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Psychology Department
521 Lancaster Ave.
127 Cammack Building
Richmond, KY 40475
Phone: 859-622-1105
Fax: 859-622-5871
hung-tao.chen@eku.edu

Start a Mentorship with a Psychology Professor

Do You Want More Hands-On Training in Psychology?
Start a Mentorship with a Professor!

Why Should I Start a Mentorship?

One of the best ways to get professional training in any field is to work alongside a mentor. The professors in the Psychology Department are dedicated to the success of our students, and we hope that you will take advantage of the many opportunities to engage in research with one of the experts in their fields.

Four Steps to Having a Great Research Mentorship Experience at EKU:

STEP 1: You need to make sure that you are ready to take on a mentorship. Mentors are looking for students who excel in their classes, who are responsible, who are able to produce high quality work on their own, who have room in their schedule for extra work, and who are interested in becoming a professional psychologist (like a researcher, counselor, administrator, or mental health professional). It is best to start your mentorship during your sophomore or junior year to allow enough time to produce high quality work.

STEP 2: Once you’ve identified a faculty member with similar interests to your own (refer to the Table below), we recommend that you start by contacting the professor, either by setting up an appointment or talking with them after class if you are enrolled in a course with them. You should look up some of their recent research prior to meeting with them.

STEP 3: The next step is typically 1-3 credits in a Psychology Practicum (PSY 503), which may involve developing materials, working with data or collecting responses from participants on your faculty mentor’s project. If you do not need credits for an elective class, you can instead sign up for PSY 409 Practicum in Psychology, you will get the same experience but with a 0 credits class. You should consider starting this during your junior year at the latest.

STEP 4: From there, you should plan on developing a Senior Thesis project with your mentor by taking PSY 399, then completing the thesis project the following semester in PSY 419. Students should start by taking PSY 399 either in the spring semester of their junior year or in the fall semester of their senior year. You should try to present your work at a regional or national conference (e.g., SEPA, KPA) and submit to a journal before you graduate.

In addition to the required research courses, you should also consider taking Dr. Osbaldiston’s Graduate Prep course (PSY 458) during the spring of your junior year and Dr. Gore’s Publishing Empirical Research course (PSY 510) the following summer. These courses allow you to get some experience presenting (e.g., KPA Conference, UP Showcase), and publishing research based on data from your faculty mentor (e.g., Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship). We also strongly recommend taking Dr. Varakin’s Sensation & Perception Lab course (PSY 315L) and Dr. Nakai’s Tests & Measurements course (PSY 590). Those courses enhance your skills in experimental and survey research methods.

On the following pages is more information about each faculty member, their research interests, and the maximum number of students they are able to work with on research projects per year.

CONSIDER STARTING A MENTORSHIP TODAY!

Faculty Mentors and Research Interests

	DR THERESA BOTTS Practicum students per year: 1 Thesis students per year: 1 I primarily focus on providing clinical interventions for female student veterans, and assessing specific treatment outcome measures.
	DR. MYRABETH BUNDY Practicum students per year: 4 Thesis students per year: 1 I assess overall group outcome and effectiveness related to autism spectrum disorder in adolescent, adult and parent, and child group therapies.
	DR. MICHAEL CHEN Practicum students per year: 5 Thesis students per year: 2 My research focuses on human & technology interaction, reading, and learning. Lab: Cognitive & Human Factors Lab Location: Cammack 127
	DR. DAN FLORELL Practicum students per year: 4 Thesis students per year: 2 My focus of research is on the use of technology in providing mental health services, adolescents’ use of social media, cyberbullying, and use of technology in the field of school psychology.
	DR. JONATHAN GORE Practicum students per year: 5 Thesis students per year: 3 My areas of research include: how close others motivate us, how physicality becomes part of people’s identities, and cultural influences on time orientations.
	DR. JAMIE HENNING Practicum students per year: 1 Thesis students per year: 1 My research examines work-family role boundaries and balance, in addition to family supportive supervisor behaviors.
	DR. SARA INCERA Practicum students per year: 4 Thesis students per year: 4 My research focuses on the influences of bilingualism on cognition, how listeners perceive speakers with different accents, and how language develops across the lifespan. Lab: Multilingual Laboratory Location: Keith Building 107 & 108 Apply Now!
	DR. ADAM LAWSON Practicum students per year: 4 Thesis students per year: 4 I examine how the brain produces consciousness, and how our behavior is determined by our personality, automatic impulses and habits, and biological makeup.
	DR. RADHIKA MAKECHA Practicum students per year: 1 Thesis students per year: 1 My program of research focuses on studying elephant social behavior. I also study the effects of including cognition in wildlife education programs
	DR. MICHAEL McCLELLAN Practicum students per year: 1 Thesis students per year: 1 My research examines an individual’s awareness of privilege and oppression, and the telehealth-related usage patterns of therapists and staff.
	DR. ROBERT MITCHELL Practicum students per year: 1 Thesis students per year: 1 My research looks at teasing between sea lions, as well as human-sea lion interaction. I also examine human-dog interactions.
	DR. MELINDA MOORE Practicum students per year: 3 Thesis students per year: 1 My research focuses on suicide bereavement, post-traumatic growth, and substance abuse. Many of my projects focus on military personnel and veterans.
	DR. YOSHIE NAKAI Practicum students per year: 2 Thesis students per year: 1 I currently have three lines of research: 1) job search process for different populations, 2) intercultural competence, 3) feedback and help seeking behaviors.

	DR. JERRY PALMER Practicum students per year: 3 Thesis students per year: 1 My research centers around personality traits and abilities, as well as how performance appraisal judgments are made.
	DR. ALEX VARAKIN Practicum students per year: 4 Thesis students per year: 3 My research investigates visual attention, memory, and time perception. I am also interested in human-computer interaction, statistics, and cognitive science more broadly. Email: donald.varakin@eku.edu
	DR. STEFFEN WILSON Practicum students per year: 3 Thesis students per year: 3 I study university connectedness in a variety of contexts, including attachment effects, regional differences and how it occurs in online courses.
	DR. MATTHEW WINSLOW Practicum students per year: 2 Thesis students per year: 1 My research focuses on perspective-taking and race, and on the scholarship of teaching and learning, such as assignments designed to increase empathy.
	DR. DUSTIN WYGANT Practicum students per year: 2 Thesis students per year: 1 My research is focused on the assessment and conceptuali-zation of personality disorders, particularly the psychopathic personality disorder.