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Department of Psychology
The deeper you understand human behavior, the better equipped you are to care for people — and at Union, that pursuit happens within a Christian framework that sees every person as an image-bearer worthy of genuine understanding and genuine care.
Ethos
In Person
The Psychology program at Union University equips students to understand human nature, flourishing, and psychopathology through a distinctly Christ-centered perspective. Students engage psychological theory and evidence-based practice critically, building the preparation needed for graduate study, clinical training, and a wide range of careers in human services, business, education, and ministry.
Union's psychology faculty are scholars and people of faith who bring both scientific expertise and genuine care for students into every classroom. With small class sizes and a strong undergraduate research program, students work closely with professors who invest personally in their academic development and vocational discernment — preparing them for graduate programs and careers where understanding people well makes all the difference.
Jinni Leigh Blalack
Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology
Jinni Leigh Blalack
Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology
Mollie Carter
Associate Professor of Psychology
Mollie Carter
Associate Professor of Psychology
Luke Walden
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Luke Walden
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Our Psych Research Group is led by Dr. Mollie Carter and Dr. Luke Walden. Our group conducts research in various areas of Psychology, such as social media, self-efficacy, personal epistemology, and psychometrics.
The mission of this group is two-fold: (1) To produce high-quality, publishable research that advances the global understanding of psychology in some capacity. (2) To provide our students with hands-on experience in research design, data collection, and statistical analysis to prepare them for graduate-level success.
While the research group is a collective whole, Dr. Carter and Dr. Walden have distinct research agenda that warrants two subgroups.
Dr. Carter primarily studies issues that impact emerging adults with the goal of helping college students think rightly about themselves so they can endure hardship and flourish. She developed a curriculum on Christian self-compassion that counselors are using with their clients. Her research group is currently completing a series of articles on their social media research. They are looking ahead toward research on parental expectations and achievement motivation in hopes of developing a Christian model of achievement motivation that pushes back against the world’s tendency to equate achievement with self-worth.
Dr. Walden‘s primary research agenda focuses on personal epistemology – the views and beliefs people hold regarding what is considered true knowledge. His dissertation focused on creating and validating a questionnaire to measure personal epistemology in college students.
The research produced by this group is disseminated in number of ways, both poster and presentation formats:
Authors: Sydney Coffman, Eliana Isom, Lily Grace Wamble, Ethan Hager, Alex Reeder, & Dr. Walden
Publication Date: June 2026
Abstract:
While research has explored reading flow and empathy as independent constructs, few studies have simultaneously examined the associations between these variables within a single model. This study investigated the pathways between personality, empathy, and aspects of reading flow state in a sample of undergraduate students in the midsouth United States (n = 197). We investigated whether openness and extraversion relate to reading flow and the degree to which empathy functions as a mediator in this process. Results indicated that openness significantly predicted reading flow, whereas extraversion served as a significant negative predictor. The mediation hypothesis was not supported, empathy failed to significantly predict reading flow despite its associations with personality subscales. Results revealed that reading flow impacts reading behavior, significantly predicting increased genre variety and annual reading volume. These findings suggest that the flow state in reading is primarily a function of openness rather than social-emotional processing associated with empathy.
Authors: Dr. Carter, Tina Chen, & Allison Bryan
Publication Date: December 2025
Abstract: Researchers reject the idea that social media use causes anxiety and depression, instead reporting that cognitive and behavioral variables of social media self-control failure, fear of missing out, and social media social comparison contribute to anxiety and depression. While prohibiting, delaying, or fasting from social media are suggested by popular writers as answers to these problems, prohibiting social media is known to be ineffective at preventing these cognitive social media problems once a person begins using social media. Moving forward, counselors should prepare themselves to use the therapeutic tools they currently have or develop new tools for treating clients whose problems are related to social media. We sought to determine if social media self-control failure, fear of missing out, and social media social comparison were associated with deficiencies in self-compassion. Our pilot study (n = 61) confirmed that the problematic social media outcomes share considerable variance with deficiencies in self-compassion with moderation models found. Thus, self-compassion interventions may be useful for treating social media self-control failure, fear of missing out, and social media social comparison, but future research will need to explore the efficacy of these interventions.
Authors: Dr. Carter, Tina Chen, Dona Kaci, & T.J. Hjelte
Publication Date/Location: October 2025 at Tennessee Psychological Association Annual Convention
Authors: Abby Farmer
Publication Date/Location: March 2026 at Union University Scholarship Symposium
Authors: Eliana Butler & Tina Chen
Publication Date/Location: March 2026 at Union University Scholarship Symposium
Authors: Addison Altizer & Dona Kaci
Publication Date/Location: March 2026 at Union University Scholarship Symposium
Authors: Addison Altizer, T.J. Hjelte, & Kate Rutherford
Publication Date/Location: April 2026 at Mid-South Psychology Conference (Martin, TN)
Authors: Dona Kaci, Tina Chen, & Eliana Butler
Publication Date/Location: April 2026 at Mid-South Psychology Conference (Martin, TN)
The primary purpose of the research group is to expose undergraduate psychology students at Union University to research experiences and opportunities they cannot find elsewhere.
To join the group, we ask you to first complete PSY 213 (Intro to Psychology, at Union or equivalent at another university) and then to fill out the application below. The applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, but we strongly encourage interested students to complete the application before the start of a semester.
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All who are eligible to join are welcome to apply. Even if you do not have strong research skills (e.g., literature review, data analysis, presentation) we can find something for you to do to help bolster your CV. The primary objective of this lab is to obtain research experience, not necessarily to become a master of research methods.
If you would like to join the group, you will also need to complete the Institutional Review Board (IRB) tutorial. The IRB exists to ensure that human subjects research is conducted ethically and that participants are protected. Follow the link below to complete the tutorial (and associated quiz).
