Hi everybody! My name is Sarah Lapean, and I am a rising senior at Amherst College double majoring in English and psychology. I am doing a thesis in each of my majors, and this summer I received funding through the Gregory S. Call Summer Student Research Program to do preliminary work on my psychology thesis on campus. I am investigating the moral objections that underlie prejudice against people who engage in BDSM (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, sadism/masochism). Why is it that many people respond to the idea of BDSM with almost instinctive rejection? Is it a feeling of disgust? Fear? Something deeper?
My thesis is built upon two psychological theories: intergroup threat theory and the sociofunctional model of prejudice. Intergroup threat theory believes that ingroups evaluate outgroups based on symbolic threats and realistic threats. Symbolic threats would be things like morals, religion, and worldview. It is when someone threatens something you believe. Realistic threats would be things like resources, general welfare, and economics. It is when someone threatens your physical well-being. The sociofunctional model of prejudice believes that ingroups react to outgroups through a process of recognizing a threat, feeling an emotion towards that threat, and then responding with an action. The model states that there are five basic profiles for this cycle, but the ones directly relevant to my thesis are contamination-disgust-rejection and safety-fear-escape.
Over the course of this summer I hope to research, plan, and make progress on my project. So far, I have been conducting a review of the background literature related to my topic to get a good sense of where the scholarly conversation currently sits. I think of it kind of like pollination: I’m a bee traveling between tons of different flowers of research. I pick up a bit of pollen at each stop and mingle it with that of another flower in order to get new growth. I have also been busy designing my study and choosing appropriate scales and survey questions. Next, I will begin writing my literature review, which will eventually become the first section of my thesis.
My psychology thesis advisor is Professor Rebecca Totton, who specializes in the study of stereotypes and prejudice. I meet with her two times a week, once for a one-on-one discussion about my progress and goals for the upcoming week, and once in a lab meeting with the six other students working with her in various capacities.
Prior to this summer, my research experience has come from two Gregory S. Call Academic Intern positions, one in each of my majors. I worked with Professor Totton last summer and over the course of the previous academic year on a number of projects, such as an anti-trans content analysis study, a study on the effects of anti-trans laws on trans youth, and studies on how prejudice affects people with intersectional identities. Simultaneously, I worked with Professor Lise Sanders of the English department on primary source research for her forthcoming book on nineteenth-century British department stores. Both of these experiences gave me hands-on practice in how to navigate research databases, design studies, and work on various stages of long-term projects.
During the fall, I will also be busy with graduate school applications. I hope to get my doctorate in psychology, studying prejudice and discomfort around discussing sex and sexuality in the United States. I believe that this research could inform how to build more comprehensive and more palatable sex education curriculums for schools. After I complete my doctorate program, I hope to continue my research and potentially work as a professor or with the Department of Education. But one thing at a time!
If you are planning to do a thesis at Amherst, I would highly encourage you to apply for funding to work on it over the summer! It is much easier to focus when you do not have classes and clubs filling up your schedule, and it changes how you feel about your work when you get to sit with it in a more relaxed way every day.