What It’s Like to Present Advanced Statistical Analyses as an Undergrad
This past semester, Kaela Palmer and I presented our conference poster at the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association’s 88th annual conference. In our poster, Being Specific about Emotions: Emotional Awareness and its Subcomponents, we used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to test if the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale measures more than just overall emotional awareness. It was my first time presenting at a conference, so I felt the pressure going into presentation day, especially since we’d used such a complex data analysis method and I had learned it during my first semester in the lab.
Presenting our poster was exhilarating. As soon as we said “EFA,” undergraduates looked confused and asked, “What is that?” Graduate students’ eyes got reallyyy wide and one even asked, “Are you guys grad students?” – to which we responded, “We’re actually graduating with our bachelors’ next month!” One graduate student even asked Kaela and I for advice about conducting EFA. After our presentation time was up, we both looked at each other and asked, “Was that guy really asking us about EFA?”
Needless to say, it was pretty flattering to be mistaken for graduate students and to hear other students respond in awe when we described our research. As members of the Interactive Measurement Group, we are given unique opportunities to conduct advanced data analyses that only graduate students usually get the privilege of learning. Even if you are new to the lab or to creating conference posters, grab those opportunities. Know that you, too, can learn advanced statistical techniques and explain them clearly to a professional audience. You’ll amaze yourself and maybe your audience, too.
Reference
Palmer, K., Imahara, C., Chapa, A. L., Angosta, J., & Barchard, K. A. (2018, April). Being specific about emotions: Emotional awareness and its subcomponents. Poster presented at Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Denver, CO.
Asia Chapa has been a member of the Interactive Measurement Group since Spring 2017 and served as lab manager from Fall 2017 to Spring 2018. In lab, she has co-authored a conference poster and literature review, supervised data entry projects, and taught workshops on exploratory factor analysis. She graduated from UNLV this past Spring. In Fall 2018, she will begin her masters program in Legal and Forensic Psychology at UC Irvine. In the future, she hopes to obtain a PhD in Forensic Psychology and use that knowledge to become a victim advocate and explore the coping mechanisms of criminals and crime victims.