{"id":7826,"date":"2019-12-02T12:10:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T18:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/?p=7826"},"modified":"2019-12-02T17:20:53","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T23:20:53","slug":"psychology-major-has-research-project-accepted-into-national-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/2019\/psychology-major-has-research-project-accepted-into-national-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychology major has research project accepted into national conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erin Burch, a senior psychology major at Southern Arkansas University, has turned a research project into a springboard to deliver a presentation in front of a national conference in New Orleans this February. Her travel will be funded by a student research grant through the SAU Foundation.<\/p>\n

Burch, from Fayetteville, Arkansas, changed her major from nursing to psychology in her freshman year, but her journey to SAU was an unexpected one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have in mind yet what I wanted to do in\u00a0college,\u201d Burch said. \u201cI was planning to join the military after high school, but then\u00a0I heard about SAU.\u201d<\/p>\n

She received a postcard from SAU, and after trying other colleges, found the Admissions office \u201csuper-helpful. SAU really worked with me and made sure I knew I could have a future by coming here. I\u2019m so glad I did.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n

\"Erin<\/a>

Erin Burch is a senior psychology major at Southern Arkansas University. Her research project has been accepted into a national conference in New Orleans.<\/p><\/div>\n

Her initial plan was to become a nurse practitioner, but after taking some psychology courses she realized she had found her new niche. Dr. Deborah Wilson, chair of the Behavior and Social Sciences Department, and Dr. Krista Nelson, assistant professor of psychology, helped her find her way.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy professors are passionate about what they\u2019re doing. Psychology is a diverse field and there is so much to learn about it,\u201d Burch said.<\/p>\n

Each semester,\u00a0Wilson works with\u00a020-25 students in Research Methods where each student completes an individual research project. Last spring, Burch participated in the class, leading to her desire to study\u00a0loneliness and depression among college students, particularly within the LGBT population.\u201cLoneliness is an emotional problem and depression is clinical,\u201d Burch said. \u201cAs the president of the Gay Straight Alliance, I\u00a0wanted to find out, are they more likely to be depressed?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson\u00a0said Burch\u2019s idea grew from her natural concern for others and\u00a0interest in clinical psychology. \u201cWhen she shared her idea with me, I immediately began thinking about how we would measure loneliness and depression, and how her results\u00a0could benefit SAU community members,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy she chose SAU,\u201d Wilson enthused. \u201cWhile she could have chosen a larger university, I believe her accomplishments highlight SAU\u2019s tradition of commitment to our students, opportunities for faculty and Foundation support, and the academic excellence of our students.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Drawing on her own\u00a0extensive academic\u00a0and professional career, Wilson\u00a0proposed to supervise Burch\u2019s use of the Beck Depression Inventory-2, a published instrument commonly used to assess depression. Burch located a scale for measuring loneliness and in combination with the Beck, created a strong path to assessing SAU student experiences.<\/p>\n

She determined that LGBT students are more likely to experience loneliness and depression. \u201cBecause they are a minority group, they have more factors and less social support,” she said. “I know that many of them tend to experience this condition.”<\/p>\n

Wilson said Burch \u201cwas so motivated, organized, and passionate about her research. Her willingness to work hard was evident early on and I was confident she could have her work accepted for a conference presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burch\u00a0conducted a research project that was engaging, well-written, and thorough,\u00a0said Nelson. \u201cUnsurprisingly, her study was accepted on a national level.”<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cCollege\u00a0Students\u00a0Who Experience Depression and Loneliness: The Influences of Sexual and Gender Minority Status,\u201d\u00a0Burch\u2019s article will be published in the\u00a0National\u00a0Social Science Journal\u00a0(NSSJ) in 2020. This refereed journal accepts only 12-15 percent of all articles submitted. Wilson\u00a0and Nelson\u00a0are coauthors of the article.<\/p>\n

Burch will also\u00a0present at the National Conference of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) in New Orleans. She applied for and\u00a0received\u00a0a generous\u00a0grant from the SAU Foundation to make travel possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited about it, but I\u2019m not sure what to expect,\u201d Burch said of presenting. \u201cIt will be a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burch is currently\u00a0applying to graduate schools and plans to earn her\u00a0PhD in psychology. \u201cI want to conduct clinical research, hopefully validating treatments for various disorders. There is plenty of research opportunity for the LGBT community, specifically in adolescents,\u201d she\u00a0shared.<\/p>\n

Burch suggests making more support groups available on campus to alleviate loneliness\u00a0and making sure students know the SAU Counseling Center can help. \u201cWe already have many resources,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is important for our campus to be open and accepting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson and Wilson agreed that\u00a0Burch is \u201ca phenomenal student.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy she chose SAU,\u201d Wilson enthused. \u201cWhile she could have chosen a larger university, I believe her accomplishments highlight SAU\u2019s tradition of commitment to our students, opportunities for faculty and Foundation support, and the academic excellence of our students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erin Burch, a senior psychology major at Southern Arkansas University, has turned a research project into a springboard to deliver a presentation in front of a national conference in New Orleans this February. Her travel will be funded by a student research grant through the SAU Foundation. Burch, from Fayetteville, Arkansas, changed her major from… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":564,"featured_media":7827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[271,297,207,32641,7753],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-bss","9":"category-college-of-liberal-performing-arts","10":"category-featured-layout","11":"category-homepage","12":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/564"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}