Oral Session III: 3:00-4:00PM
Oral Session III- Rooms A-C
Abstract Volume and Quick Reference Guide
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ROOM A
Art
3:00-3:20PM
Marie Curie: Life and Legacy
Presenter(s): Morgan Grimes
Advisor(s): Lia Halloran
Marie Curie was a Polish-born French scientist in the early 20th century. She became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903, and became the first person to win a Nobel Prize in more than one scientific discipline in 1911. Her contributions to the field of radiation won her the Nobel Prize in Physics. Her discovery and subsequent isolation of both Radium and Polonium won her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Following her discovery of these highly radioactive elements Curie worked to refine and improve medical techniques utilizing these elements. After she won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Marie Curie spent the rest of her life researching and implementing radioactive medical techniques. Her research laid the foundation for a range of diagnostic techniques as well as the development of nuclear energy and radiotherapy (RT). She was responsible for implementing mobile x-ray units for medical use during World War I as well as the foundation of the Radium Institute in France as well as Poland, both of which are devoted to utilizing radium in the field of medicine to improve and save lives. This project explores the incredible foundation that Marie Curie laid for modern science, technology, and medicine. Her contributions to these fields lead to a ripple effect of incredible advancements. The images created are to honor her incredible discoveries as well as acknowledge the fields on which she had the greatest impact. Marie Curie was an incredible woman and a brilliant scientist and my work strives to honor her and the life she selflessly devoted to science.
3:20-3:40PM
Nicole Daskas: A Retrospective
Presenter(s): Nicole Daskas
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
Nicole Daskas: A Retrospective (2021) aims to highlight the underappreciation and marginalization of women artists that occurs in the art world. I am thinking about the ways women artists have been silenced throughout art history: outshined by their husbands, celebrated only in old age, or only after death. I present myself and my work as that of a well-known, successful artist. I also present performance relics as precious art objects, questioning why performance art is non commodifiable. By creating art books and interviewing myself, I lead the conversation around my own practice and work. This piece is not a traditional retrospective. It is questioning the structures and expectations of a patriarchal art world. I am looking back over the span of my undergraduate career, reframing the standard expected output of a BFA. In this sense, the term retrospective is fitting. I am also interested in exploring what it means to have a retrospective at the beginning of my career, and questioning the history of male artists’ spectacles and egotistical gestures by essentially creating one of my own. Nicole Daskas: A Retrospective culminates in an installation featuring video documentation of my past video and performance work, relics, and staged interviews. I parody interviews by artists historically celebrated as geniuses, examining the construction of this idea of “genius”. I continue an engagement with art history by inserting myself into a male dominated, sexist history. Nicole Daskas: A Retrospective is an exploration and celebration of my work. This conceptual piece questions why such opportunities are not readily available for women artists.
3:40-4:00PM
Complementary Colors
Presenter(s): Katie Carder
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
While creating this 16 x 12 inch painting I was focusing on using complementary colors and what type of objects and scenery could be used to develop the contrast between the colors blue and orange. I chose to paint a variety of tvs in this forest scene. I wanted them to feel out of place while still being grounded in the landscape. I felt the need to investigate how complementary colors obviously work together but also create a pleasing contrast. I believe the use of the objects and the landscape that I chose to paint helped to depict this interesting dynamic between complementary colors.
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ROOM B
Dance
3:00-3:20PM
To This Day: The Tragedy of Bullying
Presenter(s): Gabrielle Guzy
Advisor(s): Micol Hebron
Bullying occurs in 20% of students ages 12-18 throughout the nation. It used to be thought of as physical abuse, however it has become increasingly more complex in the last fifty years. Verbal harassment is the most common type of bullying reported at 79%, but the different types of mistreatment (social harassment, cyberbullying, etc.) are still prominent. The effect that bullying has on the victims is lasting and can be incredibly detrimental to their mental health. It can lead to depression and anxiety as well as increased feelings of isolation, despair, rejection, and exclusion. In extreme cases, bullying can have a contributing factor in suicide risk. People that are victims of harassment can experience effects well into adulthood. The situations they dealt with as children were at a time when they are figuring out who they are. The influence on how they see themselves throughout their lives is completely affected and can be damaged by bullying. Shane Koyczan’s To This Day Project is a bitterly truthful depiction of bullying. He tells three tragic stories about experiences with victimization, the overall effect that it has on those who fall prey to bullies, and ends it with inspirational words spoken to the victims. I choreographed a dance to his project in hopes to spread the word on the pain and suffering that people face at the hands of the tormentors. There is a beautiful video that goes along with Koyczan’s project, but as a dancer I express stories and feelings through movement. I aim to provide artistic visuals to increase the intention of his words, bring awareness to bullying, and spread hope to those that are struggling.
Political Science
3:20-3:40PM
How Religiosity impacts Americans’ views on Immigration
Presenter(s): Crash Shahinian
Advisor(s): Dr. John Compton
There is no doubt that religiosity influences people's behaviors in ways that aren’t always apparent at first glance. Past research indicates that religiosity does have an effect on one's view on immigration, indicating that members of larger religious congregations tend to view immigration in a more negative light when compared to those from smaller religious organizations. An issue that arises in past research, is the failure to analyze if the rate of church attendance affects one's views on immigration. In this paper, I intend to quantify the effects of religiosity influences individuals sentiment towards immigration, using controls of race, age, rates of church attendance, history of immigration, and party identification using the data supplied by the 2016 ANES survey. I hypothesize that the greater the once rate of church attendance, the higher their anti-immigration sentiment will be. I expect this to be especially present in individuals who so identified their religious identification to be Evangelical, Fundmentalist, or Traditional.
