2008-09 Guilford Award Abstracts
Hemispheric Differences in Identifying Emotionally Expressive Body Movements
Ishabel M. Vicaría
Stetson University (FL)
First Place
The present study combined two fields of research: the expression of emotions through body movements, and hemispheric differences in the perception of emotion. Sixty participants were divided into six groups according to visual field (Left, Right or Center) and type of stimuli (Still Image or Video). Each group was presented with emotion stimuli depicting happiness, sadness, fear, disgust and anger. Video groups were significantly more accurate in identifying the correct emotion than the Still Images groups. Interestingly, males outperformed the female participants. Furthermore, in comparison to the Right Visual Field groups, there was a trend for higher accuracy ratings by the Left Visual Field groups, providing support for a right hemispheric superiority in identifying this form of nonverbal expression.
Unaccommodating Attitudes: Perceptions of Students as a Function of Academic Accommodation Use and Test Performance
Patrick Michael Egan
Southwestern University (TX)
Second Place
The present study examined the effects of academic accommodation use and test performance on perceptions of a hypothetical student. Sixty-nine undergraduates (31 women, 38 men) read a fictitious vignette about a student who either received or declined accommodations and who subsequently performed either better or worse than the participant on an exam. As expected, targets who were described as performing better than the participant were rated as less intelligent, likeable, and respectable when they received (rather than declined) accommodations. Conversely, targets who performed worse than the participant were rated similarly, regardless of whether they received or declined accommodations. These results suggest that students with learning disabilities face a no-win situation when deciding whether to use academic accommodations in their classes.
The Reverse Sexual Double Standard in Perceptions of Student-Teacher Relationships: The Role of Gender, Initiation, and Power
Jennifer L. Howell
Southwestern University (TX)
Third Place
This study tested the prediction that male teachers are judged more harshly than are female teachers for engaging in heterosexual intercourse with a student. One hundred eighty-seven adults (116 women, 71 men) evaluated a hypothetical newspaper article describing an alleged student-teacher relationship as part of a 2 (Gender Dyad: Male Teacher/Female Student or Female Teacher/Male Student) x 2 (Initiator: Student or Teacher) between-subjects design. As expected, a reverse sexual double standard was revealed in which participants judged situations involving male teachers more harshly than they judged situations involving female teachers, but only when the sexual contact was teacher-initiated. Participants also believed that male students received more social benefits from the sexual contact than did female students.