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  Graphic Design, Symposium Printed Program Contest, Ansley McCullough

  Ansley McCullough

  Art and Design students participated in a graphic design project contest. The winning design was used for the 2020 JSU Student Symposium printed program.

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  Graphic Design, Symposium Printed Program Contest, Savannah Meek

  Savannah Meek

  Art and Design students participated in a graphic design project contest. The winning design was used for the 2020 JSU Student Symposium printed program.

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  Graphic Design, Symposium Printed Program Contest, Madison North

  Madison North

  Art and Design students participated in a graphic design project contest. The winning design was used for the 2020 JSU Student Symposium printed program.

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  Gender Performance | How UI/UX Principles Can be Applied to Non-traditional Projects in an Academic-centered Environment

  Karine Parker

  Presentation 1: American philosopher and theorist Judith Butler introduced the concept of viewing gender as a performance rather than an innate feature in her essay ‘Performative Acts and Gender Constitution,” in 1988. In her theory, she described gender as something that is etched in our daily routines, learned and performed based on cultural norms as opposed to being directed by one’s biological sex. Butler defined gender identity as ‘a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo.’ We perform according to what society expects of us in order to not stand out from its prescribed norms. Some of the many influences which create our social expectations, include, what we watch on TV or otherwise, read in magazines, see on social media or in advertisements.

  This series of posters highlight the classic male and female gender performances by using role reversal scenarios. The 1950’s – 60’s esthetics and imagery are used as the backdrop for the switch­ because of the extremely patriarchal society associated with the era. Gender roles were very clear during that generation: men had the power and were strong and in charge while women were subservient to them and only held supportive roles in their lives, at the office or at home. The intent of these posters is for the viewer to explore how media has defined the gender roles and performances we still follow today. I chose the performances where gender can clearly be seen, such as their treatment in children’s toys, beauty perceptions, self-care, and household duties.

  Presentation 2: Exploring the use of UI/UX principles in an immersive experience through an escape room case study. This project explores user-centered design in an academic setting and how it could also be expended to a working environment. Through UI/UX knowledge we will examine everything from room design and setup, from concept to branding, creation, setup and user testing. This interactive style project can be a great teaching tool and even be expended to larger projects with different collaborating teams, in essence developing a UI/UX working environment which could be easily translated into the business world.

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  When Are People Glad Versus Upset with Themselves for Forgiving?

  Jordyn Platt and Erin Dempsey

  McCullough, Pargament, and Thoresen (2000) define forgiveness as, “intraindividual, prosocial change toward a perceive transgressor that is situated within a specific interpersonal context” (p.9). However, few authors have looked at instances where forgiveness backfires and the forgiver end up angry or upset with themselves for forgiving a transgressor (cf. Exline, Ciarocco, & Baumeister, 2001, February). The current study sought to further examine the differences between the types of situations and outcomes that influence someone to be glad for themselves or upset for forgiving the offender. In this study, 508 university student participants wrote a narrative about a time they forgave someone. The narrative prompts used a 2 (major incident; minor incident) x 2 (upset that they forgave the person; glad they forgave the person) between-subjects design. Participants described the situation and how they resolved it. Then they described why they were later upset with themselves or glad that they forgave the person. They indicated the gender of the person, their relationship, the emotions that they felt during and after the incident, and how the relationship developed after the incident. The reasons they gave for forgiving the person were mentioned in the upset condition more than the glad condition. They are listed as followed: adultery or cheating, lying, forgetting something important, mocking or bullying, and being rude or unkind. The following glad conditions were mentioned more often than the upset condition: gossiping or spreading rumors, broke or ruined something, trying to steal away their boyfriend/girlfriend, and dating their ex. When they were asked if they were glad or upset, the glad participants discussed that the relationship was stronger after the event or was too small of a problem to end the relationship. In contradiction, the upset participants mentioned that the incident repeated or the person hasn’t changed, and they shouldn’t have forgiven them so soon. Our discussion will center on whether these results support previous studies about the prosocial nature of forgiveness and how the forgiveness literature should be expanded to examine what happens days, weeks, or months after the forgiveness occurs to see the long-term effects of forgiveness on the self and one’s interpersonal relationships.

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  Vikings: Hero or Villains?

  Kaitlyn Rayburn

  Movies and video games are hosts to Geographies often tied to our reality. These stories often depict and represent cultures in a certain way and in a certain light. Today we are in a world full of stories that are presented to us to consume. One of them is the How to Train Your Dragon movie franchise which depicts a Nordic culture that goes from pillaging and murdering dragons to a young boy, Hiccup, rising and becoming a man showing his people a better way to live by saying no to tradition. This paper will focus on How to Train Your Dragon 2 when Hiccup’s new found peaceful life is threatened by a vicious outsider who wants to use the dragons he’s fought to save, learn about, and protect. However, this isn’t the only medium that portrays the Nordic Culture. Hellblade: Sennua’s Sacrifice portrays the Norse Vikings in a very different light. This video game follows the tale of Sennua, a Pict warrior who is trying to fight her darkness by going through into her enemy’s afterlife: Hel. The Vikings in this tale are ruthless killers and murders, conquers. In each of these tales are commonalities: Norse Mythology, Norway Geography, and a question of whether or not Vikings are a heroes or villains. I will be examining what each portrayal picks and choses to present to the consumer from what we know of the Norse Vikings. Perhaps it is a story telling purpose. The purpose of this paper is to examine the geographic significance of what they pick and choose to present to the public. Two sides of a coin that is inherently geographic.

