April 2013 Graduates

Congratulations and Ho'omaika'i 'ana to our April 2013 Psychology  graduates, as well as our Summer 2013 graduates, who participated in commencement today!



Psychology graduates and faculty at their Graduation Luncheon last week
From Left to Right: Wanza Falevai (Psychology Department Secretary), Matthew Roberts, Sarah Miller, Professor Inoke Funaki, Petra Joy Satale, Laura De La Fuente-Rodriguez, Professor Ed Kinghorn, Tiffany Downer, Megan Costantino, David Richardson, Bonnie Allred, Lisa Thompson, Professor Boyd Timothy, Kayla Suhrie, Patricia Coronel, Professor Eric Orr, Jessica Cowan, David Whippy, Shui (Kelsey) Yu, Allison Lovingier, Adam Scalese, Lou Hue, Callen Dickson, Woo Jeong Lee, Professor Ronald Miller, Lap Ki Chan, Ji Hye Kim, Dean Jeff Burroughs    

April Graduates:
Bonnie Allred
Megan Costantino
Patricia Coronel
Zacharias Dupaix
Sarah Miller
David Richardson
Matthew Roberts
Emika Sawada
Adam Scalese
Nguyen Seymour
Kayla Suhrie
Lisa Thompson
David Whippy
Woo Jeong Lee
Shui (Kelsey) Yu


Summer Graduates:
Elke Barkle
Lap Ki Chan
Jeong Geun Choi
Jessica Cowan
Callen Dickson
Tiffany Downer
Lou Hue
Jihye Kim
Allison Lovingier
Melese Meservy
Keryna Monson
Devin Nakama
Petra Joy Satele
Tamara Toilolo

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.

Student Research Spotlight- Scents of Attraction

 

Scents of Attraction: Differences Between Synthetic and Naturally Occurring Fertility Pheromones

 

Kayla R. Suhrie

The psychology curriculum at Brigham Young University-Hawaii ends in a capstone course which allows students to conduct original psychological research, and subsequently present it on campus in two forms: a poster and powerpoint presentation.

One research project was recently completed by Kayla Suhrie, a senior this year. She conducted her research on how human pheromones drive behavior. This project, Scents of Attraction: Differences Between Synthetic and Naturally Occurring Fertility Pheromones, examined whether men would find the scent of a synthesized female pheromone to be more attractive than the scent of an ovulating woman, which has been found in previous research to smell attractive to men and increase testosterone levels. The research was designed in PSYC 305, Research Methods, and conducted in PSYC 490, Senior Seminar, both taught by Dr. Miller.

Kayla had male participants come in and smell shirts that had been unworn, dabbed with a synthesized putative pheromone, and worn by an ovulating woman and rate how attractive they found these scents. She recruited participants by offering them cupcakes. Many of those she recruited thought it was weird to smell shirts that women had worn, but others did so with enthusiasm. Some participants felt uncomfortable with rating the attractiveness of women based on the smell of the shirts, with one participant writing in that in spite of their low attractiveness scores, "I'm sure they would all make good mothers".

The results indicated that, overall, both the pheromone and ovulation shirts were more attractive than the control. In factors of attractiveness, the ovulation shirt was rated as smelling sexier, more pleasant, and more intense and estimating the woman who wore the shirt to be more attractive than the control, while the pheromone shirt was only more pleasant and intense than the control. Additionally, the pheromone was rated as smelling more intense than the ovulation scent. Kayla explains that the synthesized pheromone, which was labeled as unscented, had a bit of a sweet scent to it, which could have influenced ratings. She said more research would need to be done on the synthesized pheromone to determine if it is really as attractive to men as an ovulating woman, though it is clear that does smell attractive to men.

According to Kayla, the take away message is that men like the smell of women, whether real or just perceived. Even the control shirt, which was plain cotton, was rated as smelling rather attractive, which shows that men either like the IDEA of a woman's scent, or find the scent of cotton to be attractive.

Kayla explained that she was originally interested in researching something to do with dating or attraction between men and women. She came upon research studying a synthesized pheromone and thought and it would be interesting to look at that with LDS populations. However, upon learning about research on the effect of the scent of an ovulating woman on men, she decided it would be most interesting to compare the two pheromones.

Of the senior seminar research experience, Kayla noted that it was very empowering for her, as a student, to conduct her own research project. She said that while she received a lot of help from faculty and friends, it was a great learning experience for her to realize she could effectively do research similar to those that she read about in professional journals.

