Summer Program for undergraduate Research 2009
UCLA Undergraduate Research Interns summer 2009
Alkhatib, Jasmine (Sociology)
IRSP Graduate Student Advisors: Chinyere Osuji and Sarah Schlabach

I plan to get her PhD in Sociology and hopefully become a college professor. I am interested in a wide range of social phenomena; from macro sociological topics to intimate micro interactions. In this project, I will be assisting Sarah and Chinyere in interviewing inter-racial couples. I hope to eventually develop specific research questions from the interviews, that will influence my future research.

Chen, Ying (Biochemistry)
Faculty Research Advisor: Martie Haselton
IRSP Graduate Student Advisor: Kelly Gildersleeve

We study shifts in women's physical, vocal, and odor attractiveness across the ovarian cycle and individual differences in men's ability to discriminate between cues produced at high- and low-fertility. Additionally, we study women's and their male romantic partners' behaviors across the ovarian cycle, focusing on shifts in women's in-pair vs. extra-pair sexual desire/behavior and men's use of mate-retention tactics. As an intern, I will prescreen and schedule participants, run participants' appointments, and organize and enter data. Additionally, I will attend weekly lab meetings where I will offer constructive criticisms and discuss potential improvements to the current protocol.

Davis, Morgan (Psychology)
IRSP Graduate Student Advisor: Mariana Preciado

Morgan will be working on two projects. The first is a study of the relationship between sexual experience and sexual identity. For this project she will learn to run subjects and conduct rudimentary data analyses. The second is a study of her own design on the families and intimate relationships of substance abusers. For this project she will be reading literature on substance abuse and families, creating an online survey, conducting her own data analysis, and she will create a poster to present at the PURC conference.
Denny, Ashleigh (Physiological Science)
Faculty Research Advisor: Martie Haselton
IRSP Graduate Student Advisor: Kelly Gildersleeve

Many aspects of women's behaviors, perceptions, appearance and preferences vary accross their ovulatory cycle. Evolutionary theory allows us to make detailed predictions about the patterns of change based upon the costs and benefits of different reproductive strategies, fertility and environment. In this study, we examine women's voices, appearance and grooming, body odor and social preferences across the ovulatory cycle. As a research assistant I'm responsible for scheduling participants at high and low fertility phases and administering study tasks.

Fitz-Gibbon, Taylor (Psychology; Anthropology minor)
IRSP Graduate Student Advisor: Megan Mulet

This summer I will continue assisting IRSP fellow Megan Mulet with her anthropological examination of the Burning Man community. Using mixed methods, we are examining the patterning of personal experiences in Black Rock City, Nevada -- a temporary city built by Burning Man participants for their annual gathering This will be my second year conducting fieldwork with Megan and her team at Burning Man. I will arrive at the event early and stay afterward to help to construct and then deconstruct our team's camp. During the event I will be working as a videographer, documenting 18 research subjects for one hour each in order to record their interactions with the people and objects of Black Rock City. Each year at the event Megan's team conducts a comprehensive survey known as the Black Rock Census. Currently, I am managing over 50 volunteers, members of the Burning Man community who are working on data entry for the 2008 Census. This Census project is a collaboration with the organizers of the event, Megan's interdisciplinary team at UCLA, and a team from Stanford University's Department of Psychology. In addition to working on the census, Megan and her team compiled a qualitative dataset. They collected interviews and journals at previous years' events. I have been helping to organize this material and I am interested in analyzing this dataset for narratives about participants' sense of belonging, involvement, connection and community.
Grinberg, Austin (Psychology)
IRSP Graduate Student Advisor: Sylvia Morelli

I will be running participants and analyzing the data for a project in Matt Lieberman's lab that is interested in whether taking someone's perspective will cause you to perceive yourself or others differently. We will be continuing the yearlong project into the summer where we hope to finish the analysis and create a poster for upcoming social science conferences.   
Heiskell, Veronica (Psychology)
Faculty Research Advisor: Anne Peplau
IRSP Graduate Student Advisor: Natalya Maisel

I am interested in investigating the effects of the media (e.g., commercials, other advertisements) used by both the Yes and No on Prop 8 campaigns (as well as campaigns in other states with same-sex couples legislation) to see which types of messages are most persuasive for heterosexual individuals in an experimental setting. In addition, using samples of UCLA students and Internet participants, I will examine how the effectiveness of these messages is moderated by factors such as gender, race/ethnicity, and age. I will work with Natalya Maisel, a fifth-year social psychology graduate student, to investigate these questions, under the direction of Professor Anne Peplau. This project is also being fulfilled as my honor's thesis for the 2009-10 school year.
Perez, Catherine (Sociology)
IRSP Graduate Student Advisors: Chinyere Osuji and Sarah Schlabach

I am honored to work with Sarah Schlabach and Chinyere Osuji in the Sociology department in their doctoral dissertation research dealing with multi-racial families that is funded by the National Science Foundation. For the next two quarters, I will get the opportunity to do field work and conduct in-depth interviews with multi-racial families by using the snowball sampling method. In addition, I will also be transcribing and coding interviews in order for it to be manipulated in SPSS. I hope to gain research experience and insight about multi-racial families and its impact within the family system and society at large.
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