Kevin Specter

I am an experimentalist with an applied focus on empirically validated research-based methodologies, and I am very passionate about my involvement in quantitative and qualitative study. At both the undergraduate and graduate levels I pursued coursework in such areas as measurement and evaluation, behavioral statistics, research design, and human cognition. I am experienced with (and enthusiastic about) principles of human behavior related to cognitive, behavioral, developmental, and social psychology. I designed my master’s thesis experiment to examine whether the style of photograph and amount of self-disclosure in the “about me” text of a user’s Facebook profile impact how willing viewers were to initiate friendship with the profile owner, which I later presented at the 2013 Eastern Psychological Association Conference. My research interests include the impact of social networking and developing technologies on verbal and nonverbal impression formation, online communication and self-presentation, social self-efficacy, and measuring user experience both qualitatively and quantitatively as it relates to social behavior online and face-to-face. I am avidly driven to relate the results and knowledge of scientific discovery to practical contexts for human betterment. I am also enthusiastic and experienced in overseas travel.