M.A. Theses
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Item Indirect effects of material conditions on children's relational and subjective well-being(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Sever, Simge.; Müderrisoğlu, Serra.The current study aimed to explore the factors through which children’s material deprivation affects their subjective well-being. Children’s relational experiences with their families, friends, teachers, people in their neighborhood and their time use experiences were defined as mediator variables. Secondary analysis of the collected data with 1885 Turkish children, aged 10 and 12-years-old, was conducted. The data was collected as part of a multinational research survey called Children’s Worlds. The participants were recruited from the state schools in Istanbul using stratified sampling method. Children were asked to fill a questionnaire and the survey included only children’s own appraisals, perceptions, and experiences with their immediate surroundings. The results showed that children’s satisfaction with their experiences at school, neighborhood, with their family, friends and their time use play a significant mediating role in the relationship between their material deprivation and subjective well-being in general. There was a significant difference according to age; 10-years-old children were found to have higher levels of subjective well-being in comparison to 12-years-old children. In terms of gender differentiation, girls were found to be showing higher levels of satisfaction with their close relationships in comparison to boys. The current study makes a considerable contribution to the field as it is the first study addressing the indirect effects of children’s material deprivation on their subjective well-being in different areas of their lives in a Turkish sample.Item Child well-being :|the perspectives of children and their mothers(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Arslan, İpek Elmira.; Müderrisoğlu, Serra.The primary aim of this study is to listen to children's conceptualizations of their well-being and to explore the commonalities and differences of subjective themes that they revealed. Secondly, this study investigates the wishes and expectations of the mothers from their children to understand how children are positioned in their minds and how they define well-being for their children in relation their own identities and experiences. 15 mother and children pairs from three different socioeconomic groups were interviewed for these goals. Predetermined themes of the previous studies of child well-being were not asked directly in this study. Instead, children were interviewed with much less guidance. The method was to ask for “who what where” makes children feel good, has importance for them, and gives pleasure. Interviews continued according to the content participants brought. Children were motivated to enrich their expressions by drawing optionally. Mothers were asked separately what they prioritize for their children, what kind of gains they aim in their lives, and what was carried to their motherhood from their own childhood. Results showed that children of 10-12 ages have well-being experiences, significantly shaped by their relational space. Moreover, their relationality is impacted by maternal relational skills and experiences through the efforts mothers chose to invest during child rearing. Findings were discussed to show how the subjective standpoint of children has been developed in the axis of the transmission of maternal relational structure in the understanding of children’s well-being.Item Alcohol use involvement groups among Turkish emerging adults :|the role of self-regulation in group membership(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Markaroğlu, Romina.; Müderrisoğlu, Serra.The goal of the present study was to identify different drinking groups in a non-clinical sample of emerging adults, based on different indexes of alcohol use, and to examine the impact of several self-regulation and contextual indicators on group membership. The study sample consisted of 18-25-year-old emerging adults (n = 701) who had consumed alcohol at least once in their lifetime. Three drinking groups were empirically derived. Regular moderate drinkers were the largest cluster (45%), followed by infrequent light drinkers (38.9%), and heavy drinkers (15.5%). Higher sensation seeking, lower self-control, and having a psychiatric diagnosis distinguished primarily between heavy drinkers and the other two clusters at the lower end of the alcohol involvement continuum. As an unanticipated finding, lower negative emotionality was also a significant predictor of heavy drinking. Specifically, living with family members predicted infrequent light drinkers. These findings suggest that in prevention projects targeting alcohol abuse in emerging adulthood, in addition to personality traits, young person's mental health, living situation and the context of drinking should also be considered. This study also lends support for examining subpopulations of drinkers and implementing a multidimensional perspective of both personality and alcohol use, in order to better understand emerging adult drinking.|Keywords : Emerging adulthood, drinking patterns, self-regulation, impulsivity, distress tolerance, negative emotionalityItem The relationship between maternal emotional awareness and emition socialization practices(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Atay, Saffet Zeynep.; Çorapçı, Feyza.This study investigated direct and indirect relations between mothers‘ awareness of their own emotions and children‘s social and emotional competence through their emotion socialization practices. The sample consisted of 106 mothers, their 3-6 year old children and their teachers. A semi-structured interview was initially conducted with a small subsample of mothers (N=31) to delineate the emotion socialization practices of Turkish mothers. In the second step of the study, all mothers filled out an emotion socialization scale and a scale to assess maternal emotional awareness. Mothers and teachers rated children‘s social and emotional competence. Qualitative interview analyses revealed similar themes with the commonly used emotion socialization scale. Distinct emotion socialization practices reflecting the values of the Turkish culture such as emotional interdependence were also discerned. Results of the quantitative analyses revealed that mothers low in emotional awareness used higher levels of nonsupportive emotion socialization practices and rated their children as more labile/negative. Given that maternal education and gender were both significantly associated with nonsupportive practices and mother ratings of child lability/negativity, they were controlled for in the mediation analysis. Nonsupportive emotion socialization practices were found to fully mediate the effect of maternal emotional awareness on child lability/negativity.