Steven Arriaza
Psychology and Business Administration
Research Team
The field of psychology is highly dependent on quality research. When I got to be part of a research team I felt that it was a great opportunity. Although the previous research experiences had been instrumental in developing my skills, the level of the research we were conducting was inherently different. One of our research topics broadly dealt with the general reception of facts and individuals propensity to change their mind. In a time where scientific facts are often challenged in popular media, our research proves very important.
Research Team
These finding add to the larger body of data in an important way. Specifically, they do so from the lens of the field of Psychology (Original Research Level 4). Although the research is ongoing, we have presented our findings during the Undergraduate Research Symposium and plan to continue not only our research, but also the dissemination of our results (Dissemination of Results Level 4).
Research Team
Developing our research was a team effort in many regards. Although the original idea for the research is the intellectual property of our research team director, all of our input was taken into consideration in order to shape it. First, we used the research our professor had gathered and expanded on it through our own means (Information Literacy Level 4). This also reflects the nature of research in psychology. Above all, it is a team effort where the past experiences and knowledge of many individuals shape and form future research. The combination of past research and knowledge complements and adds to the field by generating creative, original ideas. By assessing participants cognitive reading speed and pairing that with demographic data we are able to study many significant findings. We also measured participants answers to hot-topic issues. (Information Synthesis Level 4). For many issues, we saw a predictable breakdown of belief between different demographics, personality traits, and political beliefs. For other issues, however, we saw much more agreement, even when people had vastly different beliefs. This was an important realization that shows that there is not always a great divide across different political and personal beliefs—a welcomed finding.