Meet @RowanCHASELab: Interview with Lab Manager Sofia Gular

Sofia Gular has a B.A. in Psychology from Rowan University and joined the CHASE Research Team as our lab manager in May 2023. She was interviewed by Iris Bercovitz, a second-year student Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student at Rowan.

Rowan CHASE Lab: Hi Sofia! It’s great to talk with you. What first made you interested in joining the CHASE lab in the role of lab manager? 

SG: Hi Iris! It’s great to talk with you, too. The CHASE lab piqued my interest as I found the work to be not only interesting but hugely important. Digital health tools are becoming more prominent in our daily lives, and being able to use these tools to promote physical activity was an effort I wanted to contribute to. More specifically, the role of lab manager provides me the opportunity to further develop my skill set, not only as a researcher but as a professional. I was previously a research assistant during my undergraduate career, so this opportunity was a way to further build upon those skills and experiences. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: I know that you recently earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Rowan. What research experience did you have before joining CHASE lab, and how did they inform your interest in working with us? 

SG: During my undergraduate career, I first ventured into the world of research during a summer research internship I did under the supervision of NIDA at University of Penn’s AHA! Lab, which focused on smoking cessation. This was my first real introduction to research methods and practices, and I took part in my first individual research project using intensive assessment data (study used an ecological momentary assessment design). From there, I went on to work with the ASSeRT lab at Rowan, where I was able to gain even more experience in data collection, survey building, and presenting at conferences. I found it really interesting that the CHASE lab often uses ecological momentary assessment (or EMA), which contributed to my interest in working with this lab specifically. Ultimately, my desire to become more involved in psychological research coupled with my experience in learning about EMA nurtured my interest in working for the CHASE lab. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: In addition to being lab manager, what research experiences are you interested in gaining with the CHASE lab? Do you have a particular area of research interest? 

SG: I hope to gain experience in leading my own projects and to present research at new conferences. In addition, I would love to assist and support the many projects the lab is currently working on, to better understand the many facets of research and develop my ability to both lead and work with a team. Specifically, I would like to gain more experience in data management and analysis, as these skills are vital to performing research. I am particularly interested in physical activity as it relates to pain and sleep. In the future, I would love to take on my own projects that examine what factors influence outcomes like sleep quality and daily experiences with pain. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: From your experience so far, what have been the most interesting aspects of being a lab manager?

SG:  Most interesting so far has been reflecting on what helped me become a better research assistant and paying that forward to undergraduate students working with the CHASE Lab. Understanding what has helped me in my journey and sharing that information has been really interesting for my own personal reflection, but also in learning how to be a good supporter of our team. It has also been really interesting to learn about the many facets of health psychology and I have enjoyed learning more about health behaviors as they relate to psychology – this is an area of psychology where I did not have much exposure prior to joining the lab. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: What do you anticipate to be the most challenging parts of being lab manager? 

SG:  Learning how to juggle multiple active projects and tasks at a time. As a student, we learn how to juggle working, school work, internships, etc. Now as a lab manager, I have to use those skills I honed during my undergraduate career to not only manage my schedule, but to assist in managing the lab’s schedule and staying on top of tasks and deadlines. I am eager to learn how to best stay organized in this context and to build on these skills. 

Rowan CHASE Lab: We also love to get to know our team as more than just their research interests and experience. What kinds of things do you enjoy doing in your free time?

SG: I have two cats at home who I love to spend time with every day. Also, I really enjoy exploring new places, especially parks and nature reserves. Aside from that, I love spending quality time with my family and friends. Those interactions help me stay grounded, especially in times of stress. Lastly, I prioritize staying active (like going for runs, weight training) – not only to stay physically healthy but to stay mentally healthy as well!

Rowan CHASE Lab: Last question. What are your future career goals?

SG: I aspire to one day work as a clinical psychologist in an inpatient setting. I would also love the opportunity to teach at a university in some capacity. My next step is to continue getting relevant experience in the field to make myself a strong candidate for clinical psychology graduate programs!

Close Up on our Latest Paper: How Much Did Women’s Daily Social Experiences Change from Before to During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

We’re delighted to bring you the details of our new research, which was just published in a special issue of Social and Personality Psychology Compass! Longtime visitors to our website know that we have a particular interest in women’s social experiences during middle adulthood (ages 40-60) and in associations between their social experiences and health (see here and here for additional examples). By social experiences, we mean:

• Social interactions – any encounter with other people (face to face, online, over the phone) that we perceive as positive (pleasant) or negative (unpleasant)
• Social comparisons – evaluating ourselves relative to other people (who we think are doing better, about the same, or worse than we are)

These experiences can improve or worsen stress and cardiovascular health, based on how they’re perceived. Way back in 2019 and early 2020, we wanted to understand how women’s social experiences play out in daily life. We were midway through a 10-day study of these experiences when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which ended the project in its original format. 

