Posters & Presentations

The annual convention of the American Psychological Association took place in Washington D.C. last week-end. Unfortunatley, I wasn't able to attend the conference, but I was able to contribute to a poster presentation with others from my research lab.

Most students have to (or get to?) do several presentations throughout their graduate career, including talks for classes, thesis and dissertation, professional conferences, and the general public. Unfortunately, students don't often get a lot of training or feedback on how to deliver these presentations effectively and trial-and-error is the only way to learn how to improve.

This afternoon, I presented my thesis project for the first Gerontology Center Colloquium of this fall semester. Each PhD student in our department has the opportunity to present a research project for the series. The talk generated lots of good discussion and interesting ideas for future research.

This month I successfully proposed my dissertation project to my committee (now the real work begins!). As suggested by the title, my project will investigate the way in which low feelings of belongingness and high feelings of burdensomeness interact to increase suicide ideation among older adults. The study is based on a theory developed by Thomas Joiner, PhD and his students at Florida State University.

Last week, I presented a poster at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, which took place in San Diego. Poster presentations are always fun because I get to meet others who are interested in similar areas of research. I was even awarded an APA Student Travel Award in order to participate in the convention.

I successfully defended my thesis last Friday. Although it was somewhat nervewracking, the meeting went really well. It felt more like a discussion than a presentation by the end and I got lots of good feedback and suggestions from my committee. The next step is to try to publish a journal article using the findings from the study.

Earlier this week, I gave a presentation at our local senior center that was designed for older men who are recently widowed or divorced. The purpose of the presentation was to discuss:

-relationships in later life
-what is "typical" after the loss of a spouse/partner
-how to decide whether you are ready to date again
-strategies for getting what you want.

Older adults have a disproportionally high rate of completed suicide as compared to the general population, but relatively little is known about the extent to which coping styles and beliefs serve as protective factors against suicide in this population.

We had a group of community-dwelling older adults complete questionnaires on coping, reasons for living, and suicidal ideation. Some of the findings include:

A substantial literature has documented that sexual abuse relates to suicidal behaviors but relatively less is known about resilience to suicide, especially cognitive deterrents to suicide.

Last week I successfully proposed my thesis project titled, "Coping Strategies, Suicidal Risk, and Protective Factors Against Suicide in Older Adults." The goals of this study are to investigate coping abilities in older adults and how those relate to suicidal ideation and cognitive deterrents to suicide. We've already begun data collection and hope to have the study completed by the end of the year. Thank you to my committee (Daniel L.