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Research Opportunities

Independent Study (PSYC 485)
Independent study is an opportunity for a student to receive course credit for working in a professor’s research lab or for working with a faculty member on a research project. This experience is advantageous for those who are interested in graduate school, may need a letter of recommendation, or simply want to gain research experience.
Regarding PSYC 485 contract forms: While some professors have their own unique application form(s), the general-purpose contract should also be completed.
Available Faculty Members
Students should send an initial email inquiry to a faculty member about their interest in independent study to learn more about opportunities in a given research lab.
David Bridgett
- Office/lab: PM 308/PM 130
- Office Email: dbridgett1@niu.edu
- Research interests: Developmental Psychopathology, Infant/toddler Emotion Regulation, Parent-child interactions.
- Important resources: The Emotion Regulation and Temperament Laboratory site, which includes a section dedicated to describing possible research experiences available to undergraduate students.
Anne Britt
- Office/lab: PM 363/PM 1
- Email: britt@niu.edu
- Research interests: Comprehension, cognition, and memory; integration of information from multiple sources; enhancing learning and understanding through use of computer-aided instruction; argument comprehension and construction.
Michelle Demaray
- Office/lab: PM 575/PM 534
- Email: mkdemaray@niu.edu
- Research interests: school psychology; social support perceived by children and adolescents; bullying and victimization in schools, including bystanders in the bullying situation and cyberbullying; Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
- Important resources: Dr. Demaray’s website.
Amanda Durik
- Office/lab PM 414/PM 329
- Email: adurik@niu.edu
- Research interests: Motivation in achievement situations
Lisa Finkelstein
- Office/lab PM 571/PM 30
- Email: lisaf@niu.edu
- Research interests: aging at work, stigma at work, mentoring relationships, high potential employees and humor at work.
Angela Grippo
- Office/lab: PM 357/PM 427
- Email: angelagrippo@niu.edu
- Research interests: Interactions of stress, emotion, and cardiovascular function.
- Important resources: Grippo's website, her lab's Facebook page, and a unique lab application.
Michelle Lilly
- Office/lab: PM 318/PM 32
- Email: mlilly1@niu.edu
- Research interests: Family violence, trauma, mental health and recovery
- Important resources: Lilly's website.
Christine Malecki
- Office/lab: PM 312/PM 534
- Email: cmalecki@niu.edu
- Research interests: School psychology; social support perceived by children and adolescents; curriculum-based measurement; innovative school psychology delivery services.
- Important resources: Malecki's website, and a unique lab application.
Leslie Matuszewich
- Office/lab: PM 420/PM 427
- Office Email: lmatusze@niu.edu
- Research interests: Effects of chronic and acute stress on behavior and the brain; Pharmacological regulation of motivated behavior; Developmental models of mental illness.
- Important resources: Matuszewich's unique lab application.
Randy McCarthy
- Office/lab: PM 307/PM 329
- Email: rmccarthy3@niu.edu
- Research interests: Who behaves aggressively; why do people behave aggressively;When do people behave aggressively.
Keith K. Millis
- Office/lab: PM 320/PM 1
- Email: kmillis@niu.edu
- Research interests: Discourse comprehension; technology and instruction; experimental aesthetics; memory processes.
Nina Mounts
- Office/lab: PM 410/PM 233-235
- Email: nmounts@niu.edu
- Research interests: Social development of children and adolescents across diverse ethnic groups; linkages between parent and peer contexts; parent-child relationships including parenting style and parental management of peers; peer relationships including peer influence and friendship formation.
- Important resources: Mounts's unique lab application.
Julia Ogg
- Office/lab: PM 310/PM 237
- Email: jogg@niu.edu
Research interests: externalizing behavior, family-school relationships, teacher-student relationships, academic enabling classroom behaviors.
Holly Orcutt
- Office/lab: PM 557/PM 330
- Email: horcutt@niu.edu
- Research interests: Fear conditioning/fear-potentiated startle, experiential avoidance, consequences of trauma exposure.
- Important resources: Orcutt’s research website and a unique lab application.
Laura Pittman
- Office/lab: PM 314/PM 132-134
- Office Email: lpittman@niu.edu
- Research interests: Developmental psychopathology; family process; extended family; parenting practices; poverty; cultural diversity; and transition to college.
- Important resources: Pittman's website, and a unique lab application.
Rachel Saef
- Office/lab PM 569/PM 139
- Email: rsaef@niu.edu
- Research interests: Personality in the workplace, employee well-being, and individual differences how employees perceive and react to organizational injustice, diversity and stress.
- Important resources: website, and a unique lab application
Brad Sagarin
- Office/lab: PM 416/PM 227
- Office Email: bsagarin@niu.edu
- Research interests: Attitude change; resistance to persuasion; deception, jealousy and infidelity; evolutionary psychology; human sexuality; statistical approaches to missing data and non-compliance.
- Note: Sagarin has a number of new and ongoing studies on jealousy, infidelity, human sexuality, and research methods.
Alecia Santuzzi
- Office/lab: PM 561/PM 327
- Email: asantuzzi@niu.edu
- Research interests: Managing disability in the workplace; perceptions among women in male-dominated work environments; social paranoia in highly evaluative situations
- Important resources: Santuzzi's website.
Elizabeth Shelleby
- Office PM 316
- Email: eshelleby@niu.edu
- Research interests: development of child disruptive behavior problems, preventive interventions for at-risk populations, parenting practices, early child emotion regulation and the influence of contextual stressors on child mental health.
Kara Styck
- Office/lab: PM 359/PM 240
- Office Email: kstyck@niu.edu
- Research interests: Academic, social-emotional, and behavioral assessment; screening and progress monitoring in K-12 schools; Rasch analysis; and psychological measurement.
David Valentiner
- Office/lab: PM 422/PM 334
- Office Email: dvalentiner@niu.edu
- Research interests: Anxiety disorders; coping with stress; emotional processes related to anxiety and coping.
- Important resources: Valentiner's website, and a unique lab application and pre-written contract for PSYC 485.
Doug Wallace
- Office/lab: PM 309/PM 430
- Email: dwallace@niu.edu
- Research interests: Animal models of Alzheimer's Disease.
Katja Wiemer
- Office/lab: PM 569/236
- Email: katja@niu.edu
- Research interests: Concepts and categories; abstract concepts; determinants of similarity; perceptual bases of cognition; embodied cognition; metacognition; semantics; natural language processing; maladaptive cognitions in mood disorders.
Kevin Wu
- Office/lab: PM 311/PM 33
- Email: kevinwu@niu.edu
- Primary research interests: obsessive-compulsive disorder; anxiety; dimensional models of adult psychopathology
- Important resources: Lab website which includes a page that addresses in detail possible research experiences available to undergraduate students.