Title | University of Utah Undergraduate Research Abstracts, Volume 10, Spring 2010 |
OCR Text | Show A Message from President Young…..2 A Message from John Francis.....3 A Message from Steve Roens.....4 Undergraduate Abstracts.....5 A Message from Jill Baeder.....89 Research Posters on the Hill.....93 Charles H. Monson Prize Winner.....119 Undergraduate Research Conferences.....121 Undergraduate Research Scholars.....122 Health Sciences LEAP Program.....123 Psychology Senior Thesis Program.....143 Honors College.....149 Alphabetical Index.....182 |
Subject | University of Utah -- Students -- Periodicals |
Publisher | J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah |
Date | 2010 |
Type | Text |
Format | application/pdf |
Language | eng |
Rights Management | Digital image © copyright 2010, University of Utah. All rights reserved. |
Holding Institution | Office of Undergraduate Studies Sill Center 195 S. Central Campus Dr. Salt Lake City, UT 84112 Office of Undergraduate Studies Sill Center 195 S. Central Campus Dr. Salt Lake City, UT 84112 |
Source Material | Bound journal |
Source Physical Dimensions | 14 cm x 21 cm |
ARK | ark:/87278/s6dj5fqf |
Temporal Coverage | Spring 2010 |
Setname | uu_urop |
ID | 417441 |
Reference URL | https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6dj5fqf |
Title | 148_Psychology Senior Thesis Program |
OCR Text | Show 143 THE SENIOR THESIS PROGRAM IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY Message from the Director The five abstracts that follow describe research projects completed by the 2009-2010 Department of Psychology senior thesis students. The Senior Thesis Program in the Department of Psychology is a selective three-semester program designed to give undergraduate psychology majors the oppor-tunity to develop an independent research project in collaboration with a Psychology faculty member. The Psychology Department greatly values a commitment to research and the excitement and knowledge it produces. Students become deeply involved in this process. This year's group tackled difficult and important questions and their thesis reflect the high quality of these efforts. The students begin the program in the spring semester by learning about advanced research methods and exploring potential research laboratories, developing a research idea, and complet-ing the first semester with research proposal. The second year is dedicated to the executing the research project including ethical issues in research, collection and analysis of data, and scientific writing. This final year culminates in the completion of the thesis and the presentation of the work at a departmental poster session. We are pleased to continue our participation in the community of energetic and creative undergraduate researchers by presenting the Psychology Senior Thesis students' abstracts in the University of Utah Undergraduate Research Abstracts Journal. Frederick Rhodewalt 144 SENIOR THESIS PROGRAM SPRING 2010 NARCISSISTIC RESPONSE TO DIFFERENTIAL POSITIVE FEEDBACK It has been shown that situations that provide a means for narcissists to exhibit superiority and garner admiration from others are particularly constructive to their affect and self-esteem. Further, research is progressively yielding support for the assertion that narcissists are particularly motivated to seek out situations where they can receive such validation. The current research investigates the influence of different types of positive feedback on narcissistic self-regulation in an attempt to determine the ascendancy to two types of positive feedback. We hypothesized that narcissists would respond more positively to the comparative feedback than others and would experience more pronounced increases in post-test state affect and self-esteem ratings. To test this we compared high, medium, and low nar-cissists across three experimental conditions and measured state changes in self-esteem and affect. Following a performance task, participants were either given no feedback, objective success feedback ("you received a 91%"), or feedback that they outperformed others. Narcissism by feedback condition effects are analyzed discussed. By assigning post-test superiority ratings as an independent variable, we analyzed effects of superiority by narcissism as another way of testing the predicted effects of our hypothesis. However, our hypothesis was not supported, as our narcissistic sample did not respond as expected to our comparative manipulation. We did find that superiority is a significant predictor of post-test affect and self-esteem, although narcissism was not found to be a significant factor in this consideration. Possible explanations for this occurrence, as well as alternate directions for future research are explored. Nicholas Livingston, (Frederick Rhodewalt) Department of Psychology University of Utah Nicholas Livingston Frederick Rhodewalt THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH 145 SENIOR THESIS PROGRAM MOVING BEYOND THE INTRA-PERSONAL: INTERPERSONAL STYLES AND CORRELATES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Introduction: In order to more fully understand individual