As an undergraduate clinical psychology student, Amy Bacon took interest in working in simulation labs. Upon her arrival to Bradley as a psychology professor, Bacon used that same passion to provide learning opportunities for her students.
For the past two years, the psychology department has played host to the Stress, Emotion and Alcohol Lab [SEA Lab], a simulation lab in the lower level of Bradley Hall. The lab, decorated to look like a college bar, is the center for research regarding student behaviors stemming from alcohol consumption.
“I want to try to figure out why students drink at risky levels and occasionally commit risky behaviors,” Bacon said.
Student participants must be at least 21 years old and went through a series of preliminary screenings to be sure that their participation in the lab did not promote or trigger any unhealthy behaviors, according to Bacon.
“What we’re really hoping to get from this research is to understand why students have certain behaviors so then we can perhaps have more targeted intervention for these matters instead of saying ‘just don’t drink,’” Bacon said.
Pending screenings and availability, student participants spent up to three hours in the SEA Lab with a few other student participants and a psychology student coordinator monitoring the event.
“We tried to design our [lab] like one of the [bars] you’d see on Western [Ave],” Bacon said. “Our lab is a happy-medium, and we tried to make it as real life as we could.”
The bar featured casual seating at a bar table or at the bar itself, a dartboard, a large flat screen TV, a stereo system and decorations such as posters and lantern lights.
“It is my understanding that we are the only school of our size that does this,” Bacon said. “This research would typically be practiced at the graduate level, but Bradley students are getting to do this as undergraduates.”
Students involved in running the study have gone on to present their findings at national and regional conferences, with their next presentation coming up in May at a Chicago regional conference.
“I have about four students working with me right now,” Bacon said. “They will do jobs [ranging from] administering questionnaires, to screening students, to measuring out the drinks.”
Getting the lab on campus was not easy, but Bacon said that she took every step to make sure the work was ethical, safe and controlled.
“We wanted to get it through the ethics board to make sure it was ethical [work],” she said. “The goal was to run a study that met our needs but was conscious and respectful of the participants.”
Following approval, ordering the equipment and properly training the psychology students was the next step.
“Training the students is very important because it is a study you want to be done well and done right,” she said. “The study lasts three hours, so that’s a long time to be monitoring and working.”
There have been two studies since that lab’s inception that have been completed. Bacon said each study is related but still tries to assess a different angle.
“The first study was about nine months, and we’re just wrapping up the second, which took about a year and a half,” she said. “Each study kind of builds on each other incrementally. We plan to launch our third study in the spring.”
Bacon said she hopes that the findings from the SEA Lab research will result in more direct ways to address students regarding alcohol consumption.
“Poor behaviors [resulting from alcohol] can be missing class, hangovers, assaults, rapes and in rare cases, death,” she said. “Our research is meant to figure out why students engage in these risky behaviors and how we can address these [behaviors] in a more specific way.”
