2004 Abstracts
By Titles:
Acquaintance and accuracy of judgments.
A new way to discern various eating disorders.
A study of adult eye-movements while retrieving information.
Accuracy of web site retention.
An examination of factors that influence roles associated with occupations.
Assessing phobias: How do they compare across gender groups?
Assessing the various attributes of “at-risk” youth.
Attractiveness: Its Importance in the presence of other individuating information.Belongingness needs and accuracy of interpersonal perception.
Body temperature: How do you feel?
Can parent autonomy supportive behavior promote a child's creativity?
Can you see me now? Importance of visual cues in the formation of accurate social perceptions.
Crying in social interactions: Responses to the emotional pain of others.
Differences in sentencing decisions based on gender.
Differential predictive validity of time sampled thin slices.
Do men and women relate differently to horses?
Does one’s physical exercise level correlate significantly with
his/her self-concept level?
Effect of response delay and number of confederates on conformity in perceptual judgments.
Examining the interview process: Do both parties see it similarly?
Examining the possible relationship between students self-concepts and their eating disorder scores.
Examining the relationship between students’ GPA’s and their
phobias.
Gender and role's impact on rapport
cues.
Gesturing without speaking: Using the hands for spatial memory and problem solving.
Go with the flow: Romantic flow, thought suppression, and depleting the self.
Imitation using a two-action method in budgerigars.
Impressions of an individual demonstrating ambiguous behavior.
In search of effective teacher effectiveness rating scales.
Mate and friend selection as a function of personality and gender.
Measuring cognitive load in
musicians through automaticity and distraction.
Men's insensitivity toward rape victims.
Number discrimination in budgerigars.
Participation in reality television and the role of personality, age, and gender.
Parent-adolescent conflict in romantic relationships: Differences in perceptions of mate value.
Perceptions of self vs. peer health behaviors among college students.
Perceived gender differences in methods of suicide and judgments about their moral acceptability.
Recovering from rejection: Effect of Self-Knowledge on psychological needs.
Predictors of alcohol and drug use problems: What do they tell Us?
Students’ perceptions of their interactions with others: Do they vary by gender?
The “Atkins for life” diet: Should
people do it for the health of it?
The effects of background music on a reading comprehension task.
The effects of birth order and locus of control on leadership.
The effect of low carbohydrate labeling on taste perception.
The effect of misinformation and time delay on memory in a simulated classroom setting.
The effect of prosody and G.P.A on the lesson comprehension.
The effect of stress and LPS on spatial memory performance in rats.
The effect of typicality and memory type on false memory.
The effects of a social story on disruptive behaviors of a child with autism.
The effects of feedback on physical and cognitive tasks.
The effects of the golden ratio on visual aesthetic preferences.
The impact of Working different shifts on social interaction.
The long-term effects of divorce on college students' needs for power, achievement, and affiliation.
The morality of mate poaching: Judgments of behaviors according to situational factors.
The role of apology in recovering psychological needs after betrayal.
Use of a Q-Sort methodology to construct an activity typology.
Visuomotor priming does not effect object selection: Widgets are still a load of fun.
Whisper in my ear: A look at the
effects of gender non-conformity.
By Institution:
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Authors: Christopher Holt and Sarah Gault
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Daniel Corts
Title: Gesturing without speaking: Using the hands for spatial memory and
problem solving.
Gestures seem to be produced for one's audience. However, speakers who aren't allowed to gesture produce more disfluencies, which suggests that gestures facilitate lexical access (Rauscher, Krauss, & Chen, 1996). The present study hypothesized that a portion of these gestures are related to remembering and manipulating spatial memory content instead of producing language. 22 volunteers completed a battery of spatial tasks in silent and speak aloud conditions. Results indicate that people often produce gestures during spatial tasks, even when they are not speaking.
Authors: Karen Mason, Jennifer Polcyn, Johanna Neil, Chip Meyer, Laurie
Frazier, and Laura Keene
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Brigette Dorrance
Title: Imitation using a two-action method in budgerigars.
Observer budgerigars observed demonstrator budgerigars removing stoppers in order to obtain food in one of two ways: either by pulling the stoppers up or pushing the stoppers down. "Ghost" control budgerigars observed the stoppers pulled upward or downward with fishing line to test the possibility that observers could learn to pull or push just by seeing the stopper moved in a particular direction (affordance learning). Although the "push" observers have not yet been tested, all of the budgerigars that observed the pull demonstration made pulling motions toward the stoppers. Furthermore, none of the budgerigars in the "ghost" control groups made responses toward the stoppers. It appears that under these conditions, budgerigars showed evidence of imitation, but no evidence of affordance learning.
Author: Chip Meyer
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Brigette Dorrance
Title: Number discrimination in
budgerigars.
A study was conducted to determine if number discrimination could be learned by budgerigars, and to make a comparison between relative and absolute discrimination. Eight budgerigars were divided equally into a relative (choose more or less) and absolute (choose three over two and four) group. The budgerigars were then trained using conditioned place preference. The results of this study will be discussed at the upcoming ILLOWA Conference.
Authors: Jane Stout, Carrie Lukazewski, Laurie Frazier, and Jacob
McDowell
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Daniel Corts
Title: The effect of typicality and memory type on false memory.
False memory research using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm shows that false memories occur for objects typical to but absent from a schematic stimulus list. At present, little to no research has focused on the difference between the amount of false memories related to episodic memories. Through the use of pictorial DRM-type lists, our research investigates the effect of semantic vs. episodic memory on the production of false memories. Additionally, we incorporate typical vs. atypical components into each memory type. A 2(typicality) x 2(memory type) within-subjects ANOVA showed an interaction between variables. Specifically, typical items yielded more false memories than atypical items and this effect was greater in the episodic conditions.
Author: Anthony Barnhart
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Daniel Corts
Title: Visuomotor priming does not effect object selection: Widgets are still a load of fun.
Everyday objects can be handled in a number of different ways. Previous research has shown that simply viewing a hand grasping an object can influence how the observer chooses to hold that same object. The present study sought to determine if viewing an experimenter's hand performing a grasping motion would prime the selection of an object that could best be handled by the model grasping motion. To test this, the experimenter provided three identical widgets in different orientations on a table. He instructed participants to choose a widget while gesturing to indicate a specific manner of grasping. The three experimental gestures were similar to those used to hold a doorknob, a mug, or a suitcase. Participants' widget choices favored the suitcase grasp regardless of experimental condition and therefore did not seem to be influenced by the model grasping motion.
Faculty Sponsor: Greg Bohémier
Title: A study of adult eye-movements while retrieving information.
