Author: Abbie Brien | Majors: Psychology, Biology | Semester: Spring 2024

My name is Abbie Brien, and I am a junior Psychology and Biology Major. I joined Dr. Makhanova’s lab as a research assistant in Spring of 2023. I study the social psychology behind hormonal contraceptives, which illuminates the widely unexplored field that intertwines birth control and emotions.

I took Dr. Makhanova’s social psychology class in Fall of 2022, in which I enjoyed getting to learn about social perceptions and human emotions. I found this class so interesting that I applied for her research lab, Spark Lab, and joined in the spring. After a few semesters of helping with different studies (mostly on hormonal contraceptives), I now focus primarily on my own research for my thesis.

For my research, I chose to focus on the topic of rumination and its relation to hormonal contraceptives. As both a Psychology and Biology major, I am very interested in the hormonal basis behind psychological disorders, such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. While our lab doesn’t do clinical research, I chose to research rumination because I thought the topic of repetitive thinking or compulsively obsessing over thoughts was intriguing. I chose this topic from researching rumination’s endocrinological basis: how hormonal contraceptives work by suppressing ovulation for pregnancy prevention. Research has shown this process alters estradiol levels as well as the default mode network and the medial prefrontal cortex, all of which have been found to correlate with rumination.

Rumination is a very serious psychological process that has been linked to multiple psychiatric disorders. Research has also shown women are also more likely to ruminate than men, which is why I thought this topic would be relevant to hormonal contraceptive research.

Working with human participants certainly has pros and cons. I love getting to work with participants because it can be fun; I enjoy getting to interact with people and express appreciation for their contributions. It’s also eye opening to see how many college students are on hormonal contraceptives. However, human participants can be very difficult to work with because participants can easily misunderstand instructions and make mistakes. This can be difficult with this project in particular because we need to get participants’ data in a very specific window based on their phase in their cycle. For example, if a participant gives us the wrong dates or starts their cycle earlier or later than expected, we cannot use that data.

I love getting to work with Dr. Makhanova because she is so intelligent and straightforward. She really has trusted me and let have autonomy over my research, which I appreciate. I primarily work with Ari Bloshinsky, who is a graduate student, and an undergraduate student Kat Viebrooks. I am grateful to work with them because we get along very well, and we are all very communicative and efficient.

I’m excited to start analyzing the data and begin looking at national conferences for this upcoming year. Psychological effects of hormonal contraceptives are widely understudied, and with around 23% of women in the US using the birth control pill, hormonal IUD, or Nexplanon implant, I believe it is vital that women are empowered through informed consent when making decisions for their birth control plans.