Student
athletes in-season are found to have higher GPAs than out-of-season. Many
factors such as time management and self-esteem among others may contribute to
these fluctuation of GPAs. It has been found that students in-season display
higher levels of time management as well as higher levels of self-esteem. These
factors were found to decrease when athletes are out-of-season. Participants in
this study were given a survey consisting of different time management,
self-esteem, and specific demographic questions. This study is designed to
examine the differences in student athletes’ level of time management and
self-esteem varing between in and out of their sporting season. Implications of
these findings and further research opportunities will be discussed.
Previous
research indicates that people differ in the degree to which their self-esteem
is contingent upon performance in specific domains (e.g. academic competency,
appearance). The current study examines a measure of a new domain – intellectual
competency (IC)- by evaluating both its predictive and discriminant validity.
Participants first fill out self-report measures of the intellectual and
academic competency contingency subscales, need for cognition, and global
self-esteem. Afterwards, they perform both an intellectual and a perceptual
task. Measurements of task enjoyment are taken either before or after controlled
positive feedback for the tasks. They are then given time to practice before
completing a second round of the two tasks. A chance to pursue performance
feedback is given at the end of the study. We expect that, compared to low IC
participants, high IC participants will: 1) spend more time practicing the
intellectual task; 2) go to greater lengths to pursue feedback on the
intellectual task; and 3) like the intellectual task more if they receive
feedback than if they don’t. These results are not expected for either the
academic contingency or need for cognition scales.
Many
aspects of marital satisfaction have been studied. This study examined the
degree to which levels of devotion to a religious faith is correlated with
marital satisfaction within same-faith marriages. Married couples completed
surveys concerning their religious devotion and marital satisfaction. Those
marriages with similar levels of devotion had higher average levels of marital
satisfaction possibly due to the different aspects of marital satisfaction are
related to religion. Research in same faith marriages may imply that similarity
in devotion to the same religion may be important to marital satisfaction, as
well as similarity of religious affiliation.
Increasing
attention is being paid to sex differences in teacher-student interactions.
Given well-established sex differences in activity levels and compliance to
authority, one might expect some of the largest differences to appear in the
area of discipline as teachers try to control the behavior of boys. Little
research has addressed sex differences in classroom discipline. Moreover, no
research has fully considered both teachers' and students' roles in any
differences that are found. It may be that teachers are truly biased against
boys, disciplining them more often and more harshly than girls for no legitimate
reason. Alternatively, teachers and students may be joint contributors to any
sex differences in discipline that are found. The present study addresses this
gap in the literature. Fifth grade students were observed in the classroom
setting. Student misbehavior, teacher discipline, and student response to
discipline (i.e. recurrence or cessation of the behavior) were recorded.
Analyses examined sex differences in frequency of student misbehavior, types of
teacher discipline, and disciplinary effectiveness. It is expected that boys
will engage in more disruptive behaviors than girls, that teachers will use
different strategies when disciplining boys and girls (e.g. more inductive
strategies with girls), and that sex differences will emerge in the
effectiveness of those strategies (e.g. inductive strategies will lead to
cessation of behavior more with girls than with boys).
A
number of factors have been shown to impact overall life satisfaction. For
example, past research has shown that most women, to some extent, are concerned
with the appearance of their bodies and that this perception can influence their
life satisfaction. Other research has suggested that those persons who have a
greater spiritual life report greater life satisfaction. In this project, we
hypothesize that spirituality has the ability to serve as a “buffer” for body
satisfaction. Therefore, a person who is high in spirituality yet low in body
satisfaction, will still display relatively high life satisfaction because
spirituality compensates for body satisfaction. Participants will be
undergraduate women at a small liberal arts college. They will complete a series
of questionnaires including the “Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire” (Fenzel,
1996), “Life Satisfaction Scale” (Diener,1993), and “Body Satisfaction Scale”
(Garner, 1983). The data will be analyzed using 2X2 ANOVA with spirituality and
body satisfaction as the independent variables, and life satisfaction as the
dependent variable. The implications of the findings for healthy lifestyles in
young women will be considered.
