Does Exposure to Social Media Discourse Affect Openness to Future Political Discourse? by Katlyn Troisi & RaeAnn Brixius
Psychology
The present study sought to expand on previous research which had indicated that engaging in political discourse through social media increases the level of comfortability people have when discussing those topics in person. This study used screenshotted pictures of fake Facebook posts between either authority figures (politicians) or civilians. The posts were also either between two people or a group discussion amongst five people. Results showed that there was no significant effect reported by including either an authority figure or a civilian or the group size involved in the conversation. However, the analysis did report near significance in the condition which examined question three in relation to group size. The neutral condition also reported no significance.
Troisi, Katlyn
Brixius, RaeAnn
Senior Showcase Poster presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Majors: Psychology, Religion
South Williamsport, PA
PSC 423 - Senior Research Seminar
Evolutionary Origins of Mental Disorders: Overlooked Advantageous Survival Mechanisms by Samuel Cares
Psychology
The stigma that accompanies mental disorders in the modern age contributes to the widely held belief that they are completely negative. However, based on Darwin's (1860) theory of evolution, it seems as though such a large flaw would have been made extinct by now. However, careful and meticulous research shows that the origins of many disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), are in the far northern hemisphere. Here, it would have been advantageous to have the characteristics of a person with the modern concept of OCD. Conscientiousness, parsimonious, and future-oriented thought would have aided, not hindered, the survival of our ancestors. Other disorders, including mania and depression, share similar characteristics that could be considered evolutionarily advantageous. This is a stance that is rarely taken by individuals, including mental health professionals. However, such an approach offers a silver lining for society as a whole to consider, and this reconsideration of mental disorders thus must conclude that these disorders are more than just maladaptive behaviors.
Cares, Samuel
Senior Showcase Oral Presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Majors: Psychology, Religion
Columbus, WI
PSC 423 - Senior Research Seminar
Formerly Buddhist Practices Offer Great Potential to the World of Western Psychology by Katlyn Troisi
Religion
Psychology
Over time science has grown in importance in the way in which people live today. This has caused conflict in the eyes of those who are religiously affiliated and have been instructed to ignore scientific findings. The true issue is the polarization of these two aspects of life. Rather religion and science should grow together. Buddhism has acknowledged the potential of incorporating science into their teachings and when new evidence comes to light they openly change how they see the world. Since Buddhism is open-minded to the benefits of science, there has been an opportunity to study many of the Buddhist practices which are now being used in the western field of psychology. There is an entire adapted field of Buddhist-derived Interventions which have impacted the world of psychotherapy greatly (Shonin, E., Van Gordon, W., & Griffiths, M. D., 2014). Specifically, this paper discusses the many benefits of meditation and mindfulness when added as a treatment method for therapy. This overlap presents immense opportunity for the relationship of religion and the social sciences to feed off of one another to form a greater understanding of each discipline.
Troisi, Katlyn
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Majors: Psychology, Religion
South Williamsport, PA
REL 450 - Senior Seminar
Framing in the Media: How Labeling Affects Perception by Alexa Beck and Mollie Carlson
Psychology
The media is often framed to purposefully influence their consumers’ perception and opinion, and in some cases empathy can be swayed by the frame and label presented. In the present study, the effects of framing and labeling on empathy were examined by testing participants levels of empathy after reading one of four short vignettes– each framed differently. Participants were given one of two frames: positive and negative; and had either identified or unidentified subject names. They were asked to rate their level of empathy towards the subject based upon the vignette they received. These results showed that subjects have higher empathy when the name of the celebrity was omitted from the vignette. Positive frames produced significantly higher empathy in comparison to the negatively framed vignettes. These findings speak to the importance of framing and labeling in regards to how individuals perceive the world, and how much control the media has on opinion and emotions.
Alexa Beck, Mollie Carlson
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 17, 2018
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pdf
Majors: Psychology, English (Mollie Carlson)
Marjors: Psychology, English (Alexa Beck)
South Elgin, Illinois (Mollie Carlson)
Elgin, Illinois (Alexa Beck)
Psychology Senior Seminar
Influences of Math Anxiety on Undergraduate Students by Jordan Stiede and Brendan McCoy
Psychology
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of sex, major, and school on undergraduate students’ levels of math anxiety and math performance. First, the participants completed a math experience questionnaire designed to compute their level of math anxiety. In the questionnaire, participants answered demographic information including their sex and primary major. After completing the questionnaire, participants were given three separate one minute math tests that consisted of basic equations. The first test completed was exclusively addition questions, the second was exclusively subtraction, and the final test was exclusively multiplication. After collecting data from undergraduate students who attend either Ripon College or Johns Hopkins University, two separate 2 x 2 x 5 factorial analyses of variance (ANOVAS) were completed, along with Pearson Correlations. The results showed that the math anxiety level of math majors is significantly lower than natural science majors, social science majors, and humanities majors. However, after analyzing the data concerning the math performance, it was found that there was no significant difference in the scores from each major cluster. Lastly, it was found that a significant negative correlation exists between the level of math anxiety of an individual and his or her math performance score.
Jordan Stiede
Brendan McCoy
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 18, 2017
The authors reserve all rights.
pdf
Major (Jordan Stiede): Psychobiology
Minor (Jordan Stiede): Spanish
Majors (Brendan McCoy): Self-Design (Sport Psychology), Economics
Pulaski, Wisconsin (Jordan Stiede)
Peosta, Iowa (Brendan McCoy)
Interpersonal Aggression Effects on Arousal by Anders Goodwin & Shane Sommers
Psychology
Physiological arousal reduction has been posited as a general theory of behavior that could unify the behavioral sciences. This study explores physiological arousal reduction in the context of interpersonal aggression in an attempt to further the evidentiary base underlying the general behavioral theory. Participants freely responded to a provocative or non-provocative act by a confederate. Basal skin conductance was measured as a manifestation of physiological arousal. Results indicate that arousal and aggression are poorly correlatively linked, and a need for more wide-ranging research under the auspices of the general theory is expressed.
