Persistence of Cultural Heritage in a Multicultural Context: Examining Factors that Shaped Voting Preferences in the 2016 Election

The prevailing discourse about the myth of the “melting pot” of American culture implies that heritage cultures are eliminated in favor of a homogenous “American” norm. However, this myth belies the persistence of our cultural heritage in forming our attitudes, morals, and habitual patterns of thought, each of which shape how we participate in our democracy through voting. By contextualizing voting predictors such as authoritarianism, social dominance, and sexism in developmental and ecological theories, this dissertation shows how they are shaped by culture and transmitted through consumption of media and interaction with members of one’s community and family. In an effort to model voting preferences using psychological constructs rather than demographic proxies such as race, gender or age, political scientists Feldman and Stenner (1997) have identified authoritarian parenting attitudes as a key parameter that predicts voting preferences for conservative candidates. Other scholars have identified additional parameters, such as hostile sexism (Glick and Fiske, 1996) and social dominance orientation (Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth & Malle, 1994) while scholars such as Graham et al. (2011) have drawn together these separate predictors into a comprehensive, multidimensional measure of political ideology situated in the literature on moral development, yet scholars have neglected the role of culture in shaping our voting preferences and the psychological constructs which underlie and drive them. While psychological constructs pinpoint the mechanisms for people’s voting behavior rather than essentializing behavior to demographic groups, most of the literature on voting preferences categorizes the predictors as personality or individual difference variables, or not at all. Integrating three theories on cultural ecology (Bronfenbrenner, Greenfield and Hofstede) with Tajfel and Turner’s Social Identity Theory, this dissertation seeks to open a dialogue about the tensions between individual differences variables and cultural variables, and how they both contribute to shaping outcome behaviors such as taking a moral stance and then voting in accordance with it. This work assembles the threads from recent research to create a model which predicts voting decisions, contextualized in a multicultural environment, to tease out the role of culture as a contributor. Using an extensive online survey, we replicated findings from prior literature which indicated that hostile sexism (but not being a man), authoritarian parenting attitudes, and a social dominance orientation predicted voting preferences for Donald Trump compared to Hillary Clinton. A new predictor, heritage-culture individualism, was developed for this dissertation and significantly predicted participants’ preference for Donald Trump. Given ongoing debate in cross-cultural psychology about the degree to which culture can be studied as an individual difference or as characteristic of one’s heritage countries, we compared individual difference measures of cultural values with the mean cultural value orientation of one’s heritage country or countries. Findings suggest that the impact of heritage cultures, or the values, norms, and rules brought by our ancestors from our heritage countries and regions, is a significant component that shapes voting decisions while individual difference cultural variables are less predictive. Taken together and situated in theoretical perspectives, these findings suggest that voting preferences are shaped by cultural values, and prompts scholars to recast previous predictors, such as authoritarianism, as having a larger component of culture than previously acknowledged. This novel finding speaks to a broader debate in cross-cultural psychology by providing support for Hofstede’s assertion that cultural values represent coherent wholes that are more than the sum of the values of the people comprising them. It suggests a model which combines elements of Hofstede’s, Greenfield’s, and Bronfenbrenner’s theories of cultural ecology. With a better understanding of where identities, values, and ideas come from, we believe that interventions aimed at persuading voters can be more pluralistically sensitive to different ideologies while still increasing awareness of social justice issues

Computer simulation of pulsed field gel runs allows the quantitation of radiation-induced double-strand breaks in yeast

A procedure for the quantification of double-strand breaks in yeast is presented that utilizes pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and a comparison of the observed DNA mass distribution in the gel lanes with calculated distributions. Calculation of profiles is performed as follows. If double-strand breaks are produced by sparsely ionizing radiation, one can assume that they are distributed randomly in the genome, and the resulting DNA mass distribution in molecular length can be predicted by means of a random breakage model. The input data for the computation of molecular length profiles are the breakage frequency per unit length, , as adjustable parameter, and the molecular lengths of the intact chromosomes. The obtained DNA mass distributions in molecular length must then be transformed into distributions of DNA mass in migration distance. This requires a calibration of molecular length vs. migration distance that is specific for the gel lane in question. The computed profiles are then folded with a Lorentz distribution with adjusted spread parameter to account for and broadening. The DNA profiles are calculated for different breakage frequencies and for different values of , and the parameters resulting in the best fit of the calculated to the observed profile are determined

The analysis of bridging constructs with hierarchical clustering methods: An application to identity

When analyzing psychometric surveys, some design and sample size limitations challenge existing approaches. Hierarchical clustering, with its graphics (heat maps, dendrograms, means plots), provides a nonparametric method for analyzing factorially-designed survey data, and small samples data. In the present study, we demonstrated the advantages of using hierarchical clustering (HC) for the analysis of non-higher-order measures, comparing the results of HC against those of exploratory factor analysis. As a factorially-designed survey, we used the Identity Labels and Life Contexts Questionnaire (ILLCQ), a novel measure to assess identity as a bridging construct for the intersection of identity domains and life contexts. Results suggest that, when used to validate factorially-designed measures, HC and its graphics are more stable and consistent compared to EFA

