Mentor: Dr. Rachel Ruttan
Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources
Project Description
How do we communicate with people going through difficult life events? In this project, we are investigating the prevalence, motivations, and consequences of expressing resilience, or another psychological capacity to bounce back, when experiencing adversity (e.g., loss of a loved one). Despite expressions of resilience being common and well-intentioned, expressions that validate negativity‚ a much rarer strategy‚ seem to be a more effective at alleviating another’s distress. This project employs mixed methodological approaches, combining experimental studies with analysis of real-world sympathy communications. The mentee will help to create and collect self-report measures of emotional responses to different message types. The mentee will also be involved with text analysis techniques, including natural language processing to identify emotional content and narrative structures. This research aims to develop evidence-based guidelines for more effective emotional support, with implications for both interpersonal relationships and professional contexts like how we navigate grief at work. Depending on your interests, you can also take on other projects in the lab (see https://www.mapelabuoft.com/).
Mentorship Statement
Creating a positive and developmental research environment has been an incredibly important part of my time here at U of T. I co-manage a research lab covering topics relevant to morality, authenticity, compassion, sustainability, emotion, and political ideology. Working with students as they discover their research interests and develop their skills is truly one of the most rewarding aspects of my role.
I’ve been lucky to mentor many talented research assistants who have gone on to pursue graduate studies and research careers in both academia and industry. In our lab, students engage directly in the research process through weekly one-on-one meetings and collaborative lab sessions, working alongside graduate students.