On January 19-22, Caroline Bach '17, a psychology major at Haverford, presented her poster presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Annual Convention in San Antonio.
Caroline's poster focused on factors that contribute to women and underrepresented minorities persisting in or opting out of STEM majors.
She conducted her research under the National Science Foundation funded Identities Pathway Project, which is a longitudinal study being conducted at Haverford College and Western Washington University to examine personality and identity development during the college years and beyond. Two Western Washington University students were also involved.
The researchers examined both quantitative and qualitative differences in the narratives of those who persisted in STEM majors and those who did not. They also examined differences between underrepresented minorities and non-underrepresented minorities within the two groups.
“It was a really amazing experience because I had exposure to the newest research in social and personality psychology, and it is exciting to see where the field is headed,” says Caroline. “It was incredibly rewarding."
In addition to her summer research, Caroline is actively involved in psychology research at Haverford College. For just under one year, she has been working with Professor Jen Lilgendahl on her narrative identity research, coding narratives for individual differences in how people interpret different events in relation to the self.
"One of the strengths of the project is that it has data from two very different student bodies, so it will be interesting to examine how students in these divergent contexts navigate events, such as major declaration, and the transition to college," says Caroline.
Following Bryn Mawr, Caroline hopes to pursue a career in medicine and research.