Date of Award

1-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Psychology

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Peter Vietze

Committee Member

Ruth Propper

Committee Member

Kenneth Sumner

Abstract

Lateralization of cerebral function divides the cognitions of the brain between two hemispheres, resulting in differences in thought processing between people based potentially on lateralization. Recent research suggests that these differences in lateralization may render some people more likely to hold certain preferences, attitudes, and beliefs about the world. Individual differences in lateralization can be evaluated with simple inventories measuring handedness. With this in mind, the following study attempted to determine if differences in handedness could be associated with differences in personal preferences, particularly in regards to types of food and forms of entertainment. It evaluated participants by using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971) to create groups of inconsistent-handers and consistent-handers, then surveyed them on questionnaires of food preferences and entertainment preferences, comparing the responses between the two groups. The results for this study showed no significant differences between the responses provided by inconsistent-handers and consistent-handers. Thus, no definitive conclusions could be drawn from this research. While self-report surveys may be effective measures on this topic, the surveys used here may not be reflective of the participants’ actual behaviors, and therefore the results of this study may not reflect the research question accurately.

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