Williams Baptist University was represented by a student and four faculty members at the annual meeting of the Southwest Psychological Association, held April 4-5 in Albuquerque, N.M.  All of the WBU representatives made presentations at the conference.

Student MaKenzie Free (pictured above) presented the results of her research, which examined objectification at religious camps.  Free is a senior psychology major from Beebe, Ark.

Dr. Ruth Provost, chair of the WBU psychology department, and Melinda Williams, assistant professor of speech, drama and journalism, made a presentation on their research into children’s writings.  The study explored writings by children using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, or LIWC, which provides a linguistic analysis of a written passage or transcribed speech.

Dr. Paul Rhoads and Dr. Dennis Vowell, Jr., both of the WBU psychology faculty, made a presentation on modern political discourse.  In their study, they performed an LIWC analysis of political communication on social media.

WBU is a private, Christian university in Walnut Ridge, Ark.