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