Jacq Strowd Matched for Internship

Jacq Strowd, an advanced doctoral student working in the lab, applied for a predoctoral psychology internship this year. We are happy to announce that she successfully matched and will complete her internship next year at the Medical College of Georgia/Charlie Norwood VA in Augusta, GA. Consistent with her professional interests, Jacq will be completing the trauma psychology track.

Congratulations to Jacq on the successful match!

Summer Steely Proposes Thesis

Summer Steely, a doctoral student working in the lab, successfully proposed her master’s thesis yesterday. Summer’s thesis will focus on determining whether moral foundations theory (Haidt & Joseph, 2007) has utility in understanding social aggression in the context of psychopathic personality traits and moral disengagement. Moral foundations theory is a new area of study in the lab, and we are looking forward to learning more about how it may be relevant to many of the areas we have been studying.

Congratulations to Summer on her successful thesis proposal!

Summer Boggs Defends Thesis

Summer Boggs, a doctoral student working in the lab, successfully defended her master’s thesis yesterday. Summer’s thesis, "Social Anxiety and Relational Aggression in the Peer Relationships of College Women," examined the possible role of fear of negative evaluation in relational aggression in a sample of college women, utilizing Social Information Processing theory. Summer's sample proved to be unusually high on every measure of anxiety used, suggesting some limitations in the generalizability of her findings. Contrary to her predictions, fear of negative evaluation was not associated with higher levels of relational aggression. On the other hand, a broader measure of social anxiety did show a relationship with relational aggression, some of which was mediated by hostile attribution bias.

Congratulations to Summer on her successful thesis defense!

Three Students Win Graduate Student Research Award at SEPA

Erica, Jacq, and Nicole at SEPA 2023
Pictured left to right: Erica Van Overloop, Jacq Strowd, and Nicole Kollmann in front of their poster

The Counseling Psychology programs at the University of Southern Mississippi were well-represented at the 69th annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) in New Orleans this year. Three students in the lab won a Graduate Student Research Award for their poster: Erica Van Overloop, Nicole Kollmann, and Jacq Strowd. Congratulations!

The poster presented some results from a recent study examining dark personality traits and criminal thinking as predictors of academic misconduct among college students. Narcissistic and psychopathic personality traits predicted academic dishonesty while taking gender and social desirability into account. Criminal thinking appeared to be a better predictor because once it was entered into the model narcissistic and psychopathic traits were no longer significant.

Van Overloop, E., Kollmann, N., Strowd, J., & Dahlen, E. R. (2023, April 5-8). Venturing into the darkness of academic dishonesty [Poster presentation]. 66th Annual Convention of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Erica Van Overloop Is Heading to Little Rock for Internship

Erica Van Overloop, an advanced doctoral student working in the lab, applied for a predoctoral psychology internship this year. Last week we learned that she successfully matched and will complete her internship next year at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock, AR.

One of our alumni, Dr. Niki Knight, completed her internship at the same site and had positive things to say about it.

Congratulations to Erica on the successful match!