In addition to presenting her research to faculty and students in a poster session and presentation held on campus, Kayla also had the opportunity to present this research at a regional research conference, the 6^th Hawaii Pacific University Psychology Conference & Awards Dinner Banquet.

This project has been accepted for presentation at the Association for Psychological Science National Convention in May 2013 to be held in Washington, D.C.

See the full poster here.

December 2012 Graduates

Congratulations and Ho'omaika'i 'ana to our December 2012 Psychology Graduates!

Pictured below: Zackary Carling, Katherine Jensen, Alexa Tuita, Kylie Miles, Leslie Shepherd, Amberlyn Ieremia, Sela Unga, Elizabeth Wood. Not pictured: Andrew Alvarado, Zackery Kampf



Graduating psychology seniors with psychology faculty at the Psychology Senior Luncheon last week,

The 6th Hawaii Pacific University Psychology Conference & Awards Dinner Banquet

BYUH psychology students and faculty recently attended the 6^th Hawaii Pacific University Psychology Conference & Awards Dinner Banquet, a regional research conference hosted every semester by Hawaii Pacific University’s Psychology Department, Psychology Club, and Psi Chi chapter. Students from HPU, Chaminade University, and BYUH presented research on topics ranging from university smoking cessation programs to jealousy and compersion in relationships. The dinner and conference brought students and faculty from these three universities together in a good-humored and encouraging atmosphere. Two BYUH psychology students presented research; Kayla Suhrie shared her PSYC 490 Senior Seminar project, while Lisa Thompson spoke about a project that the Neuroscience research group has conducted. Also in attendance were Drs. Ed Kinghorn and Boyd Timothy and psychology students Bonnie Allred and Meg Costantino.

Lisa Thompson presented “Using Likelihood Ratios to Detect Malingering in Practical Validity Measures”

Measures of malingering, or purposefully faking physical symptoms in order to gain external rewards, was examined in this study. The results supported having multiple assessments to detect malingering. Results showed that by using likelihood ratios, a mathematical formula that compares the probability that someone is malingering, results on three assessments can detect malingering with 90-99% accuracy. This is in contrast to the vote-counting enterprise method, which assumes malingering only if the majority of assessments revealed malingering.

Kayla Suhrie presented “Scents of Attraction: Differences Between Synthetic and Naturally Occurring Female Fertility Pheromones”

In this study, men smelled the shirts that had been unworn, dabbed with a synthesized putative female pheromone, and worn by an ovulating woman for 24 hours to compare how attractive they found these scents. Overall, both the pheromone and ovulation shirts were found to be more attractive than the control shirt. In factors of attractiveness, the pheromone and ovulation shirts were rated as smelling more pleasant and intense than the control while the ovulation shirt was rated as smelling sexier than the control and that the woman who wore the shirt would be more attractive than the woman who wore the control. The only significant difference found between the pheromone and ovulation scents was that the pheromone was rated as smelling more intense than the ovulation scent.

The following projects were presented at the conference:

Malia Preza (HPU), "Hawaii's Place and Race: How Space and Place Can Affect One's Cultural Values." [Faculty advisor: Katherine Aumer]

Acachia Schriml (HPU), "The Impact of Culture and Cultural Awareness on the Work Environment." [Faculty advisor: Katherine Aumer]

Brendan Ito (HPU), “Identity As Social Currency.” [Faculty advisor: Katherine Aumer]

Lisa Thompson (BYUH), "Improving the Detection of Malingering in Practical Validity Measures Using Likelihood Ratios." [Faculty advisor: BYUH]

Jeffrey Dennison and Alexander Purring (HPU), "Predictive Ability of Romantic Partners in Assessing Self-Esteem." [Faculty advisor: Patricia Ellerson]

Justin Garcia (HPU), "How Right and Might Can Lead to Fight: The Effect of Moral Absolutism and Honor on Criminal Behavior." [Faculty advisor: Katherine Aumer]

Stephen Steward and Patrick Dunne (Chaminade), “Ethnicity and Stages of Change for Campus Based Smoking Cessation." [Faculty advisor: Tracy Trevorrow]

Angelyn Uson and Amber Wong (HPU), "The Impact of Weight Disparity on Perceived Relationship Satisfaction." [Faculty advisor: Katherine Aumer]

