Category: Student Research at Berger

Berger Students Attend WPA!

WPA

In early May, seven Berger Institute research assistants attended the Western Psychological Association’s annual conference to present posters of their latest research findings. This year’s conference took place in Long Beach, and it was an excellent opportunity for our students to show off the hard work they’ve completed here over the past year.

In the pictures here, clockwise from the top left, are:

Kelsey Gohn ’16 and Lauren Livingston ’18 (“College Students’ Plan for the Future: Men and Women’s Priorities.”)

Kelsey Gohn ’16, Adrienne Johnson ’16, Tyler West ’16, and LillyBelle Deer ’15 (“Work-Life Priorities of College Students within Specific Fields of Study.”)

LillyBelle Deer ’15 talks to an interested observer.

Lauren Livingston ’18 gets some pointers from a tiny aid.

Not pictured are the following students/projects:

“College Students’ Anxiety Regarding Work-Life Balance,” LillyBelle Deer ’15, Adrienne Johnson ’16, Tyler West ’16, and Lauren Livingston ’18.

“If I Think I Can: Do Short-Term Career Search Self-efficacy Interventions Work?” Kelsey Gohn ’16.

“Employing Narrative Techniques to Investigate Socio-Cultural Processes and Cognitive-Linguistic Outcomes in Young Children,” Alejandro Zuniga ’17 and Timothy Valdez ’19.

Congratulations to all on a fantastic job! Our seniors will be missed.

 

A Berger Cram Session

By Adrienne Johnson ’16

Some of our best teamwork occurs when our research team meets up for a 3-hour meeting and has a “cram session.” During these meetings, which happen every couple of months, we discuss and develop all of the various projects we’ve been working on since the last meeting. These meetings start with catching up while munching on bagels and soup from Panera, but by the end they usually end up being our most productive meetings because our whole team is together, including Professor Kanaya.

At our last Berger cram session, which concluded the fall 2015 semester for our research team, we reviewed our accomplishments from the semester, such as our successful submissions to the Long Beach WPA Conference, as well as our future goals, such as launching blog posts like this one. We knew we wanted to convey to readers the variety of experiences we’ve had as research assistants at the Berger Institute, but none of us were experienced bloggers at the time. Luckily, our program coordinator Gabi Grannis was able to join us and offer her insights. The team spent the meeting sharing our various Berger experiences and throwing around ideas about how to best convey them to readers. We left for winter break feeling accomplished and ready to move forward for our spring semester Berger projects!

Student Research Projects

Currently, the Berger Institute is leading two independent research projects. The first project (dubbed the “Work-Life” project) investigates the work-life goals and values of Millennials. The second project (dubbed the “Family-Children” project) investigates the family-child dynamics of Latino families.

These projects are particularly relevant because they address not only the largest demographics entering the labor force (Millennials and Latinos), but also require the use of various research methodologies and populations such that we are able to offer valuable research experience to students with a wide array of interests, skill levels and motivations.

Both are also underexplored in the research literature and allow for many publication and professional conference presentation experiences. Indeed, three Berger research assistants received “Best Student Presentation” awards at the Western Psychological Association conference in 2010, 2014, and 2015, based on data from the family-child project.

To meet our current research assistants, please click here.