Psychology Insight
PUC Students at WPA: A Preview The long-awaited WPA Convention is less than two weeks away! Many of our students find this four day event to be a valuable opportunity to learn about specific topics of interest as well as to make connections with other students and professionals in the field of psychology. For those presenting their research projects, this is an especially exciting event. Please support our PUC students at their poster sessions! We have 15 students presenting this year, several of them involved in more than one. Friday 8:00 – 9:30 Psi Chi and Psi Beta Poster Session “First Impressions: How Peers Perceive Social Networking Profiles”; authors: Melabi Amponsah, Taryn Richert, Holly Batchelder, Bruce Bainum, Hannah Ethridge & Matt Phelps “Effect of Social Interaction on Eating Behavior among Women”; authors: Danielle C. Nelson, Jennifer M. Patten, Bruce Bainum & Alisa Jacobo “Smiling Faces: Emoticons and Memory for Natural Language Messages”; authors: Alison Batchelder, Kaitlyn M. Dent, Maricela Frias, Juan M. Hidalgo 3rd & Aubyn Fulton “Am I a Boss? Asian-Americans, Leadership and Locus of Control”; authors: Jennifer M. Patten, Hyo Jin Lee, Sara Nelson, Amanda R. Weston & Priscilla Miranda Saturday 9:30-10:45 Educational Psychology Poster Session
Volume 2, Issue #4, April 14, 2014
Upcoming Events Spring Quarter WPA Convention Western Psychological Association’s annual convention will be held from April 24 to April 27, at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront Hotel in Portland, Oregon.
April 24 – April 27
Spring Fest Details are coming soon! We will update you on our Facebook page after we settle on the final details. Please come and help us out!
May 4
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” – William James
“The Effect of Video Games on Immediate and Delayed Memory”; authors: Erielle A. Apolo, Anayely Diaz, Rachel K. Kaneakua, Sara Nelson & Aubyn Fulton Sunday 8:30-9:45 Developmental Psychology Poster Session "No Peeking! Effect of Preschool on Self-Regulation"; authors: Selina L. Breshers, Jedd P. Alejandro, Andrew M. Leslie, Brooke C. Manley, Amy F. Rivas, Edwin O. Torres, Dominic M. Wiltermood & Charlene K. Bainum
Psychology Insight
Volume 2, Issue #4, April 14, 2014
Through the Camera Lens
These pictures were taken at the Psychology Club movie night. Students and professors enjoyed the movie "Her", followed by pie and discussion at the Black Bear Diner.
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Psychology Insight
Volume 2, Issue #4, April 14, 2014
Psychology Major Fieldwork Placements
Cassi Pryor, St. Helena Boys and Girls Club
Rene Maldonado, St. Helena Parks and Recreation
Sometimes I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. Getting a degree is a huge commitment, and how would I even know I’m going to be any good at being a psychologist? What if I end up hating the thing I’m paying over 30,000 dollars a year to be good at?
My name is Rene Maldonado and I am a senior psychology major. I have been interning at the St. Helena Parks and Recreation department. My job was to be a basketball coach for a recreation league team for kids ages 12-14. I am very grateful to Dr. Charlene Bainum for helping set up this internship for me; it has been a great learning experience and I encourage any psychology major to take Field Work in psychology.
Getting some fieldwork experience was really helpful. I feel a lot more confident in the path I’m on now. I took fieldwork this quarter because I wanted to get some experience, and I’m so glad I did. I worked at the St. Helena Boys and Girls club. I went twice a week, and just hung out with kids. It was a lot of fun and a very worthwhile experience. I was worried that it might be too time consuming – to get your credit for the course you need to complete at least 30 hours of fieldwork – but it didn’t end up being a problem. I found it rather refreshing to experience a different kind of stress a couple times a week. It made me more focused, because it gave me a break where I wasn’t thinking about studying. To anyone considering fieldwork, I would strongly encourage him or her to take the course. It’s a great opportunity, it will look good on your resume, and it is a lot of fun.
With the help of my friend JP Tan, we started coaching a team of crazy middle school students. At first our guys didn’t pay attention to us and disregarded the instructions, but as the season progressed we were able to establish ourselves as coaches and take control of practice and games. Looking back to where we began and where we are now, I am very proud of the progress my team was able to make. Equally important was the progress I made as a coach during the season. The most important lesson I learned from my internship was to develop critical communication skills with my team. My most cherished memory of this season has been when one of our least skilled scored a basket and ran to his father and hugged him. This brought a tear to my eye and it made me feel so good about working with these guys because this is what sports mean to me. Although most of my team will not pursue basketball, it was of great importance to me to have them enjoy the time we had together and make playing basketball a positive experience in their lives.
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Psychology Insight
Volume 2, Issue #4, April 14, 2014
Should I Take a Picture? An Article Summary
Photographs have become an integral part of the modern life. Cameras and cellular phones with high quality cameras are easily accessible, and so documenting various moments have become easy. Among others, one reason for taking pictures of things or events is to remember them later. Such photos do serve as memory cues. However, does the act of taking the pictures itself affect how much one can remember? Henkel (2013) conducted two experiments to explore this matter. In the first experiment, college students were given a guided tour at a museum. They were given a digital camera, and were asked to photograph 15 pre-assigned objects, and observe 15 others without photographing them. The next day, both recall and recognition of the objects were tested. Participants were less likely to recognize items that they had photographed. They also remembered less detail about the objects they photographed, rather than only observing them. Because the participants were given the same amount of time for the observed and the photographed condition, the second experiment gave the photographed condition extra time for compensation. In addition, a third condition was added; for one-third of the objects, participants were asked to take photographs by zooming in on one specific part of the
objects. The next day, the participants were asked to identify previously-seen objects, remember whether they had taken a picture of that object or merely observed it, and answer two questions about the detail of that object. Again, participants were less likely to recognize photographed objects, and remembered less detail about the objects they photographed. However, when a specific part of the object was photographed, there was no decrease in memory accuracy, and participants were able to answer detail-related questions related to the zoomed-in part as well as the other parts of the photographs. Overall, photographing objects were detrimental to the participants’ memory. The author described the phenomenon as the individual storing the memory on an external location i.e. photograph, and then stop investing energy into that particular memory. Of course, photographs still serve an important role as memory cues; we can look at photographs from months before, and remember what had happened at that moment. However, because the brain is an efficient, economical organ, it may not remember what you had for lunch if you take a picture of it – it will know to rely on that picture. Henkel, L.A. (2013). Point-and-shoot memories: The influence of taking photos on memory for a museum tour. Psychological Science. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0956797613504438
Psychology Insight PUC Psychology Club One Angwin Ave Angwin, CA 94508
Find Phil Shelby at The Rut: http://bigeyedeer.wordpress.com/
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