More than 50 Stephen F. Austin State University undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty members in the psychology department presented a total of 44 research posters and eight research discussions during the Southwestern Psychological Association’s annual conference held March 31 through April 1 in San Antonio.
The presentations were the result of more than 60 research projects completed in the department’s social, developmental, cognitive, clinical and forensic psychology laboratories, and behavioral/cognitive neuroscience research laboratories.
During the past year, approximately 2,000 participants volunteered to take part in the Department of Psychology’s research programs, which generated about 6,000 research credit hours.
“This impressive research productivity is due to the psychology department’s faculty members’ dedication as researchers. They spend countless hours mentoring hardworking and talented students,” said Dr. Scott Hutchens, chair of and professor in the psychology department. “We would not be able to maintain such a prolific department research program without our dedicated laboratory space and state-of-the-art psychophysiological measuring and eye-tracking equipment.”
This year’s conference was titled “Fitting In Standing Out: The Psychology of Groups.” The conference was divided into sessions focusing on major areas of psychology, including clinical, cognitive and behavioral psychology in addition to sessions focusing on pedagogy and best practices in college-level psychology courses.
SFA’s Department of Psychology was well represented with almost every session featuring an SFA faculty member, student or collaborative research project.
“Student research is a cornerstone of our department’s best practices,” Hutchens said. “Our faculty members share their research with our students so that we foster a community around psychological research, and I’m thankful we have the facilities and expertise to allow students to explore and research the concepts that most interest them.”
For more information about SFA’s Department of Psychology, visit sfasu.edu/sfapsych.
