Candice Mayer Receives Raphelson Prize
Candice Mayer of UM-Flint Psychology has been awarded the 2015 Raphelson Prize, a faculty-selected award that honors excellent research and writing by a psychology student. According to the department, “The prize honors the founding member of the psychology department, and one of the original faculty of the University of Michigan-Flint, Dr. Alfred C. Raphelson.” Mayer’s winning paper was titled, “Ethical Perceptions Regarding Research Participation.”
Says Assistant Professor William McKibbin, “The Raphelson prize is a very competitive award for the best paper submitted to the psychology department. The winners represent our highest achieving majors. It was no surprise to me that Candice won this award. The paper she submitted came from my principles of research design course, where students individually wrote up the results of a class study on research ethics. It was possibly the best paper I’ve ever seen come out of that course. Candice has continued to help with the research that started in the course, and we are now about to submit her paper for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. She will be first author, along with myself and another faculty member. This is a great achievement for an undergraduate. I commend Candice for her hard work. She has a bright future ahead of her.”
When asked about her experience in the department and in winning this award, Mayer said, “I am ecstatic to be named the 2015 winner of the Raphelson Prize in Psychology. The topic of student research participation requirements came up in one of my Psychology classes and its relevance immediately intrigued me. I believe that uncovering student perceptions here at UM-Flint would lead to important insight regarding how students feel about participating along with the potential to shape future policies. I have consistently been working on this research for over a year now and have presented my findings at the UM-Flint student research conference and the annual Meeting of the Minds that took place at UM-Dearborn. Researching an ethical question fulfills my personal interest in governing policies and winning the Raphelson Prize will be beneficial to me when applying to law school later in the year. I am also grateful for the opportunity to work closely with Psychology faculty members, as it has helped me further develop my research and writing skills while gaining hands on experience in the field of Psychology. My experiences at UM-Flint have been very rewarding and I look forward to making contributions and continuing my research.”
To learn more about the Department of Psychology, visit their website: umflint.edu/psychology
