Date: 22-June-2021

Slow Media, Mindfulness Breathing Practices and Effects on Test Anxiety 

By: Alexa Kiss, Becky Gillespie, Paulina Reyes Arizpe, Skylar Scott

This study examined the effects of watching Slow Media and performing a guided mindfulness breathing practice on reducing test anxiety in Introductory Psychology students of Capilano University. Researchers Alexa Kiss, Becky Gillespie, Paulina Reyes Arizpe, and Skylar Scott hypothesized that students suffering from test anxiety would have a reduction in this anxiety after watching a Slow Media video while performing a guided mindfulness breathing practice. Students completed the Westside Test Anxiety Scale to assess their pretest anxiety before a weekly quiz. The following week, the participants were instructed to watch a Slow Media video while performing a guided mindfulness breathing practice. After completing the Slow Media video and breathing practice, researchers provided the participants with the Westside Test Anxiety Scale as the posttest survey to measure the participants’ test anxiety. Participants were shown to have a decrease in test anxiety from the pretest scores to the posttest scores. Students showed an average test anxiety decrease of 8.425%, which confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis. However, due to this study using a quasi-experimental design, it was vulnerable to threats to internal validity and could not establish a causal relationship. More research using a controlled experimental design is needed to better understand the effects of Slow Media and guided mindfulness breathing practice on test anxiety.  

Media Influence on Empathetic Decision Making

By: Andreea Maxinianu, Kitty Wang, Rafael Pinho

During this research, we looked at the effects of our emotions and how they impact our empathetic decisions. Participants varied from “Intro to Psychology” 100/101 classes as well as a few students from our Psychology 212 class. These students were split into two groups and shown two different videos. The footage presented for group one that had 9 people was intended to convey a sense of sadness by showing a sick children’s hospital. The second group which had 15 people watched a video that consisted of a baby laughing. The purpose of this video was to create a sense of happiness for the participant. Our goal was to see if their empathetic decision making can be manipulated by videos which is why the participants were then prompted with a donation link along with a scenario to see if the participants felt inclined to donate. The survey afterwards was meant to further clarify their decisions and feelings about the videos. All participants except for two contributed to donating. With our data we cannot conclude that there is a strong correlation between the videos we showed the participants and their choice to ‘donate’.

The Effects of Pre-Test Language on Post-Stimulus Memory Testing

By: Madeline Hallson, Paniz Javady, Christina Lennox, & Lara Nikolic

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of word choice before an exam. More specifically, does calling an evaluation an activity or an exam have an impact on the test takers results/performance. Thirty-six students who are currently enrolled in Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods in Psychology and other members of the community were invited to participate in our study. These students were randomly assigned to either an “activity” group or an “exam” group. They first began with watching a Bill Nye the Science video clip, and afterwards they were directed to complete a questionnaire. Participants who took the evaluation under the activity group performed better than the participants in the exam group. When comparing means, the activity group scored better on both the content based and peripheral questions (M= 64.53) than the exam group (M= 55.16). The hypothesis was proven correct as the participants in the “activity” group performed better than the “exam” group.

The Effects of Emotional Priming on Facial Perception*

By: Clara Duwel, Eren Goktas, Rhianna Hiom, Tyler Mckenzie

This quantitative study examined the effect of different emotional states on the perception of facial expressions. The study consisted of 48 students at Capilano University, as well as friends and family of the research team. Participants answered an online survey that was split into two priming conditions, with either positively or negatively associated photographs. This was followed by a photograph of a face where the participants were asked about their perception of the persons’ mood, how friendly they appear, and if they believe this person would assist them. The results showed no significance between the negative and positive groups in rating the friendliness. However, the positive group significantly rated the expressions more likely to assist than the negative group. Finally, the negative group rated neutral expressions as happier than the positive group. In conclusion, previous experiences and existing moods appear to have significant effects on our perception of others.

The Effects of Students’ Daily Health Activities on Health and Stress

By: Surbhi Puri, Harnoor Kaur, Prianshu Kaushal, Donya Afzal khani

The health and stress group conducted a research experiment for the purpose of finding results on external stress factors and their effect on an individual’s overall health. Our operational definition of external stressors are stressors that negatively impact the daily life of an individual. A correlational experiment was conducted with a procedure utilizing a self report survey of Capilano University psychology students. Students were given a consent form, which explained all the risk factors involved in the experiment. Although the experiment was minimal risk, we made sure to debrief the students afterwards. After the students signed the consent form, we distributed an 11-question survey and obtained the results.

The Relationship Between Personality and Slow Media

By: Chelsea Assaf, Jenny Gilmour, Janaya Hughes, Divya Parmar

Previous studies have shown a correlation between progressive relaxation techniques involving music to alter individuals’ stress responses. Researchers have found a correlation between specific personality types and aesthetic preferences. Data was collected from 35 survey participants who completed the Big 5 Personality test, watched a half minute slow media clip and responded to a self-administered online questionnaire measuring the participant’s perceived stress levels. The data was analyzed using a shared random effect approach in REDCap and JASP softwares. The results indicated that participants with high levels of neuroticism experienced a positive correlation with stress levels (r= 0.526, p=<0.001). Participants who felt a significant shift in current state (score equal to or more than 5 out of 7 after engaging in slow media) scored above 50% in neuroticism. The findings did not support the slow media clip as a tool for reduction of perceived stress.

The Influence of Different Parenting Styles on Young Adults Romantic Relationship Satisfaction

By: Kiran Hoonjan, Luc Melvin Muhayimana, Amarpreet Singh, Jafardeep Singh

In this study we looked at the correlation between parenting styles experienced by children and their romantic relationship satisfaction as young adults. The hypothesis for the study was that those who grew up with authoritative and permissive parenting styles would have higher relationship satisfaction compared to those who grew up with authoritarian parenting styles. Through the use of an online survey, data was collected from young adults aged 16 and up from the Intro Psych classes at Capilano University. The survey consisted of statements both on parenting styles one experienced as well as ones relationship satisfaction which were to be rated on a Likert scale from 1-5. The results showed us that there was no significant correlation between authoritative/permissive parenting styles and higher relationship satisfaction.

Analysis on the Relationship Between Memory, Emotions and Media

By: Amy Bisla, Avishai Hernandez, Kiana Izadi, Serena Vukosavic

The objective of our study was to discover if there was any relational effect on the memory process through manipulation of emotional stimuli. We used video media in this study to elicit targeted emotion, and a word list to tie the relation between emotion and memory if there was any to be found in this experiment. We separated our participants into two groups, a “Stress media” group and a “Slow media” group. We tried to manipulate the emotional state of our participants based on their group. Slow media would watch a soothing video to elicit peace and serenity; meanwhile group Stress media would get a short video compilation of stress, and anxiety inducing content. Prior to showing the media, we gave a 6 point likert scale for self-reporting on each participant’s mood before starting. After we showed them the video, they self-reported their moods to test if the video had an effect. Stress media had 6/10 participants report a changed emotion, with the targeted options (Upset, Anxious), with a 7th participant reporting a change from happy to neutral. For Slow media, we had 10/17 participants successfully change their moods and all chose the “calm” option. After this we showed a word list for a set time for them to read, with the intention of encoding it, but distracted them with a brief math task after going through the list. The final step was for participants to recollect all terms from the original list, as new words were added. Thus, when evaluating our hypothesis with the results, we successfully predicted that the group Stress media would outscore the Slow media group, but not with a significant difference. We can possibly conclude that both emotions had a positive effect on both group’s memory performances, but that could only be tested if we added a third group control group to get no emotional stimulus or a neutral emotional stimulus.

* Winner of the poster competition (voted on by attendees)