Personality & Social Development

Research Team

Last updated on 3/13/08

Goals and Objectives for the Research Team

We provide opportunities for "hands-on" experiences in conducting psychological research. Some of the areas we examine are:

We prefer to work in teams to achieve project completion. We also help students in preparing for and applying to graduate school. In return, we expect team members to make a commitment of time, energy, and effort to the team.

Requirements

Members of our team typically register for PSY 290 for 3 hours of course credit per semester. Students are expected to contribute 9 to 10 hours per week during the semester to all aspects of research. These activities include designing experiments, testing participants (AKA "running subjects"), entering and cleaning data, coding data, recruiting participants, preparing research materials, and informally presenting results. We emphasize hands-on experience, so our members spend most of their time in the laboratory interacting with participants. Members are required to attend a weekly research team meeting. Members also are expected to provide their own transportation to data collection sites in the local area, to dress and behave appropriately for data collection with children (e.g., no ripped jeans, t-shirts with obscenities or alcohol/substances, use of foul language, smoking), complete weekly research logs, and to maintain confidentiality of research materials (i.e., student is not permitted to remove research materials from the laboratory or data collection sites).

Current Projects

One current study involves a primary prevention program. We are interested in examining how individual differences in personality may help predict responses to a class-wide intervention. It involves participants between the ages of 3 and 6 years. Research team members will be providing lessons for the intervention, conducting observations of children, and collecting parent and teacher report data. We need help presenting lessons, conducting integrity checks of these lessons, assessing personality by contacting parents and teachers, and coding data. Please contact us for more information about this project.

A second line of research examines individual differences in reactions to different types of people. The participants in this study will be pre-service teachers and/or college students. Research team members will be testing participants in a complex laboratory experiment. Duties include assisting with prescreening sessions, scheduling participants, testing participants, cleaning data, and interpreting results. Please contact us for more information about this project. 

Spring 2008 Team Members                                                  

Project Leaders                                                        Team Veterans                                             New Team Members

Lee Affrunti                                                              Jackie Baertschi                                           Allen Creamean           

Daniel Gadke (lab coordinator)                           Stacey Garner                                               Sandra Healy

Katherine (Kate) Gioia                                           Nicole Moore                                               Monica Muciaccia

Katherine (Katie) Hartmann                                  Sakavasia (Teke) Smith                            Brenna Pardieck

Kristin Miller                                                           Elizabeth (Ellie) Wickes                             Natalie Stoller

                                                                                   


Future Projects

 

Similar studies involving both children and college students will be conducted in the fall semester. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about our research.

 

Renée M. Tobin, Ph.D.

Advisor

Office                         Laboratory

DeGarmo 439            DeGarmo 41

(309) 438-8169           (309) 438-7887

Psychology Department

 

Past Research Teams

Fall 2007

Spring 2007

Fall 2006

Spring 2006

Fall 2005

Spring 2005

Spring 2004

Spring 2003

If you have any questions about our research, please e-mail us!

Research Team Alumni

Coming soon!

Contact us with updated information on research team alumni.