Monthly Archives: October 2020

Recently, first year PhD student Kayla presented a proposal for her master’s thesis titled Growing Toward the Common Good: Collective Action During COVID-19. Kayla is interested in examining how experiences of COVID-19 may impact action focused growth, in which individuals find meaning in traumatic events by translating growth into action. With her study, Kayla is hoping to gain insight into how action focused growth contributes to collective action and to further understand how the bystander effect relates to people promoting the “common good” during the ongoing pandemic.

Kayla predicts that participants who experience growth in the wake of COVID-19 related stressors will be more likely to intervene during events that prompt action for the “common good” compared to participants who experienced either no growth or no stressors. Additionally, she predicts that individuals who see themselves as heroic will be more likely to take the social risk of intervening when in a group of people. With her study, Kayla hopes to help identify factors that predict who will engage in collective action as a form of action focused growth. Awesome job Kayla, we can’t wait to learn more!

The annual Founders’ Day Faculty Recognition event commends faculty members whose teaching and research excellence, creative achievements, and community service have contributed to the betterment of society. They honor OU faculty members for their scholarly achievements and dedication regarding research and critical teaching roles in educating the leaders of tomorrow. This year, the FF-PTG lab’s very own director, Dr. Kanako Taku has been awarded as an honoree for her teaching. In regards to her skills in the classroom, Dr. Taku “helps her students find success by using data derived from students, making students more involved and classroom time more engaging.” But her dedication and passion for teaching goes beyond the classroom: “the students that she has supported have found success, earning awards, grants and presenting work at local, national, and international conferences”. Congrats Dr. Taku! The lab is extremely proud of you and all of your accomplishments!

Senior undergraduate member, Kat, gave a presentation on The Impact of Multiple Events on Posttraumatic Growth in Adolescence. Based on previously collected data, Kat’s presentation examines the relationship between different measures of trauma severity and PTG within a sample of high school students. In addition, PTG is uniquely measured as a result of multiple events, rather than just one. Her analysis found that the number of events experienced linearly and positively correlated with PTG, as did reports of stressfulness at the time of the event(s). When filling out the PTGI, participants were more likely to experience specific aspects of PTG as a result of one event, rather than multiple events.

Interestingly, experiencing recent enduring symptoms of posttraumatic stress shared a curvilinear relationship with PTG and with specific items on the PTGI, indicating that severe symptoms of PTSS may hinder the ability to recognize or experience PTG.

Kat is currently working on adapting her results into a manuscript. Great work, Kat, we look forward to hearing more about your work!

Kara, second year Master’s student presented updates to her thesis proposal titled Identifying the tipping point of recognition of alcohol abuse symptoms in undergraduate students. Tipping points are typically defined as specific moments that elicit major change, or even perception of change. For her master’s thesis, Kara intends to identify tipping points for alcohol abuse symptomatology, examining undergraduate’s self-perceptions of alcohol consumption and perceptions of their peers’ consumption. Specifically, she is measuring alcohol use and subsequent symptomatology, parental alcohol use and permissiveness, and tipping points through an assessment in which participants identify how many drinks per day and duration of the behavior required to be considered problematic, as both a self-evaluation and evaluation of their peers. This spring, Kara began collecting data, which is still ongoing, but she has provided us with some preliminary data analysis. Her findings so far indicate that both self tipping points and peer tipping points are impacted by personal drinking habits. Interestingly, the averages of self tipping points were lower than peer tipping points.

Kara hopes her research will contribute to literature regarding tipping points in psychology, and the impact of exposure to alcohol on perceptions of developing a problem. Her work may have potential clinical applications in the discussion of alcohol abuse and creating interventions to reduce alcohol use disorder on college campuses. Great job, Kara! We look forward to hearing about your future findings!