Students' Research to Appear in The Journal of Social Psychology
(LEBANON, Ill., September 19, 2019) — A research article by three McKendree University
students and their professor, entitled “Evidence for Blatant Dehumanization of Mental
Illness and its Relation to Stigma,” has been accepted for publication. The article
is forthcoming in The Journal of Social Psychology, which is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes “original empirical research
in all areas of basic and applied social psychology.” A preprint of the article can
be found online.
Senior psychology major Lori Tretter and Class of 2019 graduates Raina Isaacs (psychology)
and Sydnie Markowski (biopsychology) conducted the research and co-wrote the article
with Dr. Guy A. Boysen, professor of psychology. The project documented people’s tendency
to see individuals with mental illness as lacking fundamental human qualities and
the power of this dehumanization to predict prejudicial attitudes. It is the second
peer-reviewed publication for this student research group. The three students and
Boysen previously published research on the effectiveness of trigger warnings in the
journal Teaching of Psychology.
-McK-