Stephanie
Madon
Associate Professor
of Psychology
Iowa State
University
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Mailing Address: |
W112 Lagomarcino Hall Psychology Department Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011 |
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E-mail: |
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Phone: |
(515) 294-2932 |
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Research Interests: |
My current program of research
focuses on criminal confessions. Confessions are
among the most incriminating forms of evidence in criminal law. Psychological
research using controlled laboratory procedures reveals that innocent suspects
sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit. Recent DNA exoneration cases
corroborate these empirical findings. Of the more than 200 wrongful
convictions that have surfaced thus far, 25% involved a false confession. My
research examines the underlying psychological, cognitive, and physiological
processes that lead suspects to confess to criminal behavior. My work
emphasizes the role of physiology as a cause and consequence of confession as
well as the idea that police interrogation narrows suspects’ attentional focus
to the here and now, thereby causing them to make decisions regarding a
confession more on the basis of immediate consequences than future ones (e.g.,
execution, imprisonment). I also have interests in self-fulfilling prophecies
which are false beliefs that lead to their own fulfillment. Within this
content area, I have examined the link between self-fulfilling prophecies and
social problems. I run a joint lab with Dr. Max Guyll who is a clinical
health psychologist and faculty member in the counseling area at Iowa State
University. Click HERE to go
to Max Guyll’s homepage. |
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Undergraduate Research
Assistants: |
Undergraduate students
interested in joining our lab as a research assistant should contact Kyle
Scherr (kscherr@iastate.edu) the semester prior to the semester they would
like to begin (e.g., contact Kyle in the Spring if you wish to begin the
following Fall). Undergraduate students in our lab are primarily involved
with data collection. Depending on students’ skills, they may also help to
develop experimental material, perform statistical analyses, and engage in
computer programming. Students are encouraged to collaborate on poster
presentations at regional and national psychology conferences. Because of the
nature of our research, we expect students to commit to 3 credits per
semester which translates into 9 hours of lab work per week. |
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Prospective Graduate Students: |
Students applying to the doctoral
program in social psychology at Iowa State University who wish to work with
me should have research interests in criminal confessions. My expectations
for graduate students are that they commit themselves to research with the
goal of obtaining an academic position at a research-oriented university.
Graduate students in my lab coordinate lab activities (e.g., lab meetings,
lab schedules, experimental signups, etc.), contribute heavily to all
on-going research projects, manage and organize the involvement of
undergraduate research assistants, and are authors on publications and
conference presentations. Graduate students are also encouraged to develop
their own research studies in the area of psychology and law. |
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Current Graduate Students: |
My current graduate student is
Kyle Scherr. He has an active program of research in the area of Miranda. He
also has interests in criminal confessions and social influence processes. |
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Vita: |
Vita (ß click) |
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Course Homepages: |
Psychology 280: Introduction
to Social Psychology (ß click) Psychology 380:
Social Cognition (ß click) |
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The Social Psychology Graduate Program
at Iowa State: |
The social program at ISU is
highly competitive. Most of our students have GRE scores (Verbal + Quant)
that exceed 1200. Our students also have strong records of academic achievement
in college, with GPA's of 3.6 and above. Most of our Ph.D. students acquired
extensive research experience at their undergraduate institutions prior to
coming to Iowa State University. Students who graduate from our doctoral
program are qualified to work at colleges and universities conducting
research and teaching at the graduate and undergraduate level. Almost all of
our graduates have been successful in obtaining academic jobs. A Ph.D. in
social psychology also qualifies one for more applied work (e.g., market
research), although we do not specifically train students for such positions.
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My Graduate Advisor: |
Dr. Lee Jussim (Rutgers
University). Click HERE for his homepage. |
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