The purpose of this study was to examine eye-movements as participants retrieved either visual or auditory information, and to see if the eye-movement patterns are predictable in adults. Thirty-one participants were given questions that were categorized as visual or auditory. The movement of the eyes while the adult was thinking of the answer was recorded. A chi-square analysis and a Cramer’s V was performed on the data to test whether eye-movements were random, and to test the strength of the relationship between the variables auditory/visual and the observed eye-movements: up, down, side-to-side, and straight-out. Results showed that eye-movements are not random and therefore they are predictable in adults. These findings are compared to a previous study (Nate, 1999) that examined children’s eye-movements and information retrieval.
Authors: Amanda Bagby, Rebecca Gottman, Cortney Meyers, and Kelli Stiles
Faculty Sponsor: Greg Bohémier
Title: The effect of low carbohydrate
labeling on taste perception.
A study was conducted to examine the relationship between product labeling and the perceived taste of the product. The participants (N=40; M=16,F=24) were asked to sample a low carbohydrate ready-to-drink shake. The same product, retrieved from the same can, was split into two samples, one labeled as low carbohydrate and the other labeled as regular. The participants were then asked to sample a chocolate peanut butter cup in the same manner, one sample labeled as regular and the other labeled as low carbohydrate. The participant then completed as survey rating each item for taste and quality using a 5-point Likert scale. The results support our hypothesis that the label influenced the perceived taste and quality of the product.
Authors: Amy Kink, Kara Geldmacher, and Kevin Taylor
Faculty Sponsor: Greg Bohémier
Title: The effect of prosody and G.P.A
on the lesson comprehension.
This study tested the effect of prosody on lesson comprehension in
adults with high and low GPA’s. Eighty-seven undergraduate students at
Culver-Stockton College participated in the experiment. Each participant
was asked to listen to a taped-passage read by a male or a female about
President Herbert Hover. Orthogonal to gender of speaker was prosody: high
(use of inflection) or low (monotone). Participants were asked to answer
nine questions pertaining to the material they had just heard. The results
showed a significant interaction in which participants scored higher on
the comprehension test when the reader of the story was a male whose voice
varied in pitch and meter, whereas, participants scored higher on the
comprehension test when a female spoke with a monotone voice. The
interpretation and implications of this study will be discussed.
Authors: Callie Linderer, Betsy Terwelp, and Laura Denum
Faculty Sponsor: Greg Bohémier
Title: The effects of feedback on physical and
cognitive tasks.
An experiment was conducted on the effects of positive and negative feedback on an individual's physical and cognitive performance. Forty-eight high school students (24 male, 24 female) participated. They were tested in a physical task (running), and in a cognitive task (puzzle solving). The time it took participants to complete the task was recorded and then recorded again after feedback (positive, negative, or none) was given to each participant. A main effect of gender and a marginal effect of feedback were found in the physical data. No other interactions were revealed. The interpretation and implications of this study will be discussed.
Authors: Aaron McCray and Derrick Armstrong
Faculty Sponsor: John Halpin
Title: Effect of response delay and number
of confederates on conformity in perceptual judgments.
We were interested in examining subjects’ conformity to groups of 2 or 5 confederates, who responded immediately or with a delay in their judgments about line lengths. Sixteen subjects (8 male and 8 female) were organized into 4 same-sex groups. Each group was exposed to only one level of confederate manipulation, and all groups were given the same delay manipulation. The subjects were individually given 10 line length tasks. All confederates identified the incorrect line on 6 tasks, half with a delay and half without. There was no significant difference in conformity as a function of confederate manipulation in the delay condition. When no delay was present, subject conformed more often with five confederates than with two. No significant effect involving gender was found.
Authors: Stephanie Stahl and Nicole Epperson
Faculty Sponsor: John Halpin
Title: Mate and friend selection as a
function of personality and gender.
The purpose of our experiment was to see if gender and personality is related to the type of friends and type of mates we pick. We used a variety of surveys to measure personality types, type A vs. type B, and the subjects’ views of characteristics that are important in a mate compared to characteristics that are important in a friend. We predict women with similar personality types will have similar characteristics in selection of a mate and in selection a friend. Men with similar personality types will have more of a difference in selection of a mate than in selection of a friend. Results and implications will be presented at the conference.
Authors: Amber Smith and Vanessa Vestal
Faculty Sponsor: John Halpin
Title: Participation in reality television
and the role of personality, age, and gender.
We examined the relationship between personality, gender, and age on the one hand and likelihood a subject would participate on reality television (and the motivation for doing so) on the other hand. Subjects were administered personality tests and then they completed a survey regarding reality television. Age and sensation seeking scores were the strongest predictors of the subjects’ likelihood of participating on reality television. Money was the most common motivating factor cited by subjects. Implications will be discussed.
Authors: Michelle Barth and Natalie Dixon
Faculty Sponsor: John Halpin
Title: Phonological vs. semantic
processing: Comparison of recall and organization of visual and auditory
information.
The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that phonological processing can be as helpful to memory as semantic processing, contrary to depth-of-processing predictions. In this study, 40 adults, 32 women and 8 men, were tested. Subjects were randomly assigned a blocked or randomized set of two lists. Each set contained one phonological list and one semantic list containing 40 words. List presentation was in verbal or auditory format. Means and standard deviations of recall and ARC scores are currently being computed for each condition. The results will be used to evaluate the theory that semantically-processed information is more memorable due to deeper encoding.
Author: Christopher N. Wahlheim
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Dawn M. McBride
Title: A comparison of conceptual automatic memory and recognition familiarity: A process dissociation analysis.
Abstract
In the current study, LoP effects were
examined in a recognition task, a word fragment completion task, and a
word association task. Conscious and automatic memory estimates for
semantic and graphemic encoding conditions were made using Jacoby's (1991)
process dissociation procedure. The comparison of interest was among
conceptual automatic processes, perceptual automatic memory process, and
recognition familiarity. Our first hypothesis was that memory will be
greater for semantic than graphemic items in conceptual automatic
processes and recognition familiarity. Our second hypothesis was that
automatic memory estimates will be equivalent for semantic and graphemic
items in a perceptual task. The predicted results show support for the
functional equivalence of recognition familiarity and conceptual automatic
memory.
Author: Andrew E Monroe
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Glenn Reeder
Title: Impressions of an individual
demonstrating ambiguous behavior.
The current research examines how perceivers attribute motives to an ambiguous behavior Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions that manipulated the man's apparent motives (sexual interest in women, hostility toward women, friendliness, or control). Following this, participants watched a video of a computer training simulation in which the male briefly leans over the female in an ambiguous manner. Finally, students judged the trainer's motives, indicated their own emotional reaction to the video, and rated the trainer's behavior. Preliminary results suggest a type of emotional fight or flight response to the hostile condition.
