Eight Students Complete REU Program

Eight students completed the prestigious Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program hosted by the Department of Psychological Sciences during an 8-week summer session.  The program, focused on the social psychophysiology of compassion, provided an opportunity for the interns to conduct research under the guidance of a faculty mentor and with the strong support of graduate students from the department’s Master of Arts in Psychology program.  The projects ranged from original research using electroencephalograms (EEGs) or online surveys to extensions of inquiries started by either faculty or graduates of the master’s program.  Students were engaged in all facets of research, from the development of hypotheses to the formal presentation of their results.  Students presented their research and findings at the culminating REU Conference on July 15^th.

The interns were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants.  Three of the interns are undergraduates from the psychology program at NAU.  All of the interns leave the program with new friendships, fun memories, as well as enhanced experience conducting research in psychology.

REU Program Coordinator: Chad Woodruff, Ph.D.
Assistant Coordinator: Jared Cutler

Faculty Mentors:
Melissa Birkett-Green, Ph.D.
Melikşah Demir, Ph.D.
Larry Stevens, Ph.D.
Daniel Weidler, Ph.D.
Chad Woodruff, Ph.D.

Graduate Student Co-Mentors:

Student presenting at culminating REU conference.
Mallory Kroeck
Michele Lee
Caroline North
Raine Triplett

Interns:
Tirzah Curry, Mount Union University
Taylor Edwards, Clark Atlanta University
Mark Gauthier-Braham, Northern Arizona University
Blake Piper, Northern Arizona University
Elisabeth Reese, DePauw University
Jocelyn Robles, Northern Arizona University
Billy Tallas, Arizona State University
Emily Vernet, University of Central Florida

REU Presentations:

• Self-Compassion among Parents and Non-Parents (Emily Vernet, Taylor Edwards)
• Who am I? Who are You: A Manipulation of Self Other Discrimination through Hypnosis and Hypnotic Suggestion (Blake Piper; Elisabeth Reese)
• Help you, Help me, Help us: Compassion and Flourishing among College Students (Jocelyn Robles)
• The Compassion Circuit (Mark Gauthier-Braham; Billy Tallas)
• The Mediating Role of Friendship Maintenance Behaviors in the Association between Self-compassion and Friendship Quality (Tirzah Curry)