UNLV Connections: Word from the Interactive Measurement Group

Eastern Psychological Association 2023

by Susan Gutierrez and Grace Hyde

During the Spring 2023 semester, four of our lab members — Julissa Martinez, Susan Gutierrez, Grace Hyde, and Mia Dominguez — took a trip to Boston, Massachusetts, to present at the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) Conference. Julissa and Susan presented their poster about the Climate Change Hope Scale. Grace and Mia presented their poster about climate-friendly purchasing choices.

Getting the opportunity to attend EPA allowed us to explore a new city, learn about others’ research, and improve our presentation skills. By traveling to a new city, we assumed the responsibilities involved with planning a large-scale trip and navigating a foreign place. We enjoyed sight-seeing, but we also benefited from learning travel skills that will help us during graduate school and job interviews. At the conference itself, we attended presentations and chatted with researchers from other universities. Many of the presenters were graduate students who had done similar statistical analyses to us, such as confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses. It was exciting learning about research in a wide variety of psychology topics, but it was also gratifying to see that we were doing the same kinds of analyses as others and to realize how much we had accomplished while we were undergraduates. Finally, we gained presentation skills by preparing our poster, sharing our findings in a live setting, and answering any questions people had. Attending a professional national conference was a highly valuable experience and something we encourage all of our lab members to do!

Congratulations to all for presenting at EPA!

Susan and Julissa in front of their poster titled 'Climate Change Hope Scale: Examining the three-factor model with adults.' Mia in front of Grace and Mia's poster. Grace in front of Grace and Mia's poster.

References

Hyde, G., Grace, B. C., Dominguez, M., Bi, Y., & Barchard, K. A. (2023, March). Climate-friendly purchasing: An exploratory factor analysis. [Poster presentation]. Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, MA.

Theiss, E., Gutierrez, E., Martinez, J., Odents, O., & Barchard, K.A. (2023, March). Climate Change Hope Scale: Examining the three-factor model for adults. [Poster presentation]. Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, MA.