How memories are consolidated has intrigued Roselyn Peterson, Ph.D., ever since she took a “Biological Basis of Learning and Memory” course during her undergraduate career at the University of Seattle. Learning that traumatic memories are stored differently from non-traumatic memories stuck with her and went on to influence her path within the psychology field.
“I found I was really interested in non-military trauma, such as women's issues and sexual violence, which sent me down this path of women's empowerment and understanding how specific areas of trauma are different from other forms of post-traumatic stress disorder,” says Peterson, clinical faculty member and research director for Bryant’s Doctor of Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) program.
New to Bryant this July, Peterson oversees psychology research at the university and will look for collaborative opportunities between the Psy.D. program and others, such as the Physician Assistant Studies program and the undergraduate Psychology program. The Psy.D.’s inaugural cohort begins classes this August under the leadership of Program Director Christina Tortolani, Ph.D., and their arrival will coincide with the opening of the new 3,440-square-foot Psychology Research Center, which will include state-of-the-art labs that span the field’s disciplines — including developmental, cognitive, physiological, social, and clinical psychology.
“My job will be to assist students with the logistics of research methods, such as how we collect data from different populations, how we analyze that data, what software programs we use, and how we present our findings to the public in a way that's understandable,” Peterson says.
Having spent most of her life in Washington state, Peterson hails from a small apple orchard community with snow-peaked mountains in the distance and a natural glacier lake running through the town; her high school class consisted of 44 students. After college, Peterson’s psychology degree took her to the University of Washington where she worked as a research assistant on various studies from different centers within the University of Washington, including the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress. Interviewing patients, conducting data analysis, putting together research presentations, and sharing findings at national conferences solidified her desire to work in research.
While in graduate school at the University of Central Florida, Peterson’s research focused on the intersection of sexual violence and alcohol use.
“I was able to focus on the intersection of sexual violence and alcohol use in the lab, and how we can promote protective behaviors to reduce risk of negative alcohol consequences, as well as adverse sexual outcomes – like sexual violence and risky sexual behaviors,” Peterson says, whose thesis focused on sexual regret.
Required to complete a clinical residency as part of her clinical psychology program, Peterson matched with Brown University where she spent her final doctoral year; she followed that experience with a two-year postdoc at Brown’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. There, she furthered her research by trying to understand how the behaviors college students engaged in may or may not put them at risk of negative outcomes. To collect information in the moment, also called ecological momentary assessment, researchers sent push notifications at specific times and gathered more data after an outing to see whether negative outcomes occurred, and if so, who they were with, how much they had to drink, and what contexts they were in.
While she would like to continue this type of research, another area Peterson would like to explore more includes dissemination and implementation science; the study of bridging the research to practice gap.
“I think it’s important to look at how we bridge the gap between research and practice, and how we get research findings from our labs into the therapy room,” Peterson says.
Focusing on the upcoming semester, Peterson is looking forward to meeting the inaugural Psy.D. cohort and learning more about what they want to do with their degree. In the fall, she will be teaching “Psychological Assessment for Intelligence,” which looks at IQ testing, and “Adult Psychopathology,” which includes the diagnosis of psychological disorders. In the spring, she’ll teach “Psychological Assessment for Personality,” which focuses on personality assessment, as well as “Research Design Methods.”
“Clinical psychology is such a diverse discipline because you have the opportunity to be a researcher, a clinician, a teacher, or a combination of any of the three,” Peterson says.
