Spotlight: William Crissman

William (Billy) Crissman is a senior pursuing his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in General Studies focusing on children. He is actively involved in three research projects in the Psychology department with three different faculty members.

One study, supervised by Dr. Ric Topolski is an investigation into what drives people to make moral decisions.

Working with Dr. Nicole Rossi, Billy is also involved in a correlative study between non-scholarly hassles such as registration, the financial aid process and students' negative attitudes towards universities.

The third project is a cross-sectional investigation of conversational development in typically maturing children between 2 and 6 years old, supervised by Dr. Quentin Hartmann.

He will be travelling to present research this year at the Georgia Psychological Society Conference in April and the Association for Psychological Science conference in Washington D.C. in May.

When asked about how undergraduate research has impacted his undergraduate career, Billy states "I am applying what I am learning through lectures and classes and working on research designs. I am able to ask new questions and have different perspectives on what I learn. I have learned to manage my time [and] being involved in research has made me become more organized. It has given me the opportunity to have one-on-one interactions with professors who are my mentors in research."

Billy's plans are to pursue a Master's degree in Psychology at Augusta State University and eventually continue to complete his PhD in pursuit of a career in academia since he "enjoys the collaborative environment."