Beginning in the middle of the 19th century, Euro-American settlers began to construct primarily brick buildings around Willamette Falls in Oregon City, Oregon. I analyze brick samples from three of these buildings to try to learn more about the difference between sources of the raw materials (primarily clay), and those who made them. This resulted in the creation of typologies which could be used to compare one building to the next.
Faculty Sponsor: Scott Pike
Discipline: Archaeology
This talk presents the results of an aerial survey of previously undocumented marble quarries in Sangri Valley, Naxos that took place in May and June, 2023. The talk will provide the historical and regional context of Bronze Age use of marble in Naxos followed by a description of the missions used to collect photogrammetric and LiDAR data. These data were used to assess, record and measure marble resources in the Sangri Valley and provide an interpretation of their significance to the archaeological record.
Faculty Sponsor: Scott Pike
Discipline: Archaeology
Acid rain has been an ongoing problem around the world. It is produced by components of SO2 and NO mixing with the air to form nitric and sulfuric acids. These acids mix with water and in turn, become acid rain. The two types of acid rain are wet deposition and dry deposition. It affects both human life and wildlife. The acidic waters these aquatic animals live in are causing the pH levels in the water to decrease causing more acidic water which can lead to death for these animals. Helping reduce acid rain production will help the environment.
Faculty Sponsor: Andrew Duncan
Discipline: Chemistry
The common pool disinfectant chlorine can react with biological molecules to form molecules called chloramines. These harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs) are known to cause and aggravate respiratory issues, greatly affecting those who spend a significant amount of time in pools or who have pre-existing respiratory conditions. DBPs can cause skin, respiratory tract, and eye irritation when they are present in excess amounts. This is why it is very important for aquatic facilities to maintain specific chlorine levels that keep water clean and sanitary without producing too many irritating and harmful by-products.
Faculty Sponsor: Andrew Duncan
Discipline: Chemistry
Baking is a finicky skill, with much practice and knowledge being required to become good at it. An example of the necessary knowledge is the difference between baking soda and baking powder and understanding why they are used in certain recipes. This project is going to explain the chemical reasoning behind the use of these ingredients. Baking powder is composed of sodium bicarbonate and some acids, while baking soda is entirely sodium bicarbonate. The different chemical compositions of these ingredients will affect how the food turns out in texture and density.
Faculty Sponsor: Andrew Duncan
Discipline: Chemistry
Penicillin has been an integral part of humanity’s ability to fight bacterial infections for over 80 years, and, despite recent increases in bacterial resistance, is still a medication used to fight infection that is administered both orally and intravenously. Thanks to modern equipment, we’ve been able to determine the structure of penicillin, and from that, develop penicillin derivatives that can extend our ability to fight bacterial infections, including to bacteria previously unable to be fought off due to the structure of their cell wall and including the development of derivatives in response to bacterial resistance.
Faculty Sponsor: Andrew Duncan
Discipline: Chemistry
Fentanyl is similar to morphine, but is 50–100 times more powerful. It binds to opioid receptors in the central nervous system, specifically the mu-opioid receptors, and has a dramatic effect on the brain and body. A series of effects, including euphoria, sedation, and analgesia, are brought on, but the strength of fentanyl also raises the possibility of respiratory depression, which can result in a lethal overdose. Narcan reverses these tragic occurrences and limits the deaths occurring from fentanyl overdoses. Comprehending the chemistry of Fentanyl and Narcan is essential to controlling its pervasive usage and averting damage.
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
In this poster we discuss the composition of fireworks, which includes structure as well as the materials involved, as well as the environmental and societal impacts they leave. Fireworks are used all around the world, while some cultures use them for other reasons such as protection, they are more commonly used for celebrations. Celebrating is a good way to create community but we have to be aware of the impacts outside of that. The reactions involved in fireworks can pollute the air, soil, water, damage ecosystems, and create toxic living environments. Is it really worth the fun?
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
Spherification is best known for creating the caviar-like pearls common in avant-garde cuisine. Using this technique, chefs transform edible liquids into spheres with a gelatinous outer layer enclosing a still-liquid center. This process requires no specialized equipment: simply mix the desired liquid with a sodium alginate solution, add the resulting mixture in droplets to a calcium salt bath, and let chemistry do the rest. The two solutions will react with each other, strengthening the droplets’ outer layer and trapping the liquid inside. Though mainly used in the kitchen, spherification is inspiring current research in materials science and medicine.