Goodwin, Anders
Sommers, Shane
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2015
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pdf
Majors (Anders Goodwin): Philosophy, Psychology, Theatre
Major (Shane Sommers): Psychology
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Anders Goodwin)
Pardeeville, Wisconsin (Shane Sommers)
PSY 423 Research Seminar
Selective Attention and Feedback Performance: Does Feedback Actually Help? by Rebecca E. Leuenberger
Psychology
This study mainly focused on the load theory of selective attention proposed by Lavie, Hirst, and de Frockert (2004), which identified that high perceptual loads and high cognitive loads yield higher detections of irrelevant stimuli in selective attention tasks. A directional flanker task was used to study changing cognitive loads while maintaining two fixed levels of perceptual load. Two experiments were completed in this study; Experiment 1 revealed significance in the effects of the flanker task, specifically the congruent and neutral trials exhibiting significantly faster reaction times than the incongruent trials. Experiment 2 revealed significance in the effects of the flanker task and changing cognitive loads, demonstrated by feedback. Based on these findings, this study concluded that both perceptual load and cognitive load influence reaction times.
Leuenberger, Rebecca E.
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2019
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Major: Psychobiology
Racine, Wisconsin
PSC 523
Social Competence in Online Communication between Introverts and Extroverts by Emelia Erickson and Viridiana Vega
Psychology
According to Lieberman and Rosenthal (2001), extroverts have working memory processes that allow them to be more socially competent in situations that cause high cortical arousal. In addition, introverts have less conversation multitasking skills than extroverts and due to this introverts have been considered socially incompetent. By using conversation goals that emphasize either conversation maintenance or reflected appraisal in an online communication setting, this study determined that there was no difference social competence between introverts and extroverts in an online communication setting.
Erickson, Emelia
Vega, Viridiana
Senior Showcase Poster presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2015
The authors reserve all rights.
pdf
Majors (Emelia Erickson): Psychology, Philosophy
Major (Viridiana Vega): Psychology
Minors (Viridiana Vega): Spanish, French
Forest Lake, Minnesota (Emelia Erickson)
Avalon, California (Viridiana Vega)
PSC 423 - Senior Seminar
The Effect of Assigned Gender Roles on Evaluations of the Self and Others by Sierra Elsbury
Psychology
One theory that has sought to understand gender identity development is Bem’s gender schema theory (Bem, 1981). The present study sought to build off of Bem’s theory and evaluate the effect of manipulating gender perceptions on evaluations of the self and others. Participants completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: control (no feedback), truthful (received their truthful male and female scores), or deceptive (received the opposite scores for their male and female characteristics). Analysis of the amount to which participants stereotyped others and adjusted their answers on the second BSRI was conducted. It was hypothesized that male participants in the deceptive condition would both stereotype others and adjust their answers significantly more than the other conditions. This hypothesis was not supported by the data collected. Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research directions are discussed.
Sierra Elsbury
Senior Showcase Poster presentation
Ripon College
April 17, 2018
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Major: Psychology
Minor: Education
Adell, Wisconsin
Psychology Senior Seminar
The Effects of Social Media Framing on Self-Esteem by Diana Meredith and Savannah White
Psychology
There have been several studies viewing the effects of social media on self-esteem (Guinta, 2018; O’Keefe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011; Vogel, Rose, Roberts, & Eckles, 2014) .
However, there has been no to very limited research on the effects of the social media frame on self-esteem. The present study hypothesized participants in the frame condition would have lower self-esteem scores than those in the no frame condition. In addition, the present study is examining the effects of sex on self-esteem. Previous research to has led to the second hypothesis that females would have a lower self-esteem score in comparison to males (Bleidorn et al., 2016; Kearney-Cooke, 1999) . Participants were required to take a pre-self-esteem assessment, watch a Google Slides presentation, and take a post-self-esteem assessment. The results partially supported the original hypotheses. Result found no significance between frame and no frame groups. On the other hand, in support of the original hypothesis, females had a significantly lower self-esteem scores than males.
Meredith, Diana
White, Savannah
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2019
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Major(Diana Meredith): Psychology
Major(Savannah White): Psychology and Theatre
Fort Collins, Colorado (Diana Meredith)
Carol Stream, Illinois (Savannah White)
PSC 524 - Research Seminar
The Influence of Task Complexity on Performance and Arousal by Tessa Dillenbeck and Josh Plummer
Psychology
The effects of task difficulty and task type on physiological arousal levels and task performance were examined by testing participants’ physiological arousal levels on a physiograph machine and scoring how well they performed on given tasks. Participants were given simple, medium, and complex tasks in either a quantitative or verbal condition, for which questions were chosen from the GRE. Three 3x2 mixed design analyses of variance were conducted to test significance between task difficulty and physiological arousal levels, task difficulty and type of task on performance scores, and type of task and physiological arousal levels. Significance was found in the main effects of task difficulty on physiological arousal levels, task difficulty on performance scores, type of task on performance scores, and the interaction of type of task and task difficulty on performance scores. There was no significant correlation found between physiological arousal levels and performance scores.
Tessa Dillenbeck and Josh Plummer
Senior Showcase Oral Presentation
Ripon College
April 18, 2017
The authors reserve all rights.
Major: Psychology
Minor: Business Management (Tessa Dillenbeck)