Two Westminster College psychology students used funding from the College’s Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research to continue their mental health research projects that focused on several disorders.

Allison Augustine, a senior psychology major from Cortland, Ohio, focused her research on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and functional impairment through her work “Feared Possible Selves as a Moderator Between OCD Symptoms and Functional Impairment.” Feared possible selves are a set of qualities that a person fears about becoming in the future and tend to represent what a person hopes to avoid in their future selves.  

Augustine, a graduate of Lakeview High School, used a regression analysis to determine whether feared possible selves predicted or moderated the relationship between OCD symptoms and functional impairment. The results showed a positive correlation between each variable.  

“Over the years I found an interest in feared possible selves and how they can affect individuals. There is not a lot of research in this area and its relation to mental health disorders, especially OCD,” said Augustine. “I feel that my life’s purpose is helping people. I wanted to research something that could benefit others.”
 
Pittsburgh native Lydia Ohm, a senior psychology major with a minor in criminal justice, used her funding to research attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in relation to comorbid oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). ADHD and ODD tend to have significant impacts on functional impairment in relation to criminal justice cases.
 
Ohm, who graduated from North Hills High School, researched how these conditions in adults can influence their outcomes. Her results showed a significant correlation between ADHD and ODD symptoms. Both disorders predicted functional impairment and criminal justice involvement independently. ADHD symptoms were shown to amplify ODD related risks. The study explored the potential contribution of certain factors, such as zero-tolerance policies and racial disparities in ADHD diagnoses.  
 
Ohm’s research reinforced the importance of early detection and management of ADHD and ODD-like symptoms in people in order to alleviate possible negative impacts.  
 
“I became interested in this topic while interning at George Junior Republic, where I saw firsthand how untreated behavioral disorders can impact people’s lives. My initial interest was in the school-to-prison pipeline which filters children into the criminal justice system. I then chose to focus on how these conditions can impact criminal justice involvement throughout adulthood to advocate for better intervention strategies early on in life,” said Ohm.  
 
“The Drinko funding was essential to my research. It allowed me to recruit off-campus participants and gather data from a diverse group that better represented the population I was studying,” Ohm said.
 
Acquiring individual Drinko grants improved Augustine and Ohm’s research skills and provided additional experience in the fields of data analysis and methodology. The grant enabled both projects to crowdsource on a much broader scale which gave each of them more accurate results.
 
“Allie and Lydia are a great example of how collaboration benefits science and personal development,” said Dr. Jessica D. Rhodes, associate professor of psychology and faculty adviser for both projects. 

“Both students developed very different independent research projects but worked jointly to collect a large generalizable sample using a crowdsourcing platform. As a result, both of their projects were enhanced because they were able to work well with one another. In addition to the research-based skills and knowledge gained from individual studies, this collaboration highlights the additional benefit of career-related skill development for students completing undergraduate research experiences,” Rhodes said.
 
Westminster’s Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research financially supports undergraduate work through various grants for students participating in academic programs, conferences and creative projects at Westminster College.
 
For more information on the Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research, visit www.westminster.edu/drinko or contact director Dr. Patrick Lackey at ugresearch@westminster.edu. 
 
To learn more about Westminster’s major in psychology, please visit www.westminster.edu/psychology.

More Stories