Article archive / February 2017
Originally published: . Volume 8, No. 2. Source pages: 10.
I-O psychologist Dr. William (Gig) Costelloe, Chair of the Industrial- Organization (I-O) & Consulting Psychology Committee for the Louisiana Psychological Association (LPA), has teamed up with Southeastern Louisiana University assistant professor, Dr. Suzanne Booth-LeDoux, and her graduate students to study the community of psychologists.
Dr. Booth-LeDoux leads the Southeastern psychology department’s graduate training program in I-O psychology. Before coming to Southeastern, Dr. Booth-LeDoux earned her PhD in I-O Psychology from the Louisiana State University, Psychology Department, and worked with Dr. Tracey Rizzutto as major professor.
Southeastern I-O graduate student Bryce Lott will work in a practicum relationship closely with Dr. Costelloe to oversee the organization and conduct of the various elements of the research project. Graduate students Casey Guillory and Ian Mattix will serve as research assistants in the team.
Drs. Costelloe, Booth-LeDoux, and researchers met January 10 to plan the work, which includes surveying licensed psychologists in Louisiana to better understand their wishes, challenges, and characteristics. The team will be calling psychologists and conducting a short phone survey over the next weeks.
The team wants to create a community “map” of Louisiana psychologists, including their general and worklife characteristics, a step that constitutes a first pass at understanding the needs, strengths, and challenges in the psychologists identity group in Louisiana, said the organizers.
Using a one-to-one phone survey, research team members will collect qualitative data and quantitative data, said Dr. Costelloe. The information gathered will help better understand community needs, inform programs and priorities of the LPA, and support decision-making for the psychologists’ community.
Researchers plan on contacting psychologists through the next few weeks and months and then to analyze data to present their findings at the LPA Annual Convention, to be held in Kenner in June this year.
“This is exciting because it involves younger researchers, and we see the enthusiasm of the masters degree students participating, giving them real world experience,” said Dr. Costelloe. “It’s good for LPA because we can gather information from the findings to help set priorities, or to respond to the needs expressed by LPA members and psychologists throughout the state,” he said.
“We trying to engage people, in the spirit of participation, to listen to the needs of the psychologists––to listen to them first,” Costelloe said.
Dr. Booth-LeDoux said she welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Costelloe and provide an applied I-O project for her graduate students.
The study is part of a research effort authorized by LPA members last year and also part of a strategic planning pilot group conducted by Dr. Costelloe in 2015.
Industrial-organizational psychology graduate students at Southeastern listen as Dr. William Costelloe explains real-world problems encountered as a licensed psychologist. The Southeastern team, led by Dr. Suzanne Booth-LeDoux will be contacting psychologists to better understand the community.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.