Learning the ups and downs of research during her honours thesis has given Nicole Vance greater confidence as well as honing her problem-solving skills.

For Nicole Vance, an honours thesis project proved to be more than just a year of research to add to her transcript. She also came away with a better understanding of herself and how the ups and downs of a project can mirror life in general.

“I learned a lot about my own capabilities and certainly learned a lot about the research process,” said Vance. “Research is a lot of trial and error and you have to be willing to try new things, to work outside the box and perhaps accept that not everything is going to work out, but that’s okay. It’s okay to not know what the heck you’re doing.”

In the fall of 2013, the psychology major applied and was accepted for PSYC 4990, Honours Thesis in Psychology, a year-long original research project under the direction of faculty supervisor Dr. Sandra Vermeulen.

For her project, Vance wanted to know if the public perceives male and female criminal offenders differently in terms of their character, morality, and personal accountability for criminal behaviour. Her methodology included examining previous research and revising materials to create questionnaires for participants to read and complete.

Among other findings, her research found that when participants responded to a hypothetical male offender, participants who supported the idea that a person’s moral character is fixed were also more likely to blame internal factors for criminal behaviour, and were less supportive of rehabilitation as a sentencing goal. These patterns were not observed when participants responded to hypothetical female criminal offenders, even though the hypothetical situations and criminal activities described were exactly the same.

“It’s one thing entirely to learn about things in a theoretical context, read other people’s papers, and read the research from other people,” she said. “But to go out and produce something of your own is quite special—it’s an experience that is unique to itself and you won’t get anything quite like it doing general courses.”

Spring Convocation runs June 10 – 12. Watch the live broadcast.

Encouraged to share her findings during TRU’s 2014 Undergraduate Research and Innovation Conference, she participated in the poster session. And at this year’s conference in March, she worked up the confidence to give a paper presentation in front of a live audience.

“If not for the honours thesis and the opportunity to get involved in the conference originally, I don’t know if I would have had the nerve to try and do it the following year and to participate a little more in-depth,” said Vance. Her paper explored themes of race, prejudice, and personal identity as present in the memoir of Janet Campbell Hale, an author she discovered during English 4790, Studies in Genre: Women’s Memoirs, taught by Dr. S. Leigh Matthews.

Applying classroom theory to a real-world problem required adaptability, she found. “Real life is messy and complicated and we like to think things are black and white and there are clear-cut solutions, but that’s not necessarily the case,” she said. “So you have to be willing to explore new options, learn from other people and take their advice into consideration.”

Vance will be recognized for academic excellence during convocation June 11, receiving the Governor General’s Academic Silver Medal and the TRU Medal in Arts. She plans to take the next year off to gain more work experience while researching potential master’s programs.