Hey everyone! My name is Sanjana Das and I’m a rising junior majoring in Psychology and LCJS (Law, Criminal Justice, and Society), minoring in Applied Statistics, and pursuing a certificate in Health Humanities. In my spare time I enjoy spending time with friends, baking, listening to music, and exploring all that Pittsburgh has to offer. On campus I am the Academic Chair of Psi Chi Honors Society, on the Marketing Committee of Psychology Club, and a member of SSDP (Sensible Students for Drug Policy). This summer, I am so honored to be a Health Sciences Research fellow and conduct research on psychometric assessment of alcohol use, a topic that I’ve grown to be incredibly interested in through Pitt’s varied research experiences. I currently work as an undergraduate research assistant under Dr. Frances Wang at the Youth, Family, and Research Program which focuses on analyzing environmental and individual factors related to attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and substance use in a developmental context. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to gain insight from other interdisciplinary student researchers as well as contribute my own findings and research process.

My research takes its data from the Alcohol Survey Knowledge (ASK) Study, which is headed by Dr. Wang and uses a multimethod approach to improve the assessment of impaired control over drinking (i.e., an irresistible urge to control drinking once started). However, I am researching the facet of subjective response, which can simply be defined as the variety of physiological and behavioral effects one can experience during alcohol consumption. For example, many report feeling a heightened sense of relaxation while under the influence, while others report feeling nauseated or even vomiting; these feelings vary for every person. The range in which people experience the effects of alcohol contributes to their likelihood for repeated use. Drinkers who repeatedly experience positive and stimulating effects of alcohol (e.g., feeling socially at ease, flirty, buzzed, etc.) tend to drink more and are at higher risk of developing alcohol problems. This also holds true for drinkers who experience a low level or do not experience negative effects of alcohol. Therefore, incorporating subjective response into assessment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and related problems is incredibly important for informing public health interventions and personalized treatment plans.

In order to assess subjective response itself, alcohol use researchers use two kinds of measures: surveys and alcohol challenge studies. Survey measures such as the Alcohol Sensitivity Questionnaire ask participants about the number of drinks needed to achieve a certain effect, while alcohol challenge studies have participants come into the lab, consume alcohol, and then report the intensity of the feelings they experience. Due to this different in measurement, there is not much convergence between the two types and they essentially measure two different aspects. Moreover, many researchers use survey measures over alcohol challenge due to them being less resource-intensive, so the aspect of intensity in subjective response is not always considered. Dr. Wang sought to bridge this gap and added questions of intensity into survey measures in the ASK Study, thus consolidating the construct validity of subjective response. In my research, I aim to analyze this data and determine if incorporating intensity to survey measures adds information to the assessment of alcohol problems. After collecting and processing the data, I will conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to test five different models of subjective response (based on previous literature) as well as regression analyses to test correlation with alcohol problems. These calculations will also be controlled for demographic variables, such as age, sex, racial identity, etc. I am eager to see where my project takes me, and I hypothesize that intensity will be a significant factor in predicting alcohol problems often found with AUD.

Pitt has offered me a multitude of research opportunities, with my time at YFRP being one of the most fulfilling yet. With the guidance of my wonderful mentor Dr. Wang and the support of my peers I have been able to greatly enhance my research skillset both through my individual project and overall lab duties. I hope for these experiences to be a stepping stone towards graduate studies; specifically, I would like to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and specialize as a clinical neuropsychologist. I also have a specific research interest in substance use and addiction (part of the reason why I am an LCJS major!), and would like to incorporate that into my professional goals. While my career goal does not have a central focus in research or academia, I am eager for the opportunity to be trained as a clinical scientist and to broaden my horizons outside of psychological assessment. Being a Health Sciences Research fellow will uniquely equip me to achieve these goals by giving me the chance to conceptualize and deliver on my first solo research project, an opportunity I welcome with open arms. Moreover, I will be able to follow the research experiences of other fellows and engage with the Pitt community in a meaningful manner. I’m thrilled to be able to embark on this journey and look forward to hearing from everyone!