Research opportunities are plentiful in the Psychology Department. Getting involved in research is a great way to gain practical experience whilst gaining professional connections and work experience. St. Mary’s students routinely partner with professors on research projects, the results of which are often published in academic journals and/or presented at professional conferences.

Faculty members have a wide range of research interests in both human and animal behavior. Areas of specialization include:

• Behavioral neuroscience
• Clinical/Counseling psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Social psychology

Directed Research

Starting as early as their first year, students can gain valuable experience working with faculty on research projects.

Learn more about directed research opportunities

Research in Connection with Coursework

Introduction to Psychology students have the option of participating in research studies in order to fulfill the Introduction to Psychology Research Requirement. Some students have the opportunity to earn extra credit for psychology courses by participating in research.

Research Participant Pool Information

A number of students conduct research as part of their coursework prior to the St. Mary’s Project.

• View student research presented as part of the Spring 2020 Virtual Research Symposium
• View student research presented as part of the Fall 2020 Virtual Research Symposium
• View student research presented as part of the Spring 2021 Virtual Research Symposium

St. Mary’s Projects

The St. Mary’s Project is a year-long, eight-credit, independently designed and executed course of study intended as a capstone experience for a student’s time at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and it is a wonderful way to gain research experience. Many psychology students choose to complete an SMP that involves a hands-on, empirical research experience. Psychology majors are required to do an SMP.  They can choose to complete an SMP in psychology, another established academic discipline, or a cross-disciplinary study area.

“I found that conducting research expanded my job opportunities and also helped me obtain a research assistant position when I attended graduate school. The SMP was particularly helpful. Even four years after graduating job interviewers still ask me about this project and are impressed by the level of initiative and depth that the SMP requires.” – Stephanie Klapper ’10

SMP Information for Current Students

• Psychology SMP Showcase
• View SMPs in Psychology presented in SP20
• View SMPs in Psychology presented in FA20
• View SMPs in Psychology presented in SP21

SURF (St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship)

SURF is an eight-week annual summer program at St. Mary’s College, where students from a variety of disciplines delve into research topics of their own aspirations with guidance from faculty mentors. The SURF symposium held in early July culminates with the presentations of research projects to an audience of peers and professors. Approximately 10 to 12 students participate in SURF each summer since it started in 2012. The program is selective, with a fifty-percent acceptance rate. SURF is made possible by generous support from the Office of the Provost and other internal funding at St. Mary’s College in addition to Dominion Energy Inc. A portion of the funds go toward a stipend for the students, as well as room and board for the eight weeks.

Other (non SMCM) Undergraduate Research Opportunities

APA Listing

APA Summer Undergraduate Psychology Experience in Research (SUPER) Fellowships

The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences’ Summer Research Initiative (BSOS SRI) at the University of Maryland.

Social-Personality Undergraduate Research (SPUR) Program: The Social-Personality Undergraduate Research (SPUR) Program was originally created as a summer research internship for students interested in pursuing a graduate degree in social-personality psychology. In 2021, the program will transition into a March to December model with a similar mission—to expand opportunities for research experience for students from historically underrepresented racial backgrounds. Notably, the new SPUR program will seek to foster training and community engagement through virtual interconnections with face-to-face interaction at the annual SPSP convention as a launch point.

Summer Undergraduate Minority Research Program (SUMR): This summer internship introduces talented undergraduate students from underrepresented minority groups to research in health services, population health, and clinical epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Funding to Support Student Research & Related Travel

There is funding available to support student research efforts, especially travel to present at conferences.
Learn about the Psychology Research Fund and the Bucknam-Glidden Fund
Conference Opportunities

Publications

Student research with faculty, especially on St. Mary’s Projects, occasionally leads to publication in peer-reviewed journals, a highly prestigious accomplishment for college students.

