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Kirsten Westmoreland

Kirsten Westmoreland

Lecturer

Psychological Sciences

CONTACT

k.westmoreland@rice.edu

WEBSITE(S)| Profile

SURF Mentoring

Potential projects/topics: I am interested in conducting research on the intersection between personality characteristics and mindset with the use of AI in academic contexts. In particular I want to better understand the personality profile of people who use AI for different purposes. Furthermore, I would like to identify if there are maladaptive vs. adaptive uses for AI in academic contexts by assessing academic, social, and personality consequences of various forms and degrees of AI use. In doing so my hope is that we can identify personality or mindset risk factors for maladaptive forms of AI use. This research could be used to help inform pedagogical approaches to AI use which could benefit everyone and make AI use more widely accepted for specific use cases, both by professors and students alike.

Potential skills gained: Correlational Research, Regression Analyses, ANOVA, Data Collection, Survey Creation/Validation, Personality Research Methods

Required qualifications:

  • Preferred course completions: A background in Psychological Science would be most beneficial, especially PSYC 330 and 340 (though not explicitly required).

Direct mentor: Faculty/P.I.

Research Areas

Kirsten’s Ph.D. research focused on the role of social context for the perception of basic vs. social emotions. Kirsten is also an active member of the European Association of Social Psychology where she is currently working on a collaboration studying the impact of group-based emotions on prosocial attitudes towards homeless populations. Other research interests include individual differences effects on emotion perception, the effect of affective social competence on leadership development, and the role of psychosocial well-being for effective leadership.