthinkable to others. However, considering recent events like the #SayHerName movement and other demonstrations that bring racial justice and implicit bias to center stage again, more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was shared with the nation, educators find themselves asking, “What more can we do?” This research is about finding the answer to the question how do we identify and change our own implicit bias as educators, how can we use this knowledge to improve education today and, in the end, make us all more comfortable? Using a participatory action research model, 15 educators and one researcher set out to find ways to work together to tackle this topic in ways that can be reproducible for the next set of courageous role models. Using surveys, focus group discussions, case study scenarios, and exit tickets, ideas of how to incorporate bias training for teachers and teachable moments for students were discovered. Combining ethnographies, transformative leadership, critical race theory, implicit bias, social justice theory, and a willingness to change, this research shows one way that the status quo can be altered. By setting up small focus groups, trustworthy dialogues were able to occur and common themes such as childhood experiences, workplace experiences, classroom trust, and fear emerged from the conversations, leading to pathways that can be recreated by others.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2021, Journalism (Communication)

Spread of mis- and dis-information has emerged as one of the most concerning threat to democratic processes in the United States. Who is to blame for such a rise in the spread of mis- and dis-information is yet to be decided, however, this study aimed to explore how such forms of information is consumed and believed by the audiences. This research expands on our understanding of how ideological cues work to promote mis/disinformation consumption along with other factors like, political opinion leaders, cognitive dissonance and personal ideology. Furthermore, the study explores the two-step selective evaluation process, which an information consumer goes through before making any decision on the information. The decision is then further rationalized in post-decisional effects. A survey experiment was conducted on 429 respondents who showed that any information content will be palatable to them if those information carries ideologically confirming cues. Moreover, the study used opinion leader as manipulation to test cognitive dissonance, consonance, and resonance against the personal ideology of the respondents to further divulge into the process of mis/disinformation consumption. A deductive thematic analysis of audience responses gives a direction to the decision-making process when faced with congruent or incongruent information.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Astronomy

The standard Λ Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) model assumes that our Universe is geometrically flat and expanding, governed by General Relativity, and made up of three main constituents at present: baryonic matter, dark matter, and dark energy. Within the last decade the parameters governing ΛCDM have been tightly constrained by a variety of cosmological measurements including those of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), galaxy clustering, weak gravitational lensing, and redshift space distortions (RSD). Despite the impressive ability of ΛCDM to describe these varied observations substantial challenges to the model remain. In particular there remains a 5-10% tension between predictions of matter clustering from CMB data and other, late-time cosmological probes. The resolution of this tension may ultimately lie in new physics, such as complex dark energy or dark matter, or a deviation from General Relativity on cosmological scales. Establishing or refuting the reality of this tension is therefore one of the highest priority challenges of observational cosmology today. In this dissertation I present research on a variety of topics within cosmology related to meeting this challenge. The primary focus of my research is to derive robust and precise constraints on ΛCDM using novel combinations of cosmological observables that utilize galaxy clusters. I also present research on halo and galaxy assembly bias. Both of these phenomena are related to my primary research focus because they can potentially bias cosmological constraints. Finally I present work on modeling and forecasting the combination of galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering in the final data release of the Dark Energy Survey. Much of the technical development in this work will be applicable to my primary research focus in the future. Beginning in Chapter 1 we study halo assembly bias for haloes in the mass range 3.7 × 1011 h-1 Msun - 5.0 ×1013 h-1 Msun. Using the Lar (open full item for complete abstract)

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

Polyamorous people can encounter unique negative experiences in psychotherapy. Western culture perpetuates the ideal of romantic and sexual exclusivity between two people through monogamy as the dominant social norm, to the extent that nonmonogamous relationships are considered abnormal or othered. Polyamorous people have reported experiencing such biases from therapists, resulting in being pathologized, inaccurately labeled as infidelitous, and spending excessive treatment time providing education on polyamory. Research on the therapist's contribution to polyamorous clients' negative experiences is lacking, which limits suggestions for affirmative practices and the rationale from which to implement them. The current study sought to directly survey therapists' attitudes toward polyamorous people and examine data on factors that have been hypothesized to contribute to negative therapy experiences for polyamorous clients. A total of 153 therapists participated in an online survey in which participants read a vignette about a hypothetical couple presenting for therapy and subsequently responded with their level of agreement to statements about the vignette characters' ideal partner and relationship traits. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of three vignettes, in which the couple's relationship style was presented as either monogamous, polyamorous, or infidelitous. Differences in attitudes were analyzed across conditions, and contributing factors were explored by analyzing interactions between relationship style conditions and individual demographic or experiential variables on attitudes toward the vignette couple. Results indicated no significant difference in attitudes between the monogamous and polyamorous conditions. Attitudes were found to be significantly more positive for the polyamorous condition than the cheating condition for some measures. Although the current study was too underpowered by number of participants to determine specific factors tha (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2021, Journalism (Communication)

