Nathan Craven

Enoch, UT

Psychology

Leadership Engagement Track

 

Getting your face to work for you and not against you.

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                The phrase fake it until you make it may have some real application.  The most important thing about that phrase is not just making it something that is a wives’ tale, but that there is some actual science behind it.  The researchers Strack, Martin and Stepper set out to establish the validity of that statement.  They labeled the previous statement as the Facial Feedback Hypothesis.  They established that there is a connection between the facial expression that a person engages and the way that they perceive situations.

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                There have been many different researchers that have looked into the Facial Feedback Hypothesis and how it applies in different situations.  For my individual research project, I looked at how this hypothesis works in a situation of frustration.  More importantly I wanted to see if the facial expressions that were generated had an effect on motor cognitive skills.  I looked at how smiling or frowning effects frustration on a reverse mirror task.  I had participants complete a mirror tracing task, where they would trace an object but each movement would be reversed as if in a mirror.  This was supposed to be frustrating, and I hypothesized that the frown groups would perform worse.  I found that there was a connection in a frustration response with facial expression on a biological level, but that the participants self-reported frustration levels did not correlate significantly.     

 

 

 

 

                 

               

 

 

 

 

 

                 

 

 

 

                 This project was inspired by the desire I had to do independent research but also my fascination with the mind-body connection.  There is so much research to be done in this field because there are so many facets to human behavior.  Overall, this research has helped further the education on the mind-body interaction and opened a new path to how this can be observed and manipulated.  This research has been helpful to understand how many different facets there are to this interaction and that there is so much more to this hypothesis that we do not know that what we do know.

               

                This project benefitted me because I am now I understand the research process so much more.  Above that I was able to apply and understand all aspects of what I have been studying all these years of my undergraduate.  I am able to use this research experience on my applications to graduate schools for my future.  I am also able to fulfill a passion of mine of understanding the mind-body interaction and help others understand just how important that interaction is.  I hope in the future to show just how important the interaction is and that people should give it a lot of credit.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                          

 

-This study has found a new interaction that has helped me understand that the mind-body interaction is real and that there are many different facets to it.

-Research is the best way for us to understand our world and how we are able to better use it for our benefit.