Penrose type inequalities for asymptotically hyperbolic graphs

In this paper we study asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds given as graphs of asymptotically constant functions over hyperbolic space \bH^n. The graphs are considered as subsets of \bH^{n+1} and carry the induced metric. For such manifolds the scalar curvature appears in the divergence of a 1-form involving the integrand for the asymptotically hyperbolic mass. Integrating this divergence we estimate the mass by an integral over an inner boundary. In case the inner boundary satisfies a convexity condition this can in turn be estimated in terms of the area of the inner boundary. The resulting estimates are similar to the conjectured Penrose inequality for asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds. The work presented here is inspired by Lam's article concerning the asymptotically Euclidean case.Comment: 29 pages, no figure, includes a proof of the equality cas

A Classroom Activity for Teaching Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

In two studies, we demonstrate an engaging classroom activity that facilitates student learning about Kohlberg’s theory of moral development by using digital resources to foster active, experiential learning. In addition to hearing a standard lecture about moral development, students watched a video of a morally provocative incident, then worked in small groups to classify user comments posted in response to the video according to Kohlberg’s six stages. Students in both studies found the activity enjoyable and useful. Moreover, students’ scores on a moral development quiz improved after completing the activity (Study 1), and students who completed the activity in addition to receiving a lecture performed better on the quiz than students who received lecture alone (Study 2)

Metabolically exaggerated cardiac reactions to acute psychological stress: The effects of resting blood pressure status and possible underlying mechanisms

The study aimed to: confirm that acute stress elicits metabolically exaggerated increases in cardiac activity; test whether individuals with elevated resting blood pressure show more exaggerated cardiac reactions to stress than those who are clearly normotensive; and explore the underlying mechanisms. Cardiovascular activity and oxygen consumption were measured pre-, during, and post- mental stress, and during graded submaximal cycling exercise in 11 young men with moderately elevated resting blood pressure and 11 normotensives. Stress provoked increases in cardiac output that were much greater than would be expected from contemporary levels of oxygen consumption. Exaggerated cardiac reactions were larger in the relatively elevated blood pressure group. They also had greater reductions in total peripheral resistance, but not heart rate variability, implying that their more exaggerated cardiac reactions reflected greater β-adrenergic activation

Cell selectivity in succinate receptor SUCNR1/GPR91 signaling in skeletal muscle

Succinate is released by skeletal muscle during exercise and activates SUCNR1/GPR91. Signaling of SUCNR1 is involved in metabolite-sensing paracrine communication in skeletal muscle during exercise. However, the specific cell types responding to succinate and the directionality of communication are unclear. We aim to characterize the expression of SUCNR1 in human skeletal muscle. De novo analysis of transcriptomic datasets demonstrated that SUCNR1 mRNA is expressed in immune, adipose, and liver tissues, but scarce in skeletal muscle. In human tissues, SUCNR1 mRNA was associated with macrophage markers. Single-cell RNA sequencing and fluorescent RNAscope demonstrated that in human skeletal muscle, SUCNR1 mRNA is not expressed in muscle fibers but coincided with macrophage populations. Human M2-polarized macrophages exhibit high levels of SUCNR1 mRNA and stimulation with selective agonists of SUCNR1 triggered Gq- and Gi-coupled signaling. Primary human skeletal muscle cells were unresponsive to SUCNR1 agonists. In conclusion, SUCNR1 is not expressed in muscle cells and its role in the adaptive response of skeletal muscle to exercise is most likely mediated via paracrine mechanisms involving M2-like macrophages within the muscle. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Macrophages but not skeletal muscle cells respond to extracellular succinate via SUCNR1/GPR91

How do graduate students approach college teaching? Influences of professional development, teaching assistantships, and Big Five personality traits

Introduction: Graduate students engage in college teaching with varied attitudes and approaches. Their teaching practices may be influenced by professional development experiences related to pedagogy, and their personality traits. Methods: Through an online survey of graduate students teaching undergraduate courses (N = 109, 69.7% women, M age = 30 years, 59% psychology), we examined whether self-reported participation in professional development related to pedagogy, teaching assistantship (TA) experience, academic discipline (psychology vs. other), and Big Five personality traits were associated with variation in teaching practices. Results: Participation in professional development correlated positively with years of undergraduate teaching experience and with the trait of openness. Hierarchical regressions indicated that professional development served to promote student-focused practices and discouraged lecturing, while TA experience (mostly restricted to psychology instructors) promoted lecturing and discouraged a student-focused approach. Regarding academic discipline, psychology instructors gave higher endorsements to an information transmission, teacher-focused approach to teaching, lectured more, and were less likely to provoke debate than instructors of other disciplines. Such differences may be attributed in part to larger enrollments of psychology courses. Regarding personality traits, both openness and agreeableness were associated with some student-focused practices, while conscientiousness was associated with an information transmission, teacher-focused approach and with practices aligned with backward course design. Discussion: In light of previous evidence that personality traits are malleable, graduate training programs may want to cultivate traits like openness as a means of encouraging graduate students to reflect on their pedagogy and seek ways to improve their teaching through professional development. Relatedly, graduate programs should aim to support students’ participation in professional development related to pedagogy and, in doing so, communicate its value