Arts - Buffalo State College

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Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship Program
Rebekah Whited, Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Professor Dwight Hennessy, Psychology
Abstract Title: The Effects of Driving Personal Space and Personality On Tailgating
Behavior
Rebekah Whited is a Psychology major who plans on graduating with her B.A. degree in May 2013.
After graduation, her plans include pursuing a graduate degree in Psychology.
Rebekah’s study involved determination of personal factors that impact driver personal space
preference. Participants viewed two video clips (one through the windshield of a car approaching
another car and the other through a rearview mirror of the car being approach) and stopped each
video to indicate their preferred spacing when they drive. Rebekah found that both front and rear
space preference were predicted most prominently by the interaction of conscientiousness and driver
aggression. Rebekah will be presenting these findings at the Eastern Psychological Association in 2012.
Amy Widman, English Education
Faculty Mentor: Professor Aimable Twagilimana, English
Abstract Title: Fictionalizing Resistance: Scheherazade and Her Reincarnation In the
Modern Arab Novel
Amy is an English Education major and will graduate in May 2012. After graduating, she plans to
pursue a Master’s degree in English at Buffalo State and eventually a Ph.D.
Amy’s research consisted of a critical investigation focusing on two literary texts, Arabian Nights
(One Thousand and One Nights) and Tayeb Salih’s novel Season of Migration to the North. She argued
that women, facing a very oppressive patriarchal regime, adroitly used fictionalization (storytelling)
as an indirect strategy of resistance to abrogate victimization. Specifically, she looked at how women
in contemporary literature continue to display Scheherazade’s strategy using the example of Sudanese
writer Tayeb Salih in his novel Season of Migration to the North. Using feminist theory and concepts
from Orientalism, her research focused on how two women deal with male repressive practices.
Mark Zdrojewski, Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Professor Howard Reid, Psychology
Abstract Title: Mind Or Body: Willingness To Undergo Predictive Medical and
Psychological Testing
Mark graduated with a B.A. in Psychology in December 2011 and is currently a graduate student at
the University of South Florida College of Medicine studying Aging and Neuroscience. He is performing
research in the field of stem cell therapy for neurodegenerative diseases at USF’s Alzheimer’s Institute
and plans to finish his masters program at USF and enter their medical school in 2013.
For his research, Mark developed his research project to examine what factors are involved in a
person choosing to undergo predictive genetic testing. In addition, he explored if these factors differed
for medical or psychological conditions. Mark collected data from college students with an original
questionnaire designed for the study, and then utilized multiple regression analysis to find personality
traits that correlated with a person’s willingness to undergo predictive genetic testing. His findings are currently being prepared for
submission to a profession journal.