3:40-4:00PM
How Religiosity Interacts with Gender to Shape Policy Preferences
Presenter(s): Brennen Ramos
Advisor(s): Dr. John Compton
Political Scientists have long attempted to research the factors that shape individuals’ political preferences. One major factor investigated in recent years has been gender – specifically, the differences between men’s and women’s voting behavior. Widely known as the “gender gap,” this phenomenon has been repeatedly documented even after accounting for many other factors that can affect voter support. Another major component studied in political science are the effects of religion. Religion is important to individuals all across the world, often guiding them in day-to-day life and activities. Subconsciously, this religiosity can adversely affect the political identifications made towards major parties and key issues within society. This paper will investigate how religiosity interacts with the gender gap across controversial political topics within the US. The specific topics explored will be feelings towards police, stance on immigration, and the legality of marijuana.
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ROOM C
Psychology
3:00-3:20PM
Personality Differences Between College Students With and Without Siblings
Presenter(s): Lindsay Hammerle
Advisor(s): Dr. Desiree Crevecoeur-MacPhail
The purpose of the current study was to analyze the personality differences between college students with siblings and college students without siblings in regard to the Big 5 traits of extraversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. Additionally, the research aimed to examine whether college students with siblings engage in higher amounts of social comparison than college students without siblings. Trait theory guided this research as the leading approach to the study of personality psychology. Extraversion is linked to the tendency to be positive, social, and talkative, for extraverts feel the most stimulated amidst social situations. Neuroticism is defined as one’s level of emotional stability, and describes the tendency to experience negative affective states such as anxiety, depression, and irritability. Conscientious individuals are organized, hardworking, and possess high self-control. Furthermore, families with siblings provide ample opportunities for making social comparisons in terms of parent and sibling relations, as siblings are prone to feelings of jealousy and competition. The Big Five Inventory (BFI) and Social Comparison Scale were the questionnaires used to measure the participants’ degree of extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and social comparison engagement. Data was collected from 51 college students from Chapman University and Cal State University Dominguez Hills. This study expects to find that the college students with siblings will score higher in extraversion and social comparison, while the college students without siblings will score higher in neuroticism and conscientiousness.
3:20-3:40PM
The Impacts of Race Implicit Association Test Training on Undergraduate Students
Presenter(s): Rachel Norum
Advisor(s): Dr. Desiree Crevecoeur-MacPhail
The implicit association test's (IAT) popularity has increased since it was first developed in 1995, and researchers still debate its usefulness today. Even with this debate, people have begun to create implicit association test training, for both businesses and schools, particularly for implicit race associations. Much of this training to reduce implicit associations lacks evidence-based research to support its value and application. The balanced identity theory (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) investigates the differing strengths of associations through the IAT. This paper explores different aspects of the implicit association test and whether training can reduce their implicit biases. The subjects will be asked to take the IAT two times, take another questionnaire, and the experimental group will also undergo implicit association training. The purpose of this research is to determine if participants' previous experience of the implicit association test, implicit association training, race, and explicit test scores of racial bias correlates with their race implicit association test scores. Four hypotheses will be investigated in this research. The first hypothesis is that all participants' implicit association test scores will be lower in preference of either race if they have a greater familiarity with the IAT. The second hypothesis for this experiment is that there will be a decrease in bias scores for those who underwent implicit association training. The third hypothesis is that overall, white participants will have a higher score of white preference on the implicit association test than black participants. This study's fourth hypothesis is that participants are likely to have lower scores of bias on their self-reported questionnaires compared to their implicit association test results.
3:40-4:00PM
COVID-19 Conspiracy Beliefs are Linked to Reduced Prevention Behavior and Lower Receptivity to Vaccination
Presenter(s): Natalie Standridge, Clarissa Tadros
Advisor(s): Dr. Tara Gruenewald
Conspiracy theories are beliefs that a group of individuals is attempting to achieve sinister goals in secret. These beliefs usually result from fear and existential threat and are associated with decreased psychological and physical well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many people in the United States and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs have grown in popularity. Such beliefs may undermine public and personal health, as past research indicates that greater conspiratorial thinking is associated with lower frequency of preventative health behaviors. This study examined whether greater belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories would be linked to lower levels of COVID-19 prevention behavior, less receptivity towards the COVID-19 vaccine, and lower levels of COVID-specific prosocial behavior in a sample of 1,728 U.S. adults collected through the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. Participants completed four online surveys over approximately one-year (April, July, September-October 2020, March-April 2021) to assess COVID-19 experiences and psychosocial and physical well-being. COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs were measured at waves two and four and frequency of engagement in COVID prosocial and prevention behaviors were assessed at every wave. Vaccine receptivity was assessed at wave 4. As hypothesized, greater belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories predicted lower frequency of engagement in COVID-19 prevention behaviors (wave 2 β=-.36, p<.001; wave 4 β =-.42, p<.001) and less receptivity to COVID-19 vaccination (β =-.76, p<.001), in regression models including age, sex, and race covariates. Contrary to hypotheses, greater COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs exhibited a small positive association with frequency of prosocial behavior (wave 2 β=.08, p<.01, wave 4 β=.07, p<.05). Given observed associations between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and decreased engagement in COVID-19 prevention behaviors and much lower receptivity towards vaccination, these beliefs appear to be important public health targets.