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
The Curiosity Rover, stationed on Mars (2012-present), employs a multitude of scientific processes to better analyze the Martian environment. These processes include laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction analysis, and x-ray spectrometry. All listed are types of astrochemistry: the study of chemical substances and species occurring in stars and interstellar space. The essential question of Curiosity’s mission is whether Mars has ever had the right environmental conditions to sustain life. As of this year, Curiosity has traversed more than 20 km since landing. It has uncovered evidence of a long history of liquid water and promising elemental diversity.
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
Different pill casings’ chemical compositions are significant to their effectiveness due to interactions in acidic or alkaline environments throughout the digestive tract. Vitamins broken down in the small intestine have a longer period of latency prior to effectiveness than vitamins broken down in the stomach. By investigating the medicinal breakdown processes by the stomach and small intestine for compressed tablets, softgel tablets, and gummies, we compare how the pill’s purpose correlates with its experimental breakdown and potential effectiveness, determining which types of vitamins should be administered in which way to maximize the body’s ability to use them.
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
Alchemy is a historic practice of turning one element into another, usually one more common into something rarer. This practice was proved to be impossible and eventually was deemed witchcraft and the practice was forbidden. Until today. Let us introduce modern alchemy, AKA nuclear chemistry. Using modern technology, the idea of turning lead into gold is no longer so far away. Nuclear power and transmutation have turned various substances into gold. Will this long term goal of humanity finally have a change in the modern world?
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
This poster explores the intricate chemistry behind how oxygen influences food spoilage, color changes, and odors. Through examples like apple browning and mold formation, it elucidates polyphenol oxidase's role and the impact of oxygen on food preservation. The chemical findings discussed have far-reaching societal implications, including enhancing food safety, preserving nutritional quality, and reducing economic losses in the food industry. Additionally, consumer awareness is highlighted as a driving force for healthier dietary choices and informed purchasing habits.
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
An emerging pharmaceutical drug for treating cancer has impressive potential for combating cancer and other diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Manufactured by EpicentRx, it has been engineered to cut off a tumor’s source of nutrients and expand blood vessels to assist chemotherapeutics. The drug also does not bind to DNA like other cancer treatments, which prevents more harm to the patient and better treatment. This life-saving medication could have influences all over the medical world, allowing for easier treatment of cancer patients and helping to preserve the lives of many.
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
Since 1999, more than 1 million people have died because of an opiate overdose, with more deaths every year. Opiate antagonists, such as naloxone and Nalmefene, are crucial tools for opiate overdoses. This presentation aims to explore the chemistry and differences between these lifesaving drugs. Nearly 40% of opiate overdoses occurred with bystanders present, so with proper education and resources, a bystander can take steps to prevent overdose deaths, as anyone can carry naloxone and administer it to someone who has suffered an overdose and potentially that person has saved a life.
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
From plastic in spaceships to surgical equipment, organic chemistry is a broad field with applications across all major industries. Polymers, organic molecules that contain carbon with a chain-like structure, make up plastics and are mass-produced on a global scale. Two classes of processes make up most of the industrial production: addition polymerization, and step-reaction polymerization. Both types of processes create polymers containing tens of thousands of monomer subunits. The differences between these two processes affect both function and environmental ramifications, Therefore, large efforts must be made to ensure their safety and minimize their negative impacts.
Faculty Sponsor: Samuel Hinton
Discipline: Chemistry
This project will explain the chemistry behind the pyrolysis of polyethylene, potential uses of its pyrolysis products, and its environmental impacts. Often employing catalysts, polyethylene is heated with solvents to over 400ºC in an oxygen-free environment to break the polymer chains in the plastic, liquefying it into an intermediate state. This can be refined into plastic monomers to be used in traditional plastic recycling or substitutes for fuels such as diesel and gasoline. As plastic waste becomes an increasingly large issue, its function as a chemical recycling process becomes paramount in reducing the impacts of human society on the environment.
