First Poster Presentation
Author: Brianna Westfall | Major: Psychology | Semester: Fall 2023
My name is Bree Westfall, and I’m a senior psychology major with a criminology minor, working on my Honors Thesis in psychology under the mentorship of Dr. Jennifer Veilleux. My thesis is on the experience of emotional numbness, a relatively common phenomenon that is under-researched in terms of how it actually feels when it’s happening and the attitudes that people have toward experiencing it. I hope that my research can provide a basis for further exploration on the different experiences of emotional numbness and ways that it may be talked about in a clinical setting. This past weekend, I was given the opportunity to present a poster on the first half of my thesis at the Society for Research in Psychopathology national conference in St. Louis, Missouri. This was my first time presenting a poster and the first time I had been able to talk about my research with people outside of my lab. This was a great experience for getting a feel for how conferences work, the kind of questions that may be asked of my research, and getting to see current research from other people in the field.
At the conference, I was able to talk with other students and professors in the psychology field to talk with them about my research interests and potential labs to think about applying for when the time comes. I went to one talk about the feeling of emptiness and how it can be transdiagnostically applied in clinical settings. After the talk, I was able to chat with the leading researcher on the project, a professor at the University of Toronto. We talked about the similarities between emotional numbness and emptiness, and she was interested in hearing about the results of my study when it’s finished. I also saw a few posters relating to emotional phenomena that I am interested in. I made quite a few contacts regarding those students labs and the professors that head it. Overall, the conference was a great networking experience, and I am eager to reach out to these people again once I apply to grad school.
When I was attending to my poster, I had a few people come up to me ask questions about my research and express interest in the work I was doing. This was extremely validating to know that other professionals in the field find my research interesting and think it constitutes further exploration. It made me excited to keep going with my interests and further confirmed that I want to pursue academic ventures in psychology.
My advice regarding this conference and probably academic conferences in general is to put yourself out there. I was very anxious at first because there were very few undergraduate students at the conference. I was nervous to approach people or sound like I didn’t know what I was talking about, but it became clear very quickly that everyone there was understanding and eager to talk about their work. They answered my questions, gave me advice, and didn’t hesitate to recommend people to look for and talk to regarding my academic pursuits. If I hadn’t taken the first step out my shell to interact with people, I wouldn’t have had nearly the great experience I did.
In terms of what’s next for me, I will be working on my honors thesis and the second part to my study. I will be defending the thesis in April, graduating in May, and hopefully can get another conference under my belt by then. I plan on taking a gap year to get a paid position in either research or psychological testing, to gain more experience and build my resume before applying to grad school next fall. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and the funding from the Honors College that allowed me to go. I had a great time, and I will definitely be going to more in the future!