SOCIAL SCIENCES
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Student Research & Scholarship
Beth Chung ‘08
Major: Psychology/English
Hometown: Dubuque, Iowa
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Shaheen Munir, professor of social science Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association Cross-cultural comparisons of children’s perceptions of their relationships were made between South Korean and American fifth graders. As hypothesized, South Korean children, guided by Confucian and collectivist values of respect for authority and group awareness over individual concerns, regarded friendship as help and relationship-oriented. On the other hand, American children, brought up in an individualistic culture, regarded friendship as play-and self-oriented. The study also examined how children ranked family compared to peers. Contrary to expected results, children from both countries relied equally on their families.
Marilyn Cornish ‘08
Major: Psychology/Community Sociology
Hometown: Waverly, Iowa
College Students’ Experiences with and Views about Self-Harm
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Cynthia Bane, associate professor of psychology Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association Two-hundred forty-six (71 men, 175 women) undergraduate students completed an online questionnaire asking about personal self-harm behaviors, selfharm behaviors of others, and views about self-harm. Almost one-fifth (17.4%) of participants had engaged in self-harm and more than half (54.7%) had not engaged in self-harm but knew someone who had. Exposure to self-harm was associated with lower stigma surrounding self-harm behaviors, as well as lower desired social distance from those who self-harm. Thus, informing others about self-harm may help to reduce the amount of stigma surrounding the behavior, making it easier for those who self-harm to disclose their struggles.
Marilyn Cornish ‘08
Major: Psychology/Community Sociology
Hometown: Waverly, Iowa
Nicole Erspamer ‘08
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Chetek, Wis.
Lia Kampman ‘08
Major: Psychology/Community Sociology
Hometown: Clarksville, Iowa
The Effects of Labeling and Information about Feminist on Acceptance of Feminist Ideology
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Cynthia Bane, associate professor of psychology Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association The current study explored feminism’s negative connotations by examining how people respond to a feminist attitude scale depending on how it was labeled. An experimental design was utilized and the label of a feminist attitude scale was manipulated. The questionnaire either included the label ‘feminist’ or the label ‘social issues’. In addition, some participants given the feminist-labeled questionnaire were also given information about feminism. Women’s scores on the questionnaire did not differ across Presentations/Publications 9 conditions. Men given the feministlabeled questionnaire without information scored lower (i.e., showed less support of feminism) than did men given the social issues-labeled questionnaire. Men receiving information about feminism had scores falling between those of the other conditions. Results indicate men have a negative reaction to the feminist label, which may be diminished by providing information about feminism.