This
study looks at the relationship between an individual’s self esteem, both
personal and collective, and the amount of implicit stereotypes they have. When
one has stereotypes that they are not aware of having, they are considered to
have implicit stereotypes of others. Personal self-esteem is a person’s
self-esteem based on that individual’s self-perception. Collective self-esteem
is self-esteem based on an individual’s group membership. Automatic processes
are caused by something in the environment that triggers a set of associations
that have previously been well learned in that individual’s memory. It has been
said that automatic processes are more likely to be used, as they are more
easily activated than conscious processes. Therefore, we predict that
individuals will show unconscious stereotyping, as automatic assumptions about
people they encounter will be brought to their minds without their knowledge of
them. Participants in the study took two self-esteem surveys, the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and
the Collective self-esteem scale, as well as the Implicit Association Test to
measure the amount of implicit stereotypes they had. It is expected that expect
to find that those individual’s with lower self-esteem will have higher Implicit
Association Test effects, which signifies more unconscious stereotypes.
The
present study will examine the relationship between dreams and creativity. Based
on the assumption that dreams and creativity are both reflections of deeper
cognitive constructs, it is hypothesized that individuals with dreams high in
creativity will also score higher on a creativity assessment. Participants will
keep dream journals and then complete a creativity assessment. The assessments
will include an Unusual Uses Test, which tests for divergent thinking, and a
collage-making task, which tests for visual creativity. A coding manual was
developed in order to rate the dream journals for elements of divergent thinking
and visual creativity. The Unusual Uses Test will be scored for ideational
fluency and flexibility. Inter-rater reliability will be established for both
the dream coding and the Unusual Uses Test. A separate group of coders will rate
the collages for creativity. Participants will complete the Questionnaire About
Dreams (QAD) in order to obtain information pertaining to participant attitudes
toward dreams. A multiple regression will be used to examine the relationships
between the measured variables.
Chivalry
is a cultural script by which men behave towards women with a heightened sense
of courtesy, along with particular emphasis on protection and provision. Helping
a female in distress is a prototypical example of chivalry. In such helping
situations, the diffusion of responsibility may occur so that as the number of
bystanders increases, the likelihood of intervention decreases. However, it
seems plausible that men who highly endorse the chivalry script would be more
apt to aid a female victim regardless of the number of perceived onlookers.
After completing a chivalry scale, male participants heard a crash and an
exclamation by the female experimenter over an intercom. The number of perceived
other potential helpers varied from 0 to 3. High chivalry men came to the aid of
the victim faster than low chivalry men. In addition, as group size increased,
speed of helping decreased. As the number of perceived bystanders increased from
0 to 1, low chivalry participants became slower while high chivalry participants
were not affected. Implications of these findings and further research
opportunities are discussed.
Past
research suggests that males are more aggressive than females. However, recent
work in the child development literature indicates that females do aggress
frequently. While males typically aggress via “overt” means to challenge
another’s physical dominance (e.g., by hitting or pushing), females tend to
aggress via “covert” means to harm interpersonal relationships (e.g., by
intentionally excluding a peer from an activity). The current study examines the
prevalence and consequences of overt and relational aggression at the collegiate
level. Participants completed questionnaires designed to measure levels of overt
and relational aggression, overt and relational victimization, psychosocial
maladjustment, and self-esteem. Some participants were also asked to write about
their likely responses to scenarios in which male and female aggressors
victimized the subjects using overt or relationally aggressive tactics. It is
predicted that both males and females at the collegiate level will engage in
relational aggression more frequently than overt aggression. Both relational
aggressors and victims are expected to have poor psychosocial adjustment and low
self-esteem. It is also predicted that victims of relational aggression will
becomes perpetrators of relational aggression. The relation between relational
aggression and relational victimization is expected to be mediated by
self-esteem.
Previous
research suggests that first-born children are more likely than later-born
children to pursue scientific careers. The present study was designed to examine
whether this tendency is detectable in students’ choice of college major.
Undergraduate students from a Midwestern college were asked to complete a birth
order questionnaire, which included questions about birth order, academic major,
family size, types of siblings, socioeconomic status and other demographic
variables. Analyses will examine the effect of birth order on students’ choice
of college major, controlling for two important third variables: family size and
socioecomonic status. Other variables, including number of male siblings, will
be examined as possible moderators of any birth order effects.