The German relation to Israel is marked by its historic circumstances, namely the Shoah and the antisemitism which made it possible, but also cooperation between the two countries nowadays. Previous research on the portrayal of Israel in German print media, in particular during times of escalation in the Arab-Israeli conflict, have found a bias against Israel. This study provides an analysis of the media image of Israel in German online news media during a low-escalation period in the Arab-Israeli conflict, accounting for the changes in the media landscape due to digitalization and providing a comparison to traditional media. A sample by five German news outlets – Bild.de, n-tv.de, Spiegel.de, t-online.de and Zeit.de – during a 2019 low escalation-phase was analyzed using a structural objectivity content analysis. A focus was put on the overall evaluation as well as the topics and actors who can be found in the reporting. The findings show an overall balanced depiction with some outliers, in contrast to the portrayal of Israel during periods with high conflict.

BS, Kent State University, 2020, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Health Sciences

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify implicit and explicit attitudes of the public towards people who stuttering using a computer mouse tracking paradigm when answering questions on the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes -Stuttering (POSHA-S). Methods: Participants were 21 males and 11 females who reported using a computer mouse to complete an online modified version of the POSHA-S remotely. Responses were compared by the helpful/correct and unhelpful/incorrect response to the questions in each component of the POSHA-S. Area Under the Curve (AUC), measuring mouse trajectory, and Reaction Times (RT) were used as measures of implicit attitudes. Results: Participants demonstrated a significant difference in the number of correct and helpful responses on one component of the POSHA-S, and in reaction time for another component. No significant difference in area under the curve was found. Discussion: The results the findings of this study offer evidence of participants reporting more correct/helpful explicit responses in a dichotic response task to the commonly used assessment, the POSHA-S. The implicit measure of area under the curve did not support the hypothesis that area under the curve would be higher when participants select the correct/helpful responses, reaction time provided some limited indications that participants may respond quicker to the incorrect and unhelpful response options than to the correct and helpful response options, particularly for one component. Based on these findings, further data should be collected to have a better understanding of the relationship between the public's implicit and explicit towards people who stutter

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2020, Psychology

Clinical perfectionism - having a sense of self-worth that is overly dependent on striving and achievement - is problematic for mental wellbeing and contributes to the onset and maintenance of multiple psychological disorders. The present study is a randomized, longitudinal test of a web-based intervention for perfectionism (cognitive bias modification, interpretation retraining; CBM-I), relative to an active treatment comparison condition (relaxation training). College students (N = 167) with elevated perfectionism were randomized to either CBM-I for perfectionism, or relaxation training via guided visualization audio recordings. Participants were asked to complete their assigned intervention twice weekly for four weeks. Participants also completed measures of perfectionism (perfectionism-relevant interpretation biases; self-report perfectionism; perfectionistic performance concerns on behavioral tasks) and psychological symptoms (depression, anxiety, eating disorder pathology, negative self-perceptions). These measures were completed at baseline, two weeks (mid-way through the intervention period), four weeks (at the conclusion of the intervention period), and eight weeks (follow-up visit). Participants also reported on their demographics, prior and concurrent psychological treatments, and perceived acceptability of their assigned intervention. The baseline assessment was an in-person lab visit; all other study visits were completed online. Results were mixed. The CBM-I intervention was rated as acceptable overall, though relaxation training was rated slightly more favorably. Participants in both conditions showed small reductions in perfectionism over the course of the study. Contrary to hypotheses, results suggest that CBM-I was not significantly better than relaxation training at improving perfectionism-relevant interpretation biases, though there were marginal effects in expected directions. Results indicated no benefit of CBM-I over relaxation traini (open full item for complete abstract)