Author: Irene Podrobinok
Faculty Sponsor: Tim Kasser
Title: Can parent autonomy supportive behavior promote a child's
creativity?
This study tested the affects of parent behavior on his/her child's creative responses. The hypothesis was that parent autonomy supportive behavior would enhance child creativity. The participants(N=27) were 3-5 year old children and their parents. A questionnaire on autonomy supportive behavior was distributed to the parents and a modified version of the Purdue Creativity Test was administered to the children. Results showed no support for the hypothesis. However, further analysis of individual questionnaire items showed some interesting trends, suggesting that certain forms of autonomy supportive behavior could decrease creativity.
Faculty sponsor: Frank T. McAndrew
Title: Does postpartum depression mediate
investment in Newborns? An experimental test of Hagen's defection
hypothesis.
According to Hagen's Defection Hypothesis (2002), a mother's age and the "quality" of her offspring are critical factors in determining her willingness to invest in her newborn. I tested this hypothesis through a simulation based on hamster races. Each one of 114 subjects (44 M, 70 F) received a hamster ("offspring"), then was given several poker chips ("resources") and allowed to decide how many resources to "invest" into the hamster based on information provided by the experimenter about the race. Correlational analyses suggested that both the quality of the offspring and future investment opportunities were important factors in investment decisions. An ANOVA showed no significant main effects, but an interaction suggested that males and females invested differently depending on the quality of the offspring.
Author: Karolina Sawicka
Faculty Sponsor: Heather Hoffman
Title: Menstrual cycles and music.
This study investigated the relationship between women’s menstrual cycles and likelihood of being relaxed by music, and predicted that women currently menstruating would show a decrease in POMS scores after exposure to music. Subjects were women assigned to 3 same-treatment groups (n=9, 5, 5) based on current phase of menstrual cycle. Lab sessions required a mood-state survey, a 15-minute exposure to classical music and re-administration of the survey. Initial analysis indicates no positive relationship between menstrual phase and being soothed by music. This is partially explained by self-report problems for phases. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed.
Faculty Sponsor: Frank McAndrew
Title: The effects of birth order and locus of control on leadership.Abstract
A study was conducted to examine the relationship between birth order and locus of control on holding positions of leadership. Birth order was defined by four groups: only, first, middle, and last born. Participants (N=73) were undergraduates from Knox College and they were asked to fill out surveys on locus of control and leadership. The results indicated no relationship of birth order or locus of control with holding leadership positions.
Author: Scott Salyards
Faculty Sponsor: Tim Kasser
Title: The effects of the golden ratio on
visual aesthetic preferences.
The Golden Ratio hypothesis asserts that visual stimuli proportioned according to the Golden Ratio may be preferred over stimuli using other proportions. This study compared differences in subject preferences for Golden Ratio, Fibonacci, Intermediate, and Equivalent proportions under circles, rectangles, and spirals. The Golden Ratio was not significantly preferred over the other proportions across or within shapes. Equivalent proportion was significantly preferred over the other proportions overall, and symmetrical figures within each shape were significantly preferred over the others. Thus, symmetry may be a better candidate for a basic form of beauty than the Golden Ratio.
Author: Lana Fryer
Faculty sponsor: Lynne Webber
Title: The effect of stress and LPS on spatial
memory performance in rats.
When an animal is given a lipopolysaccaride (LPS) injection there is an increase of serotonin in the hippocampus (Linthorst & Reul, 1998). This study examined the interaction between LPS and stress on spatial memory, since they both affect serotonin levels. Using the Yerkes-Dodson law (1908) as a model, the hypothesis stated that the stressors would help memory up to a threshold and then drop off. The LPS rats performed a Morris Water Maze significantly faster than control or LPS + Stress rats. This implies that stress stimulates learning in an inverted U pattern.
Author: Julia Ellegood
Faculty Sponsor: Tim Kasser
Title: The long-term effects of divorce on
college students' needs for power, achievement, and affiliation.
This study explores the long-term effects of parental divorce on college students’ needs for Achievement (nAch), Power (nPow), and Affiliation (nAff). 108 undergraduate students completed the Jackson Personality Research Form (Jackson, 1984) and Perceived Quality of Divorce Scale to assess how the experience of divorce, age at the time of divorce, and level of conflict surrounding a divorce affect children. Subjects whose parents divorced after age 7 scored lower on nAch and children of divorce showed a trend of having higher nAff scores than non-divorced children. The importance of programs that curb the negative and long-lasting effects of divorce on children are discussed.
Faculty Sponsor: Frank McAndrew
Title: The morality of mate poaching: Judgments of behaviors according
to situational factors.
This study explored the moral acceptability of behaviors intended to gain a romantic partner who is already involved in another relationship (mate poaching). 100 participants (48 M, 52 F) filled out a questionnaire designed to judge the moral acceptability of mate poaching scenarios. The results suggest that the acceptability of mate poaching behaviors is influenced by the sex of the poacher, sex of the observer, and temporal context of the relationship being sought by the poacher (long-term vs. short-term). Also, mate poaching attempts are generally more acceptable when the relationship of the target person is relatively low in commitment. Discussion focuses on evolutionary explanations for mate poaching.
Faculty Sponsor: Frank McAndrew
Title: Perceived gender differences in methods of suicide and judgments
about their moral acceptability.
Forty undergraduates (20 M, 20 F) made judgments about the relationship between an individual's gender and the method of suicide that person might choose. Judgments about the moral acceptability of different motivations for suicide and the relationship between these motivations and style of suicide were also examined. The results indicated clear relationships among sex, method of suicide, and the moral justification of suicide in response to different traumatic situations.
Faculty Sponsor: Tim Kasser
Title: When parents and teachers support
students’ autonomy: A cross-cultural test of self-determination theory in
the education domain.
High school students from Denmark, South Korea, and USA were surveyed to test the following hypotheses: 1. students who perceive autonomy support from parents and teachers are more likely to be autonomously motivated towards school work; 2. students who perceive autonomy support and/or have autonomous motivation will experience greater school and life satisfaction; 3. the pattern of relationships between autonomous motivation, perceived autonomy support, and school and life satisfaction will be similar among the three national groups despite cultural differences. The results, which supported all hypotheses, are discussed in light of self-determination theory’s claim that autonomy is a basic need.
Author: Julie Larsen
Faculty Sponsor: Heather Hoffmann
Title: Whisper in my ear: A look at the
effects of gender non-conformity.