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  Escape from Tox City

  Carol Record

  Escape from Tox City is an interactive commentary on toxic masculinity and bullying in online gaming inspired by my experiences as a female gamer in a stereotypically male realm. The goal of this project is to raise awareness about pockets of extreme unchecked toxic masculinity that exist in online gaming communities, especially League of Legends. League of Legends is a highly competitive multiplayer game notorious for its toxic community. Played by millions each day, the overwhelming majority of its players are young men between the ages of 16 and 30. Online gamers are largely free of the repercussions that dissuade bad behavior in person. As a result, some gamers can be quite hostile. It is common for players to harass one another for not performing well, and this harassment too often includes racial slurs, sexist and homophobic comments, and even death threats. While both men and women can exhibit toxic behavior, the overwhelming majority of toxicity in online gaming falls in the realm of toxic masculinity: ‘a narrow band of harmful culturally reinforced behavior and belief that reduces the idea of what a man is to someone who’s emotionally repressed, thuggishly violent, sexually aggressive, and self-centered’ (O’Malley, “Reclaiming Manhood: Detoxifying Toxic Masculinity”). Tox City is a metaphor for toxicity in online gaming. The board game format serves to simulate the experience of encountering varying levels of online attacks from fellow players. The object of the game is to escape from Tox City; to do so players must work together to defeat trolls and to survive an increasingly toxic environment. The game’s troll cards feature offensive quotes seen and heard while playing League of Legends. These shocking insults and slurs require players to expend varying amounts of energy to either dodge or confront them mimicking the real-life energy expenditure experienced when encountering trolls. If players run out of energy before reaching the end of the game, or if the environment’s toxicity level rises too high, it’s game over for everyone.

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  Turn It Down! The Effects of Acoustic Stimuli on Crayfish Fighting Behavior

  Austin Reed

  Agonistic interactions are ubiquitous across animals and these behaviors can establish dominance hierarchies that play a role in mating and resource distribution. Stressful environments can have effects on this behavior, influencing these hierarchies. For example, Anthropogenic noise has been shown to negatively influence social behaviors in several aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Crayfish, like many other aquatic crustaceans, rely heavily on chemical stimuli to find food, mates, and to interact with conspecifics. However, limited studies have shown that some aquatic decapod crustaceans produce and react to acoustic stimuli. The extent to which crayfish can detect and react to acoustic stimuli is still largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential impacts of non-natural noise, in the form of introduced vibrations, influenced agonistic behaviors in crayfish. Crayfish were socially isolated from opponents for one week before being paired together for a contest. Control animals were isolated without vibrational stimuli for this period, while noise treated animals were isolated in aquaria connected to a vibrational stimulus. Dyadic contests were recorded and analyzed based on the length of the first agonistic bout as well as the maximum behavioral intensity reached during the first bout. Initial findings have not shown significant differences in contest duration or maximum intensity between control and treatment animals. These findings imply that a sound stimulus of this frequency does not play a significant role in contest dynamics, or this frequency is not a physiological or behavioral stressor.

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  2020 JSU Student Symposium Proceedings

  Shannon Robertson

  These proceedings were compiled by Shannon Robertson, Associate Professor of Psychology.

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  Battle of the Benthic: Comparing Aggression Differences Between a Native and Invasive Species

  Alex Rocco

  Competition between individuals is often decided via agonistic interactions. When individuals encounter each other, both must assess the costs of fighting against the benefits of a potential resource gained. If both individuals’ assessments determine that the cost of continued interaction is less than the benefits gained, the agonistic interaction will increase in intensity until one individual gives up and flees. This has far-reaching ecological consequences, as losers in fights are often displaced to poorer quality food, shelter, and mate resources. Biogeographical studies of invasion have shown that aggression differences between alien and native species factor into invasion success. In part, these differences mean that invaders often outcompete native for higher quality resources. In this study, we examined the agonistic differences between a new invader to Alabama, Faxonius virilis, and a native crayfish, Faxonius erichsonianus, in dyadic interactions. Crayfish were socially isolated prior to trials. During trials, individuals were placed in a specially built fighting arena where they acclimated for 15 minutes. Crayfish were then free to interact for 20 minutes and were video recorded from above. Interactions were scored to determine total interaction duration and the maximum behavioral intensity reached. Using this data, we can determine whether one species demonstrates significantly different levels of aggression. Preliminary trials show no significant agonistic differences across native and invasive treatments in fights between conspecifics. It is possible that success in agonistic interactions is largely irrelevant to invasion success: high fecundity and generalism may be what gives the invasive F. virilis its edge over Alabama’s native crayfishes.