First Advisor

Liu-Qin Yang

Term of Graduation

Spring 2025

Date of Publication

6-4-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Applied Psychology

Department

Psychology

Language

English

Subjects

affective shift, Customer sexual harassment, psychological detachment, service work, supervisor preventive behaviors

Physical Description

1 online resource (vi, 72 pages)

Abstract

The current study explores how and why customer sexual harassment (CSH) experienced by service workers may lead to instigated incivility towards customers in the same week. Specifically, following the tenets of Personality Systems Interaction theory (PSI) and the affective shift model, I hypothesized that week-level affective shifts mediate this relationship, such that upshifts in anxiety and downshifts in self-assurance govern changes in motivational and cognitive functions that impair the employee's ability to provide good customer service. Further, supervisor preventive behaviors and psychological detachment are proposed as interventions that may lead to a departure from the mistreatment spiral by weakening the indirect effect of CSH on instigated incivility, drawing from the PSI theoretical mechanisms of systems conditioning and self-relaxation, respectively. The hypotheses proposed in this study were not supported. The theoretical and practical implications from this and other findings are discussed, as well as the limitations and opportunities for future research.

Rights

© 2025 Fernanda Wolburg Martinez

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

This study is funded by the Professional Training Opportunities Program award of the Northwest Center of Occupational Health and Safety (NWCOHS), funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) under Federal Training Grant T42OH008433, as well as Grant #T03OH008435 awarded to Portland State University (PI: LiuQin Yang, Ph.D.), funded by NIOSH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43865

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