elisajcr

Pictured: Lake Michigan from Northwestern Beach

This past March, I was selected to participate in the Northwestern Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP). I arrived on campus on June 24. Our first two days were an orientation to campus life and to the expectations of the program. By the end of our seven weeks here, we will have created a poster and written a full paper.

There are 40 of us from all over the country spanning the many different disciplines, from humanities, to the social sciences, to the physical sciences, and more.

I am working the SCIP Lab, and I will be examining the connections between ostracism and adherence to stereotypes. I have been in the lab from 9-5 every day since Wednesday, doing training, becoming acquainted with lab protocol, and preparing myself to launch a study.

Northwestern is a beautiful campus, right on Lake Michigan! I’m excited to spend my summer here. More updates to come!

Conferences

Spring Conference Update: WPCUR 2018

June 30, 2018July 3, 2019 elisajcr

Pictured: My 2017-2018 research team presenting at the SMC Honors Program Symposium.

On April 21, 2018, my 2017-2018 research team presented at the Western Psychological Conference for Undergraduate Research (WPCUR) at my home institution, Saint Mary’s College of California.

Students from all over the West Coast presented their research from a number of different perspectives within the field, which reflected the multifaceted specialties within psychology.

My team, consisting of Rachel Law SMC’18, Alex Short SMC’18, Prof. Paul Zarnoth, and myself, examined the link between gender, gender expression, and sexism. Our findings were complex and nuanced. For example, higher masculinity predicted higher sexism in women, but not men.

Our team won the Best Poster Award for this academic year, which is shown in the link above and in the picture below. Congrats to all the participants!

Academics, Conferences

Spring Conference Update: SPSP 2018

June 30, 2018July 3, 2019 elisajcr

From March 1-3, I was in Atlanta, Georgia for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia (SPSP 2018)

SPSP 2018 Highlights

This year, Prof. Zarnoth and I had the opportunity to present our 2016-2017 research at SPSP 2018. Our research, entitled “How the ‘Confidence Gap’ Creates Gender Differences in Social Influence” examined how confidence mediates the relationship between gender and social influence. In other words, men have a disproportionate amount of social influence in male/female pairs, but this social influence comes from an unwarranted amount of confidence, which is a changeable factor. With this year’s research, we created a manipulation where we encouraged women to bolster their confidence and men to temper their confidence.

Additionally, I was a Science Writer Intern for the three days of the convention. I covered three symposia for the SPSP Character and Context blog. My writing about the 2018 SPSP Convention can be found on my Published Writing page.

Debate

Debate Fall 2017 Accomplishments

February 9, 2018June 30, 2018 elisajcr

Find out more about the Saint Mary’s Debate Team on our Facebook page.

Featured photo: The team finishing the Mile High Swing in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 7, 2018. From left to right: Chris Miles (assistant coach for the tournament), me, Isabel Jeronimo, Marielle Gardner, Maya Szafraniec, and Matthew Swanson (coach)

Fall 2017 has been one of our most successful seasons as a team. My debate partner Isabel Jeronimo and I have come so far in our debate careers. In our second year as a partnership, we have learned what it means to debate together while also exploring arguments we like to use.

During our first tournament of the season, the Golden Gate Opener at San Francisco State University in late September, we made quarterfinals in open parliamentary debate (Pictured below). In my first try at college speech events, I won novice extemporaneous speech in the second half of the speech tournament.

The next tournament was the Biggest Little City Classic at University of Nevada at Reno. We were the second seed and once again made the quarterfinal rounds.

Last month, we competed at the Mile High Swing, which was consisted of two tournaments in one weekend. Both partnerships who went made elimination rounds at both halves of the tournament.

Academics

Discovering Solitude in Hawaii

February 8, 2018June 30, 2018 elisajcr

Featured Image: Kaloko-Honokohau National Park, PC: me

Saint Mary’s is on a 4-1-4 schedule, which means that in between the regular semesters, there is a 1-month term in which students only take one class. This period is called Jan Term. This January, I had the opportunity to take a class called “Disconnect, Power Off, and Unplug: Embracing the Lost Art of Solitude—An Immersion Experience on the Big Island of Hawaii.”

During the duration of the class, we were prohibited from browsing the Internet and social media. We were only allowed to be on our phones for 1 hour per day to check emails and make phone calls. The class allowed me to reflect on my own technology usage and the lack of solitude in my own life. There were so many beautiful sights and sounds that I could take in because I was not distracted by my phone.

One my favorite sights was the sea arch at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (Pictured below). Watching the ocean crash over the jet black cliffs and feeling the cool ocean breeze and the light mist of the sea, I felt truly connected to nature.