Browsing by Author "Ankenbruck, Mary"

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    The Calnali Microfinance Project: Three-Year Retrospective and Future Initiatives [poster]
    (2013-04-23) Hook, Sara Anne; Ankenbruck, Mary
    The Calnali Microfinance Project officially began in March 2010 with a visit from a delegation from IUPUI. Three years of data clearly demonstrate the feasibility of microfinance, even in the most remote areas of a country and in communities which have not had a tradition of entrepreneurship. The poster will emphasize the importance of partnerships between universities, non-profit organizations at the local, national and international level and leaders in the host community in setting a foundation for long-term success. Among the partner organizations that continue to be integral to the project are Rotary clubs in Indiana, Missouri and Mexico, the Rotarian Action Group for Microfinance, Pro Mujer, the IUPUI BiCCHEC Signature Center, the IUPUI Center for Service and Friends of Hidalgo. The support of newly elected leadership in Calnali was essential in providing the on-the-ground advocacy and cultural/political sensitivity that are necessary to move forward with this type of project. The lessons learned from the project transcend national boundaries. Recent research findings show that what women who participate in microfinance programs want as outcomes are universal: food for their families, a roof over their heads and educational opportunities for their children. The poster will feature photographs of the people and the region, the project website and a brief video. It will provide the most current performance indicators for the project and highlight plans for sustaining and expanding its capacity in the future, such as a major grant proposal to Rotary International and providing health services to the community.
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    Personality, Policies, and Partisanship: The Effect of Big Five Personality Traits on State-level Politics
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Ankenbruck, Mary; Dusso, Aaron
    Personality has always been viewed as an individual metric; however, ground-breaking research has changed that mentality. When examined in the aggregate, the personality scores of inhabitants create geographical psychological profiles that impact a multitude of political, economic, social, and health factors. These findings invite questions about what other regional differences are affected by the personalities of the inhabitants of the region, especially in the area of policy. This is especially interesting as other research has shown that on the individual level there are statistically significant correlations between personality traits and beliefs and behaviors that influence policy outcomes, such as religiosity and prejudice. Thus, in this paper e explore if these correlations extend to the state level. We do so by testing newly available state-wide Big Five personality t-scores for the 48 contiguous US states alongside state by state analysis of policy areas including marriage equality, abortion rights, death penalty, and gun rights. Preliminary results suggest that, when controlling for other factors such as demographics and partisanship, the personality profile of a state does indeed have an effect on the policies enacted within that state’s borders. The completion of this project will add to the growing body of political psychology research and may address important issues such as the polarization of politics and the overall importance of personality as both an individual and societal level metric.