Ongoing Psychology Faculty Research

Professor Capezza is broadly interested in romantic relationships, gender, and sexuality. Currently, she is examining how college students, and the general population, perceive dating conflicts involving physical, psychological, and/or cyber abuse. Specifically, she is investigating how gender identity and sexual orientation may impact these perceptions. For example, are cisgender and transgender women perceived differently when they are in an abusive dating relationship?

Students in Professor Capezza’s lab are actively involved in all aspects of her research. This includes designing studies, completing IRB applications, creating study materials, collecting data, analyzing data, presenting findings at conferences and writing manuscripts for publication.

Dr. Carriere’s UNITE (Unionization, Narratives, Imagination, Theory, & Empowerment) Lab explores the psychology of collective action, social justice, and cultural narratives, with a focus on labor unions, political movements, and human rights. As he puts it, “We study the psychology of burning it all down”. We examine how solidarity and empowerment emerge through remembering the past, agitating in the present, and imagining the future. Our research spans dehumanization, unionization, and corporate activism, with collaborators from Hawaii, Brazil, India, Denmark, and the U.S.

Students in the lab engage in all aspects of research, from study design to data analysis and publication. Recent projects include analyzing town hall discussions on teacher strikes, experimental Choose-Your-Own-Adventure study designs, and studying reactions to historical memorials and dark reenactments. Our lab values interdisciplinary work, drawing on social psychology, political science, cultural psychology, and public policy to explore how systemic inequalities shape meaning-making and political action.

Students interested in these topics are encouraged to reach out about research opportunities.

Professor Cooper welcomes students interested in researching educational applications of cognitive psychology. Students would have opportunities to engage with all areas of this research, from study design to working with the data and disseminating the results (i.e., publishing/presenting). Currently, Professor Cooper’s research is focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), which is research focused on improving classroom experiences and student learning. In particular, her research plans include the effect of collaboration during tests on students’ learning and how retrieval practice affects learning.

Another area of research for Professor Cooper considers how reasoning and problem solving relates to interests, attitudes, and ability. In one set of questions, she has investigated the effect of diagrams on middle school and college students’ mathematical problem solving (Diagrams and pictures aren’t always helpful!), finding a critical role for students’ ability and attitude. In addition, her research has also looked into college students’ development of statistical literacy (Why are graphs hard to understand sometimes? How does learning statistics while doing a research project affect attitudes towards statistics and research?). Students with related interests are also encouraged to reach out to Prof Cooper about getting involved in research projects.

Professor Ernestus is a child psychologist who researches how the complex interconnected risk and protective variables that impact children result change their mental, social, and physical health as they grow. Specifically, her research examines how a youth’s development can be impacted by multiple factors, from individual (ex: coping efficacy, skills), interpersonal (family resources and skills) and contextual (ex: experiences in school, therapist skills), and how that in turn impacts their coping and mental health. Currently, Dr. Ernestus has students helping her investigate the impact of school shooting.

Her lab is examining how our cultural responses to school shootings (particularly the push to provide children with active-shooter response training in schools) might be impacting youth and their individual stress and emotional responses. Professor Ernestus also collaborates with other faculty on researching how we can better prepare undergraduate students to become competent providers who help children, adults, and families.

Professor Ernestus actively recruits students to conduct research in her lab. Students have a role in designing studies, analyzing data, writing up results, presenting at local and national conferences, and publishing papers.

Professor McCoy’s research is in collaboration with a research team at the Laboratory of Neuroscience at West Roxbury Veterans Affairs Hospital and affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

The laboratory conducts preclinical basic research focusing on a number of key questions related to sleep and wakefulness, such as:
1) How does the brain wake us up, put us to sleep and switch between
different states of sleep?
2) Which brain mechanisms make us sleepy when we stay awake for
prolonged periods?
3) Can we develop animal models of human sleep disorders or
disruption?
4) What molecular, cellular and neurobehavioral changes are associated
with sleep loss/disruption?

Research internships in the laboratory are available to students on a competitive basis.

As a cognitive psychologist, Jane Nash is interested in understanding complex thinking and learning. She is a collaborator at heart, so her research has taken her in various directions within this broad framework because of opportunities to collaborate with wonderful colleagues both at Stonehill and other universities. For example, she collaborated with Stonehill colleagues in computer science and chemistry as she tried to understand the structure of knowledge in these domains and how students’ knowledge changes during a college course in these topic areas. She also collaborated with a Stonehill colleague in economics as they explored several studies in behavioral economics, an interdisciplinary field of study that applies psychological insights into human behavior to explain economic decision-making. Most recently, she collaborated with a developmental psychologist at Bryant University as they investigated children’s perceptions of peers with an illness and factors that might influence these evaluations such as peer acceptance and their knowledge of the illness.

Professor O’Hea has been conducted a number of cancer related studies, funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Mental Health. Her research has examined psychosocial interventions to help individuals living with cancer, cancer survivorship planning and quality of life in women ending treatment for breast cancer. Professor O’Hea has also received grant funding for her work in health disparities as she is interested in how race/ethnicity and gender impacts health, disease, and access to health care. Professor O’Hea presently works with colleagues at University of Michigan and Wake Forest developing a group intervention for food addiction. Finally, Professor O’Hea and some Stonehill students are examining COVID-19 and its impact on mental health and health behaviors in college students. Students would have opportunities to assist with all areas of these on-campus projects, including study design, recruitment of participants, running of participants and disseminating findings through conference presentations or publications.

Symptoms of anxiety and traumatic stress – ranging from occasional exam-related stress to clinically significant OCD or PTSD – are common among college students. These symptoms also occur within an interpersonal system; friends and family members often become involved in helpful (and unhelpful!) ways. A primary goal of my current research is to better understand college students’ experiences of anxiety and explore the ways in which education and skills training for the individual and their close social contacts (e.g., roommates, teammates, family members) may help to address anxiety and related concerns. To carry out this line of work, my students and I use mixed methods (e.g., surveys, interviews, and focus groups) to inform a brief, accessible intervention that promotes well-being. Ongoing projects include the SAVE (Student Anxiety Views and Experiences) and PAVE (Parent Anxiety Views and Experiences) studies.

Students in the Partnering with Anxiety Lab (P.A.L.) are involved in developing this program of research in various ways. For example, students contribute to designing the studies and associated materials (e.g., survey and interview development), preparing materials for Institutional Review Board (IRB) review, collecting data (e.g., interviewing), analyzing data (e.g., coding), and preparing manuscripts for publication.

Professor Rich conducts research focused on how human memory, especially its limitations, impact real-world situations. He has been interested in how these limitations affect journalism, political discourse, the criminal justice system, and education. His current research focuses primarily on how our memories change when we encounter new information or experiences with an emphasis on correcting inaccurate knowledge. For example, many people still believe that sugar causes hyperactivity (especially in children) despite a variety of scientific evidence consistently indicating that sugar does not lead to hyperactivity.

Professor Rich is interested in applying what we know about human behavior and memory to explore when and why people are resistant to corrections. Professor Rich’s goal with this research has been to explore more effective techniques for correcting mistaken information. He has worked with students on a variety of different research questions related to this overarching goal. These projects have included research on what makes certain misinformation more difficult to correct, what makes certain corrections more effective than others, and whether some people might be more able to correct their memory than others.