APS 2012 Spotlight- Are Self-Ratings of Functional Difficulties Objective or Subjective?

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.