This past Tuesday evening, April 20, Psychology students presented their research presentations in the Alumni Campus Center Ballroom at 7 p.m.
The Psychology National Honor Society, Psi Chi, hosted the event.
The event was open to anyone, though Psychology faculty and students were encouraged to attend.
The students who presented their research are currently enrolled in Advanced Research Methods in which they put much time and effort into conducting their designs. Students worked together each on a different topic in groups of two to three.
Topics encompassed various aspects of psychology from psychology of art to cognition to the neurodevelopment of children.
Each group chose how the wanted to conduct their tests, ranging from observation to surveys and came up with conclusions based on their psychological analyses.
After each presentation questions were open to the audience about the studies.
Some of the students will be attending the MPA conference this coming week from April 29th to May 1st. The conference is held this year in Chicago where both graduate as well as undergraduate members of Psi Chi will be displaying a poster of their research.
Senior Psychology major Nicole Danna presented at the event and feels it was beneficial for her fellow classmates to display their work and share to others what they have working on.
“The Psychology students were proud to show their work and are excited to be able to participate in the MPA Conference this year. All the students in Advanced Research Methods Lab work hard on their research each year. Research Night is a wonderful opportunity to share this work with other students,” said Danna.
Psychology Professor Dr. McLaughlin helped the students with various projects they were working on and helps coordinate Psi Chi events.
“I was really impressed with the breadth and professionalism of the presentations. I think it was a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about the research possibilities in psychology and to engage in conversation with their peers about research and community involvement,” stated McLaughlin.
Junior Mariana Aparicio and her group members presented on Children with some degree of Autism Spectrum Disorder (mild to severe) and their Influence on their Neurotypical Siblings.
“Due to the increasing numbers of children being diagnosed with autism (1 in 110 children) we need to continue to conduct research which illustrates how this disorder impacts not only the child diagnosed with it, but all other children in the family,” said Aparicio.
“We are interested in studying how autism might affect siblings in both positive and challenging ways. We are also interested in examining how mothers and fathers each view the effect of Autism Spectrum Disorder on neurotypical siblings. Our hope is to provide information that will help therapists better serve all members of a family with a child with autism. We know right now that services and support groups for siblings are limited in this area and across the country, so we’d like to provide information that will help to change that,” stated Aparicio.
If you would like more information about the Autism Spectrum Disorder study or are interested in participating, please contact Dr. Lisa Grinde at Loras College at 563-588-7113 or Lisa.Grinde@loras.edu.
