Senior Grace Tibbetts studies emotions. Not just emotions, but how people recognize, interpret and act on those emotions. As a psychology major at Avila, her study of emotion recognition has shown her the rigor and reward provided by high-level academic research.
“There are so many things you have to consider in order to get a research project going,” she said. “We anticipated we would start in February this year, thinking we had our basic method down so it should be pretty quick. But after we started thinking about individual details in depth, we realized there are flaws in so many little ways that you have to go back and rework, rework and rework.”
Tibbetts’ most recent research has taken place under the mentorship of professor of psychology Marcia Smith Pasqualini, Ph.D. The latter’s research interest in psychophysiological and cognitive aspects of emotion regulation and also applied research methods dovetail with the direction that Tibbetts hopes to pursue professionally.
“I’m interested in research to address questions in basic science that will then inform theory-based interventions,” she said. “The reality is that the therapies that people are implementing are sometimes not evidence-based. Or they’re based on evidence that is over-stated. That’s a really big problem because it’s affecting people’s lives on an everyday basis.”
After reading some of the basic literature for emotional response psychology, Tibbetts began incorporating that knowledge with her growing understanding of psychological trauma in children. Pasqualini said she was impressed with her ability to marry the two fields together.
“Grace is a perfect example of a student taking an area I research but adding something that’s her interest,” Pasqualini said. “She fit her work within what the lab could work on. I knew she was interested in trauma in children, but from the beginning, that’s going to be difficult to research as an undergraduate student, at any school.”
In addition to her coursework and research at Avila, Tibbetts spent time volunteering in research labs at the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She noted other students her age and at the graduate level are largely doing data entry and do not have much interaction with faculty. Pasqualini said Avila gives its students opportunities to interact with professors those larger schools cannot regularly provide.
“At bigger schools, students are going to be working with grad students or postdocs – they’re not working with faculty directly,” she said. “I think on one hand we don’t have some of the resources that the big places do, but on the other hand, we can still give a high-level research experience working directly with faculty.”
Although Tibbetts’ research with Pasqualini will not be completed before her graduation this spring, she hopes to be able to continue to work with the Pasqualini Lab on the project. Following graduation, she will be pursuing her Master’s in Social Work at Washington University of St. Louis, beginning this fall. She said she feels confidence moving on to the next step thanks to preparation from Pasqualini and her other Avila faculty.
“I personally thrive in a small school situation, so now that I’m moving on to a larger school I’m not going to be intimidated to have conversations with faculty,” Tibbetts said. “Over the past four years, I’ve been able to explore different opportunities that have all come through conversations with my professors and other advisers that I don’t think I would have had at a bigger university. Avila is especially good for preparing students for graduate study because it makes a concerted point of valuing its students.”