Spring Break
Psychology students reveal research
Kristina Mendoza, Daily Staff Writer
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The 46th annual event was held from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. in room 189 of the Engineering building.
The auditorium had a huge overhead projector, which was used to showcase numerous presentations by psychology students and their research every 20 minutes throughout the day.
Robert Pellegrini, professor and chair of the psychology department at SJSU, said the event was an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate psychology students to showcase their research achievements in virtually every area of the field.
"The students have all conducted research under supervision of faculty members," Pellegrini said.
Georgie Unwin, a graduate student in psychology, said her group and she conducted research in communication patterns in hostage situations by studying the behaviors between the hostage negotiator and the hostage taker.
"We are trying to find out if there is any relevance in these behaviors," Unwin said. "For example, if one behavior causes another."
Bryan McClain, one of Unwin's partners and also a graduate student in psychology, explained his perception of their research.
"It's really important to me that we build a tool to help resolve these situations nonviolently," he said.
Julie Botts, who will be enrolling as a psychology student in SJSU's graduate program in the fall, said she conducted research to see if there was a difference between SUVs tailgating and normal cars tailgating.
"We're looking at the difference in following times to see if SUVs follow more aggressively versus non-SUVs," she said.
Her conclusion was that everyone tailgates at about the same rate.
Pellegrini said he would be hosting Wednesday's opening ceremonies and that Eric W. Hickey, a professor of criminal psychology at Fresno State University, would be giving a speech titled "The Utility of Profiling in Violent Serial Crime."
At about 3 p.m., Ronald Rogers, faculty adviser for the conference, introduced Hickey and gave an introductory speech about Hickey's occupation and life.
Hickey's credits include conducting numerous research studies about the criminally insane, psychopaths, sex offenders, stalkers and other habitual criminals.
He is also a consultant for many law-enforcement agencies and has published reports on victim-offender relationships, serial crime, personality characteristics of criminals and the etiology of violence.
In 2002, Hickey published the third edition of his book, "Serial Murderers and Their Victims."
Hickey also discussed his love and passion for his job and mentioned he had worked on the Cary Stayner and Laci Peterson cases.
Hickey also used the overhead projector to show pictures of people and asked the audience to pick out who they thought were the offenders.
He also spoke about "gentlemen rapists," problems in profiling and different types of profiling.
Hickey even used humor to get the audience comfortable.
At one point, he carried the microphone from the podium and stood in front of the audience.
Hickey said he felt like Celine Dion and that his wife told him to never sing in public.
Pellegrini said the conference began in 1957 and was started because SJSU students have a long and rich history of excellence in research.
"It was created to provide an opportunity for both our undergraduate and graduate students to showcase their research achievements in a format which stimulates that of the major professional association meetings in our discipline," he said.
Some attendees said the event was interesting and beneficial.
"It's amazing. It allows us to direct the public," graduate student McClain said.
Others, such as Pellegrini, said they were proud to be a part of the event.
"We are intensely proud of the reputation for excellence which (the conference) has earned over the years," he said. "By every indication, thanks to the hard work by our student honor society, Psi Chi, members and faculty adviser Ron Rogers, this will be the biggest and the best (research conference) ever."
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