Project Mentor
Dr. Crystal Park
Department: Psychological Sciences
Research Project Overview:
I direct the Spirituality, Meaning and Health Lab at UCONN. Our overall research focus is on how people deal with stressful situations, so we study many different topics in relation to that focus, including emotion regulation, coping and meaning making; interventions like yoga and meditation; mental and physical health; health behaviors; and resilience. We study stress in many contexts: college student stressors, sexual assault, bereavement, eco-distress, cancer survivorship, loneliness, and resilience. In addition, we emphasize the powerful roles of meaning in life and spirituality as potential resources that help people successfully manage stress.
Yoga Pilot Trials – We will have just completed data collection from two pilot trials of yoga, one comparing two different types of yoga for stress management and one for LGBTQ+ college students to promote wellbeing. Both of these studies are in the analysis phase, so you would be welcome to work with Dr. Park and the study team and learn how to code qualitative responses and prepare and analyze quantitative data as well as to write up study results.
Loneliness, Coping and Alcohol Use – This study is ongoing, and you would be able to learn how to implement a longitudinal (multiple-wave) national study that involves testing whether the ways in which people cope with social isolation and loneliness can make them more or less vulnerable to problematic alcohol use and mental health issues. You would be able to work with Dr. Park and the study team and learn how to analyze quantitative survey data and problem-solve issues that arise as we gather and interpret data.
Resources for Recovering from Bereavement – This study brings people into our lab to assess heart rate variability before and after bereaved students write a brief narrative about their loss. We are testing specific personal and spiritual resources that might help mitigate stress when describing a recent death of a loved one. We will be completing data collection in Spring 2024 so a student apprentice could help us with gathering background literature, designing the data analysis and interpreting and writing up the results of the study.
Eco-Distress – This project is currently in the background-gathering and design phase, so you would be able to work with Dr. Park and a graduate student to help design a study on factors that might help UCONN students deal with eco-anxiety and other emotions (e.g., anger, hopefulness). This project will be implemented in Fall 2024 so we will be actively developing the study and preparing to request human subjects’ approval to begin.
Role of a SHARE Summer Apprentice:
Working in our lab, you could learn skills such as: training in ethical practices in human subjects research (obtaining certification), searching for and synthesizing scholarly literature and using this information to develop specific research questions, cleaning, and maintaining quantitative (numeric) data (excel, SPSS software), building and administering online surveys (Qualtrics software), coding qualitative (open ended and subjective) data, helping prepare conference presentations, learning social scientific writing, analyzing data, visualizing data, and more.
Summer Schedule/Time Commitment:
The time commitment is very flexible. I will meet with you virtually 1:1 every week or so and we will have virtual lab meetings every few weeks with the full team that will be scheduled to work for all of our schedules.
Preferred Qualifications:
Our lab is very welcoming of curious and motivated students who do not yet have specific research skills and we are very happy to help you learn!
To Apply:
The application deadline has passed.
Please note:
All students hired for a SHARE Summer apprenticeship must complete a federal I-9 form and present original documents in person to OUR staff as part of the hiring process. Visit this U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services page for more information about acceptable documents. You cannot begin working until this is complete. Students are encouraged to plan ahead for this. For example, if you are going home for spring break, consider bringing original documents back to campus with you.