Former psychology students have paper published

By: Ian Van Anden
Sports Editor

Monmouth graduates Tiffany Dismuke, Christie Nelson and Jennifer Stover recently had an article published by the “Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research.” Former Monmouth College professor John Grahe was the faculty supervisor of the paper. Grahe is now on the faculty with the Pacific Lutheran University department of psychology.

The article stems from a project completed for Psychology 202: Research Methods II. The group studied the effects of reading a passage when the letters in the words were scrambled. The first and last letters remained the same, but the rest were scrambled. This research was done in response to a mass e-mail which claimed there was no effect to switching the letters.

The article was published in volume 11, issue number two of the 2006 summer issue of the “Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research.” The journal is published by Psi Chi, the national psychology honor society.

In order for an article to be published in this journal, there is a lengthy process which must take place. First, there is a review period and the top qualification is that the article must be empirical in nature.

According to Marsha Dopheide, an assistant professor in the department of psychology, said, “students often use research projects from one of their statistics courses in psychology, from their independent senior research capstone course, from a project completed under independent study hours or from a project they decided to undertake out of interest in the topic.”

Faculty members of institutions often guide students through the different stages of the publication process. Professors also offer mentorship with the research and writing along the way to publication.

According to Joan Wertz, assistant professor of psychology, over the past two to three years, several Monmouth graduates have had their work published in undergraduate journals. Wertz went on to say that most Monmouth College psychology graduates are recognized at undergraduate research conferences. The trio presented their paper at the Tri-State Undergraduate Research Conference.

Monmouth alumnus Ryne Sherman has written several papers which are currently being reviewed for professional journals of psychology. This is a feat not accomplished by recent Monmouth College graduates.

The students’ paper is now on display on the second floor of the Haldeman-Thiessen Science Center adjacent to room 210.