Faculty Sponsor: Chuck Williamson
Discipline: Chemistry
Methods of drug administration to patients are important for both medical treatment and the chemical processes they demonstrate. The ability to efficiently disperse a drug throughout the body will depend on several factors, from the part of the body the drug is intended to reach to the goal of the drug once it reaches its target cells. The ways in which drugs achieve these goals can vary, but all are based upon chemical properties and systems. Specifically, we will focus on oral, intravenous, and intramuscular administrations of the antibiotic drug penicillin as related to its various forms.
Faculty Sponsor: Chuck Williamson
Discipline: Chemistry
Lead is one of the most common heavy metals to cause poisoning in humans. It has been utilized in various ways, from commercial products, including gasoline and paints, to specialized industries, like ammunition and engines. While a majority of countries have moved away from allowing lead in products, some industries still allow for its use. Many older facilities, like houses and plumbing pipes, are contaminated with lead, causing individuals to still be susceptible to poisoning. Symptoms of lead poisoning can include lethargy, malnutrition, and mood disorders; however, oftentimes lead poisoning happens over time with the symptoms accumulating slowly.
Faculty Sponsor: Chuck Williamson
Discipline: Chemistry
World War I displayed a new form of warfare through the weaponization of chemistry, beyond the realms of conventional warfare. This new age of warfare manipulated elements of chemical compounds which then became toxic agents capable of inflicting mass destruction of the human body. The effects of these weapons on the body also inspired the usage of medicines that utilized the same compounds for healing. The purpose of this project is to examine the composition of chemical weapons, how they interact with the human body, and how the knowledge gained has been integrated into our society.
Faculty Sponsor: Chuck Williamson
Discipline: Chemistry
Fireworks are known for their entertainment factors, from concerts to holidays to the Disney skies, and fireworks are used almost daily. These celebratory explosions in the sky could not be what they are without chemistry. The chemical reactions are combustion and oxidation reactions and are extremely exothermic. The wonderful colors that we see are created by certain wavelengths being reflected by the metals. However, fireworks are also known as one of the most unusual sources of pollution. When released into the atmosphere, firework particles contain many metals and organic compounds that are causing long-lasting pollution effects, from acid rain to climate change to groundwater/surface water pollution. This research focuses on the major fireworks components that cause negative environmental impacts on the ecosystem and atmosphere.
Faculty Sponsor: Chuck Williamson
Discipline: Chemistry
Red 40 is a synthetic dye present in 29.8% of food products. Red 40 can lead to adverse effects towards hyperactivity, while carrying risks of carcinogenicity, prompting warning labels from the EU. Delving into Red 40's multi-step process—including synthesis, deionization, sulfonation, and purification can help shape the dietary and regulatory frameworks. Investigating the production of Red 40 may bring light to its hazardous carcinogenic aspects. Researching the absorption of Red 40 as well as other alternative dyes invites more informed discussions about potential alterations in products containing Red 40.
Faculty Sponsor: Chuck Williamson
Discipline: Chemistry
A branch of alchemy known as iatrochemistry was a school of thought and study based around using alchemical techniques for medicinal purposes. Iatrochemistry aimed to create more effective medicines and understand more about the human body through the alchemical practices of the time. While alchemy is traditionally thought of as having no basis in chemistry, many old alchemical ideas do still hold some value in modern science. This project will look specifically at the history and use of arsenic— traditionally a potent poison—as a treatment for diseases such as leukemia and trypanosomiasis.
Faculty Sponsor: Chuck Williamson
Discipline: Chemistry
This research contributes to ancient Greek archaeological and geologic context by modeling and analyzing the archaic period Apollonas quarry site on the island of Naxos. In the summer of 2023 through an NSF-IRES project, aerial methods including UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) were utilized to collect LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and photogrammetric data to create georectified three-dimensional models. Mapping the quarry and modeling key features enable insight into the quarry extent, volumetric analysis of removed material, and documentation of broken sculptures as well as tool marks.
Faculty Sponsor: Scott Pike
Discipline: Environmental Science
The purpose of this project is to analyze and measure the ancient marble quarries of Melanes, which are located on the island of Naxos, Greece. During the summer of 2023, aerial surveying techniques using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle were employed to collect photogrammetry and LiDAR data of the site. This was used to generate three-dimensional models of the ancient quarries. Interpretations of this data include the extent of the quarries and a volumetric analysis of the mined materials, which provides insight into the archaeological and geological significance of the site.
