Written by Kaitlyn Halamicek, BS candidate, Westminster College (MO) and participant in the 2024 Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program
This summer, I have a unique and exciting opportunity to join the Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program – Aging & Neurological Diseases Track. In this program, I am working in the Emotion and Relationships Lab with Professor Tammy English. My specific project is the Married Couples Follow-Up Study (MCF).
MCF is a follow-up study to the “Married Couples Study” originally conducted in 2014. The study was created to explore emotion regulation and emotional responses between partners in a relationship across the adult lifespan. This summer’s work marks the second wave of the study. Our goal is to reconnect with the participants from the original study and find new participants to gather data on. Then, we will run longitudinal and cross-longitudinal analyses to assess our data. The focus of this lab is to gain valuable insights into emotion regulation in participants and their relationships.
As an assistant researcher, my role has involved the methodology aspects of the study. I have been responsible for recruiting participants through phone screenings and conducting baseline sessions. During the phone screens, I engage with potential participants and determine whether they are eligible to participate in the study, and if they are, schedule baseline sessions. Also, in the baseline sessions I gather data from the participants through a variety of cognitive tasks and interviews designed to assess their emotion regulation.
I have truly grown my communication skills and my research knowledge through guidance from the members in the Emotion Regulation Lab, and in my seminar with an amazing cohort of other undergraduate students. I am thrilled to continue to learn more about psychological research as the summer continues!