Oglethorpe students and recent alumni, together with Psychology faculty, traveled to the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) annual conference in Jacksonville, FL in March.

The students presented original psychological research that was conducted at Oglethorpe and accepted through a peer-review process. As most presenters are faculty or graduate students, this is a notable accomplishment for undergraduates.

• Charlotte Disley ’19, Psychology major, Delaney Abood ’19, Biopsychology major and Raquel Battaglia ’20, Psychology major presented a poster titled “The Effects of Sleep on Academic Success and IQ across Academic Ranks of College Students” based on a project conducted in Psychological Statistics and Research Methods I.
• Brad Firchow ’19, Biopsychology major, Rebecca Highsmith ’19, Psychology major, and Kwanghee Lee ’19, Psychology major, presented a poster titled “The Effect of High and Low Arousal on Moral Condemnation” based on a project conducted in Psychological Statistics and Research Methods II. This poster was selected to be part of an opening night showcase event for submissions that are rated most highly during the peer-review process.
• Jessica Azrin ’18, Psychology major, presented a poster titled “Queer and Straight representation on LGBTQ+ or Heterosexual Moods” based on independent research she conducted as part of Advanced Experimental Psychology.
• Ronald Dill ’19, Psychology major, presented a poster titled “A Comparison of Sham meditation and True Mindfulness Meditation” based on independent research he conducted as part of Advanced Experimental Psychology.
• Katie Wilson ’18, Psychology major, presented a poster titled “The Influence of Media Representations on Perception of Real and Made-up Drug Names” based on her honors thesis in Psychology.

Faculty members Dr. Rebecca Brooke Bays, Dr. Lisa Hayes, Dr. Justin Wise, and Dr. Leah Zinner attended the conference. The OU faculty led a conversation hour addressing “Teaching Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology.”

In addition to networking with students and faculty from other schools, the Oglethorpe contingent had the chance to attend a variety of talks and poster sessions, including learning how to use a new type of statistical analysis software and an informative Q&A about getting into graduate school.