E&H Students Honored for Research at Psychology Conference
E&H students Myranda Staiano (Waxhaw, N.C.), Beth Stevens (Wytheville, Va.), Jordan Greenburg (Cordova, Tenn.) and Rachel Peters (Gate City, Va.) were all honored with a cash prize for their research by the Psi Chi International Honor Society.
Staiano’s research focused on selfless behavior as it relates to religion or spirituality. In her studies, she examined the belief that higher scores on empathy would predict altruism, higher religiosity would predict less altruism, more intrinsically religious (spiritual) individuals would have higher altruism scores and more extrinsically religious individuals would have lower altruism scores.
In her research, Stevens’ sought to investigate the predictive power of corporal punishment and parenting styles on levels of aggression in young adulthood. Stevens looked at the idea that participants who report being exposed to an authoritarian parenting style as a child would indicate higher levels of aggression, participants who report having experienced a permissive parental style would have lower levels of aggression and more severe levels of corporal punishment would predict higher levels of aggression.
Greenburg investigated the predictability that psychological aggression has on psychological distress. Greenburg looked at the idea that aggression will predict psychological distress, while levels of perceived social support would significantly mediate the relationship between psychological aggression and psychological distress.
Peter’s examined possible discrepancies between ideal and actual body image and how perceived body image related to college students’ self-esteem. She theorized that both men and women would rate their ideal body type differently than their current body type, men and women would rate the body type they thought to be most attractive to the other sex differently than their current body type and body dissatisfaction would be related to lower self-esteem.
Other students presenting posters at the annual conference included Alan Berry, Hannah Doss, Jessica Harosky, Caroline Taylor, Emilee Young, Danielle Loving, Skyla Renner, Grayson Reynolds and Emilee Young.