Master’s in Psychology Graduate Program
Gianna Bowler received her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Rutgers-Camden in May of 2012. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with an undergraduate research award, the Psychology department award and the Women and Gender Studies’ department award. She is now a first-year graduate student working under the supervision of Dr. Charlotte Markey in the Healthy Development Lab. She has presented at several conferences on behalf of the lab and will be gave a talk regarding romantic relationships and health behaviors in New Orleans in January. Her research interests include the development and socialization of gender, women’s health, and and romantic relationships. Gianna values the close-knit faculty and student environment and the opportunities for close collaboration among graduate students.
En Fu is a second year graduate student working with Dr. Mary Bravo. Her research addresses the broad field of spatial cognition. She’s especially concerned about how our perceived space differs from the actual space due to cognitive factors. She loves the powerful library system at Rutgers Camden and the research atmosphere promoted by faculty and students. Currently she is applying to PhD programs and plans to pursue a career in academia.
Gabriel Johnston completed his bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara in the spring of 2012 and immediately entered the Rutgers-Camden masters program in the fall, with the eventual aim of completing his PhD in Social Psychology. He is studying political psychology under his advisor, Dr. Ira Roseman, who is well known in the field of emotion research. Gabe says he is happy with the research intensive nature of the program, and is currently working on two projects he hopes to publish, including his thesis and a side project on emotions and policy issues. He also gained valuable teaching experience in his first semester working as a teaching assistant (TA) for the experimental psychology class, and looks forward to further TA experiences this spring.
Phil Loatman is a second year graduate student working with Dr. Bill Whitlow and Dr. Robrecht van der Wel. His general research interests include comparative cognition and animal learning. More specifically, he is interested in human and non-human animal discrimination learning, the role of attention and environmental cues in animal learning, instrumental learning, foraging behavior in animal learning, and neurolaw. He chose Rutgers—Camden because of its strong research emphasis, and he thought it would be an excellent bridge to a doctoral program. Phil presented research at the Eastern Psychological Association in 2012, and plans to present research at the Comparative Cognition Conference, Association for Psychological Science, Eastern Psychological Association, and the Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society in 2013. Phil is currently applying to animal learning and behavioral neuroscience doctoral programs.
Kyle Sauerberger is a second-year graduate student working with Dr. Nave in his Personality, Health, and Behavior lab. Kyle’s research interests include multi-method personality and behavioral assessments, personality development, and the real-world implications of personality. His thesis research links self-rated Big Five personality with directly observed behavior from a videotaped cognitive test conducted years later. It uses data from the Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort, a 50-year longitudinal study funded by the National Institute on Aging. Kyle has presented his research at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in New Orleans, LA, and is currently working on publishing his findings. Kyle has received numerous awards including the Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholar Award, a merit scholarship from Montclair State University, and a Dean’s Hazel Vera Scholarship and the Camden Arts and Sciences Academic Excellence Award from Rutgers University, Camden. He hopes to continue his research in a Ph.D. program in the Fall, and is looking forward to his final semester at Rutgers Camden.
Jennifer A. Shukusky graduated in January 2013, completing the program in just a year and a half. Advised by the now-retired Dr. Luis Garcia, she wrote her thesis on an expansion of the sexual script, encompassing 4 different relationship types including hookups, friends with benefits, dating partners, and serious romantic relationships. Jennifer’s previous research has examined the impact of parent-child relationship quality on attitudes toward and engagement in hookup culture, which is now published in the Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology (2012). Her other research interests include infidelity and the impact of pornography on relationships. Jennifer chose Rutgers-Camden because the program offers all of the resources of a big, research-oriented institution with the personal touch of helpful faculty, intimate class size, and the opportunity to work closely with mentors. She also attended 6 conferences during her short time at Rutgers and felt that the program really prepared her for a career in research. She has plans of attending a PhD program in the fall of 2013.
Emily Wood completed her Master’s Degree in Psychology in May of 2012. She worked with Dr. Charlotte Markey on her thesis titled Word Choice during a Cooperative Task and Romantic Partners’ Relationship Quality, which examined language use among romantic partners as a predictor of relationship satisfaction. She received several awards during her scholastic career, including an Executive Women of New Jersey merit scholarship and a grant from the Rutgers Psychology Department to purchase a computer program for her thesis. Emily has presented her thesis project and other projects at several conferences in the past year. Her experience working in the lab with her mentor has introduced her to many aspects of research, such as recruiting participants, using psychophysiological equipment, and interacting with participants. She recently taught Psychology at the high school level and is exploring more teaching options. Rutgers – Camden was the best choice for Emily’s education because it offered high quality research education in small, close-knit classes.