Ten School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) seniors in the undergraduate honors program presented posters of their research projects on June 2 at Annenberg Hall.
All are students of Penelope Peterson, SESP dean, and teaching assistant Tiffany Simon, a learning sciences doctoral student. Topics of the research studies ranged from religion to ethnic identification, mentoring to leadership. Assistant Dean Susan Olson coordinated the event. Following is a description of each student's research:
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CAROLYN AYOTTE Human Development and Psychological Services Motivational Patterns in Chicago-Area Evangelical Churches: Entry and Engagement in Church Programming Drawing from 32 interviews, Ayotte's research investigated the patterns in churches' motivational strategies and individuals' motivation with respect to engagement in church programming at Chicago-area evangelical churches. Advisor: Barton Hirsch, PhD Reader: James N. Poling, MDiv, PhD |
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ANTHONY BONTEMPO Learning and Organizational Change Leadership: Perspective and Practice A Look at Three Chicago Public Schools and the Relational Dynamics that Exist between Teachers and Administrators Bontempo's study examining the notion of distributed leadership as it played out in practice from three Chicago Public Schools showed that while leaders espoused similar philosophies about engaging teachers in decision making, the philosophies looked different in practice. Advisor: James Spillane, PhD Reader: Louis Gomez, PhD |
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EMILY FARBER Human Development and Psychological Services How Liberals and Conservatives Narrate Their Lives Testing the hypothesis made by George Lakoff in Moral Politics, Farber's study examined the life story narratives of liberal and conservative mid-life adults who were both politically active and religiously involved to determine how these stories differed. The study found no significant differences. Advisor: Dan P. McAdams, PhD Reader: Regina Lopata Logan, PhD |
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VIVIAN HAN Social Policy Convergent and Divergent Patterns in Ethnic Identification between Korean American and Korean International College Students Han's study of ethnic identity formation found that the individual identities of Korean Americans were most influenced by the amount of exposure they had to Korean culture whereas Korean international students were influenced by their exposure to non-Korean cultures. Advisor: Eva Lam, PhD Reader: Wendi Gardner, PhD |
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DARBY HOLLINRAKE Human Development and Psychological Services After School and Out of Trouble: The Relationship Between Adult-Youth Mentoring Relationships and Engagement in Youth Risk Behaviors Results of Hollinrake's survey of program participants identified significant relationships between feeling valued and reduced alcohol use and violent behaviors; and between positive mentoring and reduced violent behaviors. The study also found that females reported stronger mentoring relationships than their male counterparts. Advisor: Solomon Cytrynbaum, PhD Reader: John Dretzmann, PhD |
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NANCY KWON Social Policy Contributions of Parental Comments to Identify Quality and Safety Improvements The results of Kwon's qualitative analysis of fifteen medical charts suggested that characteristics such as insurance status, age of child and the level of communication with health practitioners had a large influence on parent's decision to report negative comments against a pediatric hospital. Advisors: Jane Hall, MD, MPHH; Karna Murthy, MD Reader: Heidi Nelson |
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KATHLEEN MCHUGH Human Development and Psychological Services Dating Christians: Muslim and Jewish Young Adults' Experiences with Interfaith Relationships Through in-depth interviews, McHugh's research identified themes found for eight Jewish and eight Muslim young adults (19-22 years old) who have dated Christians. Although Jewish and Muslim participants described similar challenges, benefits, identity issues and religiosity levels, more than half of the Muslim participants shared stories of hiding their interfaith relationships from their families. Advisor: Alexandra Hambright Solomon, PhD, LCP Readers: Ruediger Sessemann, PhD; Solomon Cytrynbaum, PhD |
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BENJAMIN PROTESS Social Policy A Strong Offense: How Policymakers Report the Origins, Needs, and Beliefs Underlying Illinois Child Sex Offender Legislation Protess's interviews indicate that policymakers believe the media convinced them that child sex offender legislation was needed, and the legislative record indicates that policymakers' values and policy research influenced the legislation. Advisor: Fay Lomax Cook, PhD Reader: Wesley Skogan, PhD |
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JENNIFER SPERKA Human Development and Psychological Services Associations between Athletic Involvement and Mood in Adolescents Sperka's study investigated the relationship between athletic involvement and mood in high school adolescents. Specifically, it found that competitive athletes are overall more positive-social than non-athletes, and have more stress-anxiety than recreational athletes. Advisor: Emma Adam, PhD Reader: Spyros Konstantopoulos, PhD |
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CHRISTOPHER STOLTE Human Development and Psychological Services The Relationship between Demographics and Field Tracking in a Substance Abuse Research Study From his study results, Stolte concludes that the self-reported income of a population in a drug-abuse research study might be used to predict likeliness of field tracking and thus predict extensiveness of cost. Advisor: James Rosenbaum, PhD Reader: William Gilmer, MD |
Last Modified: 8/14/09