Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci was recently awarded the American Psychological Foundations 2021 Division 1–Society for General Psychology Mary Whiton Calkins Grant. The grant will support research on the development of an animal model of puberty delay and gender-affirming hormone treatment to better understand the long-term outcomes of puberty suppression and adult hormone treatment in the context of gender transition. Mary Whiton Calkins was the first woman to preside as president of the American Psychological Association in 1905.

Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci recently published an article that was a collaboration across three countries investigating the patterning of male sexual behavior in two strains of rats. The article, “Male Rat Sexual Behavior: Insights from Inter-Copulatory Intervals,” was published in Behavioral Processesthis month.

Associate Professor of Psychology Carin Perilloux  has accepted a position on the editorial board of the new Journal of Social Psychology Research ( JSPR ) . JSPR  is a fully open-access journal that functions as an outlet for pioneering integrative frameworks toward existing social psychology theories and concepts. This journal aims to deliver theoretical and empirical papers based on interpersonal relationships at the level of individuals and social groups. The editors encourage submissions on substantial interdisciplinary research on the theory, content, models, directions and problems of social psychology developments.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Carin Perilloux and her capstone students, Zack Bencal ’21, Erica Burley ’22, Alyssa Sucrese ’21, Sarah Woods ’21, and Michael Vitullo ’20, presented a poster titled “Just Friends? An Evolutionary Perspective on Jealousy and Extramarital Friendships” at the (virtual) annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society on June 25, 2021. Their poster was selected as one of the 12 finalists in the conference poster competition. You can watch Perilloux’s three-minute poster talk here. A copy of the poster is available here.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Karen Lara had an article titled “This Is Not What I Expected: The Impact of Prior Expectations on Children’s and Adults’ Preferences and Emotions” recently published in the journal Developmental Psychology.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Carin Perilloux and several students recently published an article titled “Creative Casanovas: Mating Strategy Predicts Using—but Not Preferring—Atypical Flirting Tactics” in Evolutionary Psychological Science. This paper documents a series of studies conducted over a year and a half examining unexpectedness in flirting behaviors. Justin White ’18, Helena Lorenz ’18, and Aliehs Lee ’17 are co-authors.

Professor of Psychology Carin Perilloux and her WOU collaborator, Jaime Cloud, presented a poster with two students at the Western Psychological Association annual convention in Portland, Ore., on April 28, 2018. The poster was titled “Mate-by-numbers: Budget, mating strategy, and sex determine preferences in partner’s facial and bodily traits.” Justin Whiteand Helena Lorenz,both class of 2018, co-authored the presentation.

Associate Professor of Psychology Erin Crockett ’05, Tyler Norman ’20, and Monique Pollmann (Tilburg University) published the article “Reading between the Lines: The Effects of Texting on Relationship Satisfaction and Understanding in Romantic Couples” in Computers in Human Behavior Reports.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Emily Sydnor was a panelist, presenter, chair, and discussant for several sessions at the (virtual) Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting. The highlights included presenting her work on students’ physiological reactions to controversial speech on campus, a collaborative project with Emily Tesmer ’20 and Associate Professor of Psychology Erin Crockett ’05, and participating in a roundtable on “Polarization, Animosity, and Violence in American Politics.” Senior political science major Emily Gilby ’21 also presented her honors thesis, “Institutional Barriers to Youth Voter Turnout,” at the conference.

Several Psychology faculty members and students presented papers at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association in Houston April 7–8. Students presenting with Professor of Psychology Traci Giuliano included:

• Kirk Zanetti, Taylor Torres, both class of 2020, and Athena Pinero, class of 2019: “Now that’s aggressive: Examining the relationship between political orientation and political flaming.”
• Sarah Butterworth, Justin White, Kyle Fraser, all class of 2018, and Lizette Cantu, class of 2019: “Is he flirting with me? How sender gender influences emoji interpretation.”
• Allison Cook, Rachel Allen, Winston Cook, all class of 2018, and Daniella Orces, class of 2019: “ Emoji manners: Perceptions of students’ and teachers’ emoji use in emails.”
• Kate Davis, Dean Neubek,class of 2019, and Emily Olson, class of 2020: “Fake smiles, faker accounts: The relationship between life satisfaction and Finstagram use.”
• Sarah Butterworth, Rachel Allen, and Allison Cook, all class of 2018: “Blogging a way out: A study of depression and Tumblr usage.”

Students presenting with Associate Professor of Psychology Bryan Neighborsincluded:

• Rachel Allen, Matthew Gonzales, both class of 2018, Kaylyn Evans ’16, and Purna Bajekal ’16: “Attachment Insecurity and Cognitive Distortions Among Offenders in Substance Treatment.”

Students presenting with Assistant Professor of Psychology Carin Perillouxincluded:

• Helena Lorenz and Justin White, both class of 2018: “ Creative Casanovas: Mating strategy predicts using — but not preferring — unusual flirting tactics.”

Assistant Professor of Psychology Carin Perilloux, along with collaborator Jaime Cloud of Western Oregon University, had two articles recently accepted for publication in the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences: “The Relationship between Mating Context and Women’s Appearance Enhancement Strategies and “This Old Thing? Responding to Compliments Depends on Sex and Relative Status.” 

Associate Professor of Psychology Erin Crockett published an article with colleagues in the Netherlands titled “Does Attachment Style Moderate the Effect of Computer-Mediated versus Face-to-Face Conflict Discussions?” The article was published in the journal Personal Relationships.  For more information, click here .