Each Spring, the Morris County Psychological Association holds an academic competition which is open to all high school students in Morris County who are taking classes related to the behavioral sciences, including psychology, human and/or animal behavior, child development, sociology, etc. The purpose of the competition is to stimulate and encourage the study of the behavioral sciences in high school students.
Students submitted papers they had written for their classes, which were completed as part of their regular course work. All identifying information was removed from each entry, and then each entry was judged independently by three doctoral level psychologists on a set of nine criteria, including:
-Awareness of social and cultural issues in the behavioral sciences
-Awareness of theoretical and technical issues in the study of behavioral sciences
-Clarity of written expression
-Originality of the study
All thirty-one public and private high schools in the county were invited to participate in the program.
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Click to download the documents below if you are a high school teacher or student who would like to participate (all entries must be in Word or PDF format):
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NUMBER OF ENTRIES: 26 (11 empirical studies, 15 written reports).
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS: 6(West Morris Central High School, West Morris Mendham High School, Morris Hills High School, Morris Knolls High School, Randolph High School, Mount Olive High School)
NUMBER OF TEACHERS WHOSE STUDENTS SUBMITTED ENTRIES: 11
COMMITTEE: Aaron Welt, Lauren Becker, Nancy Sidhu, Susan Neigher (chair)
NUMBER OF JUDGES: 24, Drs. Michael Zito, Joshua Zavin, Jayne Schachter, Aaron Welt, Nancy Sidhu, Hayley Hirschmann, Morgan Murray, Randy Bressler, Brenda Stepak, Sarah Dougherty, Carly Orenstein, Paul Yampolsky, Marc Gironda, Beverly Tignor, Deborah Fisch, Rhonda Allen, Marilyn Lyga, Francine Rosenberg; Isabel Lerman, Nydia Rolon, William Neigher, Lauren Becker, Deborah Roelke, Zachary Infantolino
FIRST PLACE WINNER:
Julia Yan, Randolph High School, teachers Michael Lonie and Sarah Townsend
The Definition of Chinese Authenticity
SECOND PLACE WINNER:
Tiffany Lau, West Morris Menham High School, teacher Jennifer Brown
An Exploration of the Chinese Learner Paradox
THIRD PLACE WINNER:
Caroline Joy Isemann, West Morris Central High School, teacher Victoria Hallett
Anxiety & Athletics: A study on the extent of high school sports impact on anxiety
HONORABLE MENTIONS--3
Hannah Abkin, West Morris Mendham High School, teacher Jennifer Brown
An Experiment to Investigate the Reconstructive Ability of the Human Memory and Mind
Emma Ortiz, West Morris Central High School, teachers Victoria Hallett and Erin Feltmann
The Extent to Which Exercise Can Effectively Treat Depression
Caitlin McNally, Mount Olive High School, teacher Mary Kellam
Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Pause, Prompt, Praise Procedure and the Think-Pair-Share Technique in Tutoring at the Elementary Level