Fourth-year PhD student, Whitney Dominick, and second-year master’s student, Jess Kopitz, presented an update of their respective current studies at the most recent Psychology Department’s Lunch Bunch Research Colloquium. The Lunch Bunch hour provides a bi-monthly opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students and faculty to gather and view presentations of current psychological research at Oakland University. The presentation hour is open to all OU students and faculty.
Whitney shared results from her doctoral dissertation entitled The Impact of Recreational Wild Dolphin Interactions on Children’s Empathy, Emotion Regulation, Perceived Social Support, and Knowledge of Dolphin Welfare. She found that children feel more supported by dolphins if they also feel support from pets & program staff, and that knowledge about dolphin welfare after the program leads to greater perceptions of support a month later. Whitney presented data collected from Hawaii and Florida and plans to continue collecting data over the summer in Hawaii!
Jess presented preliminary results from her master’s thesis entitled Redefining NegativePersonality Traits and Coping Techniques after Impacts of Stress and Trauma. Jess framed her master’s thesis to deconstruct dichotomous thinking about coping strategies following traumatic experiences. She shared interesting themes from semi-structured interviews, revealing that her participants provided many examples where both traditionally negative coping techniques were crucial to their growth, and traditionally positive coping techniques were harmful or lead to harmful behaviors.
The PTG Lab is extremely proud of Whitney and Jess for representing the lab well with their fascinating research. Both presentations sparked curiosity in the audience and prompted many follow-up questions. Whitney and Jess both did a great job interacting with the audience. We look forward to the completion of each of their studies and further presentations including results! Way to go, Whitney and Jess!
On Sunday, November 10th, members of the PTG Lab participated in a fitness fundraising event hosted by the Shelby Jane Seyburn (SJS) Foundation. The goal of the foundation is to support Shelby’s passion of helping others through psychological research and intervention. While she was a student at Oakland University and member of the PTG Lab, Shelby put considerable effort into furthering research of PTG and resiliency in order to help those who struggle in the aftermath of trauma. The foundation honors Shelby’s memory by supporting the work Shelby began during her time at Oakland University as well as supporting psychology students in their research pursuits. To learn more about the SJS Foundation, please visit their website: 
First year master’s student Qandeel recently shared her master’s thesis proposal titled College Cohort of Gender Roles & Sex Roles in Coping Due to Life Adversity and Trauma: Belief and Optimism. Qandeel identified that research which examines sex and gender differences are often inconsistent in their use and assessment of the terms. She explained that stereotypical attitudes about gender still pervade pockets of society (e.g., femininity equated with emotion expression and nurture versus masculinity equated with suppressed emotions and assertiveness). Therefore, Qandeel plans to specifically assess both biological sex and gender through measures of one’s own gender identification, respectively. Doing so will help clarify some of the discrepancies associated with an empirical understanding of the topics. In addition, Qandeel aims to examine how potential sex and gender differences emerge in relation to trauma, optimism, coping, and posttraumatic growth, which could have valuable clinical implication. We are excited to see what she finds. Good luck, Qandeel!
Recently, first year master’s student, Olivia, presented her thesis proposal titled Creativity and Trauma in Children. Creativity is highly valued in the work force, and Olivia is passionate about conducting research that advocates for the prioritization of creative growth in children. She is interested in understanding the impact that creativity has on the process of struggling with a traumatic experience, as well as how trauma can impact creativity. Olivia has identified personality traits that are shared by those who are creative and those who experience a trauma, including neuroticism, openness to new experiences, and extroversion. She plans to use these commonalities to 1.) examine the relationship between trauma and creativity in children 2.) examine the relationship between PTG and creativity in children and 3.) create a connection between the three variables (PTG, trauma, and creativity). As she continues to develop her study, we wish her the best of luck!
FF-PTG LAB 