Research Blog #4

Research Proposal

Working Title: Alcoholic Hazing Persists Despite Known Risks

Topic

I am going to explore the rituals and hazing tendencies of sororities and fraternities, which has become extremely popular in the modern college generation. My paper will focus a lot on alcoholic rituals and why certain rites of passage allow for greater acceptance from peers in a greek organization. I will also touch on the fact that this acceptance is a main reason that student’s can endure so much, having it alter their perception of hazing boundaries and what can ultimately hurt them just for approval.

Research Question

What psychological reason is behind the amount of hazing college students accept as a normal amount to endure and why do their peers set this as the rite of passage into an organization?

Do the heavy and unsafe drinking habits of these rituals stem from a goal of pure fun or torture among peers?

Theoretical Frame

Looking into how environmental factors and individual differences such as alcohol sensitivity contribute to alcohol involvement in young adults will help me to explain my research question and development a theoretical answer. I will be looking into in depth research on the relationship between factors of alcohol sensitivity, age group, amount of involvement in greek life all compared to amount of alcohol they typically consume from the article from "Health Psychology." This will help me to dive deeper into why greek life primarily always involves alcohol in their ritual processes even when they know it's detrimental.

Research and Plan

I plan to focus a lot of my research on the books Pledged by Alexandra Robbins and Inside Greek U.: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power, and Prestige by Alan D. Desantis. Pledged is really going to help me dive into the sorority aspect of hazing and focus on how different it is from fraternity hazing, playing into my question of the questionable psychological state of college students when wanting to be accepted. Hazing among females as explained in these two books is much more mental and emotional. After explaining many real life examples, Robbins says “even more surprising was the fact that these abuses were inflicted and endured by intelligent, successful, and attractive young women.” I plan to use what the public thinks in modern day society about hazing from Death by Hazing: Should There Be A Federal Law Against Fraternity and Sorority Hazing?, by Devon M. Alvarez. To contrast explaining the mentality women have when hazing others or enduring hazing, I am going to use examples from The Dark Power of Fraternities, by Caitlin Flanagan because it truly shows the difference of severe alcohol abuse in a different way. Finally, to compare all greek life organizations and their constant theme of alcohol, I found some really interesting analysis of binge drinking and its effects on men and women in An Examination of Drunkorexia, Greek Affiliation, and Alcohol Consumption, by Rosie Marie Ward, Marina Galante, Rudra Trivedi, and Juliana Kahrs. Drunkorexia is a term the authors use referring to a behavioral pattern that involves starving oneself during the day, binge drinking later in the day, and then binge eating junk food after drinking. It is a combination of eating disorders, such as anorexia, with binge drinking.

Working Bibliography
Bartholow, Bruce D., Sher, Kenneth, Krull, Jennifer. HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY; Changes in Heavy 

Drinking Over the Third Decade of Life as a Function of Collegiate Fraternity and Sorority

Involvement: A Prospective, Multilevel Analysis. (NOV, 2003) 22 6, pages 616-p626, 11p. 

Biddix, J. Patrick, Malinda M. Matney, Eric M. Norman, and Georgianna L. Martin. The influence of fraternity and sorority involvement: a critical analysis of research (1996-2013). San Francisco, CA: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company, at Jossey-Bass, 2014. Print.


Callais, Mari Ann. "Helping Fraternity and Sorority Members Understand Ritual." Oracle: The 

Research Journal of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, vol. 1, no. 1, Aug. 2005, pp. 32-

37. EBSCOhost, login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=aph&AN=89964854&site=eds-live.

DeSantis, Alan D. Inside Greek U.: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power, and 
Prestige. Lexington: U Press of Kentucky, 2007. Print.

Robbins, Alexandra. Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. New York: Hachette , 2015. Print.