Social Cognition Research Lab

Research Assistants

· Tamara Blanton

· Nikki Boblenz

· Erika Foster (not pictured)

· Courtney Kelley

· Chelsey Mullins

· Emily Sexton

· Dave Shuck

Active Research Projects

1. Youth Disclosure Project examines voluntary disclosure processes of adolescents living in different family structures (i.e., stepparent, grandparent-custodial, and intact family households). Investigations focus on adolescents’ voluntary disclosure, strategies of nondisclosure, and reasoning that adolescents use to justify nondisclosure to their parents.

2. Information Management during the First Year of College is a project being conducted on the Columbus Campus of the Ohio State University with colleague, Dr. Raymond Montemayor. Voluntary disclosure and nondisclosure processes will be examined in samples of first year college students across a range of college student concerns including drinking, academics, stress, and sex. A main focus of the project is to examine how these responses may differ among adolescents whose parents play varying roles in their life, once they live on campus.

3. In the Student Behavior Project, we are examining the ways that middle school students reason about school and classroom misbehavior. This multi-methodological study examines students’ beliefs about the acts, the rules governing the acts, and those who create and enforce the rules about the acts.

4. Planned and conducted with Dr. Amy Brunell, the Personality and Social Judgments study investigates individual differences in college students’ judgments and justifications about various everyday rule violations.

Past Research Projects

1. The Dating and Disclosure Project looks to examine how middle and late adolescents manage information about their romantic lives and to identify the variables that are associated with child disclosure (and nondisclosure) to parents. The goals of the present investigation are threefold: (1) identify the aspects of romantic relationships that adolescents choose to disclose and to not disclose to parents, (2) examine the variables associated with disclosure and nondisclosure including beliefs about legitimacy of parental authority, romantic history, and gender, and (3) examine the reasons adolescents use to justify nondisclosure to parents.

2. The purpose of the Adolescent Friendship and Decision Making Project was to examine how peers influence adolescents’ beliefs regarding the boundaries of personal jurisdiction. One of the main goals of this project was to examine the association between adolescents’ estimates of peer autonomy and the construction of personal autonomy beliefs. This longitudinal study examined the processes by which adolescents use peers as metrics in constructing beliefs regarding the boundaries of authority.

2. The Youth Decision Making Project examined the ways that various crowds (e.g., Preps, Jocks, Goths, etc.) influence adolescents’ construction of authority beliefs. The main goal was to identify and describe patterns of authority beliefs that are particular to each crowd found in middle and high schools. The study also investigated the association between adolescents’ estimates of peer autonomy and the construction of personal autonomy beliefs.

If you are interested in joining for the spring 2013 semester, please contact Dr. Daddis (daddis.1@osu.edu)