This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Senior Meredith Smith ’03 (Guilford, Conn.) has learned first-hand what it takes to design, conduct, and analyze a psychological study. A former member of Lafayette’s swimming and diving team, she piloted research that shows a direct correlation between mood and burnout in swimmers.
Smith’s findings indicate that athletes who are less pleased with their performance are more likely to suffer from burnout. She also discovered that even though swimmers may perform better during the course of the season, they are no more pleased with their performance. However, burnout does not increase over this period, according to her study. She will present her findings to the Lafayette swim coach and may publish her work in a scholarly journal.
Smith completed this research as part of a senior honors thesis under the guidance of John Shaw, associate professor and assistant head of psychology.
“She has done a spectacular job,” says Shaw. “This type of field research is very difficult to conduct. There are many obstacles, so it requires a tremendous amount of persistence and tenacity. Her performance has been outstanding in all respects.”
A senior psychology major, Smith distributed a series of packets that measured mood, burnout levels, and swim times to team members at different points in their training. She then monitored the changes that occurred in the variables.
“Different results were expected each time the packets were distributed,” she says. “I anticipated that burnout levels and mood would be worse at peak training times, and the levels would become better with decreased training. We expected to find many other complicated correlations as well.”
For Smith, who plans to study sports psychology in graduate school, the work is a continuation of an independent study she conducted last spring on the causes, treatment, and prevention of burnout. She examined journals and conducted interviews with former varsity athletes to gain insight into the condition.
“The thought of designing my own experiment, studying variables I chose, and not being 100 percent certain of the results is what really excited me about my thesis,” she says.
“This project has been very rewarding,” she adds. “I was able to challenge myself and learn a lot about psychological research. It’s great to design your own study and find the results you expected.”
Smith says that Shaw has played an instrumental role in helping make her thesis the “best it can possibly be.”
“Lafayette has a good environment for research and my experience has been pleasant,” she notes. “The psychology labs are excellent and allow hands-on experience that students at other schools don’t get. The faculty help you learn how to become a good researcher and teach you to write in the style accepted by the American Psychological Association. The courses are set up well and students can do research through independent studies and theses.”
Secretary of Psi Chi, the national psychology honor society, Smith is a disk jockey for campus station WJRH and a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She coached a local student swim team.
Shaw has published his research in numerous publications, including articles in five different academic journals and a book chapter in the past two years. He has mentored Lafayette students who have presented their undergraduate research through academic journals and conferences. A former criminal defense attorney, Shaw has handled several thousand criminal cases and over 100 jury trials, including numerous serious felonies such as rape and murder.