Representative recent publications: (* = St. Mary’s College students):

• Freedman, G., *Oates, I. G., & *Kirk, S. E. (2021). Applying social psychology to a global crisis: student engagement in a laboratory class during the COVID–19 pandemic. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/stl0000227 
• *Morgan, E., & Nutt Williams, E. (2020). A qualitative study of psychotherapists’ in-session tears. Psychotherapy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000298
• *Marcelli, M., Nutt Williams, E., *Culotta, K., & *Ertman, B. (2020). The impact of racial-ethnic socialization practices on international transracial adoptee identity development. Adoption Quarterly. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926755.2020.1833393
• *Roberts, B.M., *Jarrin, S.E., Mathur, B.N., & Bailey, A.M. (2016). Illuminating the undergraduate behavioral neuroscience laboratory: A guide for the in vivo application of optogenetics in mammalian model organisms. The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 14 (2), A110-A15. http://europepmc.org/article/MED/27385919
• Mirabile, S. P., & *Kodluboy, C. (2015). Description and validation of a teacher report version of the Self Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire. European Journal of Developmental Psychology. 12(6), 678-687. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2015.1060215
• *Grein, K. A., & Glidden, L.M. (2015).  Predicting well-being longitudinally for mothers rearing offspring with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 59, 622-637. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12166
• *Piantadosi, P.T., *Holmes, A., *Roberts, B.M., & Bailey, A.M. (2015). Orexin receptor activity in the basal forebrain alters performance on an olfactory discrimination task. Brain Research, 1594, 215-222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2014.10.041
• *Sullivan, E.M., & Glidden, L.M. (2014). Changing attitudes toward disabilities through Unified Sports. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 52, 367-378. https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-52.5.367

Conference Presentations

Students and faculty regularly present at regional, national, and international professional conferences. Recent conferences attended include the Society for Neuroscience, Eastern Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, and Society for Research in Child Development. Some of these students have been supported by competitive travel awards sponsored by the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, the Council on Undergraduate Research, the College or the Foundation.

Representative recent conference presentations:

• *Thomas, J., McKissick, C., Kass, A. & Tickle, J. (2021, March). Virtual reality effects on learning, engagement, and attitudes toward the technology. Virtual poster presented at the 2021 annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association. Jacinda Thomas was awarded a $400 2021 Psi Chi EPA Regional Research Award for this research. You can watch Jacinda present the poster here.
• *Daugherty, C. & Freedman, G. I’m mean to you, but I like you: reciprocity of liking and disagreeable people. Virtual poster presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
• *Mawuli, J., *Moorhead, A., Howansky, K., & non-SMCM collaborators. (2021, February). (Trans)gender stereotypes across racial groups: the relationship between stereotypes and deleterious consequences for transgender racial minorities. Virtual poster presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
• Mantell, J.M., & *Steelman, R. (2020, November). Vocal production as a measure of linguistic associations between space and pitch. Poster presented at the virtual 61st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society.
• Bailey, A.M., *Steinhoff, B., & *Robey, K. (2019, October). Antidepressant efficacy of L655, 708 following infusions into the medial prefrontal cortex. Poster presented at the 2019 Society for Neuroscience Meeting, Chicago, IL.
• *Folts, L.M., *Best, L.M., & Fernandez G. M. (2019, October). Long-term behavioral effects of nicotine and ethanol exposure in aged rodents. Poster presented at the 2019 Society for Neuroscience Meeting, Chicago, IL.
• *Thompson, R., & Mantell, J. T. (2019, August). Singing to learn: How melodic content affects encoding and retrieval. Poster presented at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition conference, New York, NY.
• *Ertman, B. & Mirabile, S. P. (2019, March). Parental low negative expressivity and ignoring children’s negative emotions: Implications for children’s emotion regulation. Poster presented at the 2019 biennial conference of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.
• Williams, E. N., & *Shimoda, A. (2018, August). Problematic Empathy in Counseling and Psychotherapy.  Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.
• *Haber-Sage, S., & Platt, R. (2018, May).  Changing attitudes towards the insanity defense. Poster presented at Forensic Mental Health Awareness Conference, Washington D.C.