Family Inspires ESU Student to Pursue Psychology Career, Research Opportunities

For Natasha Merchant, a rising senior at East Stroudsburg University, psychology is more than just her major – it’s a source of comfort and healing that she has seen the positive effects of firsthand.

Merchant, a member of ESU’s University Honors Program from Bushkill, Pa., is so drawn to the subject that she has immersed herself in a trio of research projects at ESU, including one with a deeply personal connection.

Merchant’s mother was born in Pakistan and lived in Jordan as a child before moving to the United States as a teenager, where she raised Merchant and her four brothers as a single parent. Though her mother grew up around American culture, the stigma around mental health in her home countries lingered, impacting her decision to talk with a therapist.

“Even when someone is in an environment where mental health resources are readily available, the perspectives of family and close community, especially those rooted in different cultural backgrounds, can still strongly influence their willingness to seek help,” she said.

When her mother finally got the help she needed, it proved to be an inspiration.

“Hearing her say that her therapist is the reason that she’s here today made me want to do that for other people,” she said. “Everything about her motivates me to keep going and keep working hard.”

It also piqued Merchant’s interest in psychology within the family dynamic. Earlier this year, she began a project analyzing whether there is a connection between birth order and compassion.

“My hypothesis is that middle children are most compassionate because they tend to be left out compared to the youngest and oldest children,” she said.

Merchant began exploring existing research on the topic and developed a survey that she distributed to dozens of middle children. She plans to break down the data and complete her research in the fall.

“I think this research will show that birth order does matter and it can be used as a variable in other research,” she said.

At the same time, Merchant is heavily involved in another research project focused on whether artificial intelligence-generated practice tests enhance learning and improve performance for psychologists preparing for the Psychopharmacology Examination for Psychologists (PEP), a test that enables psychologists to prescribe medication.

Merchant began working on the project in the spring semester alongside fellow student researchers Lisa Jones, Peterson De Oliveria and Vincent Principe. The team worked under the tutelage of Jyh-Hann (John) Chang, Ph.D., professor of psychology, who was preparing to take the PEP himself at the time.

“While he was studying for it, he saw that there wasn’t great studying material out there,” Merchant said.

With the goal of improving preparation for the PEP, the team extensively reviewed existing materials, then used A.I. to help combine the most useful information from those materials – as well as details the team determined were missing – into an all-in-one study guide. The guide consists of 17 practice tests that increase in difficulty as the individual progresses through the series, Merchant said.

Dr. Chang and the team distributed the study guide to 10 psychologists preparing to take the PEP. As their feedback comes in over the summer, Merchant will log and categorize the data so the exam guide can be refined into a cleaner, more effective version.

“When everything is said and done, we’re going to run it through some tests to see if there was a significant difference for those who used our guide and whether they truly helped the psychologists earn better grades,” she said.

If successful, the team will look to make the exam guide available to everyone.

“The whole experience really opened my eyes to how much hard work and effort goes into research projects, even ones that might seem small from the outside,” she said.

A third project Merchant is researching involves the Compassion of Others Life Scale, a psychology tool developed by Dr. Chang that measures compassion. The scale has been translated from English into four other languages already, and Merchant is working on translating it into Arabic and making the scale more streamlined.

Merchant said she chose ESU over other universities because these opportunities were readily available.

“ESU is my hometown school, and it was always going to be my first choice to pursue my bachelor’s degree,” she said. “I’ve gotten the opportunity to do research, and I know people who go to schools in New Jersey and New York who haven’t gotten the same opportunity yet.”

After graduating from ESU, Merchant hopes to apply to graduate school and enter a clinical psychology doctoral program.

“I want to be face-to-face with people who need help the most, but I still want to continue researching because I enjoy it so much,” she said.

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