|Keywords: emotion socialization, emotional awareness, alexithymia, culture.Item Preventing preschoolers’ social skill deficits through a child training program(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Şentürk, Merve İpek.; Çorapçı, Feyza.Social skills gained in the preschool period affect important areas like peer relations, school success, and mental health in later years. Impact research on social skills training programs in Turkey is limited in terms of sample size and assessment tools. This study aimed to develop a researcher-led social skills training program for preschoolers and examine its effects on children’s social competence, social and emotion understanding skills, social problem solving and play behaviors. In this randomized control, pretest-posttest study, preschools from Bakırköy municipality schools were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Intervention group received a 12-week program, which consisted of weekly, 40-minute researcher-led classroom sessions between February and May 2017. A total of 181 children (61 control, 120 intervention) whose ages ranged from 46 to 74 months, their mothers and teachers participated in the study. Before and after the program implementation, mothers and teachers completed behavior rating scales, and children were administered individual tests to obtain data on their social and emotional competence. Children in the intervention group were also observed in free play time. Results revealed that children in the intervention group showed more increase in social competence and prosocial responses to peer provocation between pre- and post-test compared to children in the control group. A downward trend in aggressive problem solutions was also observed in intervention group. Unexpectedly, intervention children showed more increase in anger-aggression scores between pre- and post-test compared to control group. Results have been discussed with respect to program content, delivery method and assessment tools along with study limitations.Item Considerations of death anxiety, meaning in life, self-esteem, self-compassion and loneliness vis-a-vis terror management theory(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2018., 2018.) Sübeten, Anıl.; Köksal, Falih.Studies on Terror Management Theory have mostly focused on assessing certain parameters that presumably contribute to buffer the anxiety that is formed when mortality becomes cognitively salient. Considering death anxiety as an enduring construct that impacts human psyche throughout life, such parameters may carry on the role of “anxiety-buffer” regardless of salience of death-thoughts. To support this prediction, quantitative relationships between death anxiety and five variables that are associated with defenses against death awareness (self-esteem, self-compassion, presence of meaning in life, search for meaning in life and loneliness) were examined. Data were collected from 315 Turkish participants, consisting dominantly of university students, via online self-report scales. It was predicted that self-esteem, self-compassion and presence of meaning in life would have a significant negative association with death anxiety, whereas loneliness and search for meaning in life would have a positive one. Correlation analyses supported these predictions for all variables except loneliness. Regression analyses indicated that self-compassion had significantly higher predictive power on death anxiety compared to other variables, whereas loneliness and self-esteem had negligible predictive power on death anxiety. Moderation analyses showed that loneliness moderated the relation between self compassion and death-anxiety, as self-compassion lost its predictive power on death anxiety at very high levels of loneliness. Implications of the results are discussed in the light of Terror Management Theory.Item Relational cutoff and its role in protecting the self in social contexts(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Koçyiğit, Metin.; Müderrisoğlu, Serra.; Fişek, Güler Okman.The present study aimed to explore defensive features of relational cutoff in social contexts. Relational cutoff was conceptualized as stopping speaking to another person for a variable length of time, because of seemingly unresolvable conflict between intimates. Relational cutoff was investigated conditions in which the participants had the role of the offended or the offender in the conflict. The data were collected from 12 participants including 6 university students and 6 adults through a semi-structured one time interview. Grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) was applied to analyze the interviews. It appeared that relational cutoff involved both intrapsychic and interpsychic processes, beginning with a narcissistic injury, followed by counteractions, relational evaluation. Relatioanal cutoff ended with forgiveness, resolved partially or stayed as unresolved. The results revealed that relational cutoff can be considered as having defensive elements consisting of avoiding overwhelming unpleasant emotions and having an unconscious motivation to protect the cohesiveness of self and self-esteem. The findings were discussed through the classical and the relational psychoanalytical perspectives by taking into consideration of the norms in the Turkish culture. Generational and gender differences in experiencing relational cutoff were also debated. Limitations and implications of the present study were also reviewed.