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These research endeavors span a wide range of topics representing psychology’s different areas of focus.

The quality of these projects is demonstrated by the fact that many of them have been presented at both regional and national conferences, such as:

• The Society for Research in Child Development
• Western Psychological Association
• The American Psychological Association
• The Association for Psychological Science

Peer-Reviewed Publications

In addition, several of our student and faculty collaborative projects have resulted in peer-reviewed publications.

Listed below is a sampling of both conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications resulting from the recent research projects conducted by students and faculty in the psychology department. (Student authors are indicated in bold.)

Gerges, R. T., Ware, A. I., Whisenhunt, M. F., Gilbert-Allen, E. O., Fornero, K. A., & Tompkins, T. L. (2026). Ideally, I’d comment… how comment context shapes engagement with ideal and nonideal Instagram posts. Poster presented at the Convention of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), New Orleans, LA.

Medina, A., Pressman, M., Richards, F., Shuall, T., Kozak Williams, M., & Livesay, K. (2026). Dehumanization in the Israeli-Gaza Conflict. Poster presented at the annual conference of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, Il.

Linder, J. R., Kim, E., Gentile, D.A., & Babcock, C.M. (2025). Social media use, frustration resilience, and impulsivity as predictors of grades among adolescents. Poster presented at the SRCD Biennial Conference, Minneapolis, MN.

Hertlein, Z., Wheat. C., Weisberg, Y., and Zajic, D.E. (2025). Hearts, Livers, and a Whole Lot of Guessing: How anatomical knowledge varies among college students and why it matters. Poster Presented at the Murdock College Science Research Conference, Vancouver, WA.

Dewey, S. F., Fender, E. D., Wright, M. A., Gerges, R. T., Fornero, K. A., & Tompkins, T. L. (2025). Friend or Foe?: Navigating body image and social media influence. Poster presented at the Convention of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), Portland, OR.

Russell, K., Green, P., Walter, A., Ray, C., Pillon, M., & Weisberg, Y. (2022). What is an adult?: Attributes voted most central to the construct of adulthood. Poster presented at the Western Psychological Association, Portland, OR.

Aradine, M. P., Foltz, M., Nelson, S. G., Collins, S. J., Bennion, M. S., Jensen, N. N., Gutierrez, M., Zatkin, J. G., & Linder, J. R. (2022). Perceived realism as a  moderator of the association between media exposure and beliefs about sexual interactions and assault. Poster presented at the APS Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.

Senthithasan, S., Vega, M., Linder, J.R., Tompkins, T.L., Martz, L., & Vazquez Duque, D. (2019). An experimental study of the priming effects of objectified words. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Pasadena, CA.

Vazquez Duque, D., Martz, L., Senthithasan, S., Vega, M., Tompkins, T.L., & Linder, J.R. (2019). “I am a Hot Box of Rice”: Influence of makeup advertisements on women’s self- objectifying statements. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Pasadena, CA.