STORY BY JOHN CARTER JR
Fort Hays State University has plenty of on-campus research opportunities for students. The Psychology Department, in particular, has a plethora of student-based research projects in one particular lab, The MARS lab.
According to Dr. Whitney Whitaker, a Social Psychologist in the Psychology department and co-founder of the MARS Lab, the lab is: “An opportunity for faculty and students (both undergraduate and graduate) to collaborate on research” and furthermore when describing research “that could encompass work with me on my own research or students who design their own research study based on their interests, one thing that we emphasize for the MARS Lab is collaboration, so students have opportunities to work with a variety of psychology faculty on research,” Whitaker said.
The MARS acronym stands for “Mindfulness and Attention Research Studies Lab”, which was the premise for some of the first research projects in the lab.
“Mindfulness is the act of being aware and being present in the current moment,” Whitaker said. “To be mindful means that we are aware of our surroundings and appreciate where we are at in the current moment.”
This topic was researched by different students and faculty. In the MARS lab, it provides a key example of skilled researchers producing skilled researchers. Dr. Whitaker said that it was common research with a colleague that helped bring the MARS lab to fruition.
“Brooke Mann and I started working at FHSU at the same time in 2016, and we quickly realized that we had overlapping research interests, so we decided to apply for a URE grant to establish the MARS lab,” Whitaker said.
Opportunities and Ideas to study seem limitless regarding topic interest, according to Whitaker.
“In the beginning, students worked with me to examine my research interests and passions, such as forgiveness, relational conflict, and mindfulness,” she said. “Now I have opened up the lab to be a resource for students to conduct their own projects and a place where they can explore their psychological passions. Currently, I am working on projects with students involving — sexuality and attraction, racial microaggressions and white privilege, ethnic microaggressions among Hispanic/Latino(a) samples, and job satisfaction and leader-member exchange among young adult employees.”
The students in the MARS Lab are passionate about their research and put in a significant portion of time in pursuing their project goals.
“It’s time-consuming. Sometimes students do not have the time needed to devote to their own research project, but we (as a department) work hard to ensure that every student who wants to get involved in research can have that experience in some way,” Whitaker said. “If a student might not be able to commit the time needed to design their own project, then they can work with me on a project I am currently conducting and/or we can implement a peer-partnership process so that students are working together on one project as opposed to individually. This is generally a great system, especially if students are new to conducting research and/or have limited time.”
Getting involved in student-based research here on campus is a great opportunity for those wanting to improve their portfolio for future education, those wanting to pursue knowledge, and improve their own skills. For getting involved in a MARS Lab project Dr. Whitaker says that the first step is generally just sitting down and having conversations and talking about things that a student might be interested in learning more about. Through these discussions, the student and Dr. Whitaker can come up with some ideas to begin the journey through the research process.
“Generally our discussions lead to a thorough literature review process and from there we can begin designing a study,” Whitaker said.
When asked what is the overall goal for students researching in the MARS Lab Dr. Whitaker said it can be customized to what the student is looking for.
“In the MARS Lab we like to take a tailored approach to goal forming. With this in mind, we recognize that every student is unique and might come to us with different interests and experiences,” Whitaker said. “Overall, my goals for students include giving them opportunities to think deeply about what they are passionate about in relation to psychology, to help them learn about the research process and how arduous the process can be, and to facilitate their research training by providing opportunities for them to engage in high-quality research design and execution.
“Ideally I would love for students to have their work published in a peer-reviewed journal and/or to disseminate the research at a conference; however, I understand that this might not be a goal for all students, and as such, I try to have conversations with students to determine what they want to get out of the process and then plan accordingly.”
Students can also get many acknowledgments through research when they attend conferences.
“We love attending conferences with students, and this is something that we encourage all of our students to do at some level – whether that be here on campus at SACAD, at a local conference in Kansas, or at regional/national conferences,” Whitaker said. “Presenting research is such an important part in the process and it helps students to grow as researchers and professionals.”