As a part of my ARIA internship, I assisted Dr. R茅gine D茅brosse from the School of Social Work on one of her studies. This study examined whether or not, for black students, the affirmation of afrocentric values led to positive psychological and academic outcomes. More precisely we wanted to know if a more culturally focused self-affirmation would be effective to increase well-being and motivation for black students especially in a context in which they may feel like their racial ethnic identities are disconnected from their future plans (Debrosse et al., 2018,2020). Previous studies examined the affirmation of personal values on academic outcomes for stigmatized students. This study differs because there is a focus on the use of afrocentric values to increase the well being of a particular group(Black students). Additionally the study focusses on promotive factors such as increasing happiness and self-esteem rather than on protective factors (e.g resilience). My involvement as a research assistant under the supervision of Dr.D茅brosse , provided me with some very valuable skills. Indeed, during the 11 weeks I spent on the study I have learned how to clean and code quantitative data through SPSS, conduct and interpret ANOVAs and contextualize findings with the existing literature.
When applying for the Arts Undergraduate Research Internship Award, I had 3 learning objectives. First of all, I wanted to be able to use and understand statistical tools, second, I wanted to work on my writing skills in English and third, I wanted to become more meticulous. After the 11 weeks of my internship, I was able to accomplish all three of these objectives . Indeed I have learned to use and navigate through SPSS and its different functions. I was able to improve my writing skills through readings and conceptualization of findings. Finally I am proud to say that this experience helped me develop the rigor that is so important in experimental research.
The highlight of my internship was the Wednesday mentoring sessions I had with my supervisor. Indeed it helped create a strong bond between us and allowed me to meet other mentees. We became a family in a short period of time and were supporting each other in our learning objective. Such emotional support from my supervisor was very impactful and increased my intrinsic motivation to learn more and accomplish my work with care.
Any experience comes with its challenges. One challenge I first encountered was time management. Indeed as a research assistant it is very important to be conscientious and manage your time effectively in order to get the work done and to not be overwhelmed. I was mostly responsible for my schedule and for the time attributed to each task. Thus, a good level of autonomy was required from me. However after a week, I was able to adjust to my new routine. For instance I started going to bed earlier, eating better and at the same time everyday. Additionally, I started taking short walks between tasks, which helped me maintain a good work/life balance. All these elements considerably improved my productivity which facilitated the development of some excellent time management skills that I believe will stay with me for life .
Finally, I was interested in an ARIA project because I wanted to take part in my first research experience and gain the practical skills necessary to shape my future career and education path. Indeed, as a psychology major interested in pursuing a graduate degree in clinical psychology, such an experience was extremely valuable for me. Additionally, the interdisciplinary approach of Dr Debrosse's research sparked my interest in social psychology, child development, and racial identity. I also discovered a new passion for research. Reading about a topic, learning about statistics, analyzing and cleaning the data, computing the descriptive statistics describing samples, and presenting scientific findings through posters were all tasks that I found intrinsically motivating. Furthermore, my ARIA internship was a good glimpse of what graduate studies in psychology could look like. Thus I was able to reflect all summer on whether or not such a career path was for me.
