Isha Vicaria receives Psi Chi grant

Congratulations to Ishabel Vicaria, a fourth-year graduate student in our department, who recently received a Graduate Research Grant from Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology!

Isha first became a member of Psi Chi as an undergraduate psychology student, and came across the grant when searching for sources of additional funding for her dissertation. Isha describes her work as follows:

My dissertation will investigate how people of different ages get along with each other, and what nonverbal and verbal cues exist in those interactions. Rapport is a concept that I have become very interested in graduate school — Rapport results from a combination of the feelings and expressive behaviors that two (or more) people bring to an interaction. Rather than being an individual state or trait, rapport is dynamic, and it is built on the context and characteristics of the people involved in the interaction. 

I am particularly interested in the effect of age on rapport. Getting older is inevitably associated with various changes in social motivation, skills, experiences, and expertise. My dissertation will investigate how young and older individuals  establish rapport, and whether there are further differences based on the ages of interacting partners. I will study same- and mixed-aged dyads and measure various components of their verbal and nonverbal expressions. My hope is to highlight some interesting patterns of age differences in social interactions, and apply these findings to fostering successful relationships among individuals of different age groups.

Well done, Isha!

 

Psychology