This month of November, our PTG lab had the opportunity to submit studies to the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) Conference in Chicago this Spring! MPA invites students and faculty from universities, along with individuals from clinics, hospitals, private practices, etc. to present new research that can contribute to the field of psychology. Click on the picture to learn more about MPA!
Even though the conference isn’t until May, MPA needed the submission, which was a long abstract, by November 11th at midnight. Our team only had about a week to come up with studies, and complete the submission package by that Sunday. After a long process of preparation, the lab decided on three different submissions.
1. Elam, McGuire & Thomas: Comparisons of Impactful Life Events Among Adolescents in Japan and the United States.
This study primarily focuses on the types of traumatic events experienced among adolescents in Japan and the United States that may result in negative symptoms as well as positive outcomes. Also, we want to look at how stressful life events vary according to one’s culture; individualistic versus collectivistic.
Hypotheses: American high school students are more likely to identify an event that directly affects the student, whereas Japanese students might select family issues or an event that affects the community. Click here to read the full abstract that was submitted for review.
2. Thomas, Elam & McGuire: Linguistic Variances Associated with Psychological Growth: Effect of Collectivistic and Individualistic Climates
This study focuses on assess what type of image individuals from different cultures hold in association with the term, “personal growth.” We wanted to determine whether linguistic disparities confirm or challenge the belief that these variations reflect the individualistic and collectivistic ideas of America and Japan.
Hypotheses: When American high school students are voluntarily prompted to provide an open-ended description to the word “personal growth,” their answers will differ from their Japanese counterparts in lexical category (noun, adjective, adverb, preposition, etc.) and language style (concrete vs. abstract). This will show that Japanese high school students word choices will relate more to the collectivistic style, and have a lower individualistic attitude. Click here to read the full abstract that was submitted for review.
Dr. Taku has also submitted a study to this conference on her own. Once we submitted our abstracts, we received an e-mail a week later from MPA saying that they have received our submissions, and will let us know early January if we have been accepted in to the conference. Our lab really appreciates this experience overall, and are very confident that we will get accepted! If not, this was a great learning experience overall. Wish us luck!
FF-PTG LAB 