Date of Completion

Spring 5-5-2013

Thesis Advisor(s)

Blair T. Johnson

Honors Major

Psychology

Disciplines

Social Psychology

Abstract

To test two competing theories, social role and sexual strategies, a study was proposed to have participants evaluate dating profiles that varied in agency, communion, and status. Power was also manipulated to test for effects on likelihood to date an individual. To test methods used for the proposed study, a pilot study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a power prime task, a manipulation check for the power prime task, the attractiveness of 24 pictures, and an analysis of 12 profiles. The study found that power priming with analogies did not significantly lead to participants feeling powerful. This finding was also connected to the manipulation check, which may not have been effective. The profiles created were mostly found to be agentic or communal. Participants’ ratings of the 12 female pictures showed they were statistically similar and ratings for the 12 male pictures were significantly different. These results partially demonstrated the potential for re-use of these stimuli in the proposed study.

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