Back in May, a dozen BYUH Psychology
Students, Dr. Miller, and Dr. Timothy attended the Association for
Psychological Science National Conference. Review the post about the conference
here.
Periodically, we will be spotlighting
student research projects, particularly those presented at APS.
The first spotlight focuses on a
project from our Neuroscience research group, which was presented at APS by
Tommy Curtis, Class of 2012, and Lisa Thompson, a senior this year.
 |
| Lisa Thompson presents another project at APS |
Are Self-Ratings of Functional Difficulties Objective or Subjective?
Ronald
M. Miller
Nathan
A. Haws
Jason
L. Murphy-Tafiti
Carlyn
D. Hubner
Thomas
D. Curtis
Zachary
W. Rupp
Taylor
A. Smart
Lisa Thompson
The Psychology Department’s
Neuroscience group works with Dr. Ronald Miller and Dr. John Meyers, a Clinical
Neuropsychologist who works with military populations.
This project took data that Dr. Meyers
obtained from military populations to show that the SCL-90, a self-rating
checklist of psychological symptoms, is just as accurate as clinically used
objective measures. Interestingly, someone who fills out the checklist for
themselves reveals only their feelings on that day. However, if a caretaker
like a family member or close friend fills out the checklist for someone
exhibiting symptoms, it is nearly as accurate as being evaluated on by a
doctor. This is an exciting find because it indicates that instead of taking
tests and having interviews before patients can go into therapy, they can fill
out the checklist on their own and get the psychological help that they might need.
Lisa was involved with the project
toward the end, and was responsible for running many of the statistics as
guided by Nate Haws.
Lisa said that the experience of
presenting at APS was really awesome. She enjoyed the opportunity to meet Alan
Kazdin and Dan Kruger and talk with them as academic peers who actually took
into account students’ opinions and thoughts on studies. Lisa expressed that it
made her feel valid in the psychology major and field. She also enjoyed being able to learn from the
symposia, presentations, and thousands of posters. This APS conference was
particularly geared toward evolutionary psychology, which is one of Lisa’s
primary psychological interests, so she greatly enjoyed the experience.
As she was presenting, Lisa found that
many people were very impressed that she was an undergraduate and able to
explain a very detailed study confidently and in a simple way. She expressed
that she has been taught by her experience at BYUH how to confidently present
valid ideas and thoughts. The question that Lisa received most while presenting
was what population was used, which she easily answered, describing a
populating of people who had mental deficiencies because of mental disorders or
injury. They also asked about who we collaborated with on this project and
asked her to summarize the poster.
Reflecting on her experience at
BYU-Hawaii and the opportunity she had to attend the APS conference, Lisa said
that BYUH has taught her that, “My thoughts and ideas are valid and I shouldn’t
let anyone make me feel like they’re not”.
The project presented in this poster
has been accepted for publication under the title, “Are Self-Ratings of
Functional Difficulties Objective or Subjective?” The article is now in press
in Applied Neuropsychology.
See the full poster
here.
Hamilton (1964) stated that an altruistic act is favored if the receiver has a high enough genetic relatedness to offset the cost of the act committed. This study examines the role of a genetic relatedness and ethnicity on the level of social influence. It is hypothesized that individuals will be influenced more by those more genetically related rather than by distant relatives or acquaintances. Participants (N=241) responded to items designed to measure degree of social influence. Items were grouped according to Hamilton’s genetic relatedness values, such as .5 for parents, .25 for grandparent, .125 for cousins, and 0 for non relatives.
Results show that there was a significant difference among levels for genetic relatedness, F (3, 241) = 47.92, p <.0001, η² = .17. There was no main effect for ethnicity. In conclusion, genetic relatedness has a greater effect on one’s decisions rather than that of cultural and environmental influences.
Since only minimal previous research has suggested ethnic differences in rumination between groups, this study compared Pacific Islanders with both European Americans and Asians to investigate significant differences in rumination tendencies. Rumination was measured using the Ruminative Response Scale. After comparing means scores for each ethnicity, it was found that Asians scored significantly higher 
than European Americans, as found in the literature. Although Pacific Islanders were not found to be statistically different from either European Americans or Asians, their mean scores were found to be greater than European Americans and less than Asians, an interesting finding given that these two groups were so different. When marital status was controlled for, it was specifically single Asians and single Pacific Islanders that differed from married European Americans. Further studies should investigate the role of marital status as a factor of rumination between ethnic groups, using a larger sample size. 
