Research Opportunities

Psychology student Claire Graves presents her research at the 2006 Tri-state Undergraduate Research Conference.

Research opportunities also provide students with valuable practical experience. Whether the research is conducted as your own independent project or working as a research assistant in one of our faculty's research programs, you will learn skills that will help you to be successful in life. Research experience is extremely valuable for those students who intend to pursue advanced study after graduating from Coe, but it is also valuable to those who wish to begin a career immediately upon graduation. You will sharpen your critical thinking skills by learning to formulate a problem, define variables, collect, analyze, and interpret data, and to communicate your findings to others. Communication skills are important in today's world and student's receive numerous opportunities to present their research findings in several venues. On-campus opportunities include the Coe College Student Research Symposium and the Psychology Research Symposium sponsored by the Coe Psychology Club. Additionally, Coe students present at regional undergraduate conferences (e.g., ILLOWA, Tri-State) and professional conferences (e.g., Midwestern Psychological Association).

Some Recent Research Projects

• Lindsay Hand ('06) and Brian Hunt ('06) investigated whether or not the likelihood of more than one interpretation to polysemous words can be predicted by one's divergent thinking scores.
• Cara Cavanaugh ('06) explored how students’ definitions of academic dishonesty and its actual prevalence at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest compare with other colleges throughout the United States.
• Bradley Axdahl ('06) studied how the stereotypes associated with gender, physical attractiveness, and age affect evaluations of job incumbents' work performance.

• Colby Beer and Ashley Buol present their research at the 2006 Tri-state Undergraduate Research Converence.

  Colby Beer ('07), Ashley Buol ('07), Callie Chatterton ('07), and Keely Perry ('06) investigated the effects of prenatal methamphetamine exposure on detour learning performance in young chickens.
• Jacob Harder ('07), Page Fineran ('06) and Lauren Sensenbrenner ('06) investigated the relationship of self-consciousness to the detection of self-relevant information.
• Valerie Naeger (’06) and Chris Paasch ('06) explored how context affects the perception of collision events.
• Jill Wyckoff ('06) studied the impact of No Child Left Behind legislation on secondary school counselors.

• Jacob Harder presents his research at the 2006 Tri-state Undergraduate Research Converence.

  Diane Nelson ('06) investigated how four juror demographics (gender, race, educational level, and income level) predict which types of criminal situations elicit a guilty or not guilty verdict.
• Mark Pahlas ('07) is currently working on research that examines the influence of gender schemas and sex-role identity on the evaluation of emotional expression in men and women.
• Emilie Orth ('07) and Rob Synovec ('07) are currently investigating the degree to which Facebook profiles reveal individuals' actual personality and other work performance-related characteristics.