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Browsing by Author "Hastings, Pat, committee member"

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    Meaning making in romantic relationship conflict: a scale creation and theory application considering adult attachment
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Najman, Natalie, author; Quirk, Kelley, advisor; Harvey, Ashley, committee member; Hastings, Pat, committee member
    While existing literature on conflict and attribution theory reveal valuable information about the relationship between cause of conflict and blame, a new theory of meaning making of relationship conflict may offer a focused lens to examine the ways couples make sense of an argument and provide a more complete assessment of conflict. The goals of the first study presented here were to establish the meaning making of relationship conflict theory (MORC) as a framework for understanding relationship-specific meaning making tendencies and introduce a new MORC scale. The MORC scale was hypothesized to identify three theoretically distinct categories of meaning making following relationship conflict: self-focused, partner-focused, and couple-focused. Results confirmed that people make meaning of relationship conflict by focusing on themselves, their partner, or their relationship more broadly. The second study aimed to establish MORC scale validity and explore adult attachment as a potential predictor of meaning making tendencies. Individuals (N = 214) were assessed using the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR-SF), Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale (CAMS-R), Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ), and the Meaning Making of Relationship Conflict Scale (MORC). Results found a significant, strong, positive correlation between rumination and the MORC scale and a significant, strong, negative correlation between mindfulness and the MORC scale. Next, results revealed support of attachment as a potential mechanism that influences meaning making. Individuals with greater insecure attachment styles (dismissive and anxious/preoccupied) reported higher scores for meaning making of conflict. Individuals with higher avoidant or anxious scores were found to be more likely partner-focused in their meaning making. Secure attachment was not found to be a predictor for meaning making of conflict.
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    Religious envy: investigating the nonreligious experience
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Underill, Bailey, author; Steger, Michael, advisor; Dik, Bryan, advisor; Hastings, Pat, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee member
    Theories of religion identify certain benefits that religion uniquely provides. Furthermore, there is evidence that non-religious individuals not only miss out on these benefits but are penalized for and discriminated against due to their lack of religious affiliation. For these reasons, when non-religious individuals engage in social comparison, they may experience envy toward religious individuals related to the benefits of religious affiliation and the consequences faced for being religiously unaffiliated. This study aims to investigate "religious envy" in the lives of religiously unaffiliated individuals within the United States. Four individuals (ages 22 to 30; three women and one man) who identified as atheists and endorsed experiencing religious envy were interviewed, and transcripts were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This analysis developed four domain topics: perceptions and beliefs, previous experiences, religious envy, and reasons for staying nonreligious. Twenty-one themes formed a basis for understanding the phenomenon of religious envy. Themes within the "Religious Envy" domain indicated that participants experienced envying religious individuals due to a perceived sense of community or belonging, coping with grief or loss, existential comfort, and a sense of ethical or moral certainty. This study identifies specific ways that nonreligious individuals may experience religion and its role in their lives and beliefs. Furthermore, this study provides initial exploratory evidence for the existence of religious envy as a phenomenon.
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    Serene tea: understanding contemporary conservative environmentalism in the United States using a mixed methods approach
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Thunell, Elijah, author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Duffy, Robert, committee member; Hastings, Pat, committee member; Luna, Jessie, committee member
    Climate change will require action that transcends political divides, yet environmental politics in the US appear as polarized as ever. This thesis investigates conservative environmentalism using a mixed methods approach. Quantitatively, I find that liberals are increasingly uniform in their pro-environmental attitudes post the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, while conservatives have substantial amounts of intra-ideology dispersion on environmental spending. I interview self-identified conservative environmentalists and progressive environmentalists to explore this dispersion. Conservative environmentalists unite in their staunch belief of market-driven solutions to ecological degradation but diverged between a market-based ecological modernization framework or a more libertarian free market environmentalism. The conservative interviewees shared focus on increasing market access and outcomes of conservation contrast with progressive interviewee's market skepticism and support for intersectional processes aimed at socially equitable, system-altering solutions that jointly address combined "wicked" ecological and social problems. Practically, two contrasting solutions to ecological degradation were salient: conservative interviewees sought to relegitimize the current social system; progressive interviewees seek to restructure the current social system.
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    The role of ethics of care messaging in AI crisis communication: examining the interplay role of ethics of care and crisis response strategies on organization-public relationship, organizational reputation and behavioral intention
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Choi, Sera, author; Kim, Jangyul, advisor; Sivakumar, Gayathri, committee member; Park, Young Eun, committee member; Hastings, Pat, committee member; Yan, Ruoh-Nan, committee member
    This dissertation explores the effectiveness of crisis response strategies—specifically denial, excuse, and apology—in the context of artificial intelligence (AI) crises, emphasizing the mediating role of Organization-Public Relationships (OPR) and the moderating impact of ethics of care on organizational outcomes. Utilizing a 3 (crisis response strategies: deny, excuse, apology) x 3 (ethics of care: high vs. low vs. no) between-subjects design, the study examined the influences of different crisis response strategies and levels of ethics of care on OPR outcomes, organizational reputation, and supportive behavioral intentions across a sample of 532 participants. Participants were assigned to one of nine experimental conditions depicting a crisis involving a fictitious company, "Hexxa," portrayed in varying contexts of ethics of care. Data collection was conducted through an online survey platform – Prolific, employing paired samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and moderated mediation analysis using PROCESS Model 84. The results revealed that apology strategies significantly improved OPR outcomes and organizational reputation more effectively than denial and excuse strategies. High levels of ethics of care enhanced these outcomes across all response strategies, surpassing effects in low and no ethics of care conditions. Although direct effects of crisis response strategies on organizational outcomes were often non-significant, the incorporation of ethics of care significantly magnified these effects through OPR, underscoring its pivotal role in crisis communication. The findings deepen situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) by illustrating how ethical considerations and organization-public relationships interact to influence organizational outcomes in AI-related crises, advocating a shift towards more ethically nuanced crisis communication approaches. Practically, the results advocate for the prioritization of ethics of care in crisis communication, providing empirical support for its effectiveness in not only mitigating crisis impacts but also in fostering long-term public relationships. The study's findings also reveal the significant, yet differentiated, impacts of low versus no ethics of care approaches, suggesting a threshold effect for ethical considerations in crisis response. These insights yield important implications for practitioners, highlighting that even minimal ethical engagement can significantly influence public perception and behavior. In conclusion, the dissertation posits a call to action for organizations to strategically incorporate ethical considerations within crisis communication frameworks, especially in AI-driven contexts, where socio-technical risks pose unique challenges.