Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationDecades of research provides evidence that social relationships are powerful predictors of health and mortality. One important moderator of the link between relationships and health is relationship quality, with supportive relationships often attenuating, and ambivalent relationships amplifying, reactivity that can cause wear-and-tear on the cardiovascular system. While much work has examined self-report (explicit) attitudes regarding relationship quality and links to cardiovascular reactivity (CVR), no study to our knowledge has examined whether implicit attitudes have similar or different effects. The current study examined whether implicit friendship attitudes influenced cognitive appraisals and cardiovascular reactivity during a negative event discussion. Based on prior work, we predicted interacting with friends rated as either explicitly or implicitly supportive would reduce CVR, as well as increase perceptions of control, and decrease perceptions of threat and stress associated with the speaking task. However, when interacting with a friend rated as either explicitly or implicitly ambivalent, we predicted a pattern similar to what we have traditionally seen with explicitly-rated ambivalent ties to emerge, such that participants would experience increased CVR, lower perceptions of control, and higher perceptions of threat and stress associated with the speaking task. Results did not support these hypotheses and unexpectedly, demonstrated some effects opposite to what was anticipated based on prior work. We consider several study limitations that shed light on these unexpected results, as well as discuss cognitive organization theories that may be relevant in thinking about implicit friendship attitudes and possible links to health in future work

Seagrass spatial data synthesis from north-east Australia, Torres Strait and Gulf of Carpentaria, 1983 to 2022

The Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait in north-eastern Australia support globally significant seagrass ecosystems that underpin fishing and cultural heritage of the region. Reliable data on seagrass distribution are critical to understanding how these ecosystems are changing, while managing for resilience. Spatial data on seagrass have been collected since the early 1980s, but the early data were poorly curated. Some was not publicly available, and some already lost. We validated and synthesized historical seagrass spatial data to create a publicly available database. We include a site layer of 48,612 geolocated data points including information on seagrass presence/absence, sediment, collection date, and data custodian. We include a polygon layer with 641 individual seagrass meadows. Thirteen seagrass species are identified in depths ranging from intertidal to 38 m below mean sea level. Our synthesis includes scientific survey data from 1983 to 2022 and provides an important evidence base for marine resource management

MS

thesisThe quality and quantity of one's personal relationships have been reliably linked to important physical health outcomes, perhaps through the mechanism of physiological stress responses. Most studies of this mechanism have focused on whether more conscious interpersonal transactions influence cardiovascular reactivity. However, whether such relationships can be automatically activated in memory to influence physiological processes has not been determined. In this study, we subliminally activated relationship positivity and negativity and had individuals engage in self-relevant stressors. Results revealed that priming negative relationships was associated with greater threat, lower feelings of control, and higher diastolic blood pressure reactivity during the stressor tasks. Moreover, priming relationships high in positivity and negativity (ambivalent ties) was associated with the highest heart rate reactivity and greatest respiratory sinus arrhythmia withdrawal during the stressor tasks. Results of this study were discussed in light of mechanisms linking relationships with health, and the specific effects of positivity and negativity in relationships

That was me up there: teaching The Sociology of Everyday Life through research

This article explores the introductory course "The Sociology of Everyday Life" at Flinders University, where the students engage in the sociological understanding of the "taken for granted" through research. In doing so, students shift between researchers and subjects, and illuminate the sociological meanings latent in the survey data collated. In engaging students in research tasks, students are able to connect concepts and theories to their own lived experience. Such tasks are situated within a student-centered approach to curriculum and student learning. However, using findings of the survey to shape future course design raises some sociological dilemmas: what does everyday life mean to different social actors, who are actively constructing their social reality amongst the pressures of institutions and late modernity? What then are the implications for teaching and learning sociology