Fifty-four college students were surveyed measuring erotophilia, sexual sensation seeking, and gender non-conformity (GNC) to evaluate the effects of GNC and erotophilia on the choice of arousing sexual language. Subjects were presented with a list of words and phrases and were asked to select the most arousing and most unarousing. Word and phrase options included offensive sexual words, sexual words, emotionally charged words, and control words. The total number of offensive sexual words and phrases that subjects found arousing were compared against GNC and erotophilia. This study wanted to show subjects highly erotophilic and GNC would find offensive words arousing.
Author: Tiffany
Dismuke
Faculty Sponsor: Jon Grahe
Title: Acquaintance and accuracy of
judgments.
Researchers predicted accuracy of judgments would increase with acquaintanceship. 38 unacquainted students enrolled in a research course for credit. In groups of 5 or 6, they completed weekly activities. This study looked at their evaluations of each other on the first and last meetings. Participants complete the Big Five subscales and the 22 basic needs. They received descriptions of the categories and predicted the other participants’ ranks. For the Big Five, consensus improved with a main effect for times, but there was no difference for self-other agreement. There was no improvement for consensus or self-other agreement in psychological needs.
Author: Jessica Connell
Faculty Sponsor: Kristin Larson
Title: Body temperature: How do you feel?
Abstract
This study tested the thermogenic
hypothesis that states if the body temperature is elevated then would
there be a difference in affect among the individuals. Twenty-seven
students ranging in ages 18-22 recruited from the psychology subject
pool participated in the experiment. In this within subjects’
experimental design, participants filled out a pre and post PANAS-T,
and body temperature levels were measured by an ear thermometer. The
ANOVA performed on the data did not support a main effect for a
difference in place F(1,25) = 0.20, p > .05.
Nevertheless, a main effect was revealed regarding a change in
affect with relation to time, F(1,25) = 10.49, p < .01. Thus,
regardless of the environment or temperature change, individuals did
not show any increase in affect.
Authors: Christie Nelson, Ryne Sherman, & Amanda
Weck
Faculty Sponsor: Jon Grahe
Title: Can you see me now? Importance of
visual cues in the formation of accurate social perceptions.
Past research has indicated that access to different channels of communication plays an important role in interpersonal perception (Grahe & Bernieri, 1998). This study further examined how limitations of visual cues affects perceptions, with the hypothesis stating that lack of visual ability would decrease the accuracy of subjective cues. Within a dyad solving jigsaw puzzles, a blindfolded person (worker) was less able to detect the amount of enjoyment and frustration of the partner (instructor) than the instructor was able to perceive of the worker. This research signifies the importance of visual cues in the accurate perception of social contexts.
Author: Kelly Borst
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Kristin Larson
Title: College students and movie stars:
Identification and interpretive gender bias for generically used pronouns.
A study in 1978 found evidence that students commonly interpret the generic pronoun “his” as a male. It is possible that the subject of the sentence, a student, caused the participants to self identify, biasing the results. The current study investigated this possibility by replicating the original methodology and adding a new sentence about a movie star. While the results confirmed the gender bias in interpreting “his”, there was no statistically significant difference between the original and movie star sentences.
Authors: Ryne Sherman, Christie Nelson, & Amanda
Weck
Faculty Sponsor: Jon Grahe
Title: Differential predictive validity of
time sampled thin slices.
Past research has shown that thin slices of a long behavioral stream provide an equally efficient means of assessing personality, affect, and interpersonal relations (Ambady & Rosenthal, 1992). This study examined the effects that time selection of thin slices has on self-reported, objective, and subjective cues in a dyadic puzzle task. Multiple stepwise regressions were conducted to measure the differences in the predictability of behaviors occurring early in the interaction versus later in the interaction on measures of the dyadic experience. These findings will shed light on future research using thin slice methodology.
Authors: Amanda Weck, Ryne Sherman, Christie Nelson
Faculty Sponsor: Jon Grahe
Title: Gender and role's impact on rapport
cues.
This study investigated the effect that role (worker or instructor) and gender had on performance and behavior in a dyadic puzzle task with a sighted instructor and a blindfolded worker. Behaviors and self-reports associated with rapport were examined. Gender was only found to have an effect on proximity of the dyad and self-reported frustration. Role affected aspects of all data types considered. These findings have implications on the role of gender and its influence on rapport in a dyadic task.
Author: Vance Swope
Faculty Sponsor: Jon Grahe
Title: Measuring cognitive load in
musicians through automaticity and distraction.
In this experiment, cognitive load was measured in instrumental musicians using a multilevel dual-task distracter measure. Cognitive load was measured by the number of errors subjects made, and by a self-report of automaticity and experience. We hypothesized that higher levels of automaticity and experience would translate into better performance. We postulated that stress would negatively affect performance. We posited that the type of distracter would affect performance; similarity of distracter tasks to the target task would decrease performance. Preliminary data analyses do not support the postulated correlation between state anxiety as measured by the STAI and scale performance.
Author: Chayne Jones
Faculty Sponsors: Jon Grahe and Joan Wertz
Title: Pain tolerance and expectations:
Investigating manipulated expectations with social desirability and
competitiveness traits on pain tolerance and threshold levels.
Two studies investigated the impact of competitiveness and social desirability on pain tolerance and pain threshold levels using the cold-pressor pain stimulus. Study 1 found a significant relationship among competitiveness and pain tolerance revealing that the trait of competitiveness might partially explain the ability to tolerate more pain. Study 2 was a conceptual replication of Study 1, but failed to replicate the findings. Study 2 also examined expected and reported pain and found that subjects were able to accurately predict the amount of pain they experienced; however, there was no main effect of gender or group. Implications will be discussed.
Author: Jana Alsobrook
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Kristin Larson
Title: The effects of a social story on
disruptive behaviors of a child with autism.
Abstract
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a social story on
the disruptive behaviors of a child with autism. Children with autism
often exhibit disruptive behavior in response to an unpleasant experience,
stimuli, or change in routine. The aim of the social story was to decrease
the frequency of the disruptive behaviors. Since social stories have
recently become a tool for helping children with autism, there is very
little research on the topic, but the research thus far is promising.
Author: Kristen Wertzler
Faculty Sponsor: Kristen Wertzler
Title: The impact of Working different
shifts on social interaction.
Abstract
Investigated the impact of working different shifts on various
aspects including: social interaction, leisure time, quality of life,
work-home conflict, and sleep related issues from a sample of 118 hospital
employees. It was hypothesized that first shift workers would report the
most social interaction and leisure and the highest quality of life.