Faculty Sponsor: Scott Pike
Discipline: Environmental Science
Mount Pentelikon is home to some of the most exploited quarries in antiquity. Ancient quarrying on Mount Pentelikon began in the 5th century BCE and continued through Roman periods. Few quarry roads remain today, and those that do are difficult to locate and have not been accurately surveyed. Geospatial data using LiDAR and RGB cameras was collected via UAV in the summer of 2023 to create accurate detailed maps and models of the surviving quarry road system. These maps are being used by the Greek Ministry of Culture to develop a conservation plan for these archaeological resources.
Faculty Sponsor: Scott Pike
Discipline: Environmental Science
Mathematical billiards is a dynamical system where a point travels inside a table and reflects off its boundary much like a physical pool table. Our research investigates defining more interesting billiard tables, such as regular k-gons, and expansions past the plane. In particular, we expand the billiard literature onto surfaces of revolution such as the sphere and pseudosphere. On such surfaces, we find launch angles for periodic orbits, orbits that loop back upon themselves, and orbit variants that do not work in the plane but are made possible in negative curvature. Orbits are simulated through a Mathematica codebase.
Faculty Sponsor: Josh Laison
Discipline: Mathematics
In the face of increasing danger from climate hazards, how do Oregon’s most vulnerable and most impacted communities, particularly farmworkers, get assistance from the Oregon Health Authority, an agency responsible for administering state health programs? Migrant farm laborers and their families are one of the most at-risk communities within the state of Oregon – experiencing significantly greater impacts from environmental hazards while also navigating strenuous working conditions. In light of this, OHA recently established a division focused on farmworkers during the Covid-19 pandemic. To better understand the relationship between agricultural workers' health outcomes, I explore OHA’s ability to disburse resources during extreme weather events. Results are based on an interview with an official within the Oregon Health Authority.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
Over the past five years there have been a multitude of climate events striking Oregon such as the labor day fires, the ice storms, and the heat dome. While these events affect everyone in the community, farmworkers are among the most vulnerable to the damaging and sometimes fatal results that they bring. In these years of unpredictable climate, creating a protected working environment for our farmers is crucial. For this project I have interviewed an organization that works with farmworkers to see how they have organized throughout these times to maintain their business along with the safety of their staff.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
The Pacific Northwest has felt the effects of several natural disasters in recent years; from the wildfires and ice storms of 2020, to the devastating heat dome of 2021. Migrant families and farmworkers in Oregon have been disproportionately affected by these weather events. We have conducted an interview with Arturo Sarmiento from Radio Poder, a Spanish-speaking radio broadcast, as part of our Environmental Health Hazards and Threats (EHHT) research project, to better understand how these threats were communicated to vulnerable populations and farmworkers in the state.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
This project will focus on the environmental harm communities face in Woodburn, Oregon, on a daily basis and the complications that the harm places on the community. Environmental harm can be seen as physical, emotional, and interpersonal, as these harms can pose risks to families and their livelihoods. Through storytelling methods in a focus group with farmworkers in an environmental justice community mapping workshop, they are participating in a larger Environmental Health Hazards and Threats project. The stories of the community members will shed light on prominent issues and raise awareness by sharing personal experiences.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
I will be conducting interview research with the Oregon Latino Health Coalition (OLHC) in conjunction with Willamette University and the Marion-Polk County Health Department, in order to better understand how organizations in Oregon respond to Environmental Health Hazards and Threats. Using an organization capacity interview tool, I will be collecting information on how their organizational capacity is affected and how they support farmworkers in Oregon. Additionally, I will assess how the large environmental hazards in Oregon history have been addressed by the OLHC. I expect a healthy but challenged organization that empowers immigrants, and by extension, farmworkers.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
Farm workers are a fundamental workforce within the United States and represent a main stakeholder in climate action and global health emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic and recent environmental events, many farm workers have faced unnecessary challenges due to a lack of access to important information. The need for clear and transparent information among immigrant workers, especially those in the agriculture sector is rampant. Therefore, it is important to understand how members of community organizations surrounding farm workers communicate community hazards including wildfires, severe weather, and water quality. This study attempts to understand how key community members specifically Ramiro Navarro communicated environmental and health hazards to immigrant farm worker communities.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
For this research project I will collect and analyze data presented to me regarding the increased threats brought by extreme and hazardous climate and the effects they have on the farm labor communities within Orgean. I will present my findings with a poster and conduct my research by conducting an interview with an official from the Oregon Latino Health Coalition. In addition to discovering the impacts the labor communities are forced to endure, I will also display the methods of how such an organization supports these communities.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
