ACPHS Seniors, Autumn Chow and Justin Morehouse, had an opportunity to present their research to a sold-out audience at the Eastern Psychological Association’s 2026 Conference in Boston.
Chow, a Forensic Psychology major, partnered with alumna Shania Jagda ’25 and ACPHS Professors Nancy Dorr and Rob Flint on their research which examined relationships between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and non-criminal deviant behavior, personality and narcissism.
As part of the scholarly work, college students completed self-reported measures of ACEs, non-criminal deviance, personality, narcissism and criminal behavior. Non-criminal deviance scores were negatively correlated with scores on the personality traits of honesty/humility and conscientiousness and were positively correlated with a measure of criminal behavior.
Although the results did not show a statistically significant relationship between ACEs and non-criminal deviant behavior, they did show college students who scored higher on non-criminal deviant behavior also reported lower levels of honesty/humility and conscientiousness, and higher levels of criminal behavior. There was not support for the hypothesis that adverse childhood experiences would be related to the personality trait of emotionality, nor that non-criminal deviant behavior was significantly related to agreeableness.
“Future research should replicate and extend this study using additional measures of criminal behavior, a larger sample size and a non-college student sample,” said Chow.
Morehouse, a Psychology major with pre-health minor, also attended to showcase his research completed with University at Albany Psychology student, Lance Motlagh, and Professor Rob Flint.
His work explored spatial learning and memory as essential for effective navigation that often relies heavily on our visual system. The purpose of the study was to examine learning and extinction for a more difficult non-visual tactile spatial task that might lend itself to deeper investigation of mnemonic processes.
Analyses revealed main effects of trial for the time to complete each trial and the distance traveled on each trial, but there was no main effect of block or any trial by block interaction. These results indicate that participants generally improved at the same rate across trials regardless of the block. The study’s outcomes contrasted with their previous study which found significant differences between blocks.
“One possible explanation may be associated with the increase in difficulty of the task and corresponding increase in individual participant performance variability,” said Morehouse. “Future studies should focus adjusting parameters to reduce variability.”
The projects presented by current students, recent grads and faculty included:
- Mia McReynolds and Nancy Dorr: Perceptions of Medical Malpractice: How Stigma Can Impact Perceptions of Medical Malpractice
- Angelina Koudriashova, Tamara Alyazjeen, Grace O’Boyle ’25, and Rob Flint: Eyewitness Memory for Central and Peripheral Details of a Robbery
- Priyasha Setia, Bridget Longden ’25, Lillian Rodriguez Steen and Rob Flint: Mock Jurors’ Perceptions of Credibility, Believability, and Guilt: Victim Sex/Age Effects
- Justin Morehouse ’26, Lance Motlagh and Rob Flint: Tactile Spatial Memory: Implications from Increased Task Difficulty and Detailed Track Plots
- Ada Johnson ’26, Ross Krawczyk and Nancy Dorr: Delayed Disclosure of Sexual Assault: How Timing and Reason Affect Public Perceptions
- Shania Jagda ’25 and Rob Flint: Effect of Neutral and Negative Images on Galvanic Skin Response
- Kayla Moore and Lillian Rodriguez Steen: Intergenerational Characteristic Transfer of Alcohol Consumption, Criminality, and Mental Health
- Autumn Chow ’26, Shania Jagda ’25, Nancy Dorr and Rob Flint: Relationships between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Non-Criminal Deviant Behavior, and Personality
“The EPA Conference provided an excellent venue for ACPHS students to present their research and interact with faculty and students from numerous other institutions,” said Psychology Professor and Program Director, Rob Flint. “The experience was eye opening for many of them and the interest others showed in their research presentations helped to reinforce the importance and value of the research experience they gain at ACPHS.”
View the Conference posters.
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