Results indicated that social interaction was higher for first shift
workers. Quality of life was not found to be related to shift; although,
it was found to be related to several other dependent variables. Second
and third shift workers were found to have the highest work-family
conflict.
Author: Susannah
Bagaas
Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth Gray
Title: Attractiveness: Its Importance in
the presence of other individuating information.
Two hundred and seven undergraduates participated in this experiment based on Walster’s 1966 study of attraction’s importance in dating behaviors at a dance. Walster’s study found attractiveness as the only “determinant” of date satisfaction. It was proposed that interaction levels at dances are significantly lower than other activities, limiting information obtained about potential partners. This study tested whether attractiveness would lose its importance in early dating preferences when other individuating information was available. There were no significant differences in date selection based on location; however, a significant decrease in attractive date selection when s/he was accompanied with negative personality traits was found.
Author: Melissa M. Velez
Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth K. Gray, Ph.D.
Title: Religiosity and friendships.
This study was conducted to examine what draws friends together and to look at whether diversity in religion and personality impacts levels of quality in relationships. 205 university students were surveyed on measures of relationship quality, religiosity and personality. Participants completed assessments of two friends, one similar and one dissimilar to them in religious affiliation. Analyses revealed significant associations between personality and religiosity, personality and relationship quality, and religiosity and relationship quality. Additionally, similar friends reported significantly higher levels of relationship quality than dissimilar friends. We believe this study has noteworthy implications for the fields of clinical and social psychology.
Authors: Liz Brasmer, David Buss,
Angela Hancock, Jessica McLaughlin, Jason Patton, Tony Ryan, Stephanie
Schade, Stacy Schara, and Jessica Wolfram
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Mary Waterstreet
Title: Accuracy of web site retention.
Researchers studied the efficacy of St. Ambrose University’s student maintained Psychological Tests and Assessment web site, Http://www.sau.edu/psychology, as a learning tool for reliability, validity and correlation. Introductory Psychology students (N=54) randomly assigned themselves to a preset lab computer where they completed the same pretest and then a worksheet for either the Tests and Assessment or a sports psychology website. All participants completed the same posttest. The students who studied the Tests and Assessment web site did not perform significantly better than those who used the sports psychology web site. However, there was significant improvement between pretest and posttest performance.
Authors: Amanda Collins, Katherine
Darlington, Ryan Foy, Kathleen Griffin, Kerry Hensley, Mollie Hill, Jill
Holzman, Dianna Irwin, Christina Lorenzen, Jennifer Rice, Tim Scott, and
Kelly Simon
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Robin A. Anderson
Title: Perceptions of self vs. peer health
behaviors among college students.
Students' health behaviors and their perceptions of other students' health behaviors were assessed with a survey. Sleep, exercise, balanced meals, smoking, drug use, unprotected sex, and drinking were examined. There were significant findings in each of the seven health behaviors. Participants (N=140) tended to view their behaviors as more favorable than other students' behaviors. These findings could have implications for preventing unhealthy behaviors in college students.
Authors: Amanda Collins, Angela Hancock, Juliet
Hites, Karyn Muntz, Sandra Salim, Jason Patton, and Rachel Underhill
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Robin A. Anderson
Title: The effect of misinformation and time
delay on memory in a simulated classroom setting.
This experiment examined the effect of misinformation interjected in a simulated classroom setting. In small groups, introductory psychology students (N=50) viewed a video. A confederate interjected neutral comments or incorrect comments; the incorrect information was either corrected or not corrected by a researcher. Participants completed a multiple-choice test 10 minutes after the interjection and returned approximately 7 days later to complete a second test. While the effect of misinformation on recall was not significant, the difference between test scores over the time delay was significant. The results of this study suggest test performance decreases over time.
University of Wisconsin -- Platteville
Author: Christopher Takala
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Corrine Enright
Title: The effects of background music on
a reading comprehension task.
Research found introverts’ performance on cognitive tasks is more negatively affected by music than extroverts. This study addresses whether atonal music can be as distracting as tonal music. In the presence of either atonal, tonal, and no music, 20 introverts and 19 extroverts performed a reading comprehension task. Contrary to previous research, no effect of background music was found nor were introverts found to responder differently to background music than were extroverts. Further, no significant difference was found between the tonal and atonal music conditions. Results will be discussed in terms of the effect size and power of the design.
Authors: Kristen K. Meany, Ashley
Gates, and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: A new way to discern various eating
disorders.
Our society is currently beset by many social/psychological ills. For instance, eating disorders have become a major problem, with anorexia and bulimia among the most common psychiatric problems affecting young women. In order to assess these types of problems better, the present study sought to introduce an instrument that should be helpful in achieving this end. To achieve this goal the “Eating Disorder Analysis” (EDA) was compared to the “Eating Disorder Inventory II” (EDI2) in order to ascertain if both instruments are able to discern these types of problems. In all, fourteen (14) college females were asked to respond to both instruments, which were presented I a counterbalanced fashion. A significant level of concurrent validity was achieved by the EDA when it was found that its results were highly correlated with the results reported for the EDI2 (r = .80, p < .0001). Furthermore, the test-retest correlation for the EDA (gathered over a five [5] week period) was also found to be exceptionally high (r = .98, p < .0001), suggesting that this is a very reliable instrument indeed.
Authors: Turner, D., and Parish, T. S.
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: An examination of students’ self-ratings and how they correlate with ratings of school and other school-related individuals.
In the present study thirty undergraduate students (i.e., 15 males & 15 females), all of whom were enrolled at a small liberal arts university, voluntarily completed the “Student Survey.” The findings revealed that students’ self-ratings were significantly related to their ratings of their teachers (r = .37, p < .05), their school (r = .47, p < .01), and their school staff (r = .47, p <.05), but not with their ratings of their classmates (r = .30, p > .05). Notably, however, these significant relationships were found to vary by gender, with females (r = .59, p < .05; r = .67, p < . 01; r = .52, p < .05; r = .45, p = .09, respectively) demonstrating significantly higher correlations than their male counterparts (r = .06, p > .05; r = .29, p > .05; R = .01, p > .05; r = -.02, p > .05, respectively). Possible explanations will be offered to account for these findings, plus the implications of these findings will also be discussed in terms of their possible impact on various school environments.
Authors: Peyton, L., & Rodriguez, L.
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: An examination of the relationship between college students’ athletic activity levels and their levels of delinquent behavior.
