ASHLEY HAYDEN
Ashley will graduate from Hope College in May 2021 to receive her B.A. in psychology and dance along with a minor in neuroscience. Throughout her undergraduate career, Ashley has gained experience in psychological, genetic, physiological, and neuroscientific research working alongside Dr. Charlotte Witvliet, Dr. Gerald Griffin, and Dr. Lindsey Root Luna.
These experiences have illustrated the beauty of the research process: Ashley enjoys creating surveys, interacting with participants, collecting data, running statistical analyses, and presenting research findings. She is intrigued by the ways minute details within each step of this process amount to scientific advancement and innovation.
Interning at Holland Free Health Clinic has further revealed the importance of her research pursuits, as Ashley witnessed clients grow in hope, resilience, and self-regulation throughout the therapeutic process. When considering both her research and internship experiences, Ashley argues she cannot fully appreciate one without understanding the other. Ashley has begun to see the reciprocality between scientific findings and comprehensive clinical practice, which cultivates her desire to develop the skills as a Clinical Scientist.
MY RESEARCH INVOLVEMENT
SOCIAL DANCE & OLDER ADULTS
Ashley worked with Dr. Andrew Gall to submit a grant proposal to the Retirement Research Foundation examining the effects of social dance on older adults’ anxiety and social connectivity. Although it was unfunded, I reviewed literature, examined empirical methods, and gained scientific writing experience.
FROST RESEARCH CENTER
Throughout her time at Hope, Ashley worked alongside Frost Research Center associates to conduct internal and external social science research. Ashley gained experience constructing surveys using Qualtrics, supervised phone call surveys, collected and analyzed data, and created reports for clientele using Microsoft and Tableau software.
RELATIONAL VIRTUES
Since December of 2018, Ashley has worked with Dr. Charlotte Witvliet to examine relational virtues such as accountability, forgiveness, and gratitude from genetic and physiological perspectives. This research has sparked her interest in 1). examining relational virtues within clinical populations and
2). examining the interpersonal outcomes of relational virtues.
DKEFS
Within her internship at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, Ashley assessed the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Color Word Inference Test as an effective performance validity assessment. This research has been published in
The Clinical Neuropsychologist and can be found here.
COVID-19 IMPLICATIONS
As part of Hope College's Advanced Neuroscience Capstone, Ashley's team sought to extend the findings of Xie, et al. (2020) to assess working memory, self-regulation, and heart rate variability as predictors of COVID-19 compliance. Within this study, they have additionally implemented innovative remote data collection procedures. This work is forthcoming.
