Marissa A. Harrison

The sound of symmetry: Voice as a marker of developmental instability

Abstract Low fluctuating asymmetry (FA, a measure of deviation from bilateral symmetry) appears to be a phenotypic marker of reproductive viability and health. In the present study, we investigated whether ratings of voice attractiveness were correlated with variations in FA. Several bilateral traits were measured to calculate a FA index and independent raters who did not know and never saw the subjects assessed the attractiveness of recordings of each subjects voice. Voices of subjects with greater bilateral symmetry were rated as more attractive by members of both sexes than those with asymmetrical traits.

U txt WHEN? College students social contexts of text messaging

Highlights ► College students use text messaging for favorable and unfavorable social interactions. ► Some uses of text may be considered social breaches. ► Texting may involve disinhibition and inattention to immediate social environment. Abstract Despite an explosion in the popularity of text messaging (short message service, or SMS texting), little research has documented the prevalence of its use in various dimensions of the social landscape of young adults. We examined text messaging patterns in various social situations in a sample of college students. Unsurprisingly, participants placed a good deal of importance on texting and reported using texts frequently to stay in touch with friends and loved ones. However, a good number of participants reported texting in seemingly inopportune situations, such as while in the shower, while at work, during religious services, and while having sex. Further, most participants reported texting in situations that may be considered by some as social breaches, such as while on a date, while socializing in person with others, and to break up with and cheat on a romantic partner. Results suggest that drawbacks of this convenient, fast, and faceless mode of communication include disinhibition and inattention to ones immediate social environment.

Sex Differences in Romantic Kissing among College Students: An Evolutionary Perspective

This study provides a descriptive account of kissing behavior in a large sample of undergraduate college students and considers kissing in the context of both short-term and long-term mating relationships. Kissing was examined as a mate assessment device, a means of promoting pair bonds, and a means of inducing sexual arousal and receptivity. A total 1,041 college students completed one of three questionnaires measuring kissing preferences, attitudes, styles, and behaviors. Results showed that females place more importance on kissing as a mate assessment device and as a means of initiating, maintaining, and monitoring the current status of their relationship with a long-term partner. In contrast, males place less importance on kissing, especially with short-term partners, and appear to use kissing to increase the likelihood of having sex. The results suggest that kissing may play an important role as an adaptive courtship/mating ritual.

Sex differences in mating strategies: Mate guarding, infidelity and multiple concurrent sex partners

We investigated sex differences in post-copulatory mate guarding behaviors, jealous reactions to opposite- versus same-sex infidelity, and preferences for multiple concurrent sex partners. Results ...

Online Delivery as a Course Adjunct Promotes Active Learning and Student Success

Chickering and Gamson’s notable summary of the best practices of undergraduate teaching include promoting active learning, cooperation, and student–faculty contact. The present study hypothesized that online delivery of lecture prior to course meetings allows more in-class time to achieve these goals. Students in a control group received a traditional, oral, lecture-style class with supplementing PowerPoint presentation, whereas students in a treatment group received online presentation of the same lecture script and PowerPoint presentation prior to coming to class; the treatment group’s in-class time was devoted to group activities and discussion of material. Learning and retention were assessed by student performance on a series of multiple-choice tests and quizzes given throughout the semester. Results indicate that students in the treatment condition scored significantly higher on most measures than did students in the control condition. Through strong control of experimental conditions, this study departs from many previous investigations of the benefits of online delivery as an adjunct to seated class time in an introductory social science course, highlighting its advantages such as freeing class time for those activities and strategies deemed to be best practices. The implications of these results and limitations to the study are discussed.

Women and Men in Love: Who Really Feels It and Says It First?

ABSTRACT A widely held belief exists that women are more romantic and tend to fall in love faster than men. Responses from 172 college students indicated that although both men and women believe that women will fall in love and say “I love you” first in a relationship, men reported falling in love earlier and expressing it earlier than women reported. Analyses also showed no sex differences in attitudinal responses to items about love and romance. These results indicate that women may not be the greater “fools for love” that society assumes and are consistent with the notion that a pragmatic and cautious view of love has adaptive significance for women.

2 TXT or not 2 TXT: College students’ reports of when text messaging is social breach

Abstract Evidence suggests that those who engage in text messaging, particularly young individuals, tend to text in what many people may deem socially inappropriate or odd situations, such as while speaking face-to-face with someone else, while at work, while in the shower, or even while having sex. The present study investigates whether young texters are creating a new etiquette where these are socially acceptable practices or whether they deem these practices to be social breaches, but do it anyway. The data support the latter; college students report texting in many situations they did not deem socially acceptable. The importance of texting to this generation and future research directions are discussed.

Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill: Evidence for transinstitutionalization from psychiatric hospitals to penal institutions1

Abstract Since the deinstitutionalization movement, many researchers have suggested that psychiatric patients have moved from one type of institution to another—a process known as transinstitutionalization. This study sought to assess evidence that suggests the mentally ill from Pennsylvania psychiatric hospitals have been transinstitutionalized to penal institutions over the years 1978 to 2010. We gathered data from a number of state agencies and found a significant negative correlation between the incarceration rate and number of psychiatric hospital beds, even after taking into account via partial correlation the changes in population and economic indices such as unemployment and poverty rates in the state. Regression analysis indicated that 6.8% of the year-to-year variation in incarceration rate could be accounted for by the decrease in statewide psychiatric hospital beds after controlling for population and unemployment rate. These transinstitutionalization effects were estimated to cost the state

I like My Voice Better: Self-Enhancement Bias in Perceptions of Voice Attractiveness

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Female serial killers in the United States: means, motives, and makings

Previous research shows that the human voice can communicate a wealth of nonsemantic information; preferences for voices can predict health, fertility, and genetic quality of the speaker, and people often use voice attractiveness, in particular, to make these assessments of others. But it is not known what we think of the attractiveness of our own voices as others hear them. In this study eighty men and women rated the attractiveness of an array of voice recordings of different individuals and were not told that their own recorded voices were included in the presentation. Results showed that participants rated their own voices as sounding more attractive than others had rated their voices, and participants also rated their own voices as sounding more attractive than they had rated the voices of others. These findings suggest that people may engage in vocal implicit egotism, a form of self-enhancement.