Billy Bellew (HPU), "Jealousy and Compersion and Their Effects on Relationship Satisfaction." [Faculty advisor: Katherine Aumer]

Kayla Suhrie (BYUH), "Scents of Attraction: Differences Between Synthetic and Naturally Occurring Fertility Pheromones." [Faculty advisor: BYUH]

The conference attendees voted on the best presentations of the night and honors were awarded to:

3^rd Place- Lisa Thompson for her presentation on "Improving the Detection of Malingering in Practical Validity Measures Using Likelihood Ratios”

2^nd Place- Brendan Ito for his presentation on “Identity As Social Currency”

1^st Place- Billy Bellew for his presentation on "Jealousy and Compersion and Their Effects on Relationship Satisfaction”  

APS 2012 Spotlight- Caregiving as a Function of Religiosity and Paternity Certainty

Another project presented at APS 2012 was worked on by students in our Personal Research group and presented at APS by Tommy Curtis, an April 2012 grad, and Zack Dupaix, a senior this year.  

Zack Dupaix presents at APS.

Caregiving as a Function of Religiosity and Paternity Certainty

Alexa R. R. Tuita
Thomas D. Curtis
Zacharias P. Dupaix
Ronald M. Miller
Boyd Timothy

This project, nicknamed the “Grandparents” project, was completed in the Psychology Department’s Personal Research group under the direction of Dr. Miller and Dr. Timothy.

Zack summarized the project as finding that as females were more religious they received more caregiving or gifts from parents and grandparents, and as males were less religious they received more caregiving or gifts from parents and grandparents. The explanation of this phenomenon can be found in evolutionary psychology, which views behavior as being motivated by the probability of passing on genes. In this frame, parents or grandparents would reward males for being more promiscuous, and thereby spreading their genes, but females would be rewarded for being less promiscuous because this helps to ensure paternity certainty.

Zack’s involvement of the project centered on helping do the statistical analysis, writing the results section and contributing to the justification of the theory.

As Zack presented this project at APS, he noticed that most people just wanted a quick explanation of the project. Those who he encountered during the poster session asked about the project basics, if it worked or didn’t work, and what some methodological flaws were. Zack commented that unless someone is seriously questioning a research project, most people don’t critique or thoroughly question presenters of posters. One common question asked of Zack and Tommy was about the scores on the religiosity scale, because they don’t go below moderate. For the study to be more complete and thorough, we would want people in all ranges of religiosity, including those on the low and very low levels, but we did not have those types of people on our religious campus.  Zack explained that to remedy this, the group has been looking at collaborating with researchers at other universities to have a more complete range of data.

On his experience at APS, Zack recounted that it was a fun and exciting learning experience. The conference gave him the opportunity to talk with a few professors that he is interested in working with at graduate schools he has looked into attending. He was pleased to have a chance to attend very interesting seminars given by top researchers in their respective fields. His overall experience was very positive, and he says that he hopes to have another chance to attend the upcoming APS conference in May 2013.

See the full poster here.

Help Us with Research!

If you would like to take a survey (or a few!) to help us with our research, please click on the "Current Research" tab, located above. Keep checking back for new surveys!


If you are a BYUH student who would like to be involved in our on campus research groups, the "Research Groups" page has recently been updated for the Fall 2012 semester. Feel free to attend any research meeting that interests you and ask to be involved!

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.

 

Psychology Club Fall 2012 Opening Social

The Psychology Club will be hosting our opening social on Tuesday, September 25^th at 8pm in GCB 185.
For those of you who have been eagerly anticipating this event… that’s tomorrow night!

We will be having pizza and soda, briefly outlining opportunities for you to get involved in psychology research, taking some fun self-assessment surveys, and talking about our other events this semester. There will be plenty of time for meeting new people and socializing!

Anyone who is studying psychology or interested in psychology is welcome to come! 

If you haven’t officially joined the Psychology Club this semester, you’ll be given the opportunity to do so at the social. Dues for the entire semester are $3.

We hope to see you there!

(Want more details about the club? Click on the “Psych Club” tab above!)

