Beth Boerger, has been a professor at SRU for 13 years and teaches a broad range of classes in the psychology program.
Boerger enjoys all the classes they get to teach in the program.
However, they did not originally study psychology. The professor received an undergraduate degree from Grinnell University in theater.
After gaining this degree and working for a few years, Boerger came to work in the mental health field. The professor received a master’s degree in child development and childcare from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a master’s and a doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Boerger started out working with older individuals with intellectual disabilities to help them learn different skills.
“That was part of what got me interested in developmental psychology and thinking about how people develop over time, and how that relates to the roles that society has for people at different ages,” Boerger said.
From there, they began to work with younger children and teenagers with intellectual disabilities and mental health issues.
“My background is interesting because I had that experience with direct care, with community mental health, with a couple different populations. And then I did have the academic the master’s degree at Pitt…I spent several years working as a research assistant on several different research projects,” they said.
The professor worked as a research assistant at the Western Pennsylvanian School for Blind Children for 3 years. The study was on risk factors associated with child abuse and neglect in families with children who have disabilities. The study then moved to Allegheny General Hospital.
Boerger then helped with a study through UPMC, where they evaluated the mental health programs and resources that were available to families who had children with mental health issues.
“Those were my first real, formal research experiences,” Boerger said.
Those experiences are what inspired Boerger to get a doctorate degree.
When Boerger was a graduate student, they were involved in several studies in which a research team examined fantasy beliefs in young children.
The research team created a character named the Candy Witch to learn more about imagination and personality differences in children. For several years, Boerger worked on studies related to creativity.
“We know that creativity actually is one thing that can help people to have positive emotions and be resilient so that also was part of it,” they said.
This semester, Boerger is currently working on two projects with students, the first one being a study looking at self-care.
“You know, we hear a lot about self-care, so what we really wanted to look at is, well, what exactly are SRU students doing that they think of as being self-care, and which of these things are most closely related with resilience or subjective wellbeing,” the professor said.
Boerger and an undergraduate student plan to collect data on this study very soon.
For the second project, Boerger will work with a student to look at social media use and the impact of either being engaged in social media or making the decision to not be engaged.
For both of these research projects, surveys will be held to collect data later this semester.
“I love research. I love the process of figuring out what the problem is and what the question is and how we can address it,” Boerger said.
