9:35 a.m., May 15, 2009----For former McNair Scholar Judith Morgan, being a doctoral candidate in the University of Delaware's Department of Psychology provides a unique opportunity to work with preschool children while contributing to the body of research concerning childhood emotional development.

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Morgan, a fifth-year graduate student in the clinical science program, is working with Carroll Izard, Trustees Distinguished Professor of Psychology, in the department's human emotions laboratory.

“I chose UD's clinical science program for its commitment to research, and because of its close fit to my research interests,” Morgan said. “I am fortunate to work with Dr. Carroll Izard, one of the foremost researchers in the field of psychology.”

Research interests for Morgan, who received a master's degree in psychology in 2007, include studying the internal and external predictors of emotion development in children and how it relates to internalizing disorders.

“Currently, I am studying how heart rate reactivity and emotional schemas predict children's ability to regulate their emotions, and the relationship between emotion regulation and the development of mood and anxiety disorders,” Morgan said. “I have previously studied how parenting factors such as emotion, coaching or physical punishment affect children's emotion regulation abilities and maladaptive behaviors.”

The Birmingham, Ala., native has presented her work at the Society for Research on Child Development and at the Head Start National Conference. Morgan also has authored and co-authored research articles examining these relations.

As part of a clinical practicum at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Regional Autism Center, Morgan participates in projects that examine the etiology of autism and how children with autism process language and faces.

Morgan also has done clinical practice at the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Child and Family Therapy Clinic in Baltimore and at the Terry Children's Psychiatric Center in New Castle.

“I love working with young children and their families,” Morgan said. “I also enjoy contributing to the field of psychology's understanding of what helps young children develop in healthy and adaptive ways.”

Being part of the UD graduate degree program and working with psychology department faculty has been helpful on several levels, Morgan said.

“I enjoy the graduate degree program's career development focus,” Morgan said. “I also have gotten a lot of feedback and guidance on what steps to take to be ready for a research and teaching career in psychology.”

One of four psychology doctoral students to have been placed in highly competitive and prestigious internships for the 2008-09 academic year, Morgan will be participating in an American Psychological Association-accredited internship at the Western Psychiatric Institute in Pittsburgh.

“I will spend one year there continuing my research in children's emotion development,” Moore said. “I will also be able to participate in clinical work with children and adults with emotional and behavioral problems, particularly mood and anxiety problems. I am very excited about that opportunity.”

Morgan said she also hopes to receive a postdoctoral fellowship at an academic medical center or in a hospital setting to continue her research on children's emotion development.

When not in the lab or working on academic subjects, Morgan said she enjoys reading and such arts and crafts as pottery, knitting and jewelry making.

“I like the atmosphere of the campus. Everyone is friendly and it is easy to find a favorite hangout spot,” Morgan said. “I also like how close Newark is to many major cities like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., in case you get in the mood for a bigger city feel.”

Morgan also credits the Ronald McNair Program at the University of Alabama as being the most fulfilling experience of her undergraduate education, especially working with research mentor Joan Barth, a research social scientist in the University of Alabama's Institute for Social Science Research, from whom she developed an interest in emotion development research in children.

“With her guidance, I was able to propose and conduct my own research study examining the relation of preschool age children's emotion knowledge to their social competence,” Morgan said. “By having the opportunity to present my research at two conferences as an undergraduate student, McNair greatly sharpened my research and critical thinking skills and helped me prepare for the graduate school application process. I would not have been prepared to enter graduate school without the help of the McNair program.”

Article by Jerry Rhodes
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson