Psychology students honored for hard work

. by Kendra Clark sports editor

A great honor was bestowed upon five students from the psychology department. The students were selected to give presentations at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference in Baltimore, which will be held March 24 and 25.

The five students who have been selected to present their papers that they have researched and have written include Rebecca Kuenecke, Jen Shrader, Camille Miccoluci, Tammy Hunsberger, and Brian Di Bonaventura.

To be able to be selected as a presenter, the five selectees began writing their papers in Dr. Tomasco' s Research Methods Development class, where the top papers were picked to join Dr. Sicoli in her Independent Studies class. There the students fine tuned their papers and put them into competitive form.

Also, the presenter had to be a member of the Psi Chi Honor Society, which in order to be a member, the selectee must either be a psychology major or a minor, have maintained an accumulative grade point average of a B and also have maintained a B in their psychology courses.

At the conference they will have a designated time where they will present their papers by using a poster that they have designed and have put together themselves. While presenting their research, three professors and students will be listening to them, so that they can offer feedback when they are finished.

The topics of the papers vary greatly. According to Dr. Sicoli, Hunsberger will be presenting on the topic of college drinking and it's misconception, Koenecke will present on family environment, Shrader will present on defense mechanisms and gender, Di Bonaventura will present on internet use and gender, and Micclouci was unavailable.

According to Dr. Sicoli, these topics all turned out to be very interesting because many of the outcomes proved to be different from how the researcher thought that they would turn out.

For example, one part of Di Bonaventura's paper centered on whether males or females use the chat rooms on the Internet more. a

The outcome of the research showed that males use the chat rooms more than females.

Another surprised outcome came out in Hunsberger's paper when she discovered that the average number of drinks that the actual college student has in a day is actually Jess than people think.

Besides presenting at the EPA in March, the five students will join Megan Tinny, also an honored member of the psychology department, in April to present their papers again at Holy Family College. Holy Family College serves as the local undergraduate research center for this area. Tinny will be presenting her paper on attitudes toward math and gender. The hopes look high for the five presenters who will make their way to Baltimore. Last year out of the amazement of Dr.Sicoli, five out of the six Cabrini students took top places and walked away with a $150 each. It is a huge honor just to be selected to present, and whether any of the presenters are one of the top picks or not, Di Bonaventura states it well, "It is a big honor to be accepted and I would like to thank Dr. Sicoli and Dr. Tomasco for everything."

At left- Psychology students' hard work has been recognized. From left, Megan Tinny, Tammy Hunsberger, Dr. M.L. Corbin Sicoli (faculty), Becky Kuenecke and Jen Shrader will present papers at the E.P.A. conference in March. Not pictured are Brian DiBonaventura and Camille Miccoluci.