Hello everyone! My name is Camila Noriega, and I’m a psychology and sociology double major with a minor in data science. I’m an international student from Lima, Peru, and I transferred to UNC during my sophomore year. This drastic change meant going from a specialized psychology-only education at home to a liberal arts education abroad. So, why did I decide to do it? Bottom line, I was curious. Courses back home were limited, and followed a traditional psychology-only curriculum where I could not explore other topics that were of interest to me. So, I came to UNC to explore and further my curiosity.
As a first-semester sophomore, I took a course taught by the brilliant sociologist Dr. Arne Kalleberg on the Pursuit of Happiness, which completely revolutionized the way I felt about psychology. Starting from that point on, I became more interested in ways to deviate from a disease model, which focuses on identifying what's wrong with people, in order to 'fix' them, and focus my attention on how to elevate people’s baselines to ensure they live a well-rounded, happier and more fulfilling life. This new interest led me to Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s lab - the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory- which studies people’s positive emotions and how to to transform people’s lives for the better. At Dr. Fredrickson’s lab, I discovered my deep interest for research and being at the heart of academic innovation and discovery.
It might seem unusual that I deviated to UNC Weight Research Program for my Gil Internship, as the program is held at Gillings School of Public Health and does not directly focus on positive psychology. However, the positioning for me was clear, as I believe that one of the pillars of well-being is health. Following a bout of family diabetes diagnoses and seeing close family members change their lifestyles for the better, I saw first-hand how prioritizing health is key to achieving well-being. So, when I found Dr. Tate’s profile, the principal investigator of the program, I became curious about how health psychology and positive psychology may intersect, and wanted to understand the impact of lifestyle and behavior choices on their health. UNC Weight Research aims to develop and research behavioral weight management interventions for weight gain prevention, weight loss, and maintenance focused on healthy changes to nutrition and activity. During my time at the lab, I worked with Caitlin Martinez, a very patient and kind graduate student whom I helped during the completion of her dissertation. Her project, a pilot study, aimed to conduct and evaluate a two-stage, sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART) that tests different doses of human support added to a digital behavioral weight loss program. What this means is that the trials were adaptive: they are used to figure out the best ways to adapt treatments to patients as they aim to improve their health through nutrition and exercise.
My role can be broken down into three phases: implementation, evaluation and interpretation. The implementation phase meant working on data entry on REDCap, a platform used to systematize and organize data collected from clinical trials, from information we gathered through using FitBits and weekly questionnaires on nutrition and activity. I also deployed the ASA-24 dietary assessment tool manually in REDCap for different cohorts scheduled over consecutive weeks as well as collected the data when participants filled in the information. During the evaluation phase, I checked participant engagement through metrics like weight, steps, and calories at specified intervals. Finally, during the interpretation phase, I scored various datasets like the accountability questionnaire and baseline versus follow-up measurements across different cohorts, as well as wrote SAS code that was later used as a basis to calculate secondary outcomes in the final paper.
All in all, it was an incredibly rich learning experience, as I had to manage many tasks simultaneously and I got the chance to work on different phases of the process, as well as exploring a new area of psychology that intrigued me. As a double major, I am a strong advocate for working in a transdisciplinary manner, and I enjoyed delving into a topic of interest outside of psychology and sociology, and findings connections between these to leverage my previous knowledge. As someone interested in research, I was also intrigued by the idea of adaptive interventions, as my broad interest is improving baseline well-being, and adapting interventions to better suit patients according to their specific needs. After this internship, my interest for health psychology has certainly increased, and inspired further work at the PEP lab, as I am currently working on studying non-conscious motivators for sustained physical activity. I am incredibly grateful for having had this opportunity, for Dr. Tate and Caitlin’s patience as well as Dr. B and Emily’s help during the semester!
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