Student Research Spotlight- Polynesian Compliment Acceptance

Acceptance of Compliments Among Polynesians

 

 

Devin Nakama

 

For his senior project, Devin analyzed participants' responses to different compliment receiving scenarios. His study focused on whether or not Polynesians preferred to accept compliments of ability or of appearance. Additionally the study analyzed the effect of social distance, like whether the compliment came from a peer, parent, or professor, on the acceptance of different types of compliments. The study found that Polynesians accepted appearance and ability compliments similarly. However, the results also showed that social distance mattered in acceptance of compliments on a person's ability.

Devin explains that he enjoyed his experience in the psychology department at BYUH. He had many of the same classmates in his Statistics, Research Methods, and Senior Seminar classes and he was able to see the growth in his peers as well as himself throughout this series of courses. He was surprised that it was not as difficult to conduct his research in PSYC 490 as he thought it would be, a fact which he attributes to the excellent preparation in PSYC 305. Devin shared that he really enjoyed seeing the presentations of his classmates' research projects, as it was like a showcase of everything they had learned over the years with a mix of their own creativity and interests.

He appreciates how the Psychology department really invests its time and efforts in the students, and how much passion the faculty has for the material they teach.

See Devin's full poster here.