The focus of the present study was to determine how level of athletic activity interacts with level of delinquent behaviors. To ascertain this correlation, one hundred college students (from a small liberal arts university) completed a survey about their level of athletic participation, and then another survey to assess their level of delinquent behavior that had been engaged in by them. Briefly stated, a highly significant relationship was found between these two variables (p < .001) suggesting that the involvement in athletic behaviors, at least for this sample of respondents, may have provided a good predictor, in turn, of their delinquent tendencies. Why these findings might be so, the implications of these findings, and what might be done to offset this trend, will all be discussed at the upcoming ILLOWA meeting.
Authors: Brenda Beckman, Christina Wescott, and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: An examination of the relationship between individuals’ workplace interactions and their level of job satisfaction.
The “Job Satisfaction Survey” will be introduced as part of the present presentation. This survey is intended to ascertain the level of employees’ job satisfaction. In addition, the “Love/Hate Checklist” (Parish, 1988) was also employed in the present study so that type of workplace interactions (ranging from loving to hateful) could be correlated with the employees’ job satisfaction ratings. The results from the present study strongly suggested that the proposed relationship between workplace-related actions by employees and their level of job satisfaction was very strong, indeed (r=.85,p<.01), suggesting that the more lovingly we treat one another in the workplace the more likely it will be that greater job satisfaction will prevail too.
Authors: Loula Tesfai and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: An examination of the relationship between positiveness of “family experience” and students’ self-concepts.
In the present study thirty students, enrolled at a small, private university, responded to two questionnaires. The Parent/Child/Family Questionnaire basically sought to determine the quality of their “family experience,” while the Personal Attribute Inventory sought to assess their self-concepts. These forms were presented in a counterbalanced fashion. Briefly stated, the relationship between these two variables was not found to be statistically significant when both genders were considered together, but when the correlations were examined for males only, and for females only, some noteworthy results were found. More specifically, while females’ scores on these two surveys remained nonsignificantly correlated (r= -.039, p> .05), the males’ responses to these two surveys were found to be significantly correlated (r+ .588, p< .05). Possible explanations for these findings, and how these findings fit with those of other studies, will be discussed as part of this proposed presentation.
Authors: Beckman, B., Moore, J., & Parish, T. S.
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: An examination of the relationships between individuals’ levels of concern and their capacity to deal with them.
In the present study, nineteen college students (11 females & 8 males), voluntarily completed the “How Well Do You Juggle Scale.” This scale is actually divided into two subtests, i.e., subtest #1 assesses how much of a problem these students have with various concerns (e.g., money, significant other, work) in their lives, while subtest #2 assesses how well they handle these concerns in their lives. Interestingly, a highly significant correlation was found between level of concerns encountered and how well they handled them (r = .74, p < .0001), and this same relationship also held for both males only (r = .92, p < .0001), and for females only (r = .71, p < .025) too. These findings seem to suggest that everyone seems to try to grope and cope with their various concerns, and that their coping skills actually seem to improve or increase as their concerns become more problematic. So it would seem that bad things happening to people really may make them stronger. These results, and their implications, will be discussed at the ILLOWA meeting.
Authors: Matthew Sperfslage and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: An examination of the relationships between types of familial interaction and alcohol/drug Use and/or abuse: A pilot study.
In the present study undergraduate students from a small, liberal arts university completed two surveys, in a counterbalanced fashion. One survey asked questions regarding the respondents various interactions with their parents (e.g. Ate together as a family?), which were then rated on a 1-7 scale, ranging from “Never” to “Always.” Notably, the findings from this study were drastically different depending on the gender of the respondents. More specifically, the female students’ family involvement ratings were found to be highly significantly related with their overall level of drug and alcohol consumption (r = .90 < .02). The male students, in contrast, demonstrated no such trend between the two variables (r = .02, p > .05). What these findings could mean, and their possible implications for future research, will be considered as part of this presentation to be made at the upcoming ILLOWA conference.
Authors: Matthew Sperfslage and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: An investigation of the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of being friendly and acting accordingly.
The present study sought to examine the relationship between college students’ “Friendship Scale” scores and their scores on the “Revised Love/Hate Checklist.” The focus of this study was to determine if people who perceived themselves as friends (or friendly) also perceived that they acted more lovingly toward others also. Basically, the “Friendship Scale” (which will make its debut at this presentation) simply sought to measure the respondents’ ratings regarding how friendly they thought they were, while the Revised Love/Hate Checklist score, in contrast, sought to ascertain how lovingly or hatefully they perceived their actions to be toward others Of course, these two forms were presented in a counterbalanced fashion. Interestingly, the results of the present study demonstrated two things. First, the test-retest reliability of the “Friendship Scale” was significant (r = .66, p < .01). Second, that these two scales’ scores were not significantly correlated with one another (r = .179, p > .5), suggesting that people can perceive themselves to be friends or friendly, even if they don’t seem to act that way.
Authors: Ashley Gates, Aaron Maar, and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Assessing phobias: How do they compare across gender groups?
Phobias are usually thought to be illogical fears, the origins of which are either beyond description and/or understanding. However, WHO suffers from such phobias (e.g., males vs. females), and WHAT phobias bother them the most, will be the focus of the present study. Briefly stated, 50 college students (i.e., 25 males & 25 females), from a small liberal arts university, voluntarily completed the “Fears and Phobias Scale.” Subsequently, their scores were compared for each phobia, as well as their overall phobia scores too. The results of this study indicated that there were no significant differences between the males and females in terms of their overall phobia scores (t= -1.87, p> .05), but females, more so than males, were found to be significantly more likely to manifest phobias regarding spiders (t= -3.33, p< .0002), insects (t= -4.54, p< .0001), mice (t= -3.60, p< .001), parasites (t+ -4.13, p< .0001), punishment (t= -2.85, p< .007), thunder (t= 4.35, p< .0001), loud noises (t= -3.57, p<.001), pain (t= -3.19, p< .003), crowds (t= -2.16, p< .05), failure (t= -2.55, p< .05), and being looked at (t= -3.33, p< .002), while males didn’t demonstrate any phobias, more so than their female counterparts, across any/all other possible comparisons. Attempts to explain these findings, and their possible implications, will be discussed as part of this presentation at ILLOWA.
Authors: Jermaine Washington, Ryan Barness, and
Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Assessing the various attributes of “at-risk” youth.
In the present study, five different psychological inventories were employed in order to discern the possible impact of several support system failures on one child, i.e. “Cliff Evans” as he was portrayed in the film “Cipher in the Snow.” The college students who completed these surveys did so after they had seen Cliff prior to the problems that beset him, and then after these problems had impacted him also. Based upon the results of the five surveys, each one indicated that Cliff had been significantly affected by these experiences: parent loss, peer rejection, and financial hardship. Those in attendance as this presentation will be familiarized with the instruments that were used in this study, and encouraged to use tem if they might also achieve similar results with real children who are truly “at-risk” in real-life situations.
