Kylie C
- Research Program Mentor
PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Expertise
interactions in close relationships and motivation; relationship initiation and attraction; commitment and relationship maintenance; positive behaviors in relationships
Project ideas
Relationship Science in Action: Measuring Commitment on TV
Social psychologists who study close relationships ("relationship scientists") have identified a number of factors that determine how committed someone is to their relationship. These include 1) their satisfaction with the relationship, 2) the amount they have invested in their relationship, and 3) their perception of alternatives to the relationship. In this project, you would learn about what relationship commitment looks like in "real" life by studying how it appears in a television show (ex: Jim and Pam in The Office). I'll help you create a behavioral coding scheme to measure a TV couple's commitment, and we can test if it changes over time as their relationship develops.