differences such as Type D personality, anger, sense of mastery, sense of coherence, and loneliness, this study uses interpersonal theory and its primary structural component, the interpersonal circumplex, to discover the interpersonal style of these traits as well as their association with interpersonal outcomes. Methods: N=165 University of Utah undergraduate students participated and completed a series of questionnaires associated with each individual difference studied and questions regarding demographic characteristics. Results: Mul-tiple regression analyses revealed that Type D personality was associated with hostility and submissive-ness. Social inhibition, one dimension of Type D personality, was correlated strongly with hostility and submissiveness, while negative effect, the other dimension of Type D personality, was only correlated with hostility. The interpersonal style of anger-out was marked by dominance and hostility. Sense of Mastery was associated solely with dominance and loneliness correlated with hostility and submissive-ness. Some of the above individual difference measures also had distinct interpersonal correlations with social support and negative social exchanges. Discussion: The findings of the individual differences and their related interpersonal styles and correlates may further assist in our understanding of risk. Steven G. Lizarazo (Tim W. Smith) Department of Psychology University of Utah Steven G. Lizarazo Tim W. Smith 146 SENIOR THESIS PROGRAM SPRING 2010 THE SENDING AND RECEIVING OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CELL PHONE PICTURES ("SEXTING") AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS The prevalence and correlates of sexting behavior were examined in 609 high schools students. Of all surveyed, 18% said they had sent a sexually explicit image of themselves to another person via cell phone. About twice as many reported that they had ever received a sexually explicit cell phone picture. Ryan Kelly McKinnon (Donald S. Strassberg) Department of Psychology Ryan Kelly McKinnon University of Utah Donald S. Strassberg THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH 147 SENIOR THESIS PROGRAM IMPACT OF NOVELTY AND COMPLEXITY ON MOTOR PLANNING The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of novelty and complexity on motor planning (M-PLN). Motor planning (M-PLN) is a measure that assesses the amount of time it takes to prepare to execute a movement. However, previous studies have failed to tease apart complexity and novelty as factors that may affect motor planning. Participants consisted of 40 undergraduate students, aged 18- 27 years. Participants were trained to perform two motor sequences, a 5 movement sequence, and an 8 movement sequence, on the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale - Electronic Version. Half of the group learned to perform the simple task first, while the other half learned the complex task first. Once each sequence was learned, all participants completed four Performance Blocks to assess M-PLN time. Com-plexity was assessed by comparing the groups across Performance Blocks, and novelty was measured by comparing M-PLN times during the first two Performance Blocks. The data revealed that a novelty effect occurs regardless of order or complexity of the task, but is greater for simple tasks. Furthermore, practice on a more complex motor task may help one decrease novelty effects, regardless of a new presentation format. Kimber Parry (Yana Suchy) Department of Psychology University of Utah Kimber Parry Yana Suchy 148 SENIOR THESIS PROGRAM SPRING 2010 THE MIRROR ILLUSION IN THE CONTEXT OF PERIPHERAL VISION The mirror illusion is a useful tool for measuring the relative weighting of visual and proprioceptive information in certain contexts. The most recent exploration into the mirror illusion has demonstrated that visual capture, or the perception that a hidden hand is in the location of the reflection of the other, does influence the accuracy of gesturing the width of an object when moving the hidden hand. In the present experiment, this phenomenon is investigated in a more naturalistic visual-motor environment through stimulating visual capture in the peripheral vision. In a within-subjects design, 13 University of Utah students stimulated visual capture utilizing only the peripheral vision and then attempted to ges-ture the width of a block moving only their hidden hand. The results indicated that the participants did perceive that their hidden hand was in the location of the reflection, and the error was larger when there was greater discrepancy between the visual and proprioceptive information concerning hand location. This suggests that when performing common movements and manipulations in some con-texts, the peripheral vision is relied upon more than proprioception. Brooke Shell (Sarah Creem-Regehr) Department of Psychology University of Utah Brooke Shell Sarah Creem-Regehr |
Format | application/pdf |
Identifier | 148_Psychology Senior Thesis Program.pdf |
Setname | uu_urop |
ID | 417437 |
Reference URL | https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6dj5fqf/417437 |