Hood College Psychology Major Receives Psi Chi Research Grant

Katy Svitak ’25, a senior psychology major at Hood College, has been awarded an undergraduate research grant from Psi Chi, the international psychology honor society. Her project, titled “The Impact of Mental Health Campaigns on Self-Identification with Mental Illness, Perceived Control over Problems, and Perceived Need for Professional Treatment,” tested the correlation between increased mental health awareness and a rise in mental health problems through overinterpretation of minor distress as symptoms of mental illness.

“It was exciting to receive this grant,” said Svitak. “This grant allowed me to put my study onto an online recruitment platform, which made it possible to get a large enough sample size in the short amount of time I had to complete my project.”

The study examined the impact of self-identifying with mental illness on perceived control over problems and perceived need for professional treatment. Svitak found that subjects exposed to an awareness campaign on a common mental health symptom, anxiety, reported higher self-identification with mental illness than individuals exposed to an awareness campaign of a more serious condition, schizophrenia. Svitak concluded that higher self-identification with mental illness was associated with lower perceived control over problems and higher perceived need for professional treatment.

“These findings increase current understanding on the impact of mental health campaigns and implications of self-identifying with mental illness,” said Svitak.

Svitak then presented her findings at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference in Chicago, where she received feedback from leading experts in psychology and learned about cutting-edge research in the field.

“Through its research methods and statistics sequence, Hood College trains psychology students to develop, conduct and analyze original studies,” said Shannon Kundey, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Hood. “Collaborative research with faculty mentors helps students gain experience in hypothesis testing, survey design and statistical software. The program also supports student participation in independent studies and collaborative faculty projects that can lead to presentation at conferences or publication. This enables them to build strong research portfolios for their next step after Hood.”

Svitak, who will graduate with her bachelor’s degree in psychology this May, plans to continue her education at Hood in the clinical mental health master’s program, one of the College’s most popular graduate-level programs.

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