The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Psychology students present research at SWPA conference

    The Southwestern Psychology Association got to see exactly what the university's psychology department was made of. Three groups of students from the University, both psychology graduates and undergraduates, along with Professor Daniel Chadborn, travelled to San Antonio, Texas, to present their research studies to the psychology community. The convention lasted from Thursday, April 3 to Saturday, April 5 and took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
    The SWPA promotes an annual meeting in effort to contribute to its main goal of promoting and contributing to psychology's scientific, professional and educational areas. The meeting offers poster presentations, continuing education sessions, workshops and invited talks. Everybody in the psychology community can attend. The purpose of the convention is to spread knowledge.
    "It was like my own version of a Psychologist's Candy Land," said Eddie Wright, a graduate from one of the groups. "I was very excited to attend a convention that revolved around my interest, and to see other research conducted by other universities as well as their expression at seeing our own work, gave me a sense of belonging and fulfillment."
    The first group, which was led by Chadborn, was composed of graduate students, Wright and Aastha Thapa and undergraduate student, William Schmidt. They led two presentations, one explaining the gender differences found in male and female fans that belonged to a fandom [fan community]. The other presentation covered the typology of the fans and the main five classifications. They mainly focused on classifying Bronies, male fans belonging to the fandom for My Little Pony.
    "What this research is taking is those five key fan types that we found in earlier research and using data from more recent surveys with about three to four thousand participants from both Southeastern and several colleges in South Carolina as well as a bunch of online participants from across the country," said Chadborn. "We wanted to take a look at the typology as well as some differences within the group."
    Graduate students, Angelica Giuffria and her partner, Kaly Solek led the second group; Dr. Paula Varnado-Sullivan also contributed to the research but did not present. The presentation looks into the stigma/negative attitudes towards upper limb amputees in a university setting, comparing opinions towards four different images ranging from a student missing her left arm, one wearing a functional prosthesis, one wearing a cosmetic prosthesis and one with no amputation, serving as the control image.
    Leah Derks, second year psychology graduate, made up the third group. She presented "To Push or Not to Push: An Identity Fusion Study," which explores how a person's perception of being an individual becomes fused with their perception of being a group member.
    For more information on SWPA and the presentations visit their website, swpsych.org/index.php.
     

     

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