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Determination Defined

Posted in AU students, Academics by Ashley B | Thursday, October 18th, 2007 | Trackback

You may have seen her on ESPN with the Auburn eagle “Tiger� perched on her arm. But volunteering at the Raptor Center isn’t all that senior Lauren Adams is doing with her time at Auburn. A transfer from Darton College in Albany, Ga., majoring in psychology, Lauren is one of the few Auburn students participating in an undergraduate research fellowship. Upon her arrival in Auburn last fall, Lauren started volunteering in Dr. Anna Franco-Watkins’s research lab, in the hopes of gaining valuable research experience. Recognizing Lauren’s native curiosity and commitment to her work, Dr. Franco-Watkins invited Lauren to become one of only two research fellows under her guidance. And thus began the long journey of research, which Lauren refers to as “a really big science fair project.�


In particular, Lauren is researching both cognitive and clinical aspects of psychology; specifically, impulsivity and how it relates to different personality characteristics. Her subjects are primarily people with border-line personality disorder, where the affected persons display erratic emotions and hedonistic behaviors. Lauren says that the goal of her research is to find better measures to gage levels of impulsivity and their affects on human behavior. Currently, she is working to complete her International Review Board (IRB), a requirement from the Office of Human Research Subjects for any test dealing with human participants. 

While parts of the research process are tedious and time-consuming, Lauren remains extremely committed to her work. “It’s tenacity, not intelligence that matters.� Hoping to go onto graduate school, she recognizes the critical nature of research experience for her resume. Additionally, the experience will benefit her greatly when she is required to write both a dissertation and thesis in a graduate program. In terms of personal benefits, Lauren appreciates the self-confidence that being a research fellow has given her. She expresses how encouraging her mentor, Dr. Franco-Watkins has been.

“I’m serious about my career,� Lauren says, “so to have a person who is working at the level that I want to work at tell me that I’m doing a good job…it’s huge.�

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