Two undergraduates make most of research experience
Released: July 14, 2004
A study of how personality affects perceptions of domestic violence has put two University of Wisconsin-Whitewater undergraduate scholars in the national research limelight, complete with major conference invitations and an upcoming trip to Hawaii.
Laurie Messerli of Janesville and Marie Sobolewski of Whitewater, both spring 2004 magna cum laude graduates of UW-Whitewater, have seen great rewards of late for their undergraduate research work with psychology professor P.B. Poorman, who they have been working with since their sophomore year. Poorman recruited the students to work on one component of her long-term research study on domestic violence perceptions and their implications.
On July 30, the two graduates and their mentor will present results of their study to the 105th annual conference of the American Psychological Association in Honolulu. In May, the trio presented their paper at the equally prestigious American Psychological Society during its annual meeting in Chicago. Finally, the authors have been invited to publish their study in a peer-reviewed journal managed by Rutgers University.
These are Ph.D.-level accomplishments rarely experienced by undergraduates, but are certainly becoming less rare at UW-Whitewater. The focus on undergraduate research is evident every year at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), where UW-Whitewater consistently sends more students than any other college or university in the nation. Messerli and Sobolewski presented their pilot study at the NCUR conference in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2003.
Their trip to Honolulu came about through the generous support of numerous people, including College of Letters and Sciences Dean Howard Ross and Associate Dean Mary Pinkerton; Undergraduate Research Chair Bruce Eshelman; and Assistant Vice Chancellor Roger Pulliam.
“We did a good thing for two really good students who’ve done an outstanding job and who deserve to be present to tell about the work,” said Poorman. “Sometimes the system works.”
Married and the mother of two young children, Sobolewski has been accepted in a master’s degree program in quantitative psychology at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill starting in fall 2004. She graduated with a degree in statistics and a minor in psychology. Messerli, a psychology major with a criminal justice minor, who did her field training with anger management groups at the Racine Correctional facility, is planning to go on for her Ph.D.
“Laurie and Marie’s accomplishments are unique,” said Poorman. “These were their ideas. I’ve been their guide and mentor.”
As for the research, Poorman has long studied domestic violence, along with colleagues and students, on the many characteristics that influence views of domestic violence, such as sexism, homophobia, empathy for the perpetrator or victim, masculinity or gender. Messerli and Sobolewski’s studies added a new twist to the research. They looked at the individual personality traits of each survey respondent by giving them a standardized personality questionnaire. Based on the questionnaire, they looked at how different traits influence people’s perceptions about domestic violence.
Messerli and Sobolewski used a personality test that measures 16 different traits for their first study and condensed it down to five core traits for the second study. The two researchers administered their surveys and the questionnaire to a total of 211 participants, mostly psychology department students.
“With a larger sampling, the sample results were more significant, more believable,” said Sobolewski.
Among other things, Messerli found that “people who are soft-hearted and caring tend to see domestic violence situations as serious enough to involve the police in every case except when women batter men,” summarized Poorman. “Not so surprisingly, they also found that people who are more scrupulous are more inclined to perceive the perpetrator as guilty in all scenarios.”
Sobolewski found that “people who are more socially inhibited tend to perceive the perpetrator as less responsible,” said Poorman. “Those who adjust easily and are less easily agitated tend to believe the perpetrator’s account of the incident; and those individuals who tend to be more self-disciplined have a tendency to see the victim’s injuries as more serious.”
Poorman said that the results of these studies could be useful for police departments in choosing or training officers to address domestic violence crimes, as well as the criminal justice community. Poorman has sponsored 10 other students whose works have been accepted for presentation at APA national conferences. “Laurie and Marie's accomplishments are unique because it was their original spin-offs in the series that were accepted,” she said.
- Cindy Vergenz ,vergenzc@uww.edu
