Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From Identity To Intimacy: Exploring Transgender People’S Dating Attitudes For Gender Experience, Finneas Frawley

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Of the research that exists on transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people’s dating lives, much of it focuses on cisgender people’s negative perceptions of TGNC partners. The little that does focus on TGNC experiences offers limited and contrasting information about TGNC dating preferences for cisgender and TGNC partners. Using an online survey distributed to TGNC adults (N = 246), we explore TGNC people’s attitudes toward both cisgender and TGNC partners as well as what influences these attitudes. Our predictive model is modified from the Gender Minority Stress and Resilience (GMSR) model (Testa et al., 2015), and we draw upon both …

Rumination And The Gut Microbiome:Effects Of A Brief Mindfulness Intervention, Moeka Kamiya

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Recent work has found relationships between the gut microbiota—the community of organisms that inhabit an animal’s digestive tract—and psychological health. In particular, the gut microbiota of individuals with depression shows a different genetic composition to those without depression. Thus, this study explored how rumination, a predictor of depression, and gut microbiota composition are correlated to detect possible gut microbiota alterations present before depression develops. This study also examined whether a brief mindfulness mobile application intervention, which has been shown to reduce rumination, can increase beneficial bacteria abundance and decrease pathogenic bacteria abundance. Participants were 16 first-year students. They engaged in …

Evaluating The Moderating Effect Of Gender On Adolescents’ Internalizing Symptoms Throughout The First Wave Of Covid-19, Naomi C. Curran

Lawrence University Honors Projects

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic sent adolescents home to shelter-in-place in relative social isolation, potentially disrupting support networks, and compromising youth mental health. This may particularly impact already vulnerable groups, such as girls and transgender/gender diverse (TGD) adolescents, who experience a greater risk for depression and anxiety disorders than their peers. The present study investigated the moderating effect of gender on adolescents’ internalizing symptoms throughout the first wave of COVID-19. I hypothesized that the onset of the pandemic would increase TGD adolescents’ internalizing symptoms to a greater degree than their cisgender peers, and girls’ internalizing symptoms more than boys’. Data …

Sorting Out Sexism: Evaluating The Differing Content And Implications Of Gender Stereotypes, Juliana Earvolino, Rebecca Schachtman

Lawrence University Honors Projects

We examine, in three studies, the content and implications of sexist comments directed toward men and women. While past research has often overlooked sexism directed toward men because of its lower frequency and perceived consequences, due to the complementary nature of gender stereotypes it is important to examine sexism in all its guises. Our first two studies are descriptive, gathering comments from male and female participants about “what men/women are like” and their differing reactions to such comments. Study 1 found that comments about men fall into five distinct categories: sex-driven, child-like, “macho,” morally flawed, and dehumanizing. Study 2 examines …

On Multiethnic Schools In Consociational Democracies: A Comparative Analysis Of Brčko District And Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jusuf Šarančić

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement both ended the Bosnian War and created the consociational democracy that exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina to this day. The ethnic autonomy created by the Dayton Agreement has resulted in a frozen conflict between ethnic groups that has manifested itself in the country’s monoethnic education system. This study explores the short-term stability under consociationalism and the long-term stability under a multiethnic education system. Additionally, this study explains the importance of the country’s only multiethnic education system in Brčko District and how it came into existence.

How Sexism Makes The Man: Examining The Relationship Between Masculinity, Ambivalent Sexism, And Gender Stereotyping, Mariah L. Wilkerson

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Masculinity is a precarious social status, meaning it can be lost through social and gender transgressions (Bosson & Vandello, 2011). Men often act in stereotypically masculine ways to reassert their masculinity and restore their social status after it has been threatened. The current study also examines masculinity in a new way, as a collective gender identity (e.g., Tajfel, 1982). I hypothesized that threatened men and men who identify as more masculine will display masculinity through more polarized attitudes towards traditional and nontraditional groups of men and women, endorsing traditional gender stereotypes, and intensified ambivalently sexist attitudes. Two empirical studies tested …

Lawrence University Psychologist Awarded Fulbright Research Fellowship To Canada, Lawrence University

Press Releases

Lawrence University Professor of Psychology Terry Gottfried has been awarded a $25,000 Fulbright Fellowship. Beginning in January 2014, Gottfried will spend five months as the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Brain, Language and Music at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

During his fellowship appointment, Gottfried will continue his ongoing research into the relation between music and speech processing. Working in collaboration with McGill researcher Linda Polka, Gottfried will examine the influence of linguistic and musical experience on listeners segmentation of the speech stream into words.