This poster will reflect the product of two different interviews concerning Farm Workers in Marion County. The first will be a group interview with Farm Workers. The interview will center a community mapping exercise to explore environmental hazards people experience. The second interview will be with a Farm Worker serving organization inquiring about solutions to environmental hazards and understanding of community. This poster will explore how different community members understand and interact with environmental hazards. With two perspectives, this poster will explore environmental impacts on both the personal and community scale.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
This poster presentation analyzes the relationship between workplace power dynamics and farm workers’ responses to environmental hazards in Marion County. Data was collected from a small focus group of farm workers in Marion County, as part of a larger Environmental Health Hazards and Threats grant-funded project. This information is used to explore how workplace hierarchies – especially the relationship between bosses and employees – shape agricultural workers’ responses to threats like wildfire smoke and heat domes. The presentation will also describe how these workers conceptualize these workplace dynamics in relation to environmental hazards and what they see as solutions.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
Farm workers are an essential workforce in the United States, and they are key stakeholders in climate action and global health concerns. Despite their importance, they are frequently disregarded in policymaking, resulting in communication gaps. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis and other environmental disasters, many people faced challenges owing to language problems and a lack of resources. Immigrant laborers, particularly in agriculture, require easily available and clear information. Understanding how community organizations communicate concerns like wildfires and water quality to these workers is critical. This study, part of the Environmental Health Hazards and Hazards initiative, identifies both threats and obstacles in communicating information to prevent more harm.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
In this project, we will talk specifically about the issue of agricultural workers in Oregon. The topic that will be carried out is agricultural workers and the great complications they have due to not knowing English. Immigrant workers have had many problems with language since they have caused very serious problems such as not understanding the information that is provided to help them because it is not translated into their language. Other complications that will be discussed will be what this has caused mentally in agricultural workers since it has created a great mental problem in all of them.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
Farm laborers are on the front lines of the climate crisis, dubbed by some academics to be “climate canaries.” They are the first to be impacted by environmental and health hazards such as wildfires and ice storms, yet often the last group to reach help. How are non-governmental organizations supporting farm laborers in response to these increasingly common threats, while attempting to overcome daunting barriers to providing crucial services and outreach? Based on an interview with one key community stakeholder, this presentation explores the organizational component of this pressing issue.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
Farm workers are a fundamental workforce within the United States and represent a main stakeholder in climate action and global health emergencies. Although an essential workforce, the farm labor community is largely ignored by governmental policy and remains in a communication crisis. Specifically, during the COVID-19 pandemic and recent environmental events, many farm workers have faced unnecessary challenges due to a lack of access to important information. Farm workers often lacked information in their native language, or access to important resources such as KN 95 Masks, or information about the vaccine. The need for clear and transparent information among immigrant workers, especially those in the agriculture sector is rampant. Therefore, it is important to understand how members of community organizations surrounding farm workers communicate community hazards including wildfires, severe weather, and water quality. Communication is key to saving lives during environmental, and health hazards. This study attempts to understand how key community members specifically Ramiro Navarro communicated environmental and health hazards to immigrant farm worker communities. This research is part of a larger project called the Environmental Health Hazards and Threats and is based on an interview with a key community member Ramiro Navarro. Our findings suggest that some significant benefits and challenges exist in communication to prevent more deaths from these environmental hazards.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
The purpose of this study is to illuminate the experiences of farm workers in Oregon. This research will achieve this goal by interviewing community members that interact with farm workers and a focus group with farm workers themselves. The interviews and focus group will be structured with a set of questions that are designed to illuminate the experience of farm workers in Oregon in relation to environmental hazards. This poster is interested in learning how farm workers relate environmental hazards to their mental health.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
Willamette students interview a community partner organization to gain an understanding of how state agencies support agricultural workers as part of the EHHT project in collaboration with Marion and Polk Counties. This research aims to gain an understanding of what state agencies' perceive to be the environmental impacts that farm laborers face. Researchers ask questions around the role of the organization, communications, limits to their work, environmental impacts, and more. Findings add to the body of knowledge on how farm workers are impacted by the environment, expecting to find that organizations view hot weather and wildfire smoke as pressing impacts.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
For this research project, I am going to participate in a community mapping activity as well as an interview with Martha Lopez for PCUN. After this data collection, I will have the opportunity to look into the data and find out more about Farm Labor and how that operates in Oregon. In particular, for this research I am interested in how the farm workers are able to live and transport themselves to their jobs. I am curious how farm workers get to their jobs with all of the adversity they face. What does their transportation and home life look like in relation to their jobs?