Although we were disappointed to end that study, the pandemic offered us an opportunity to learn about women’s experiences during a public health crisis. For example, we learned that among women with risk factors for cardiovascular disease (such as high cholesterol), their overall depressive symptoms and sleep problems were high before the pandemic; these concerns worsened during stay-at-home orders and didn’t fully recover once things reopened. These women also believed that they had much less social contact during the pandemic, relative to before. On the flip side, though, women’s reports of physical pain improved from before to during stay-at-home orders and stayed better through initial reopening. 

We learned about this by inviting women who participated before the pandemic started to repeat some of our procedures at 2 additional time points: 

• During stay-at-home orders (April-May 2020) 
• At initial reopening (once stay-at-home orders were lifted; August 2020-September 2020) 

But until recently, we hadn’t taken a close look at women’s day-to-day social experiences over time. Specifically, a lot of people were concerned about reduced social contact during stay-at-home orders. But how much did day-to-day social experiences (interactions and comparisons) actually change, from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic?

What Did We Do?

Back in 2019, we asked women ages 40-60 who had one or more risk factors for cardiovascular disease (smoking, high cholesterol, etc.) to report on their social experiences over several days. These women were asked to do this again, during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders (April-May 2020) and then after initial reopening (August 2020-September 2020). 

At each of these time points, women who participated received 5 brief surveys per day for 5 days, which came to their smartphones via text message. These surveys asked about their recent social interactions (positive and negative) and social comparisons – in particular, how many of each type occurred in the past 3 hours. 

In total, 35 women completed all 3 “bursts” of data collection (pre-COVID, stay-at-home orders, and after initial reopening). At each burst or time point, they provided 25 reports on their social experiences over 5 days (75 reports per person).

What Did We Find and What Does it Mean?

Given how concerned people were that social contact was limited by stay-at-home orders, we expected women to report far fewer positive social interactions during this period than before the pandemic started. We weren’t as sure about negative interactions and social comparisons, so we approached these with an open mind. 

The daily patterns of all 3 types of social experiences shifted a bit over time. But we found that the number of positive social interactions did not change from before to during COVID-19 – they were just as frequent during stay-at-home orders and reopening as before the pandemic started. What changed were the numbers of negative interactions and social comparisons – these decreased from before to during the pandemic. 

Bottom line: although many women perceived major changes in their social contact after the start of the pandemic, when we looked at their day-to-day reports (in the moment), the number of positive interactions didn’t change. What did change were negative interactions and (potentially negative) social comparisons. It’s possible that women who experienced the biggest changes in their social experiences didn’t return to participate after the pandemic started, and that women’s needs weren’t being met at any of these time points (so lack of change or small changes might not have meaningful effects). But for a subset of women with health risks, small decreases in negative social experiences could actually be an unexpected benefit of public health precautions against the spread of infectious disease.

What Was It Like to Work on This Study?

In clinical health psychology and behavioral medicine (our field), it’s rare to write a paper alone. This topic was one I’ve wanted to pursue since 2020 and there never seemed to be time to do it. So when the opportunity came up to submit to the Compass special issue on a short timeline, I jumped at it. The word limit was low and I used the opportunity to focus on sharpening my writing skills – as I always say to trainees, the skill is to be concise (brief AND thorough). It was stimulating to challenge myself and to work at my own pace. 

But writing alone doesn’t mean working alone! I’m immensely grateful to team members Kristen Pasko, Laura Travers, Dr. Adarsh Gupta, and Kristen Edwards, and to former team member Megan Brown, for supporting data collection and contributing to other publications from this line of work. I also owe a lot to collaborators Drs. Jacquie Mogle and Laura König for their consultations on data analysis and illustrations.* 

And the findings are really interesting. Certainly we didn’t capture everyone’s experience of the first 6 months of the pandemic and a lot of people suffered socially. The goal isn’t to ignore or minimize that. We can learn so much from data collected during the early days of the pandemic and often it seems that research has already moved on. A strength of this study is our ability to compare daily reports before and during the pandemic, rather than just relying on retrospective perceptions. Here is more evidence that (1) what we perceive in retrospect and what actually happens in daily life don’t always match, and (2) sometimes there are side effects we’re not aware of at first. 

I’m hopeful that we don’t have to experience another viral pandemic anytime soon. But just in case, this information might be useful for limiting some catastrophic thinking about short-term stay-at-home orders.

— Dr. Dani Arigo, CHASE Lab Director

Next Steps

As always, there’s a lot more to do. We’re eager to understand whether the minimal changes in social experiences from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic affected women’s health and well-being, and whether things are truly “back to normal” now that it’s 3 years since the pandemic started. Our recent work focuses on how we can harness the benefits of the social environment through digital platforms to boost physical and emotional health, among women ages 40-60 and for other groups. Stay tuned!

*Drs. Jacquie Mogle and Laura König recently visited the CHASE Lab! Read about their visits here and here.