APS 2012

Dr. Miller, Dr. Timothy, and psychology students celebrate the end of a successful APS Convention by watching fireworks                         over Lake Michigan from Chicago's Navy Pier

The BYUH Psychology Department recently attended the Association for Psychological Science's 24th Annual convention in Chicago. Dr. Miller and Dr. Timothy attended the convention along with 12 psychology students and recent graduates. The students presented 11 different research projects from the department’s Neuroscience, Personal Research, and Clinical research groups, as well as several students’ PSYC 490 research projects. In addition to presenting projects, the group attended a variety of presentations and symposia explaining current research, made connections with researchers at other universities, talked with Alan Kazdin (editor of the new Clinical Psychological Science journal), and ate authentic deep-dish pizza. Attending the APS convention is valuable experience for BYUH’s psychology students and professors as it allows them to present research projects and get feedback from the psychology community, form research collaborations, keep up to date on the direction of psychology research in various fields, and form connections that can be valuable for students’ graduate school and job opportunities.

For more information on the APS convention, please see the official convention website.

Empower Your Dreams Conference 2012

On Thursday, March 22, BYUH held its 7^th annual Undergraduate Research Conference in conjunction with the Empower your Dreams Conference. Psychology students enrolled in PSYC 490, Senior Seminar, presented research that they had been conducting throughout the semester. Faculty and students came to the Aloha Center to see and hear about the students’ research. 

Connie Grimnes- Effect of Clothing and Body Type on Perception of Personality

Amy Hotu- Differences in Interracial Relationship Acceptance Between Asian College Students of Different Year Levels

Kelly Hyunkyoung Lee- The Differences in Physical Stress Symptoms Between Asian and American Students

Champ Vinitnantharat- Effects of Culture on Recycling Attitudes and Behaviours 

Kirei Tubbs- Social Interaction as a Predictor of Students' Academic Achievement 

Leslie Shepherd- Effects of Aromatherapy: A Study of Aromatherapy and Culture 

Timothy Striegel- The Effect of Competition on Male Cooperation

Hallie Schiefelbein- Correct Interpretation of Meaning as a Function of Emoticon Use in Texting

Monique Mullenaux- Investigating Ethnic Identity and Self-Esteem Amid Biracial and Monoracial Young Adults

Adam Scalese- Attitude Differences Towards Receiving Psychological Help Among Asian, Polynesian, and American Students 

Zachary Tippetts-  Social Networking Sites as a Predictor of Marital Conflict 

Andrew Alvarado- The Effects of Cost and Image on Product Preference Among College Students

April 2012 Graduates

Congratulations and Ho'omaika'i 'ana to our April 2012 Psychology Graduates!


Cameron Hee, Kapono Drew Barton, Monique Mullenaux, Sunny Griffin*, Vickie Tuahivaatetonohiti*, Amy Hotu, Justin Chen*, Kirei Tubbs, Izak Rock, Hallie Schiefelbein, Nathan Haws, Gaseole Fanene*, Hannah McKinney, Thomas Curtis, Zachary Tippetts*, Kelly Hyunkyoung Lee*, Jared Young*, Connie Grimnes, Alycia Curtis, Teleise Tino, Timothy Striegel*
*Not Pictured 

Flashback to APS 2011

As we approach the 2012 APS conference, we thought we take a moment to reminisce about the 2011 APS conference, in Washington DC. The Association for Psychological Science is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of scientific psychology and its representation at the national and international level. They hold an annual national conference, which the BYUH psychology department has been a part the last several years. In 2011, we presented seven poster projects, with topics ranging from counseling, evolutionary theory, mathematical education, behavioral, etc. The group had lots of fun and met professors and students from prestigious universities from around the world.

This year, at the 2012 conference, the BYUH psychology department has submitted six  projects, and an additional five projects have been submitted by individual students - Jason Murphy, Taylor Smart, Izak Rock, Alexa Tuita, and Nathan Haws. The conference will be held in Chicago, IL from May 24th through the 27th. 

The 4th Hawaii Pacific University Conference Dinner

The conference is hosted by the Hawaii Pacific University is a great opportunity for students and faculty from all of the universities across Oahu to come and share their current research. The atmosphere is one of mutual respect and interest and many of the projects were enhanced by the input and insights of other students and professors. BYUH psychology students are invited to participate and share any of their current research. This past Fall Semester, Alex Kubena and Nathan Haws shared their PSYC 490 projects from Winter 2011, as well as other research they are conducting.



Alexa
"Social Influence as a Function of Genetic Relatedness and Ethnicity."

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.

 
Nathan 

"Differences in Rumination among Pacific Islanders, Asians, and European Americans."

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.