Education and Exploration:
Undergraduate Research at Rice

Jenessa Shapiro
Psychology and Art Double Major

What do Eliza Doolittle, Barbie, and obesity have in common? Expectations—either great or diminished—according to psychology and art major Jenessa Shapiro. Jenessa’s research, which focuses on training and obesity, is an extension of well-known research published in 1968 by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson. Those researchers found that teachers’ expectations of students’ abilities could affect the students’ performance. If teachers have low expectations, for example, the students may perform worse than they would otherwise. The phenomenon has been labeled the Pygmalion effect in reference to George Bernard Shaw’s play, Pygmalion. In the play, Henry Higgins tries to pass off a poor flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a lady by educating her and changing her appearance. It works, but as Eliza states, “I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl. . . .”

Jenessa’s research focuses on industrial/organizational psychology and applied psychology with an emphasis in training, gender, stigma, stereotyping, and discrimination. Her project combines education with the stigma of obesity, which is where Barbie, who represents an idealized perfect weight, comes into play. Jenessa is examining the expectations educators hold of obese students and subsequent student learning and satisfaction. Jenessa explains, “My hypothesis is that the negative personality traits that trainers attribute to obese individuals—that they are incompetent and less industrious than non-obese trainees—result in lower outcomes and skill acquisition. These stereotypes may be a product of a self-fulfilling prophecy with roots in inadequate training.”

Jenessa’s route to psychology was not a direct one and demonstrates the flexibility that Rice undergraduates are offered in considering a major course of study. Says Jenessa, “I began as a math and Spanish major but quickly realized that these fields did not make me happy. During my sophomore year I took three introductory-level social science classes, including psychology. I had heard about Professor Mikki Hebl’s research lab, regarding the type of research conducted and its energetic atmosphere. I joined the lab and have remained a member for three years. In it, I was exposed to all aspects of psychology research. I soon realized that I anxiously looked forward to my lab hours regardless of the tasks involved. It was there that I discovered my love for research, and consequently, I decided upon psychology as my major.”

Jenessa adds, “As a research assistant I have been able to do more than just data entry, I have had the opportunity to contribute significantly to the research projects of professors and graduate students serving as a confederate, assisting in the conceptualization of projects, and generating stimuli. As a result, I have been able to gain a solid understanding of the research process.

“It is exciting for me to work with professors who are well recognized in their fields and take an interest in students on a personal and professional level. I feel that Rice’s student–faculty interaction—one of Rice’s strongest qualities—is what makes research at an undergraduate level so appealing.”