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Last semester, psychology major Kristen Mahlstedt ’05 (Ridgefield, N.J.) researched how jurors’ prejudice may influence their decisions in the courtroom.
She worked with John Shaw, associate professor and assistant head of psychology, to ascertain whether jurors discriminate against a defendant who is of a different race or is not fluent in the same language. This study builds on prior ones conducted by Shaw along with a team of researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso.
“Kristen and I collected data all semester for an experimental laboratory study in which we examined how the language in which a criminal defendant testifies, as well as the ethnicity of the defendant, may affect mock jurors’ verdicts and attitudes about the defendant,” Shaw says. “As the size of the monolingual Spanish-speaking population continues to increase in the United States, Spanish-English interpretation has become more frequent and thus more important to the adjudication of many Hispanic defendants.”
“I was extremely excited and honored to be working with him because I feel he is highly qualified and knowledgeable in this area,” Mahlstedt says of Shaw. “Since I have come to Lafayette he has been my favorite professor because he is enthusiastic about the subject he teaches and also because he genuinely cares about his students.”
“Kristen is enthusiastic, reliable, hardworking, and very eager to learn,” says Shaw.
Shaw has published his research in numerous publications and mentored Lafayette students who have presented their undergraduate research with him in academic journals and at conferences. He has conducted research on eyewitness confidence and accuracy in the courtroom, for example with government and law major Josie Dykstra ’05 (Doylestown, Pa.); Trustee Scholarship recipient Kristin Pontoski ’03 (Willow Grove, Pa.), a double major in psychology and English; and psychology major and Marquis Scholar Tana Zerr ’02 (Hamburg, Pa.). He conducted research with psychology major Kelly Egan ’03 (Vernon, N.J.) on how people make decisions about genetic testing and feel about genetic engineering, mentored psychology major Meredith Smith ’03 in her investigation of the causes of burnout in adolescent and college athletes, and guided psychology major and Marquis Scholar Omoniyi Adekanmbi ’04 (New Carrollton, Md.) in her exploration of the gap in test scores between black and white students.
A former criminal defense attorney, Shaw has handled several thousand criminal cases and over 100 jury trials, including numerous serious felonies such as rape and murder.
“This is an area of research where he has a great deal of experience,” Mahlstedt says. “He was a public defender in Los Angeles for many years where many of his clients were not fluent in the English language.”
Mahlstedt and Shaw used videotapes of a mock burglary trial and asked participants to answer questionnaires to gauge juror bias. She says this is relatively uncharted territory, because most studies of courtroom bias tend to reflect the discrimination of witnesses and defendants because of race, gender, or ethnicity.
“This was Kristen’s first chance to be involved in research outside of the classroom,” says Shaw. “She contributed numerous ideas during the creation of the materials for the study, and she was being exposed to many of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of conducting psychological research.”
“I expect that Kristen learned a good deal about her skills as a psychological researcher,” he adds.
“I found this research opportunity particularly exciting because it gave me a valuable learning experience,” Mahlstedt concurs. “It gave me exposure to the world of psychological research. I was also excited about this project because it is interesting to see how people form different opinions about a defendant based on the language he or she speaks.”
Shaw believes that the results will contribute to a better understanding of how Hispanic defendants are treated in the criminal justice system and how interpretation of the courtroom can affect trial jurors’ decisions. He also believes this study had a major impact on Mahlstedt’s academic skills.
“Although the advanced research course is only one semester long, Kristen’s involvement will continue in the months ahead as we begin to write the manuscript that will report the results of this study,” Shaw adds. “That process will undoubtedly help Kristen sharpen her writing and analytical skills.”
Mahlstedt believes that Lafayette’s small liberal arts culture has been beneficial to her goals.
“Lafayette is a good environment for projects such as this. Because of the small size of the school, it is more conducive for students to form close bonds with their professors,” she says. “It also gives more students an opportunity to work on research projects and projects get more attention.”
She is pleased that the psychology major allows students to determine their interests because the faculty have a diverse set of interests among them.
“Lafayette’s small and close-knit community is also beneficial because it causes the class sizes to be smaller,” she says. “In smaller classes, students ask more questions and better understand the material.”
Mahlstedt worked this summer at Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital in Katonah, N.Y., with adolescents suffering from drug-related and emotional problems. She says the internship “helped me become more passionate about the field and it helped me decide that I want to get my doctorate in clinical psychology.”
A graduate of Ridgefield High School, Mahlstedt is a member of the Delta Gamma sorority. She serves as director of Anchor Splash, a philanthropic event for the Service for Sight organization. She is also a peer counselor and an active volunteer through the Landis Community Outreach Center in such programs as Kids in the Community and Adopt-A-Grandparent, as well as a member of the steering committee for Lafapalooza, a campus-wide volunteer day, and the blood drive.
Independent study courses are among several major opportunities at Lafayette that make the College a national leader in undergraduate research. Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Over the past five years, more than 130 Lafayette students have presented results from research with faculty mentors, or under their guidance, at the conference.