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The development of disease-avoidant behavior

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TitleInfo
Title
The development of disease-avoidant behavior
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Blacker
NamePart (type = given)
Katy-Ann
NamePart (type = date)
1989-
DisplayForm
Katy-Ann Blacker
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Van de Walle
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Gretchen
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Gretchen Van de Walle
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Advisory Committee
Role
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chair
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NamePart (type = family)
LoBue
NamePart (type = given)
Vanessa
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Vanessa LoBue
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Advisory Committee
Role
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internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Bonawitz
NamePart (type = given)
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Bonawitz
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Fefferman
NamePart (type = given)
Nina
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Nina Fefferman
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
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outside member
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NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - Newark
Role
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school
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Text
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theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2016
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2016-10
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2016
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2b); (type = code)
eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
Understanding how children and adults behave in situations in which they might become ill is critical for preventing the spread of infectious disease. Avoiding individuals who show signs of infectious disease would have been beneficial over evolutionary history, so such behavior may appear early in development and persist throughout adulthood (Boyer & Bergstrom, 2011; Neuberg, Kenrick & Schaller, 2011; Schaller & Park, 2011; Rottman, 2014). However, little has examined whether adults and children actually exhibit behavioral avoidance of contagion, (i.e., sick individuals, and contaminated objects). In addition, psychological mechanisms underlying the development of behavioral avoidance, such as the role of causal knowledge of illness transmission, have not been investigated empirically. In Study 1, we investigated whether adults exhibit behavioral avoidance of illness, and found that they do. In Studies 2, 3, and 4, we explored whether and at what age children show avoidance behavior of sick individuals and contaminated objects. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that preschoolers did not avoid contaminated objects, and that their causal knowledge was unrelated to their behavior. In Study 4, we included older children, and measured whether they avoid contagion, or people who have a contagious illness. We found that children as a group did not avoid contagious individuals until around the age of six, but that avoidance behavior was best predicted by their causal knowledge of contagious illness rather than age. In fact, even 4-year-old children who were able to make predictions about illness transmission in our sample avoided contagious individuals. Finally, in Study 5 we investigated whether prompting preschool aged children to generate explanations about illness would increase their causal knowledge about illness and their avoidance of contagion. Although we did not find an increase in knowledge and avoidance behavior as a result of providing causal explanations, children who were prompted to talk about the point of illness transmission in the story were more likely to avoid. Together, these studies constitute the first developmental investigation of avoidance behavior towards sick individuals and contaminated objects, and our results suggest that avoidance of illness is not early developing and depends on causal knowledge of illness transmission.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Psychology
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_7664
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (ix, 77 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Developmental psychology
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Communicable diseases--Transmission
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Katy-Ann Blacker
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - Newark Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10002600001
Location
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NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T36W9DDP
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights

RightsDeclaration (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Blacker
GivenName
Katy-Ann
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2016-09-28 12:05:42
AssociatedEntity
Name
Katy-Ann Blacker
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - Newark
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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Technical

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2016-10-04T16:57:05
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2016-10-04T16:57:05
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