INQUIRY

INQUIRY • Volume 19, 2015
crawling more comfortable. Nonetheless, the bias to go over
persisted at levels similar to those observed in Experiment 1.
These findings were taken to mean that walkers have a robust
bias to maintain bipedal gait and generally make highly
consistent motor decisions within and between individuals.
The Effect of Social Class on Interpersonal Orientation
Adam J. Peterson, Psychology
Sponsor: Professor Tessa West, Psychology
Correlational research suggests that higher socioeconomic
status (SES) individuals prioritize independence,
personal freedom and choice whereas lower SES individuals
prioritize interdependence and social connectivity.
Recent experimental research involving subjective SES
manipulations and dependent variables such as empathic
accuracy have supported these findings but fallen short in
explicitly demonstrating a causational link between SES
and interpersonal orientation. The present research sought
to fill this gap by investigating whether inducing high SES
would lead to an independent orientation and inducing low
SES would lead to an interpersonal orientation. Participants
were randomized to either a high or low SES condition and
then had their temporary subjective SES manipulated in
accordance to their condition. Following this, participants
were given behavioral and self-report measures to assess
their interpersonal orientation. Although subjective SES was
successfully manipulated, the results of this manipulation
were insignificant and thus unable to support the notion of
a causational link between SES and interpersonal orientation.
Although this study was unable to provide support
for a causational link, it was still able to replicate previous
correlational findings. Further research should therefore
include a larger sample size to better elucidate the relationship
between subjective SES and interpersonal orientation.
The Roles of Regional Dialect and Language Distance
on Phonetic Convergence
Rebecca Piper, Language and Mind
Sponsor: Professor Susannah Levi, Communicative Sciences
and Disorders, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and
Human Development
Phonetic convergence is the phenomenon in which
people unintentionally and temporarily change small phonetic
details of their speech to sound more similar to another
talker. Previous research has revealed multiple lexical, social
and task factors that affect the presence and degree of phonetic
convergence. Of interest to the current study are the
influences of regional dialect and language distance, which
is the dialectal similarity of the language of the speaker who
converges and the other talker (the target talker). It is unclear
whether more or less similarity between the dialects of the
two speakers facilitates phonetic convergence. In the current
study, speakers with a General American dialect repeated
words recorded by two target talkers, one with a General
American dialect and the other with a New York City (NYC)
dialect. Results revealed that speakers were more likely to
modify their speech when listening to the General American
talker, supporting the finding that speakers are more likely
to converge when there is greater similarity between their
own dialect and the dialect of the target talker.
International Influence on Ghana’s Healthcare: Implications
for the Millennium Development Goals
Emma Pliskin, Global Public Health/Anthropology
Sponsor: Professor Helena Hansen, Anthropology
The United Nations and its signatories created the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 as a tangible
timeline and focus for the world’s efforts in improving
livelihoods. The goals, to be met by 2015, focus on eight
categories (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve
universal primary education; promote gender equality and
empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal
health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global
partnership for development), and the focus of this study
are the health-specific goals. In considering these goals,
we must necessarily consider the individualized impact
that these words and concepts have on the lived experience
of those under the auspices of these Goals. How do they
affect the day to day? How do they permeate the discourse,
practice and understanding of self in countries implicated by
these goals? What contradictions exist in the space between
those who determine what development should be and those
who embody, or internalize, those ideals? Interviews were
conducted in Accra, Ghana, to better understand the ways in
which international interventions in general are embodied by
those practicing public health, medicine and policy and by
the people with whom they work. This study also examines
the dichotomy between what is “modern” and what is “traditional,”
what “First” and “Third” world means and, finally,
how economic and political structures allow the former to
interpret and define the needs and practices of the latter. It
was found that the idea of “Westernization” was conflated
with “modernization.” Consequently, the MDGs operate
under assumptions that are not necessarily applicable to
the Ghanaian healthcare landscape. The goals manufacture
a healthcare system intended to change the conceptualization
and practice of healthcare into a thriving, “modern”
ideal. Target countries suffer from this misappropriation
and the paradoxes that arise therein. These concepts are thus
essential for the field of global public health and require
anthropological, historical and political consideration in
current developing public health initiatives.
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