104 ACADEMICS In the NAME of SHAME Associate professor of behavioral sciences Jeremiah Sullins and psychology students research the effects of shame in the academic setting. Associate professor of behavioral sciences Jeremiah Sullins received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Memphis in 2010 before coming to Harding in 2014. After beginning a career in academia, Sullins noticed a lack of discussion about the effects of shame in an academic setting. Because of the scarce amount of research available, Sullins collaborated with Dr. Jeannine E. Turner, an associate professor in the Florida State University Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems. “I knew I kind of wanted to stay in emotions and how that relates to learning because learning is still my primary focus. There’s a lot of difference between self-conscious emotions and basic emotions,” Sullins said. “You get that test back, flip it over, and then the teacher goes into the next lecture. How much of that are you really processing? So, I tried to really explore what impact shame has in academic setting on learning of complex science information.” Sullins said he and Turner developed much of their own research to systematically quantify shame in an academic setting. They applied literature materials for theoretical framework, but there were many gaps the two researchers had to fill. “The way I go about collecting data is I have anywhere from five to seven undergraduates that are assisting in the lab,” Sullins said. “As far as where our data comes from, we usually offer extra credit to most of our general psychology classes, and this is really a standard model of what you’d see at a lot of larger state schools.” Sullins described the students’ volunteer research experiences, which involved sitting in a study-like session where they took assessments, that were turned into data collected by the undergraduates and Sullins for research. “As a lab attendant, it’s my job to guide our participants through the research process,” senior Anna Little said. “It’s illuminating to watch psychological principles at work, and it is fascinating to be part of the research process. I’ve really enjoyed researching with the purpose of developing a mechanism to assist others.” Researching academic shame mutually benefited students and professors at Harding by helping them build closer relationships that encouraged learning. “Teachers are quick to pass by bad grades on tests, which is not always effective for the student,” junior Laura Gail Beebe said. “It would be beneficial for a lot of students to know that they would not be shamed for getting a bad grade because it could increase conversation between students and professors.” story by Sophia Toth
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