It wasn’t the first time Kristen Barczynski had presented research at the Eastern Psychological Association annual conference. It was, however, the first time she’d attempted to present with a fever of 102. 

Even though “it was definitely my most difficult presentation,” Kristen’s project won the regional student research award from Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, in March of 2018.  Kristen was first author on the project “Everybody else’s life is better than mine: Social comparison, but not time spent, on Facebook predicts negative psychological well-being.” Jeff Bartel, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, also participated in the project.

“Nearly every step held unexpected challenges, which occasionally added stress and frustration, but mostly added intrigue and passion.” 

Now fever-free, she can look back on her award-winning psychological research with pride.

“This project was the first I had independently undertaken and in which I participated in every part of the research process--from choosing a topic of interest, to forming a research question, identifying relevant literature, submitting a proposal to the Institutional Review Board, and actually creating a survey and running the statistical analyses of it,” she says. “Nearly every step held unexpected challenges, which occasionally added stress and frustration, but mostly added intrigue and passion.” 

Kristen, a psychology and math double major, enjoys research. She has spent the past year and a half working on a math research project with Jared Burns, Ph.D, assistant professor of math. Under Dr. Burns’ guidance she also created and facilitated “Math Masters,” a series of workshops that help fellow students brush up on important algebra and precalculus skills.  

When she’s not researching something or taking psychology and math courses, Kristen is creating art as a 2-D art minor, or involved with the Psychology Club, Psi Chi, and contemporary worship activities. 

Photo above: Kristen at the Eastern Psychological Association annual conference in Philadelphia in March 2018.