Research Rockstar

For the past two semesters, Sigma Kappa’s Nicole Negri has been a research assistant to Dr. Jason Nelson. Dr. Nelson is the Head of Research for the Regents’ Center for Learning Disorders on campus. This center helps students on campus deal with their learning disorders in regards to both their academics and personal lives. As his assistant, she did research on topics that could be implemented into the practice of clinicians and also workers at the Regents’ Center. Her first project was a meta-analysis of non-pharmacological treatments for adult ADHD. More simply put, they created a statistical review to determine the efficacy of various non-medication based treatments for adult ADHD. It has been discovered that medication is not a sufficient treatment for all adults with ADHD, thus other treatments are needed. They studied specifically Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, and ADHD Coaching to determine their efficacy as treatments. Nicole thinks the research is very interesting because it is influential to clinicians who are looking for alternative treatments to medication for their patients. By looking at our meta-analysis, the clinicians can determine that the 3 types of treatments discussed above are effective. They are currently in the middle of their second study in which we are looking into treatments for test anxiety in college students.

Nicole is presenting at 3 conferences regarding the first study. She is presenting at UGA’s CURO, the Georgia Psychological Association Conference, and the American Psychological Association Conference. Here she will be able to discuss my results with other psychologists and add to the field of psychology. Nicole also received the CURO Assistantship Scholarship, which is to aid in funding her research.