Research Experience:

Doctoral Dissertation Project, California Graduate Institute-The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Completed December 2010.  Title: Personality Organization and the Capacity for Intimacy in Adults.  Planned, organized, and implemented a research project exploring the relationship between personality organization and the capacity for intimacy in adults using an object relations theoretical perspective.  The study used a survey-based causal comparative research design.  The data was examined by conducting Independent Samples t-Tests and Pearson correlations.  Supervised by Marc Shatz, Ph.D., Nathan Griffith, Ph.D., and Joan Lachkar, Ph.D.

Doctoral Research Practicum, California Graduate Institute-The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Spring and Fall 2007.  Project title: A Study of Couples’ Relationship Satisfaction.  Planned, organized, and implemented a group research project examining the role of mealtime behaviors and television viewing in couples’ level of intimacy.  Examined the data using comparative statistical analyses.  Supervised by Terry Webster, Ph.D.

Master's Seminar, University of Southern California, January 2001-2002.  Title: The Relationship between Sensation Seeking and Criminal Behavior.  Planned, organized, and implemented a research project on the relationship between sensation seeking and criminal behavior.  Examined the data using various statistical processes, including bivariate correlations and multiple regression.  Developed a structural equation model.  Supervised by Michael Newcomb, Ph.D. and Thomas Locke, Ph.D.

Master's Thesis, International Institute for the Sociology of Law, March 1999-2000.  Title: The State’s Fulfillment of Children’s Rights in Group Homes, Residential Treatment Facilities, and Mental Hospitals- Success or Failure?  Planned, organized, and implemented a research project under the guidance of the program director and a faculty mentor.  Master's thesis examined the care and treatment given to children and adolescents in group homes, residential treatment facilities, and mental hospitals.

Research Assistant, University of California at Santa Barbara, December 1997-April 1998.  Title: The Relationship between Perceptions of People from Different Racial and Ethnic Groups, Gender, and Social Distancing.  Assisted in development of survey instrument, data collection, and data entry for Deborah Levine-Donnerstein, Ph.D.  Used a multiple regression model to measure the relationship between the following variables: racial and ethnic stereotypes, perception of different racial and ethnic groups committing crimes, moral hierarchy of crimes perceived to be committed by certain groups, gender, and social distancing.

Honors Research, University of California at Santa Barbara with Hal Kopeikin, Ph.D., 1997-1998.  Title: The Relationship between Sensation Seeking and Deviant Behavior.  Planned organized, and implemented a research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor.   Data input and analysis using SPSS. Senior honors thesis examined the relationship between sensation seeking and deviant behavior.

Honors Research, University of California at Santa Barbara with Daniel Linz, Ph.D., 1997-1998.  Title: Evaluations of Sexual Offenders by Clinicians and Lay People for Sexual and Violence Recidivism.  Planned, organized, and implemented a research project under the guidance of the program director.   Data input and analysis using SPSS. Senior honors thesis examined and compared evaluations of sexual offenders by clinicians and lay people for sexual and violence recidivism.