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Alexandra Minieri ’07 (East Brunswick, N.J.) is putting an impressive end to her undergraduate education this year by presenting her honors thesis research at two national conferences.
Minieri will first travel to Dominican University of California in San Rafael to present at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) April 12-14. She also will attend the 115th annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) held Aug. 17-20 in San Francisco.
“I am excited about both presentations,” says the psychology major. “I am nervous about NCUR since I am performing the poster presentation, but I have spent so much time reviewing the literature and my specific results, I am confident that I will be able to articulate the findings and implications. I am especially excited about the APA presentation, since it is the top conference for psychology.”
Working under the guidance of Susan Basow, Dana Professor of Psychology, Minieri researched how justifiability, blame, and responsibility are determined in date rape scenarios. She applied the social exchange theory, in which financial investment is viewed as meriting some sort of payment.
“Participants were given scenarios in which the cost of a date – either expensive or not expensive – and who paid – either the male or the costs were split – were varied,” Minieri explains. “The main hypothesis was that when a man pays the whole cost of an expensive date, participants are more likely to believe the rape that later occurs is justified than when the costs of the date are split and/or when the date is inexpensive.”
Minieri also examined how the participants’ gender and their level of rape myth acceptance influenced the results. She hypothesized that a three-way interaction would take place, in which the most amount of blame, responsibility, and rape justifiability would be perceived by the male participants who read the scenario in which the male character paid the entire cost of an expensive date.
“The results partially supported the predictions,” Minieri says. “The cost of the date and who pays does seem to affect assignment of blame but not justifiability. The predicted three-way interaction was found regarding whether the female character in the vignette should have expected the male character to insist upon sexual intercourse.”
Basow, who has collaborated with Minieri extensively on several research projects, believes the student’s work will contribute to better education and prevention programs on college campuses.
“This topic is very important because the most common type of rape situation is one that occurs between acquaintances,” she says. “Understanding college students’ attitudes and expectations about certain dating conventions when a date ends in rape is important to help develop effective date rape prevention programs.”
Minieri chose to pursue research on date rape after reading an article, which measured tendency to rape, assigned in her Advanced Social Psychology course during her junior year. Her research has already given her a head start on her post-graduation plans to pursue a Ph.D. in counseling psychology and continue to study perceptions of rape and rape prevention programs. She hopes to apply her knowledge as a counselor in a college setting.
Basow believes Minieri’s honors thesis work, as well as her previous research, will give her an edge over other students in similar doctorate programs.
“It is very unusual for undergraduate students to get the amount of hands-on research experience that our psychology majors do,” she says. “Graduate schools are always surprised and favorably impressed with the research skills of our majors. Allie, because of both her research experiences, has been very successful in her applications for a Ph.D. program in counseling psychology.”
“The research experience I gained as an undergraduate at Lafayette College is comparable to that which some students gain at a master’s level, and it is because the psychology faculty is dedicated to the students and to helping them learn,” adds Minieri. “My experiences will help with my continued education tremendously.”
Minieri contributed to five separate research projects with Basow throughout her years at Lafayette. She conducted a literature review and summarized the information to help Basow write a chapter on gender socialization for a book containing lectures on women’s psychology, found and synthesized research on prevention programs for eating disorders, and conducted a literature review on female athletes and issues of muscularity, body dissatisfaction, and masculinity and femininity. She also updated two different databases for several of Basow’s ongoing research interests.
“Professor Basow is a wonderful mentor because of both her knowledge and experience, so choosing her as my adviser for my honors thesis was an easy decision,” says Minieri. “We also have the same research interests, so I knew she would be able to provide her expertise on the topic and lead me in the right direction.”
Basow’s clinical psychology and gender expertise has been covered by a variety of media outlets, including the BBC, CBS, CNN, and Canadian CityTV. A widely published leader in her field, Basow is author of Gender Stereotypes: Traditions and Alternatives,printed in three editions, including a Chinese translation. She has made numerous presentations at professional conferences and has served as a consultant and expert witness. She is consulting editor for scientific journals Psychology of Women Quarterly and Sex Roles and a licensed psychologist. She also helped found the Women’s Studies program at Lafayette.
Basow was impressed with Minieri’s commitment to her projects and believes her positive attitude will serve her well as her studies become more rigorous.
“Allie’s enthusiasm for the research enterprise, and for her honors project in particular, was unparalleled,” she says. “Allie always has an upbeat, can-do attitude, even in the face of obstacles. It’s been a pleasure to work with her, and I will miss her when she’s gone. I’m proud that she has gotten such an excellent response from the very competitive graduate programs to which she’s applied.”
Minieri currently is serving an internship at Third Street Alliance for Women and Children, a nonprofit social services agency in Easton, Pa., offering wellness and education programs for men, women, and children; childcare; shelter for homeless women and their children; and adult day services. She has studied abroad in Italy and is president of Psi Chi, the national psychology honor society. She also is a member of Alpha Phi sorority.
Honors theses are among several major programs that have made Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. The College sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year; 21 students were accepted to present their research at last year’s conference.