Chapman University Student Research Day

Undergraduate students studying various fields from art and film to public relations and advertising to psychology all gathered in the Sandhu Conference Center on Wednesday December 7th. Crean College had six students representing, all of which were undergraduate psychology majors. The topics these students presented on included emotional levels experienced by bilinguals versus monolinguals, whether or not attention deficit disorder is a contributing risk factor to alcoholism risk, and the effects of temperature on perceived social attitude.

Dr. Steven Schandler, psychology senior professor at Crean, was one of the faculty advisors for several psychology students research projects. When asking Dr. Schandler his take on the student research day he commented on the fact that he was excited to see both humanities and science projects in the same room. “It shows that research is not constricted to one field but it is all encompassing and crosses divides that can be shown in this room today.”

One group of students who had Dr. Schandler conducted a research topic called “Is Attention Deficit Disorder a Contributing Factor to Alcoholism Risk”. Their
abstract
is on the Chapman University Student Research Day Abstract Volume website. When asking Jason Phreaner, one of the students on this research project, what this experience has been like for him he said “being a part of this research opportunity has been probably the most impactful, hands-on experience of my time here at Chapman so far. It drives home the feeling of fulfillment knowing that I’m contributing to a present issue of society and my work has the potential to impact individuals for years to come.”

Lauren Eiselman, the second student on this research project mentioned how this has helped her develop skills that will help her in her future career, “I eventually want to go into mental health with children and think this research project can be used in the future given it’s such an impactful study.” When asked about Dr. Schandler’s influence on the research project Alison Stiteler, the third student on this project, spoke about how Dr. Schandler had been here at Chapman for over 40 years, “This is a 40 year long study and I’ve been working on it for over a year. Dr. Schandler is an expert in this, and he’s been my professor for the past 2 years. As a faculty advisor he’s great because he has such incredible insight.” Jason added “his [Dr. Schandler] experience on the subject matter has been very useful when forming our data trends and supporting the longitudinal findings.”

When asked if the students would participate in another student research day all unanimously said yes. Clearly the combination of education, research, and practical application is helping these students forge their ways into the future of psychology.