Culver-Stockton College

Eureka College

Knox College

Marycrest International College

Monmouth College

St Ambrose University

Western Illinois University

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The purpose of the experiment was to determine if a new and inexpensive biofeedback device known as the Biodot could be used to manage and reduce stress as effectively as standard stress relief exercises such as relaxation training.  The results showed that individuals that had practiced standard stress relief techniques performed significantly better than the control group on a subsequent "more stressful pegboard test," whereas individuals using Biodots to manage stress levels showed almost no improvement.  The results are interpreted to show that Biodots may not be a useful device to help diminish stress.

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In an outcome study, a hypothesis that art therapy has positive effects on peoples' subjective well-being was investigated. The participants were chosen from two institutions for older adults, and were randomly assigned to either the control group (no treatment) or the intervention group.  The intervention group participants received group art therapy sessions. The results indicated that the participants' physical health increased, while anxiety-depression, and loneliness decreased.  Additionally, the study had two sub-samples with different mental functioning levels, each of which yielded different results, thereby implying that the functioning levels may have influenced the participants receptiveness to art therapy.

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The effects of task performance on perceptions of a simulated work environment were studied. Subjects were given either a simple or difficult questionnaire to in a small room.  Subjects were told that accurate completion of the task would make them eligible to win a sizable cash prize. Participants completed a short questionnaire, rating anxiety levels, room comfort, room size, task difficulty, noise level, lighting, and temperature. Subjects in the difficult task condition rated their anxiety levels higher and their task more difficult. No significant differences were found in the environmental ratings between the two conditions.

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In a study of tattoo preferences, predictions were made that there would be gender differences between males and females resulting in dissimilarity as to the content and placement of tattoos, when they began tattooing, and how the role of pain in the tattooing process would play out in motivation and placement of tattoos for both sexes.  Predictions were made that males would tend to locate tattoos in specific areas that would be connotative of physical strength to the observer, such as biceps and chest, and that these areas would differ from areas where females located tattoos. Predictions were made that females would locate their tattoos in areas that were more associated with fertility, such as the breast, the stomach, and the hip or buttocks. It was also predicted that pain would not play a significant role in the tattooing process for either gender.  Four variables were examined, including male/female differences of age at first tattoo, male/female differences of pain assessment, male/female differences in tattoo acquisition, and male/female differences in themes.

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The present study examined the effect of fat content information on taste ratings for muffins and cookies.  Thirty-nine participants were given two identical samples of each food, with one being labeled "low-fat" and the other labeled "regular", and were asked to rate their taste.  Those participants who were not dieting at the time (N=29) did rate the "low-fat" muffins significantly lower in taste (M=2.76) than the "regular" (M=3.10).  The dieting subjects had no difference in ratings.  This demonstrates that perception of fat content can affect taste ratings.

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Although much research has been conducted using individual difference measures, few studies have examined a variety of scales at one time. This presentation will discuss the effects of 26 independent measures and their relationship with one another. Fifty students participating in the Toledo Round Robin Assessment Project provided data for each measure (Grahe, Bernieri & Gada-Jain, 2001). The data yielded results congruent with previous research as well as some interesting relationships between the measures. This data provides a rich resource of information for other studies and stands as an example for needed replications.

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This research was designed to examine self-reported individual differences as they related to visibility and favorability scores for self-reported most and least characteristic traits measured by the California Personality Inventory (CPI). Visibility and favorability scores were compared to various self-reported individual difference measures. The CPI scores for 32 undergraduate students were found to be significantly correlated with several of the measures. A notable finding these correlations was with the Profile of Non-Verbal Sensitivity (PONS), with 16 of the 22 subscales being significantly related. This data was useful in describing what types of people perceived themselves as having traits that were visible and/or favorable to others.

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The purpose of this study was to examine how susceptibility information affects attitudes towards a hypothetical HPV vaccine.  Fifty students read one of two descriptions of HPV, one containing general information about HPV (moderate susceptibility), and another with the same information plus a short personal story (high susceptibility).  The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two conditions regarding their perceived likelihood of infection.  However, the participants in the high susceptibility condition were more willing to accept the HPV vaccination. Overall, participants were more likely to recommend a vaccination to others versus themselves regardless of condition.

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Reaching universal gender equality is a highly sought after goal. Many organizations attempt to eliminate biases, yet gender stereotypes seem to exist at any age and in many occupations.  Our study examined perceptions of gender on a college campus and whether students held biased perceptions of academic majors.  We evaluated whether individuals would be influenced on stereotyping majors as more male or female oriented, when a gender-specific occupation was framed with that major.  The results we found supported our hypothesis.  Our study is further evidence that gender biases exist and play a role in an individual's attitude toward a neutral subject.

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The purpose of this experiment was to determine the influence of outcome information on memory accuracy, perceptions, and hindsight. Fifty-six introductory psychology students viewed a 6-minute video tour of a library including a brief kissing scene between two individuals. After a 30-minute filler task, participants were either told the interaction between the two individuals ended in a rape or no outcome information was given. As a result of outcome information, memory accuracy tended to decrease. When only answering questions about the kissing individuals, males were significantly less accurate than females. As predicted, significant results were found supporting the hindsight bias. However, the perceptions of the kissing individuals did not differ due to outcome information.

