PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The main goal of this dissertation was to evaluate a wide range of attitudes and behaviors related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) among Saudi young adults. Therefore, two studies were conducted on a large sample of Saudi undergraduate students. Study 1 aimed to address the scarcity of psychometrically sound measures of media and technology-related attitudes and behaviors in Arabic by culturally adapting and psychometrically assessing the Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale (MTUAS) and a Media Multitasking Scale (MMS-modified). Results provided evidence in support of content and construct validity, internal consistency, and gender-related measurement invariance of the Arabic MTUAS and MMS-modified. Study 2 sought to address the indefinite findings regarding the direct relationship between technological anxiety and academic performance by empirically examining the mechanisms underlying this relationship using a moderated serial mediation model. Results indicated that technological anxiety predicted excessive media and technology consumption and media multitasking. They also revealed that excessive consumption predicted students' multitasking behaviors, regardless of their multitasking preferences. Mediation results showed that students who experience elevated symptoms of technological anxiety had lower academic performance due to their media and technology overuse. Additionally, the direct negative effect of media and technology consumption on academic performance was moderated by self-regulatory self-efficacy. This effect was unexpectedly stronger for students who held moderate to strong self-regulatory beliefs. Explanations for the unforeseen findings were discussed. Furthermore, theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future directions were presented for each study.

Committee: Ji-Ann Li (Advisor) Subjects: Information Technology; Mass Media; Technology

Master of Science (M.S.), Xavier University, 2020, Psychology

The current study investigated the relationship between technology readiness (TR; Parasuraman, 2000) and job satisfaction. Participants were recruited via MTurk and assessed on their TR and job satisfaction. The final sample consisted of 93 participants. Findings indicated that overall TR, as well as combined TR drivers, were positively correlated with overall job satisfaction. The TR driver optimism was positively correlated to ability utilization, as well as independence. The TR driver innovativeness was positively correlated with creativity. Combined TR inhibitors were not significantly related to overall job satisfaction, nor were the individual TR inhibitor facets significantly related to the chosen job satisfaction facets. These findings suggest that TR may play a significant role in employee job satisfaction in the modern workplace, and that TR driver facets may hold a more significant role in this relationship.

Committee: Dalia Diab (Committee Chair) Subjects: Organizational Behavior; Psychology; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Nursing

Breast cancer survivors are at risk of cancer recurrence and other cancer-related chronic diseases. Lifestyle modification reduces these risks; however, traditional approaches are costly and often lack efficacy. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions may offer advantages over traditional risk-reduction approaches, but limited knowledge about survivors' use of mHealth interventions restricts scientific advancement. The goal of this dissertation research was to develop a substantive theory to understand the process associated with the use of mHealth interventions by breast cancer survivors for lifestyle behavior improvement. Using a grounded theory approach, 16 female breast cancer survivors from central Ohio were enrolled. Each participated in an interview and an interaction with a prototype mHealth intervention. Data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis. The resultant substantive theory describes the synergy between mHealth Engagement and Self-regulation of lifestyle behaviors. The basic process enabling this synergy consists of 5 non-linear phases: adopting, sustaining, habituating, disengaging, and re-adopting. Four main concepts form the basis of this theory and include mHealth Engagement, Self-regulation, Relationships, and Functionality and Features. These findings may inform future mHealth intervention research and development. However, more research is needed to validate and test this new substantive theory.

Committee: Sharon Tucker PhD, RN, FAAN (Committee Chair); Randi Foraker PhD, MA, FAHA (Committee Member); Mary Beth Happ PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA (Committee Member); Jennifer Kue PhD (Committee Member); Rita Pickler PhD, RN, FAAN (Committee Member); Po-Yin Yen PhD, RN (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Computer Engineering; Computer Science; Health; Health Care; Health Care Management; Health Education; Information Science; Information Systems; Information Technology; Medicine; Mental Health; Nursing; Organization Theory; Psychology; Public Health; Systems Design; Systems Science; Technology

Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2019, Psychology

Robots are becoming social actors in organizational systems. For robots to integrate into an organization's team, their human coworkers must first be able to accept their presence. Research has supported that those who self-reported higher levels of anxiety and negative attitudes toward robots were more hesitant to interact with a robot when given the opportunity. Despite this, limited research has addressed variables that could be related to increased levels of anxiety and negative attitudes toward robots, especially in the workplace. A sample of 132 online participants completed a battery measuring technology exposure, technological unemployment, extraversion, neuroticism, employee industry, and employment status. Results indicated that the average length of exposure to technology was predictive of negative attitudes and anxiety toward robots. Further, neuroticism and thoughts of technological unemployment were predictive of higher levels of negative attitudes and anxiety, and there was not a difference in negative attitude or anxiety toward robots across industries. Lastly, hourly employees' average anxiety toward robots was significantly higher than their salaried counterparts. Implications for both researchers and practitioners, as well as future research directions, are discussed.

Committee: Morrie Mullins (Advisor); Dalia Diab (Committee Member); Mark Nagy (Committee Member) Subjects: Occupational Psychology; Psychology; Robotics; Robots; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Human Ecology: Human Development and Family Science

Community blogging is a potentially important and innovative educational tool that promotes both the cognitive and social construction of knowledge through individual postings, student-to-student commentary, and hyperlink sharing. However, the intimate nature of postings, the social nature of commentary, and the explorative nature of hyperlinking may activate entrenched relational schemas held by students that have potential to influence their community blogging activity in ways that limit their ability to benefit from an educational blogging project. In an attempt to understand exactly what impact students' relational schemas have on their community blogging activity, the present study examined the direct and indirect associations of students' attachment anxiety and avoidance with four observed measures of their community blogging activity: 1) posting activity, 2) comment activity, 3) hyperlink activity, and 4) the average length of written contributions. Data were collected from 53 undergraduate students enrolled in a 10-week introductory course in which community blogging was a central component of the course structure. Hierarchical regression analyses tested the associations between students' attachment anxiety and avoidance and their observed community blogging activity while controlling for students' self-reported GPA and Internet self-efficacy. In addition, more sophisticated analyses examined (a) whether students' relational motivation for blogging mediated these associations, and (b) whether students' sense of classroom community moderated the second leg of these mediation models and thus the strengths of the indirect effects. Overall, results demonstrated weak evidence that students' attachment was related to their observed community blogging activity, with the exception of one robust finding. Students' attachment avoidance was related to their observed hyperlink activity such that students reporting greater attachment avoidance contributed a greater combi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mitchell Schoppe-Sullivan Ph.D. (Advisor); Michael Glassman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Amy Bonomi Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Developmental Psychology; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Psychology; Educational Technology; Evolution and Development; Higher Education; Teaching; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2012, English (Arts and Sciences)

This project examines the representation of technology anxiety human subjects feel when encountering artificial intelligences in four British and American SF novels: 1)Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 2) Neuromancer 3) 2001: A Space Odyssey 4) Cloud Atlas. While many critical investigations of these novels focus on the dangerous and negative implications of AIs, this work uses Martin Heidegger's later writings on technology to argue that AIs might be more usefully read as catalysts for human ontological realignment. Such a transformation leads technologically saturated humans away from an imperious ontology of ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿enframing¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ that Heidegger sees as the danger of modern technology and toward the saving power that changes the human posture with respect to beings from a colonial, domineering stance to a pious posture of abetting. I contend that it is not enough to simply read the danger AIs pose without seeing the salvation they also reveal.

Committee: George Hartley PhD (Committee Chair); Joseph McLaughlin PhD (Committee Member); Katarzyna Marciniak PhD (Committee Member); Robert Briscoe PhD (Committee Member); Linda Zionkowski PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Literature