Past Newsletters

11/7 Meeting

  • Linked-In Workshop and Headshots

    This week, we got to collaborate with another amazing psychology club on campus, IO Psychology Club, to learn about tips and tricks to navigate and find success on the professional networking app: LinkedIn. Officers Ailyn, Gloria, and Aurora also shared with us about Industrial Organizational Psychology and how they are using their skills and interests to go forward in careers and higher education in the field. Finally, they talked about how important it is to have a headshot to let companies and other professionals put a face to a name. We then finished up our meeting by taking some headshots to put into our LinkedIn profiles.

  • Featured Research

    This week's featured research delves into the influence of the environment on mental health and well-being.

    Tost, H., Champagne, F. A., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2015). Environmental influence in the brain, human welfare and mental health. Nature neuroscience, 18(10), 1421-1431.

10/17 Meeting

  • EXPLORING: Forensic Psychology

    This week, we were grateful to have Professor Dr. Jacqueline Buffington come in to present on the field of Forensic Psychology. She gave a great background and shared her experiences working as both a professor and a competency evaluator for the 6th Judicial District Courts of Minnesota. She also discussed how our members can prepare for success as a forensic psychologist. Dr. Buffington gave us a great resource for any members that are interested in pursuing grad school for Forensic Psychology. The link for the grad school program directory is linked below. If you have any questions that did not get answered during her presentation, you can reach out to her via email at jbuffing@d.umn.edu.

    Grad school program directory

  • Featured research

    This week's featured research comes from some of our students who are currently students at UMD or are UMD alumni. There are bios of the researchers and additional information about pursuing research as an undergrad linked below! This research focuses on the impacts of yoga therapy on trauma.

    Dietrich, K. M., Strumbel, N. M., & Nguyen-Feng, V. N. (2024). Impacts of one-to-one Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga sessions on psychological symptoms and interoception over six months. International Journal of Yoga Therapy. 34, Article 10. https://doi.org/10.17761/2024-D-23-00043

    Short Bio from the authors

9/26 Meeting

  • EXPLORING: Research and Graduate school

    This week, we got to listen to a current UMD graduate student Alli Colberg, as she shared her experiences in research and how to get into graduate school. Alli’s presentation included insightful knowledge on the process of graduate school and the significant work pertaining to the education process. Alli also shared her personal experiences as a student and gave us instruction on how to gain an edge when preparing for graduate school, as current undergraduate students. If you missed the meeting or would like to take another look back, Alli has graciously shared her presentation with us!

    Alli Colberg's Presentation

  • Featured research

    This week's featured research delves into the changing patterns of stress, especially in young females and how this stress can impact mental health.

    Fifteen, female and stressed: changing patterns of psychological distress over time. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 44:3 (2003), pp 399–411

9/19 Meeting

  • Nature Therapy/Bagley Hike

    This week, we got to head out to Bagley Park to learn more about Nature Therapy led by our very own Laura Howe! Laura is a Psych major with a EOE minor and is interested in incorporating her enjoyment of the outdoors into her future profession. Laura started us off by playing a game to release our stress called “run and scream”. Then, Laura taught us about Nature Therapy and how we can use it for our benefit to bring our body into its “resting” state by stimulating our parasympathetic nervous system. We put this into action through a meditation session to get in touch with our five senses and finished our meeting by taking a walk around Bagley to surround ourselves in the great nature we have access to on campus!

  • Featured Research

    This week's featured research is a study based off of the theme of our last meeting, where we explored Nature Therapy.

    https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080851

    Hansen, M. M., Jones, R., & Tocchini, K. (2017, July 28). Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) and nature therapy: A state-of-the-art review. MDPI.

    https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/8/851

9/12 Meeting

  • Bouquet Making

    We began our meeting with quick introductions again of all officers and our amazing advisor Dr. Lechtreck. President Mary then shared information about what our future meetings will look like and how you can join our newsletter. Next, we got to our main event. Flower bouquets! We were so happy all of you came out to create these beautiful bouquets with us and mingle with one another. Hopefully you got to reach out and meet someone new yesterday! Our club is all about creating a community that focuses on uplifting and celebrating women in the field of psychology. If you’d like to see some pictures of our event, be sure to check our social media pages to see if you were included! We are working on making a shared album for all future pictures so be on the lookout.

  • Featured research

    In four studies, we tested whether higher trait self-objectification was associated with more strategic and less authentic self-presentation on social media among cisgender women, and whether these links could be attributed to heightened approval motivation among those having higher levels of self-objectification.

    Women’s Self-Objectification and Strategic Self-Presentation on Social Media Psychology of Women Quarterly 2023, Vol. 47(2) 266-282 Chen, et al.

9/5 Meeting

  • Inaugural meeting overview

    This week we got started with introductions of each of our officers and Dr. Lechtreck gave us a wonderful presentation about herself and why we come together to support women and our field! Dr. Lechtreck emphasized the importance of social connections and our mission is to make a community that all of you can feel comfortable and empowered in while learning about our field. Vice President Mikayla then gave a wonderful presentation about all of the resources we have to offer on campus and how they can be made accessible to you. We wrapped up our formal portion of the meeting by President Mary giving us a look at what's to come next week for our next meeting. Finally, we got to briefly get to know one another and got a great first meeting picture that you can find on our instagram and facebook pages! Again, thank you all so much for attending this first meeting. We can’t wait to see what great things are to come!