Many factors influence a
person’s decision to engage in sexual behaviors. The main goal of this study is
to determine the relative contribution of four sources of influence on sexual
behavior: parents, peers, the media, and sexual education classes. Three hundred
and ten participants completed a questionnaire designed to assess the frequency
of 32 sexual behaviors and the perceived acceptance of these behaviors by the
four groups. Researchers compared the participants’ actual sexual behavior with
the perceived acceptance of that behavior by the four groups in order to
determine the degree to which each behavior was correlated with the acceptance
level of a particular group. We hypothesize that peers are the driving force in
a person’s sexual decisions and have the greatest influence on sexual behaviors,
especially the riskier behaviors. This information would imply that people’s
sexual decisions are affected by those around them. By identifying which groups
make the greatest impact on specific behaviors, sex educators can then
distribute sexual health information through the most influential groups.
Personal
identity is a broad construct that encompasses many dimensions of individual
behaviors that on the surface may seem quite separate. This study argues that
both the type of relationships people engage in and the type of music they
listen to are reflections of their personal identity and therefore should be
related to one another. Studies have demonstrated that music preference is one
way of manifesting personality traits. In addition, personal identity is often
manifested in relationships. Moreover, research has shown there are many
different factors, such as commitment, that go into a satisfying relationship.
This study hypothesizes that some types of music preference may be related to
greater relationship satisfaction. Specifically, a preference for “soft” musical
forms that evoke tenderness and commitment will be more predictive of
relationship satisfaction than a preference for hard musical forms that evoke
aggression and non-committal sexuality. Participants were recruited from classes
at an undergraduate liberal arts college. A questionnaire was developed in which
music preference was split into two basic types: “soft,” including country,
classical, Christian pop and soft rock; and “hard,” including heavy metal, rap
and hard rock. The participant’s attitudes toward relationships were measured in
several ways—emotional commitment, sociosexuality (i.e., the degree to which a
person focuses on sexuality in a relationship) and relationship satisfaction. A
multiple regression analysis will be used to determine which factors are
predictive of satisfying relationships. The role of the music people listen to
in relationships and identity will be considered.
The
effects of exposure to media images of the sociocultural ideals of thinness and
attraction on female body image distortion and dissatisfaction were
investigated. Sixty female college students first were measured on the degree to
which they internalize the thin ideal with the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards
Appearance Questionnaire (Thompson et al., 2000) and the frequency at which they
engage in social comparison with the Frequency of Social Comparison Scale
(Fujita, 1996). In a later research session, the same students viewed a computer
slide show of either fashion/beauty models or fitness models from popular
magazines. A third condition viewed neutral magazine images such as furniture or
cleaning products. Perceptual body image distortion was determined by comparing
participants’ perceived body dimension widths to actual widths. Researchers also
evaluated dissatisfaction with the Body Esteem Scale (Franzoi & Shields, 1984)
and the Eating Disorder Inventory (Garner, Olmstead, & Polivy, 1983). We expect
results to suggest that media images of the thin ideal influence both perceptual
body image distortion and dissatisfaction, and that these effects are moderated
by both the degree to which females internalize the thin ideal and the amount of
social comparison in which they engage. These would suggest that the regular
exposure to thin models that women receive from the media contributes both to a
distortion in how women view themselves and to women’s dissatisfaction with
their own bodies.
A handful of studies have
shown that students and their friends share similar self-evaluative and
motivational beliefs. The present study adds to previous research by examining
the extent to which friends share similar contingencies of self-worth and
achievement goals, and the degree to which similarity on these constructs
predicts friendship satisfaction. This study also investigated which
discrepancies in contingencies of self-worth and achievement goals are most
important in predicting friendship satisfaction. College students participated
in this study with a close friend and independently completed measures of their
contingencies of self-worth, achievement goals in the classroom, and friendship
satisfaction. It is expected that friends will share similar contingencies of
self-worth and achievement goals. It is also expected that friends with higher
levels of similarity will have higher levels of friendship satisfaction than
those who have lower levels of similarity. Findings are also likely to support
the idea that particular discrepancies are more important than others in
predicting friendship satisfaction. For example, friends who do not share
similar attitudes about the importance of basing self-worth on winning
competitions are expected to have lower levels of friendship satisfaction than
friends who do share this attitude.
