Impressions of Relationship and Couples’ Conflict

http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1051/thumbnail.jp

On the Relationship between Sleep, Stress, and Academic Achievement in Undergraduates

Building on existing literature of the effects of sleep behaviors on academic performance, I examine undergraduate university students’ sleep behaviors including quality of sleep, duration of sleep, and stress as influences on academic achievement, measured by students’ self-reported grade point averages (GPA) and their score on their most recent exams. Data was gathered from 369 undergraduate students for analysis of self-reported GPA and 439 undergraduate university students for analysis of exam score. Findings of bivariate and multivariate regression analyses suggest quality of sleep and duration of sleep are not significant influences of academic achievement on either measure (self-reported GPA or score on most recent exam). Findings do suggest a significant negative impact of stress on the second measure of academic achievement (most recent exam score). Taken together, results do not support either hypothesis, thereby indicating other influences may affect academic performance of undergraduate students

Situational Selection and Intergroup Relations

It is well established that favorable intergroup contact experiences reduce prejudice. We were interested in identifying personality variables that might lead some people to seek out favorable intergroup contact experiences and others to avoid them. Broadly, this process is called situational selection. Our main proposition is that the personality traits of openness, agreeableness, and authoritarianism influence the extent to which people seek out and enter into favorable intergroup contact situations, which, in turn, lead to favorable intergroup attitudes. The specific outgroups we examined for this study were Muslims, refugees, immigrants, the military, and Christian fundamentalists. To test our predictions, we asked 293 participants to complete measures of personality, intergroup contact experiences, and intergroup attitudes. Our main hypothesis was supported. Intergroup attitudes were significantly affected by the personality traits of openness, agreeableness, and authoritarianism, and these relationships were mediated by contact experiences. However, the strength of the relationships was also dependent on which outgroup was being evaluated. These results have implications for contact theory, which has generally neglected the potential role of personality. In addition, our results reveal a potential mechanism (intergroup contact) that may help explain why certain personality traits are associated with intergroup attitudes.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1028/thumbnail.jp

Living Without Sound

This project will be based on deaf culture and the awareness to the accessibilities and rights they have and the worldviews that are put on them. Because there are more than one million deaf people in the world, this is a topic that needs to be discussed and presented. I also want to inform people that may not know how to approach a deaf person and assist that person.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1035/thumbnail.jp

Effects of Cucumaria frondosa Extracts Against Melanoma Cell Cancer

http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1049/thumbnail.jp

Identification and Characterization of Soybean Aphid Amino Acid Transporters Involved in Glutamine Transport at the Aphid/Buchnera symbiotic interface

http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1057/thumbnail.jp

Dynamics of Soybean Vein Necrosis Virus Teplication in Vector Soybean Thrips (Neohydathothrips Variabilis)

http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1015/thumbnail.jp

The Emperors of Mexico: The Empire Strikes Out

Ceitidh (Katie) MacDonald is currently an IPFW senior majoring in Political Science, International Relations, Pre-Med and History. After a 20 year military career, Ms. MacDonald decided to further her academic studies as a precursor to a law program with hopes of a new career in Immigration and Veteran laws as well as Constitutional and International law