William Phillips

Grief Rituals: Aspects That Facilitate Adjustment to Bereavement

This study explores the facilitative aspects of postfuneral rituals in the grief process. Participants included 50 adults who evaluated symbolic activities (rituals) in terms of helpfulness, aspects of those activities, and outcomes of performing such activities. Results confirmed (a) that appropriate rituals can facilitate adjustment to bereavement, (b) that some factors are particularly important for success of rituals, and (c) that performing rituals can have significant positive outcomes for participants.

Cheat Sheet or Open-Book? A Comparison of the Effects of Exam Types on Performance, Retention, and Anxiety.

The differences between open-book, cheat sheet, and closed-book exams were examined in two different types of psychology courses. A total of 297 students enrolled in eight sections of Introductory Psychology and 99 students enrolled in four sections of Statistics participated in this study. Exam types were counterbalanced across sections of the same course. Students were given either open-book, cheat sheet, or closed-book exams, took a surprise quiz two weeks after the exams to measure retention of course material, completed a preference questionnaire, and took a pre-test measure of test anxiety on open-book and cheat sheet tests. While students did slightly better on open-book exam than on closed-book exams, they also much preferred open-book and cheat sheet exams over closed-book exams, and had lower levels of anxiety when taking open-book exams compared to cheat sheet exams. Based on these results, open-book exams may be a superior style of examination for a variety of psychology courses.