Presentation Title
Existential Isolation in the Dominican Republic
Abstract
Existential isolation is a relatively new concept in psychological science that focuses on feelings of isolation stemming from the fact that no one can truly know for certain what another person experiences firsthand. The study I propose will extend cross-cultural work on existential isolation. Data will be collected in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where a collectivistic culture dominates. In South Korea, research on collectivism and existential isolation yielded a negative correlation: the more people embrace collectivism, the less they feel existentially isolated. I will examine whether this same correlation emerges in a sample collected from the Dominican Republic. In addition, I will compare existential isolation levels in the Dominican Republic to existential isolation levels in the United States and South Korea. Finally, I will examine whether individual differences in emotional expressivity explain the correlation between existential isolation and collectivism in the Dominican Republic
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Elizabeth Pinel
Graduate Student Mentors
Young Chin Park
Faculty/Staff Collaborators
Dr. Elizabeth Pinel (Collaborating Mentor), YoungChin Park (Graduate Student Mentor)
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Second Student College
Honors College
Program/Major
Psychological Science
Primary Research Category
Social Sciences
Existential Isolation in the Dominican Republic
Existential isolation is a relatively new concept in psychological science that focuses on feelings of isolation stemming from the fact that no one can truly know for certain what another person experiences firsthand. The study I propose will extend cross-cultural work on existential isolation. Data will be collected in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where a collectivistic culture dominates. In South Korea, research on collectivism and existential isolation yielded a negative correlation: the more people embrace collectivism, the less they feel existentially isolated. I will examine whether this same correlation emerges in a sample collected from the Dominican Republic. In addition, I will compare existential isolation levels in the Dominican Republic to existential isolation levels in the United States and South Korea. Finally, I will examine whether individual differences in emotional expressivity explain the correlation between existential isolation and collectivism in the Dominican Republic