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
Salem and the northwest in general has felt the effects of several natural disasters in recent years, from the wildfires and ice storms of 2020, to the devastating heat dome of 2021. For EEHT I have conducted an interview with Arturo Sarmiento from Radio Poder, a Spanish-speaking radio broadcast, as part of a research project to better understand environmental health hazards and threats, and how they are communicated to migrant and vulnerable farmworker communities.
Faculty Sponsor: Jennifer Martinez-Medina
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
As Artificial Intelligence and deepfake technology becomes increasingly more common, one must question the effects it may have on society. Prior literature has demonstrated that deep fakes can lead to false memory formation in young adults, however no one has looked at deepfakes' influence on false memory in older adults. Older adults have been found to be more susceptible to false memories and display a diminished ability to recollect specific information. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effects of deep faked videos on memory and attitudes in an older adult population compared to university students.
Faculty Sponsor: Jeremy Miller
Discipline: Psychology
The current study explores holistic and atomistic coding of personality traits in archival interviews about American folk artist Bob Dylan, who was chosen based on access to multiple detail-rich interviews. The holistic approach consists of coders independently reading and coding interviews for the well-established Big 5 traits and six new traits gleaned from existing literature. The atomistic approach consists of coders searching for and noting the presence of 401 personality-salient adjectives throughout the same interviews. The researchers examined the presence and variability of traits within and across interviews, the association between holistic and atomistic coding, and the applicability of six narrower traits.
Faculty Sponsor: Erik Noftle
Discipline: Psychology
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with differences in attentional ability, including selective attention. The present study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to compare neural systems for selective attention in adult college students with versus without ADHD. Twenty participants, half diagnosed with ADHD, selectively attended to stimuli from one ear while attempting to ignore stimuli from the other ear. ERPs were recorded to stimuli presented in the attended versus unattended ear. This study is based on a 2012 study that looked at a similar effect in children with versus without ADHD. Data processing and analysis is in progress.
Faculty Sponsor: Courtney Stevens
Discipline: Psychology
For students, psychological stress often comes in the form of academic pressure, coursework overload, and eventually, the cynicism, exhaustion, and feelings of inadequacy characteristic of “burnout.” Still, relatively little is known about the relationship between burnout and the psychosomatic health of undergraduate students specifically. In a sample of 118 undergraduates, the present study asked students to self-report psychosomatic symptoms commonly associated with clinical burnout. Hierarchical regression found that the construct of burnout explained unique variation in psychosomatic symptoms. Given these results, a follow-up study explored the cortisol awakening response (CAR) as a potential biomarker for undergraduate burnout.
Faculty Sponsor: Courtney Stevens
Discipline: Psychology
The present study looked at the relationship between exposure to mock social media feeds and short-term self esteem ratings. My research question of interest was “Does exposure to social-media like content impact self esteem”? Participants either looked at images that were loaded either towards the type of content common in social media feedso or a series of neutral images. After scrolling through the images for for 40 minutes and responding to questions about each image, participants (N = 110) filled out the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1979). Results will be presented comparing the two different stimuli conditions.
Faculty Sponsor: Courtney Stevens
Discipline: Psychology