Authors: Terrishane Matthews and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Counseling orientation: Are there gender differences in it, and/or do gender groups discern it differentially?
In the present study college students who were enrolled in a human services class at a small liberal arts university were surveyed regarding their counseling orientations, both how they perceived it, and as it was measured. The results of this study revealed that 78% of the female respondents were found to be humanistically oriented, while only 20% of the male respondents were so inclined. Furthermore, 60% of the male respondents were found to be behavioristically oriented, while only 33% of the female respondents were so inclined. Of course, other counseling orientations were also offered (i.e., psychodynamic, cognitivistic, and brief solution focused), but the respondents were apparently less impressed with these other counseling approaches. Finally, it should be noted that 100% of the male respondents accurately indicated, in advance, what their particular counseling orientation was, while only 63% of the female respondents accurately anticipated what their counseling orientation was based on the subsequent survey results. The implications of these findings, and their significance, will be discussed at the upcoming ILLOWA meeting.
Authors: Tara Russell and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Discerning possible predictors of alcohol and drug Use from individuals’ self-concepts, school-related behaviors, and/or life circumstances.
Can individuals’ school related behaviors, level of self-concepts, and/or life circumstances serve as predictors of their levels of alcohol and drug consumption? To answer this question, thirty college students (all of whom were enrolled in the same small liberal arts university) voluntarily completed the “Potential Dropout Checklist,” the “Personal Attribute Inventory,” and the “Alcohol/Drug Test.” While these students’ self-concepts failed to significantly predict their levels of alcohol and drug consumption, their scores on the “Potential Dropout Checklist” did significantly predict (1) how often they drank beer (r = -.54 p < .005), as well as (2) how often they consumed various other alcoholic beverages (r = -.68, p < .0001). These results, and others, as well as their implications, well be discussed as part of this presentation at the upcoming ILLOWA meeting.
Authors: Loula Tesfai, Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Does one’s physical exercise level correlate significantly with his/her self-concept level?
In the present study thirty students, enrolled at a small, private university, were asked to respond to two questionnaires that were presented to them in a counterbalanced fashion. The Exercise and Strenuous Activity Scale sought to measure respondents’ weekly physical activity levels, while the Personal Attribute Inventory was used to assess respondents’ self-concepts. These scales were then correlated in order to determine if increased physical activity correlated with these students’ self-concepts, either positively or negatively, and whether or not these findings varied as a function of the respondents’ gender. Interestingly, all computed correlations failed to demonstrate any significant relationships between these two variables, both as a single group of subjects, and then when divided by gender. Possible explanations for these findings, and their implications, will be discussed at the forthcoming ILLOWA meeting.
Authors: Jeff Ligon and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Examining the interview process: Do both parties see it similarly?
In the present study 24 college students (i.e. 18 males and 8 females), all enrolled at the same Midwestern liberal arts university, voluntarily took turns playing the role or the interviewer (e.g. potential employer) and the interviewee (e.g. potential employee). The goal of this study was to determine in the “Checklist for Successful Interviews” manifested similar results for the individuals across roles played, and across gender too. The overall correlation between would-be interviewers and would-be interviewees was statistically significant (r = .92, p < .0001), plus the correlations found for males interviewing males (r = .92, p < .0001), males interviewing females (r = .99, p < .0001), and females interviewing females (r = .60, p < .01), were all found to be statistically significant too. The social significance and potential value of these findings, particularly as they apply to situations involving possible hiring decisions, will be discussed as part of this presentation at ILLOWA.
Authors: Jeff Ligon and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Examining the possible relationship between students self-concepts and their eating disorder scores.
In the present study twenty-nine college students (i.e. 16 males and 13
females), from a small, Midwestern liberal arts university, voluntarily
completed two surveys (i.e. the Eating Disorder Analysis and the Personal
Attribute Inventory) in order to determine how eating disorders and
self-concepts correlate with one another. From these data it was discerned
that these students’ eating disorder scores and their self-concept scores
failed to correlate significantly with one another across gender groups (r
= .12, p >.05), for males only (r = .28, p > .05), and for females only (r
= .07, p > .05) too. Explanations for these findings, and their
implications, will be tentatively offered at the forthcoming ILLOWA
meeting.
Authors: Maar, A., Gates, A., and Parish, T. S.
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Examining the relationship between students’ GPA’s and their
phobias.
The present study sought to ascertain the relationship between one’s grade point average and one’s phobic reactions toward various stimuli. More specifically, forty-two college students, all enrolled at a small liberal arts university, completed the Fears and Phobias Scale, and these scores were correlated with their GPA’s. Interestingly, those with higher GPA’s were found to demonstrate greater fears toward insects (r = .42, p < .01), mice (r = .34, p < .05), and pain (r = .40, p < .01), while those with lower GPA’s demonstrated greater fears toward dogs (r -.31, p < .05). Possible explanations for these findings, and their possible implications, will be discussed as part of this proposed presentation at the upcoming ILLOWA meeting.
Authors: Derek Turner and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: In search of effective teacher effectiveness rating scales.
Abstract
Twenty-seven college students, all enrolled in a small liberal arts university, voluntarily completed two teacher rating scales (i.e., the “Teacher Effectiveness Questionnaire” [Parish & Stallings, 1992] and the newly created “Teacher Effectiveness Checklist”), which are both considered to be quick and easy to administer and score. Notably, the scores on these two scales were found to be significantly related to one another (r= .93, p< .0001), suggesting that both teacher rating scales also seem to assess the same thing, i.e., whether or not teachers are teaching effectively. The implications of these findings will be discussed as part of this presentation at the upcoming ILLOWA meeting.
Authors: K. Allen Jones, Jeff Vogel, and Thomas S.
Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Predictors of alcohol and drug use problems: What do they tell Us?
In the present study college students were surveyed at a small liberal arts university in order to ascertain predictors of their overall alcohol/drug problems. Briefly stated, the Pearson product-moment correlations indicated that if you know how one is doing with certain specific or preferred drugs/alcoholic drinks you might get a good idea how they are doing with drugs/ alcohol generally (e.g., amount of consumption of other alcoholic beverages [besides wine and beer] correlated .77 [p<.0001] with students overall alcohol/drug use score). Other telltale correlates, however, were found to vary by gender (details later). Findings like these seem to indicate that certain alcohol and drug-related behaviors might be effectively used as possible warning signals that bigger problems concerning their alcohol and drug use may not be far behind or may be ongoing already, and that immediate intervention might there fore be wise in order to avoid and/or curtail the occurrence of the devastation that major alcohol and drug use problems could have in the lives of the students so identified.
