Sarah A
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
Expertise
Health psychology; psychosocial oncology; social psychology; statistics
Bio
Hello! I'm Sarah, a third-year doctoral student working toward my Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). My research focuses on psychosocial factors associated with health decision-making. Although most of my research* focuses on improving the quality of life for adults with cancer, I have contributed to research about immunology, statistics/measurement, and the effects of social media on mental health and well-being. I am passionate about mentoring students interested in psychology, statistics, public health, and medicine. I am interested in mentoring student projects using secondary data, aggregated social media data (e.g., Twitter, Reddit, Tik Tok), quantitative or qualitative original data (e.g., overseeing IRB and data collection processes), or quantitative synthesis of the existing literature. Additionally, I am happy to mentor students on systematic literature reviews. My research interests are partly informed by my experience growing up in the Bay Area and relocating to New Orleans, Louisiana, for college, where I became interested applying psychology to understand health behaviors. When I'm not working on research projects and taking classes, I enjoy exploring LA with my two puppies, hiking, and spending time at the beach. * You can see a complete list of my research publications on Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tW3jc1IAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao).Project ideas
Using Google Search Terms for Data Visualization & Trend Analysis
Through accessing Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US), we can download publicly accessible Google search data to visualize and analyze trends in search terms. This research is used in marketing to provide valuable insight into changes in consumer preferences and has been used by my research group and others to provide insight into the effects of the COVID pandemic on community mental health (e.g., https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2020-59192-001.html). Students can identify a search term relevant to their interests, identify the implications of changes in that search term, learn how to download the data, learn about data management in either Excel or R, visualize the trends in the data, and begin data analysis. Based on our findings, we can prepare a scientific research paper and/or conference style presentation to build familiarity with the research process.
Review of Psychology & Physical Health Outcomes
As a health psychology graduate student, I am trained to understand how psychosocial factors (e.g., happiness, anger, loneliness, socioeconomic status) impact individuals' physical health. For students with similar interests, we can write a systematic review paper focused on a psychosocial factor of interest and the body systems through which it affects physical health. Through this project, students will become familiar with using Google Scholar for literature searches, learn how to assess the quality of academic sources (e.g., using metrics such as journal quality, citations, recency, and research methods), and learn how to summarize the literature in an academic review paper. These skills can benefit students as they begin taking upper-division college courses and those who go on to participate in research labs where assisting graduate students or professors with literature search and writing is required. The final project will be a review paper that could be submitted as a journal article.
Interventions to Reduce Adolescent Emotional Distress: A Systematic Review
In recent years, we have seen a decline in mental health and well-being among US adolescents. Specifically, rates of depression and anxiety have been increasing. To address this public health concern, non-pharmacological interventions to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms in adolescents (e.g., mindfulness/mediation, cognitive behavioral therapy, exercise, and art-based interventions) have been increasingly popular topics within the literature. For students interested in interventions targeting anxiety or depressive symptoms in adolescents and young adults (AYA), we can conduct a systematic literature review examining different interventions. The proposed project is flexible, such that we can focus on either depression or anxiety and review the existing literature pertaining to a specific intervention (e.g., exercise interventions or mindfulness interventions only) or compare and contrast a variety of interventions on their feasibility, efficacy, and other qualities. For students wanting to take it a step further, we can conduct a quantitative synthesis and comparison (similar to a meta-analysis) to further evaluate the effects of interventions on AYA emotional distress. The results of the proposed project will be disseminated as a peer-reviewed review paper suitable for publication. Depending on student goals, the results can also be submitted to a research conference of their choosing or presented at the Polygence Symposium. Through the proposed project, students will become familiar with college-level literature search methods, evaluating interventions, understanding effect sizes, and (if applicable) college-level quantitative synthesis.
Exercise & Emotional Well-being: A Mixed Methods Project
There is a large body of literature linking exercise to emotional well-being (e.g., increased positive affect, reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms, improved focus); however, further research is needed to understand what types of exercise are most beneficial for certain individuals (i.e., the "what works best for whom" question we are often asking in Psychology). The student will put together a brief (<5 minute) anonymous web-based survey to be distributed to their peers. We will ask at least 20 participants to rate how stressed, sad, happy, and calm they feel on a scale from (0) not at all to (5) extremely each day for five consecutive days. Each day, we will also ask them whether they exercised and, if so, what type of exercise they participated in and for how long. On the last day only, we will ask them to respond to a short open-response question asking them "what is your favorite type of exercise and why?" All study procedures will be approved by the IRB. We will then analyze the quantitative data using Excel or R statistics (depending on student preference) and use qualitative methods for the open-ended question to understand (1) how daily exercise affects mood and (2) what individuals believe is the "active ingredient" that makes their chosen form of exercise enjoyable. The student will develop a paper suitable for journal publication or a research symposium presentation to disseminate their findings. Through this project, the student will learn about survey design, measurement, IRB approval, statistics, and dissemination of research as they would in a college-level research methods class.
The Effect of Perceived Stress on Music Preferences and Listening Habits
Through furthering our understanding of the role that our emotional state plays in music genre preferences and music listening habits, we can develop interventions to leverage music to improve mood and work performance. Specifically, understanding the role of stress in music genre preferences and music listening habits could be leveraged in interventions to reduce stress and improve performance at work or school. The student will put together a brief (<5 minute) single-session anonymous web-based survey to be distributed to their peers. We will ask at least 20 participants to complete the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983), report how many hours a day they spend listening to music, and what music genres (e.g., Pop music, Hip hop music, Jazz, Rock) they listen to most frequently. All study procedures will be approved by the IRB. We will analyze the data using Excel or R statistics (depending on student preference). The student will develop a paper suitable for journal publication or a research symposium presentation to disseminate their findings. Through this project, students interested in psychology and music therapy will learn about survey design, measurement, IRB approval, statistics, and dissemination of research as they would in a college-level research methods class.