(This award was not offered in 2025. If it is reinstated in future years, this text will change.)
The Department of Psychological Science is pleased to announce the second annual Psychological Science Paper Award. Psychological Science majors may submit a paper for consideration for this award; papers may be from psychology classes, including current or past semesters. Papers may cover any topic in psychology and be from any course except PSY 247 and PSY 327. The body of the paper should be 3-10 pages long. In addition, please include references, and format it in APA style. In place of your name, please put your student ID number. The file name should be your student ID number and the paper will need to be submitted as a pdf. The first place awardee will receive $250 and the honorable mention awardee will receive $150. Please submit papers by March 4, 2024 at 11:59 pm. Use the QR code below, or the link, to submit your paper.
Winners of the Psychological Science paper award will be announced at our Psi Chi Induction ceremony on April 26, 2024. If you have questions, please contact Dr. Cousins (cousinsa@easternct.edu).
This SRI ran May 18 - 24, 2017 and was led by Dr. Scisco and Dr. Dracobly.
Kelly Bielonko, The Effects of Health Consciousness and Familiarity with Direct to Consumer Advertising on Perceptions of Natural Dietary Supplements and Their Prescription Counterparts
Jordan Gardiner, Nutritional Knowledge and Self Perception of Health Corresponding with the Ability to Match Front of Package Images with the Equivalent Nutritional Facts
Sarah Henckel, Perceptions of Health Based on Traffic Light Color-Coding on Nutrition Labels
Allison Lundy, Subtle vs. Explicit Messages: Consumer Motivation and Consumer Food Choices
Blake Mamaclay, The Relationships Between Health Consciousness, Color Preference, and Perceived Healthiness
Mikayla Oken, The Effect of a Mindful Eating Exercise on the Enjoyment and Willingness to Eat Disliked Foods
Tess Parker, Effects of Familiarity on Food Preference and Beliefs About Food
Sydney Spencer, The Effect of Social Facilitation on Meal Duration and Food Intake
Michael Tuttle, The Impact of Label Type on Perceived Healthiness and Label Comprehension
Courtney Welch, Effects of Store Brand vs. National Brand on Visual & Taste Preference
Zurich, Bern, and Geneva, Switzerland, 2025 WITH DRS. Leszczynski & Vasquez-O'Brien
Switzerland is the birthplace of Jean Piaget, one of the most well-known developmental psychologists. It has 4 national languages, diverse peoples, and has been ranked as the best place in the world for older adults to live. From approx. May 22 to June 2, 2025, we’ll be staying in Zurich, Bern, and Geneva with excursions to surrounding areas. We plan to visit the Swiss Alps, Lake Geneva, Bern’s Old City, hike the Matterhorn, visit a forest kindergarten and with older adults in intergenerational living facilities, tour the Jean Piaget Center at the University of Geneva and the United Nations & experience the food (and chocolate) that make Switzerland famous. You will learn about physical, cognitive, and social emotional growth across the lifespan. Also, you will practice skills for traveling internationally while cultivating open-mindedness toward & curiosity about other cultures.
Cross-Cultural Well-Being
Reykjavik, Iceland, 2024 WITH DRS. Scisco & Bachiochi
Click the flyer image below to see the PDF!
Cross-Cultural Psychology of Food
FLORENCE, 2019 WITH DR. SCISCO
This course was designed to enable students to explore the differences between Italian and American food culture and eating behaviors through field observations of meals and visits to an olive farm, a goat farm, a community garden, Dario Cecchini's butcher shop Antica Macelleria Cecchini (pictured above), restaurants, and food markets. Students also took in lectures on Italian cuisine and participated in food tastings and cooking classes. Through these engaging activities, the students learned that Italian food is fresh, seasonal, regional, and meant to be shared.
Cross-Cultural Well-Being and Relationships
HAWAII, 2018 WITH DRS. FUGÈRE & SALTERS-PEDNEAULT
This seminar course was designed to provide an overview of cross cultural issues related to well-being and relationships. Social, psychological, developmental, and educational aspects of well-being and relationships were examined from Western and native-Hawaiian perspectives including attachment styles, social support, parenting, psychological disorders, personality and emotional expression, physical attraction, romantic relationships, and compassionate love. Students visited sites of cultural significance on Oahu and the island of Hawai'i, including the Kaneohe Fishpond aquaculture site, Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and Volcanoes National Park.
