Research Interests
Diverse Romantic Relationships
My main area of research during my doctoral studies was definitions of "romantic", and the impacts of social/cultural norms about what is and isn't romantic, for people in diverse forms of romantic relationships. I was originally driven by interest in how people distinguish between romantic and platonic relationships. Too often, this research narrowly defines "romantic relationships" as those that are heterosexual and monogamous, and defines "friendships" based on normative ideas that non-romantic relationships are "lesser" than romantic ones. A lot of this research also centers passion, typically in a way that assumes passion involves sexual attraction, desire, or behaviour.
So, to start, I conducted a qualitative study on how people in two types of close relationships distinguish between romantic and platonic relationships: those in very close non-romantic relationships, and those in non-sexual romantic relationships. I chose to start with non-sexual relationships, because that immediately takes out one of the biggest confounding variables in distinguishing between these two relationalities. This work (published in Archives of Sexual Behavior) emphasized the impact of social norms around sexuality on these definitions. In particular, participants in romantic non-sexual relationships often discussed how they had to navigate the expectation that their relationship would be sexual.
Based on those findings, I turned my attention to how social norms - including but not limited to those around sexuality - influence how people define and distinguish their relationships. My second and third dissertation studies, which I am currently writing up, explore what social norms people associate with romantic relationships and best friendships, as well as how people in diverse romantic relationships come to define their relationships as romantic in relation to the norms that their relationship challenges or extends. This last project - about defining diverse romantic relationships - received funding from the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology.
Positive Bisexual Identity
My first area of interest was positive bisexual identity, fueled by a frustration of how much work on bisexuality focuses on negative outcomes. As an honours student, I worked with my supervisor (Dr. Todd Morrison) to develop a measure of positive bisexual identity. This project helped me build skills in scale development, including factor analysis, and contributed to furthering research on positive aspects of bisexual identity, which has important research and clinical implications. This work was published in Psychology and Sexuality.
During my Masters' studies, I continued working on positive bisexual identity by exploring how microaffirmations, or small interpersonal experiences that affirm one's bisexual identity, might improve psychological outcomes and positive identity, and decrease proximal stressors. Unlike previous studies on the topic, my sample contained bisexual men, women, and non-binary people. I found that microaffirmations had differing effects on people of different genders: they were more positive for bisexual women, but increased preoccupation and anxiety for men and non-binary people.
Compersion & Non-Monogamy
Related to my interest in diverse romantic relationships is my interest in ethical non-monogamy, and particularly in the experience of compersion. I am particularly curious as to how compersion might be related to concepts such as inclusion of other in the self. I am currently working on a study with a colleague, Bianca Wilhelm, on this topic; this study was funded by a student research grant from Queen's University.
Other Areas of Interest
Methodologies
Throughout my degrees, I have developed strong skills in both quantitative and qualitative methods. My quantitative training includes SEM and multilevel modelling, while my qualitative training includes reflexive thematic analysis and grounded theory. While I am happy to conduct research using any of these, my preferred approach is always to combine both! I believe mixed-methods work is the best way to approach most areas of work in social sciences.
Mental Health in Academia
I worked extensively with the University of Saskatchewan's Academic Mental Illness Project. With this research group, I helped conduct studies on how instructors with mental illnesses experience academia, how they make decisions about disclosure within the classroom, and how these disclosures impact their students. Several of these projects are under review at various journals, while others are currently being written up; one has been published in Teaching in Higher Education.