Empower Your
Dreams Contest 2013
This March,
Brigham Young University-Hawaii hosted its eighth annual Empower Your Dreams
Contest. This contest not only showcased the dreams of students throughout the
university, it also showcased many of the student’s academic accomplishments,
including nine studies conducted by senior psychology students. Because this
was a school-wide contest, contestants were given the opportunity to network
with students and staff from numerous programs throughout the university,
including the biology and business departments. Patricia S. Coronel, a recent
psychology graduate from BYUH commented on the atmosphere of the event,
stating, “There was so much passion and
knowledge in the event. You can see in different rooms how students present
their research with so much energy and desire to make a difference.”
Patricia’s presentation, “Effects of Film on Self-esteem
and Affect among Single Undergraduate Students,” was particularly fascinating.
She suggested three main goals for her study:
1. To determine if single undergraduate students will feel
negative after watching a romantic-comedy film.
2.
To determine if in-a-relationship undergraduate students will
feel positive after watching a romantic-comedy film.
3.
To determine if female single undergraduate students will
experience a larger decrease in their self-esteem compared to male single
undergraduate students after watching a romantic-comedy film.
The results indicated, however, that
single students felt positive after watching the romantic-comedy, students that
were in a relationship felt negative after watching the film, and female
students reported a lower self-esteem after watching the film than male
students. Patricia explains that these results suggest that other factors such as affect infusion, beliefs about
relationships, and media depictions of the ideal woman, together, influence
people's feelings and self-image.
All nine studies
entered by the psychology department are listed below, along with a brief
abstract of the study:
Effects of Film
on Self-esteem and Affect among Single Undergraduate Students
Patricia Bernice
S. Coronel
Previous studies have found that media
produces desired emotional response and impacts self-esteem. The present study
examined the differential effects of film on self-esteem and effect of undergraduate
students who are single and in a relationship. 80 female and 80 male
undergraduate students answered the Rosenberg’s Self-esteem and PANAS Scales
before and after watching the romantic-comedy film. Results showed that single
undergraduate students felt positive after watching a romantic-comedy
film. On the other hand,
in-a-relationship students felt negative after watching a romantic-comedy film.
Additionally, female single undergraduate students reported to have lower
self-esteem compared to male single undergraduate students. These results
suggest that other factors such as affect infusion, beliefs about relationships
and media depictions of the ideal woman together influence people’s feelings
and self-image.
______________________________________________________________________________
Relationship of
Personality Profiles Among Married Couples and Single Dating Styles
Jessica R. Cowan
Previous research has suggested
that couples that share the traits of agreeableness, openness, and
conscientiousness report higher marital satisfaction. To determine whether or
not there is a greater proportion of married couples with shared personality
profiles than couples with opposing personality profiles, 60 married couples
took The Big Five personality trait inventory. The majority of couples scored
similarly on openness and agreeableness, while the majority scored opposite on
conscientiousness. There was no statistical significance regarding extraversion
and neuroticism. My results may suggest that couples that share the traits of
agreeableness and openness choose to get married because they feel a high level
of relationship satisfaction.
______________________________________________________________________________
Differences
in Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy
Between First and Non-first Generation College
Students
Laura
De La Fuente-Rodriguez
The purpose of this study was to
determine whether first-generation college students would rate lower on a
self-esteem and self-efficacy scale compared to non-first generation college
students. Data was strictly collected of
the two groups to see the difference in the dependent variable which are
self-esteem and self-efficacy. In order to evaluate this properly, a
self-esteem scale and self-efficacy inventory was administered as a survey
along with demographic questions. One hundred and twenty-five undergraduate
students were recruited, aging 18 to 30, from Brigham Young University-Hawaii
and Carroll County Community College. T-tests were run for first generation and
non-first generation from the data collected on their self-esteem and
self-efficacy scales showing that there is a difference between first and
non-first generation college students. The t-tests showed significance and
supported the hypothesis of first generation college students having lower
self-esteem and self-efficacy compared to their non-first generation peers.
Therefore, it can be discussed that first generation students have different
factors, such as their background, that may lead them to have lower self-esteem
and academic efficacy.
______________________________________________________________________________
Effects of
Relationship Status on Self-Esteem and Depressive Symptoms
Depending on
Gender
Jihye Kim
In an extension of research demonstrating
differential psychological benefits of various relationship statuses, the
present study examined differences in self-esteem and depressive symptoms among
relationship statuses depending on gender. Female (N=180) and male (N=144)
undergraduates were categorized into one of three different relationship
statuses: single, in a short-term relationship (minimum half of a year), or in
a long-term relationship (married). Each participant completed the Rosenberg
Self-Esteem Scale and the Center for Epidemiologic
Studies Depression Scale. Results showed that married men and women experience
less depressive symptoms than single women (p = .001). In addition, people in a
relationship had higher self-esteem than single people, although this
difference was not statistically significant. These findings suggest that
gender and relationship status together are pertinent factors in the number of
depressive symptoms one may experience.
