Psychology students to present

A May graduate and an alumna of Northwestern College have been selected to give poster presentations at the Association for Psychological Science convention May 21–24 in New York City.

Tracy Chapman, a 2014 psychology graduate from Hawarden, Iowa, who is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling at the University of South Dakota, will present her poster, “Perceived Social Support Mediates the Link Between Optimism and Active Coping.” Chapman’s research focused on how the effect of support from friends and family on an optimistic person promotes healthy coping mechanisms.

Naoko Oura, a 2015 psychology graduate, will present “Impact on Self-Esteem by Cultural Differences in Educational and Interpersonal Contexts.” Her research investigated how teaching styles and high school students’ interpersonal relationships affect their self-esteem in American and Japanese cultures. A resident of Nagoya, Japan, Oura plans to pursue a master’s degree in counseling at San Francisco State University this fall.

Both Chapman and Oura’s research was supervised by Dr. Terry Chi, assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern.

The annual conference seeks to bring together researchers and academics to share data and ideas on innovative research in psychological science.