Cross-Cultural Well-Being and Relationships
HAWAII, 2017 WITH DRS. FUGÈRE & SALTERS-PEDNEAULT
This course was designed to expose students to study cross-cultural differences in well-being and relationships through comparisons of western and native-Hawaiian perspectives. Students completed a series of readings and discussions highlighting cultural aspects of relationships, families, attraction, emotional well-being, and mental health and applied these insights during an immersive experience in Hawaiian and native-Hawaiian cultural. Highlights of the course included visits to the home of the Hawaiian royal family, the Byodo-In Temple, Waimea Valley, the Kukaniloko birth site, an ancient aquaculture site, and Pearl Harbor.
History and Systems of Psychology
DUBLIN, 2016 WITH DR. SCISCO
This course was designed to help students come to understand, through associated readings and several site visits, the history of Ireland and why psychology was late in arriving there relative to the United States, with modern scientific psychology appearing in the 1950s. Each student in the course wrote a biography of a current Irish psychologist and traced their academic lineage. Through this project, they explored how Irish psychologists were influenced by the original founders and schools of thought in psychology.
History and Systems of Psychology
LONDON, 2015 WITH DR. SCISCO
This course was designed to allow students to experience the history of psychology first-hand through assigned coursework and course excursions to the Freud Museum, Down House (the home of Charles Darwin), Bethlem Royal Hospital, and the British Science Museum. For their primary research project, students wrote a biography about a British psychologist using archival materials, including handwritten letters and notes, in the Wellcome Library and the British Library.
Comparative Health Psychology
NEPAL, 2011 WITH DR. ESCOTO
This course was designed to provide an overview of the field of health psychology. Emphasis was placed on a cross cultural view of health and wellness as well as the effect of the HIV pandemic in Nepal. Social, psychological and educational aspects of health were examined from an East Asian perspective including the health care system, alternative/ complimentary medicine, health education and an understanding of how the HIV pandemic in India impacts Nepal.
This course was designed to enable students to explore the differences between Italian and American food culture and eating behaviors through field observations of meals and visits to an olive farm, a goat farm, a community garden, Dario Cecchini's butcher shop Antica Macelleria Cecchini (pictured above), restaurants, and food markets. Students also took in lectures on Italian cuisine and participated in food tastings and cooking classes. Through these engaging activities, the students learned that Italian food is fresh, seasonal, regional, and meant to be shared.
This seminar course was designed to provide an overview of cross cultural issues related to well-being and relationships. Social, psychological, developmental, and educational aspects of well-being and relationships were examined from Western and native-Hawaiian perspectives including attachment styles, social support, parenting, psychological disorders, personality and emotional expression, physical attraction, romantic relationships, and compassionate love. Students visited sites of cultural significance on Oahu and the island of Hawai'i, including the Kaneohe Fishpond aquaculture site, Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and Volcanoes National Park.
This course was designed to expose students to study cross-cultural differences in well-being and relationships through comparisons of western and native-Hawaiian perspectives. Students completed a series of readings and discussions highlighting cultural aspects of relationships, families, attraction, emotional well-being, and mental health and applied these insights during an immersive experience in Hawaiian and native-Hawaiian cultural. Highlights of the course included visits to the home of the Hawaiian royal family, the Byodo-In Temple, Waimea Valley, the Kukaniloko birth site, an ancient aquaculture site, and Pearl Harbor.
This course was designed to help students come to understand, through associated readings and several site visits, the history of Ireland and why psychology was late in arriving there relative to the United States, with modern scientific psychology appearing in the 1950s. Each student in the course wrote a biography of a current Irish psychologist and traced their academic lineage. Through this project, they explored how Irish psychologists were influenced by the original founders and schools of thought in psychology.
This course was designed to allow students to experience the history of psychology first-hand through assigned coursework and course excursions to the Freud Museum, Down House (the home of Charles Darwin), Bethlem Royal Hospital, and the British Science Museum. For their primary research project, students wrote a biography about a British psychologist using archival materials, including handwritten letters and notes, in the Wellcome Library and the British Library.
This course was designed to provide an overview of the field of health psychology. Emphasis was placed on a cross cultural view of health and wellness as well as the effect of the HIV pandemic in Nepal. Social, psychological and educational aspects of health were examined from an East Asian perspective including the health care system, alternative/ complimentary medicine, health education and an understanding of how the HIV pandemic in India impacts Nepal.