______________________________________________________________________________
Differences
in Body Image, Self-Esteem, and Eating Behaviors
Between
Asians and Polynesians
Woojeong
Lee
The majority of studies about body image
have drawn from adults in America exclusively. The purpose of this research is
to better understand body image, self-esteem, and eating behaviors among female
Polynesian and Asian undergraduate students. One hundred female Polynesian
students and one hundred female Asian students took an online survey. The
result showed that female Asian students negatively evaluate their body shape,
whereas female Polynesian students have positively body image, t(192) =
2.80, p =0.005, d = 0.40.
However, there were not significant
differences in self-esteem and eating behaviors. The finding suggests that
people do have different perception when evaluating their body shapes, but
negative body shapes does not always lead to low self-esteem and bad eating
behaviors.
______________________________________________________________________________
Vocabulary Size
of Young Adults as a Function of College Enrollment
Emily Murphy
Vocabulary is a key component in
reading comprehension which adds to a person’s academic achievement. Vocabulary
begins to develop after a child is born and then continues to increase based on
social and educational experiences, but gaps in vocabulary size start early on,
even before a child enters grade school, the complete implications of those
gaps is still unknown. However, in the meantime, millions of dollars are being
spent on leveling the playing field so that all students have the same
opportunity to achieve academically; to better understand the reach of
vocabulary size, the present study experimentally examined the effects of
vocabulary size on cumulative college GPA. 89 Brigham Young University Hawaii
undergraduates completed the Paul Nations (2007) vocabulary size test and
reported their cumulative GPA. Vocabulary size predicted cumulative college GPA, =, t(88) =, p
< .05 one-tailed, and explained a significant proportion of variance in GPA,
R2
= .023, F(1,88) = 3.05, p <.05. An additional simple linear
regression was run, indicating that cumulative high school GPA is a strong predictor of
cumulative college GPA. Results from this study have indicated that vocabulary
size is a strong component of an individual’s ability to achieve academically
and efforts to increase vocabulary should be undertaken at every level of
development.
______________________________________________________________________________
Effects of
Filler Words on Perceived Speech Quality
David Richardson
When delivering a public speech, filler words
seem to have a universally negative reputation. This study examines whether
audience members notice filler words and if they affect their overall
perception of the speaker. 133 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to
view a one minute and thirty second speech with filler words or an identical
speech without filler words. Both videos were viewed by participants via video.
Each participant rated the speaker on 15 characteristics and then estimated how
many filler words the speaker used. In addition, participants compared him to
the average speaker by estimating if the speaker used more or less filler words
than average. Participants judged the speaker using filler words to be more
comfortable and humble than the same speaker without filler words. Participants
also recognized that the speaker used filler words, and judged the speaker as
using more filler words than the “average speaker”.
______________________________________________________________________________
Differences in
Self-effacement Among Asian,
Polynesian and
Caucasian Undergraduate Students
Kelsey S. Yu
Previous
research has shown a cultural difference in the use of two self-regulations
strategies: self-enhancement and
self-effacement. Asians are more interdependent, and use self-effacement more
than Caucasians. The current study examined whether this cultural difference
applied to school performance, and examined differences in self-effacement
among Asian, Caucasian and Polynesian students. 120 participates reported their
ethnicity and cumulative GPA. Participants also rated how well they thought
their GPA was on a Likert scale from 1-15, and responded to open-ended
questions about their academic performance. Responses to the open questions
were categorized as self-effacement statements and self-enhancement statements
by counting the number of the words which represent both perspectives.
Polynesian participants reported the lowest cumulative GPA scores and the
lowest self-ratings of their GPA. However, Asian participants used a comparable
number of self-effacement words in describing their academic performance as
Polynesian participants, with Caucasians self-effacing the least. These finding suggest that Asian students use
the self-effacement strategy when discussing their academic performance even
though they perform well.
______________________________________________________________________________
A Cross-Cultural Study on
Territorial Behavior of University Students in Residence Rooms
Min Zhang
In past research on territorial
behavior, ethnicity has rarely been investigated. In the present study, I
examined differences in territorial behavior among Caucasian, Asian and
Polynesian students in double occupancy rooms. Two elements of territoriality,
firmness of boundaries and personalization/claiming, were compared. Whether
differences interacted with ethnic similarity or dissimilarity with ones
roommate was also examined. Results showed a difference in firmness of
boundaries among ethnic groups, F(2,
113)=5.03, p < 0.008, η² = .08.
Polynesian students showed less
firmness of boundaries (M = 4.24),
than Asian students (M = 5.22), (p = .004). There were also differences among groups in
personalization and claiming, F(2,
114)=3.67, p<0.03, η²= .06. Polynesian students showed more personalization and claiming (M = 5.33), than Asian students (M = 4.67), (p = .03). No difference was observed in territorial behavior of
regarding ethnic similarity or dissimilarity. These results suggest ethnicity
is an important variable to consider when conducting research on territorial
behavior.
