Constance Locklear

Research Assistant – Psychology of War Lab, Small Groups Lab

Constance is a senior undergraduate student pursuing an honors thesis investigating the stability of status hierarchies in groups, sex-differences in hierarchy stability, and the speed at which status hierarchies are formed. Other interests include the effects of organophosphates on Alzheimer’s and ADHD, group inclusion/exclusion, volleyball, and the interaction between psychology research and the law.

Research

Finding your place: How gender composition affects emergent group influence hierarchies:An existing data set of 43 growing groups was used to test whether influence hierarchies in all-female, majority-female, and majority-male groups stabilized at the same rate and in the same way. Contrary to Martin’s (2009) findings, both the top (alpha) and the bottom (omega) ends of the influence hierarchies stabilized most quickly in the all-female groups. Sex composition and the pattern of group growth also interacted in predicting influence stability. Groups that grew from two to four to five members stabilized more quickly than groups that grew from two to three to five members. This was especially true of majority-male groups, whose only female member arrived last and alone. Findings suggest that membership change is more likely to disrupt the stabilization of group structure when it also changes the group’s gender composition. Download the Poster Here!