Faculty report (Michael Berg)

This academic year two students, Samantha Walker ’12 and Sara Hollar ’11, worked with me as research collaborators. As a central part of my research lab group, they took part in literature searches and discussion, the design of both research surveys, the collection of the survey data, and the submission of our findings to a regional conference. We ran two related studies during the year. The first project focused on the role of subtyping in obesity stereotypes. The second project examined attitudes towards public policies aimed at reducing obesity. Both of these projects will be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the New England Psychology Association. Sara wrote much of our submission for the public policy study and Samantha took the reins on the subtyping submission. Each student will be a lead presenter at the conference in October. I believe that both projects yielded publishable data and these students will be part of the writing process and authors on the papers.

Student report (Samantha Walker)

Over the course of the 2010-2011 academic year, I worked with Professor Berg in the Psychology Department on several mini projects revolving around obesity and anti-fat stereotypes. One of the main goals in our research was to determine whether or not subtypes for obese individuals exist, as they currently do for other demographic categories such as race. As a team we researched, read, and shared journal articles related to this topic and designed a survey consisting of possible obesity subtypes along with a list of characteristic qualities. As a research assistant, I helped edit the wording of the survey and brainstormed possible subtype labels and characteristics.  After several drafts we settled on a final survey format and submitted our proposal. Once permission was granted, we distributed this survey to students in the Wheaton population. Once enough data had been collected we regrouped to analyze the results. In addition we also created a survey which focused on public policies in regards towards the obese. I, along with two other students, traveled to several public locations to distribute this survey. Through this process I learned to conduct research and how to debrief participants afterwards as to the nature of our experiment. I served as a representative for Wheaton College’s psychology department.

The results of our public policy survey spurred ideas for another project focusing on attention and memory. We were curious as to what participants would remember after viewing obese and normal weight individuals consuming either healthy or unhealthy meals. A project still in its early stages, I have taken photographs of tables at food courts for our background and have read and researched literature on the topic. Additionally I also helped modify our original subtype/characteristic survey so we could distribute this new version to a broader population of participants. As a research assistant I have always felt included and respected as part of the research team and process. I have learned to conduct better literature reviews, as well as share my opinions and thoughts in a professional manner. I have learned to work well with others and ask tough questions in order to better understand how humans think and interact as social creatures.

Student report (Sara Hollar)

Over the past semester I have worked on series of studies regarding perceptions of the obese in American society.  With Sam and Professor Berg, we designed studies to measure obesity subtypes by creating lists of adjectives that may describe characteristics of hypothesized sub-stereotypes. This project allowed me to become familiar with more in depth and nuanced stereotype research, an area I am interested in pursuing further in my graduate career. The other main project I was involved with examined the role of anti-fat prejudice in public policy support or non-support. On top of experimenting with different ways to design the survey, I was also able to collect a large amount of data from a sample outside of the Wheaton student population. This allowed our study to be even more applicable to real world policy decisions. I enjoyed the clear real world applications of this study, and hope that my interest and experience with applied research will allow me to be a strong graduate school candidate. Working with Professor Berg has given me the experience I needed to become confident designing and implementing research methods to measure important questions.

Original proposal

I would like to have a Wheaton Research Partnership student to help me with all phases of a two-phase experiment looking at the nature of obesity prejudice. Student responsibilities will include conducting research literature searches, preparing detailed bibliographies, organizing study materials, collecting data / interviewing research participants, and managing data. Although the existence of obesity (antifat) prejudice has been well documented, few if any studies exist to show how the prejudice manifests itself when in comes to novel social judgments or to policy decisions (e.g., soda taxes, fitness graduation requirements, etc.) This is a new line of research for me and would be a great opportunity for a student to see how psychological research is built from the ground up.