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Several factors have been found to affect perceptions of targets that have been sexually assaulted.  This study tested the hypothesis that the description of a target as a "victim" or a "survivor" would affect perceptions.  Eighty participants ages 16 - 57 were given a brief description of a female target, described as a victim or a survivor of sexual assault, and rated their perceptions of the target.  Perceptions of victims and survivors differed on several dimensions, and ratings also varied by participant gender.

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Attributions for performance tend to differ for males and females. Sinclair and Kunda (2000) found that when females give failure feedback, they are rated as less competent. The present study tested the hypothesis that the gender of the person giving feedback would influence participants’ performance attributions.  One hundred forty-eight participants were given random success or failure feedback, and performance attributions were assessed. Consistent with the self-serving bias, significant main effects were found for feedback on attributions of ability and luck.  There was a significant interaction between performance feedback and subject gender on effort attributions. The predicted 3-way interaction was not found.

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The following hypothesis was tested:  Subjects would report that they recognized seeing non-presented words categorized as high by false recognition norms more frequently than words categorized as medium or low when words lists were combined.  Support was found for the hypothesis.

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Evaluative Pavlovian conditioning is a change in the affective rating of a nonsense syllable that occurs after the syllable has been associated with a second, positive or negative, affective stimulus (De Houwer, Baeyens, Vansteenwegen, & Eelen, 2000). We hypothesized that by pairing a neutral syllable with a positive or negative arm movement, we could produce a positive or negative affect that could serve as an unconditioned stimulus. The 24 volunteers saw a nonsense syllable, then completed a positive or negative arm movement. The two conditions did not differ significantly. The discussion focused on improvement in the design and procedure used.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between depression, self-efficacy, and proactive coping and life satisfaction.  Life satisfaction was negatively correlated with depression and positively correlated with self-efficacy and proactive coping.

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Correlational studies have indicated that attractive women tend to have higher status than unattractive women.  This study sought to clarify these findings using an experimental methodology.  Undergraduate students were shown a photograph of a woman with demographic information such as age, hometown, and name provided below it.  Additionally, they were told that the woman held one of three jobs: McDonald's worker (low status), teacher (medium status), or corporate lawyer (high status).  They then rated the woman on attractiveness using a Likert response scale from 1 "not at all attractive" to 5 "very attractive."  Results indicated that job status did have an effect on perceptions of the woman's attractiveness.

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Participants were 20 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to study for an "exam" in one of two groups:  3 minute study time or 10 minute study time.  They read four paragraphs about fictional characters and then answered 20 questions about those characters.  Scores were determined by the number of correct answers.  A one way ANOVA was conducted with study group (3 min. vs. 10 min.) as the independent variable and number of correct answers on the test as the dependent variable.  Results indicated that participants who studied for 10 minutes (M = 19.1, SD = .99) correctly recalled more information about the characters than those who studied for 3 minutes (M = 13.6, SD = 2.22), F(1, 18) = 51.08, p < .05, h² = .74.

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Our  research examined false memory from priming lists used to activate stereotypes. Previous research suggests that stereotypes may be primed and activated by the presentation of stereotype related words (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996).  Word lists have been successful in generating false memory (Stadler, Roediger, & McDermott, 1999). Twenty-seven introductory psychology student volunteers were shown words from priming lists, false memory lists, and neutral lists, and then given a recognition test. Results suggested that priming words also yield false memory.  We see our results as contributing to the advancement of false memory in cognitive psychology and priming in social psychology.

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The effect of mood on memory for life events was studied using humor and music as mood induction conditions.  The results indicated that both mood inductions significantly affected mood as measured by an affect grid, p < 05.  There were no differences in five rated aspects of the recalled events (intensity, vividness, pleasantness, importance and humorousness). Several aspects of the affective response to mood induction were significantly related to prior subjective well-being ratings of the participants (e.g., initial affect rating and trials to criterion).

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Research on sexual and emotional jealousy has depended on the two forced-choice items of David Buss to measure sexual and emotional jealousy.  The problem with these two items is that they do not allow for the independent measurement of the two types of jealousy.  The purpose of  this research was to create independent measures of sexual and emotional jealousy.

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Performing a verbal fluency task slows concurrent tapping rate more for the right  than the left-hand, the hemispheric  time-sharing effect (HTS).  It was predicted that men would show a larger HTS effect than women because of possible gender differences in cerebral lateralization for language.  Also, the HTS effect was predicted to be stronger for letter fluency than for category fluency.  Results indicated a significant HTS effect (p < .001), although it was not related to gender.  However, for men (n = 27), but not for women (n = 33), tapping rates for both right-and left-hand conditions were slower during the letter fluency than during the category fluency condition (p < .05).

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The importance of a woman's physical attractiveness and personality were investigated with respect to her mate value.  Both were found to be important.

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Several personality measures were correlated with a person's willingness to engage in casual sex.  Psychosexual orientation and  promiscuity correlated with willingness to engage in casual sex.

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Multiple role planning, the process by which young couples determine strategies to combine future work and family roles, was examined as an adaptive method for pursuing the complex lifestyle of a dual career family.  This research was conducted to investigate the relations among love components (intimacy, decision / commitment, and passion), gender, and multiple role planning.  Both members of exclusive intimate relationships were surveyed.  The findings supported the hypotheses that, in general, individuals reporting relationships characterized by high levels of intimacy and decision/commitment would also display greater multiple role planning.  Results further indicated that gender served as a moderator of the association between passion and attitudes toward multiple role planning.  Implications for a developmental readiness model and for application were discussed.