Psychology Student & Researcher
Sometimes when I run into an issue, whether it be with reading, research, or some other issue in my professional life, I call out into the Twitter void and ask for some help. I’ve attached a few tweets where I received tons of helpful replies about the following topics:
This year, I was awarded the 2019 Frederick Whelan Award for an excellent academic record in psychology at Saint Mary’s College of California. In addition, I won the Arthur S. Campbell Award for an excellent scholastic record in the School of Science. I was selected from a hardworking and talented group of students, and I won the award after writing an statement that highlighted my service to the School of Science, my research, and my academic achievements.
As an award winner, I was interviewed for SMC’s coverage of this event. Link to the article here: Students Shine at the 2019 Undergraduate Awards Ceremony
My senior year of college was spent as a Resident Advisor at Saint Mary’s College of California. I was the RA on the second floor of Assumption Hall, the Honors and Science Living Learning Community.
Being an RA was one of the most rewarding experiences of my undergraduate career. I worked with and formed relationships with my residents, my co-RA, and my resident directors. I planned academic and social events. Some of my favorite events I planned were recurring Marvel movie nights and Finding Research Opportunities as a First Year. I solved and handled situations I never thought I would encounter. I lost sleep over my residents’ well being. Work and home blended together in a challenging, but satisfying way. I formed personal relationships and provided academic support, but I couldn’t fix everything. In those cases, I could provide the resources and follow up with students.
This job was hard. It was more difficult than my most challenging classes. But it was also one of the most rewarding and satisfying (non-research) job I had in undergrad.
Pictured: Lake Michigan from Northwestern Beach
This past March, I was selected to participate in the Northwestern Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP). I arrived on campus on June 24. Our first two days were an orientation to campus life and to the expectations of the program. By the end of our seven weeks here, we will have created a poster and written a full paper.
There are 40 of us from all over the country spanning the many different disciplines, from humanities, to the social sciences, to the physical sciences, and more.
I am working the SCIP Lab, and I will be examining the connections between ostracism and adherence to stereotypes. I have been in the lab from 9-5 every day since Wednesday, doing training, becoming acquainted with lab protocol, and preparing myself to launch a study.
Northwestern is a beautiful campus, right on Lake Michigan! I’m excited to spend my summer here. More updates to come!
From March 1-3, I was in Atlanta, Georgia for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia (SPSP 2018)
SPSP 2018 Highlights
This year, Prof. Zarnoth and I had the opportunity to present our 2016-2017 research at SPSP 2018. Our research, entitled “How the ‘Confidence Gap’ Creates Gender Differences in Social Influence” examined how confidence mediates the relationship between gender and social influence. In other words, men have a disproportionate amount of social influence in male/female pairs, but this social influence comes from an unwarranted amount of confidence, which is a changeable factor. With this year’s research, we created a manipulation where we encouraged women to bolster their confidence and men to temper their confidence.
Additionally, I was a Science Writer Intern for the three days of the convention. I covered three symposia for the SPSP Character and Context blog. My writing about the 2018 SPSP Convention can be found on my Published Writing page.
Elisa Rapadas 