RESEARCH BY PSYCHOLOGY HONOR STUDENTS The members of the 2016 Honors Program in Psychology presented their research projects at professional conferences this year. Each one made important contributions to their field. Brian Lammert attended the conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in San Antonio, Texas. The other students attended the American Psychological Association conference in Washington, DC. • Brian Lammert (’17) presented his research on the relationships between religious fundamentalism, defensive religious beliefs, and anxiety about death. • Laura Ashlock (’17) studied the contemporary trend of adult coloring books and found that coloring does actually reduce anxiety levels, but that structured coloring is no more powerful than free-form coloring. • Mariama Furman (’17) showed that ineffective coping strategies led college students to experience poor sleep and to perceive their stress as more extreme.
• Although previous theories predicted that extraverts and introverts would be affected by distractions while taking a test, Nicole Virzi (’16) found that visual distractions are no more powerful for one group than the other. • Madeline Wick’s (’17) research showed that college women who edited pictures of themselves before posting them on social media platforms had greater levels of body dissatisfaction.
• Contrary to her expectations, Kendall Jory (’17) found that people with high-level cognitive styles were actually more likely to blame their spouses for difficulties in their marriage compared to people with less abstract reasoning abilities, and this led to a lower likelihood of satisfaction with the relationship. • Jenny Song (’17) researched perceptions of the racial climate on campus and found that students of color perceived more race-related concerns than white students did. The concerns were lowest among those white students who believe that race does not affect a person’s opportunities or experiences.
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