Authors: Tara Russell and Thomas S. Parish
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: Students’ perceptions of their interactions with others: Do they vary by gender?
In the present study college students were asked to select the 25 words (out of the 90 presented) that best described how they generally interacted with others. After they had provided this information that was requested on the Love/Hate Checklist (Parish, 1988) that they completed, they then were also asked to indicate if they were either male or female. The results of this study indicated that females, more so than males, were significantly more likely to perceive their interactions with others as more loving or less hateful. More specifically, out of the 25 adverbs checked by females on the Love/Hate Checklist, they chose 24.50 loving words to describe their actions on average toward others, while their male counterparts chose only 21.83 loving words to describe how they interact toward others instead. Besides this difference in mean scores, the actual adverbs chosen were found to vary between the two sex groups. Why these groups may have varied, and what these findings might mean, will be presented at the forthcoming ILLOWA conference to be held in Rock Island, Illinois.
Authors: Tesfai, L., Washington, J., & Parish, T. S.
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas S. Parish
Title: The “Atkins for life” diet: Should
people do it for the health of it?
A single-subject case study was employed with an adult male in order to
determine how well the “Atkins for Life” diet worked at reducing the
respondent’s blood sugar level (with a pre-diet/post-diet onset
comparison) and subsequent weight loss (with a post-diet onset comparison
only). The results of this study indicated that blood sugar levels were
significantly lower during the month after the diet was begun, in
comparison with those levels the month before the onset of this diet.
Furthermore, correlations were performed indicating that weight loss
paralleled the respondent’s blood sugar level during the diet period of
about thirty days (r = .84, p < .0001), but did not correlate similarly
with the blood sugar levels prior to the introduction of the diet (r =
.11, p > .05). The results from the present study suggest that the “Atkins
for Life” diet may be highly beneficial physiologically in at least two
ways (i.e., in controlling blood sugar levels & weight loss), but the
psychological benefits from such a diet should likely be the next focus of
future research endeavors in this area.
Author: Kristin L. Sarama
Faculty Sponsor: R. C. Intrieri
Title: An examination of factors that
influence roles associated with occupations.
Gender stereotypes reflect beliefs associating a set of attributes with one sex or the other. Gender roles, on the other hand, refer to behaviors typically associated with men or women (Eagly, 1987). The presence of stereotypes regarding the attributes of men and women contributes to the presence of gender roles (i.e., given that these are men’s and women’s abilities, these are the activities they should perform). In general, occupations requiring assertiveness and aggressiveness (i.e., business, public safety) have traditionally been male-dominated, while occupations requiring interpersonal skills (i.e., elementary teacher, social worker) have traditionally been female-dominated. Reflecting societal stereotypes, nursing has traditionally been seen as an occupation appropriate for women (given its reliance on stereotypically feminine care-giving behaviors), while the military as an occupation has historically been deemed more appropriate for men (given its reliance on stereotypically masculine behaviors). The current research explores whether evaluation of men and women performing gender-stereotyped occupations is influenced by the perceived gender appropriateness of their behavior.
Authors: Stephanie Ferry and Douglas
Berry
Faculty Sponsor: Kristine M. Kelly
Title: Belongingness needs and accuracy of
interpersonal perception.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between belongingness needs and accuracy in perceiving cues in another person’s behavior. Participants completed the Need to Belong Scale, a measure of one’s desire for social acceptance and belonging. They then completed the Interpersonal Perception Task, which involves viewing video clips depicting various types of social relationships (intimacy, kinship, status, competition, and deception) and answering questions about perceptions of these relationships. Correlational analyses indicated that the need to belong was associated with accuracy in identifying some of the dimensions of interpersonal perception.
Author: Catherine Passananti
Faculty Sponsor: Kristine M. Kelly
Title: Crying in social interactions: Responses to the emotional pain of others.
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of crying on interpersonal interactions. College students were surveyed about a time when they made someone cry. They were then asked to rate a list of emotions they felt before the other person started crying (anger, hurt, happiness, sadness, acceptance, and anxiety) and then they rated how they felt after the other person started crying using the same emotion list. A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted comparing the emotion ratings before vs. after crying. Results showed that subjects’ level of anger and happiness decreased and their sadness increased.
Authors: Valerie
Shasteen and Molly Flauaus
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Kimberley McClure
Title: Differences in sentencing decisions
based on gender.
One hundred twelve court cases were obtained from the McDonough County Courthouse to look at the sentence given. Consideration was given to the victim type and the crime committed. The dependent measure of the study is the sentence the offender, male or female, receives. Our hypothesis was supported by the tests conducted. Other factors could have made an impact on the study. It is also possible, that because of the limited number of cases reviewed, our findings could be skewed.
Author: Kami L. Carpenter
Faculty sponsor: Eugene W. Mathes
Title: Do men and women relate differently
to horses?
The purpose of this research was to investigate the ways in which men and women relate differently to horses. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) Men are more likely than women to see horses as instruments to be used for practical purposes, like herding cattle. (2) Women are more likely than men to see horses as friends. (3) Women are more likely than men to see horses as objects of beauty. To test these hypotheses 49 men and 52 women filled out three scales: Horses as Using Animals Scale, Horses as Friends Scale, and Horses as Objects of Beauty Scale. The men were expected to score higher than the women on the first scale and the women were expected to score higher than the men on the last two scales. Only the third hypothesis was supported. Women scored significantly higher on the Horses as Objects of Beauty Scale than the men.
Authors: Kelly R. Waner, Jamie L. Bird, and Ryan
E. Hanninen
Faculty Sponsor: Kristine M. Kelly
Title: Go with the flow: Romantic flow,
thought suppression, and depleting the self.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of romantic flow and thought suppression on depletion of the self’s resources. Participants wrote a description of their romantic partner or best friend. While watching a video depicting romance or friendship, they were told to either suppress their thoughts about their friend/partner or not suppress these thoughts. Finally, participants completed a measure of flow and attempted a difficult puzzle to measure ego-depletion. Results revealed that participants experienced more flow when thinking about romance than friendship. Overall participants who suppressed their thoughts outperformed those who did not suppress.
Authors: Nicholas Hoffman
Faculty Sponsor: Valerie Smead
Title: How do computers affect mood?
Computing Technology has been for twenty to thirty years, but has only recently been under the scrutiny of the empirical eye. Little
research, in fact, has been done on how these, now pervasive, pieces of equipment have affected our lives, and even that research has been contradictory. The purpose, then, of this research is to bring together the seemingly conflicting