Featured Student: Tully Pritchett

• Year: Senior
• Major/Minor: Psychology and Sociology Double Major
• Quirky Fact: I’m from Colorado.
• Favorite Food/Drink to Get on Campus: Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks
• Favorite Book/Movie/Podcast: The Green Mile by Stephen King
• Favorite Campus Event: Homecoming

 

Q&A

Why did you choose Murray State University?

I chose Murray State because it was close to my grandparents, and I really fell in love with the campus when I came to visit my senior year in high school. I immediately noticed the genuine kindness and willingness to help from those who worked at and attended the university. I knew without a doubt that I would be successful and happy throughout my academic career here.

 

Why did you choose your major?

I added my double major my junior year.  I started off as a psychology major because it was something that always interested me.  My mom, as I was growing up, would always talk about psychology, and I was very interested in it, so I declared it as a freshman.  Sociology also really interested me, but I didn’t declare it until my junior year because I thought it was going to be a lot of extra work and I didn’t think it was possible.  In the end, though, I declared it as a double major instead of a minor because I wanted to really push myself to see if I could do both. 

 

Who have been your mentors?

Dr. Diane Nititham in the Department of Political Science and Sociology has helped me a lot.  She has provided insight for the Students of Sociology Club that I am a part of. I can go to her anytime I need, and we talk outside of class and stuff.  She’s been really helpful with my academic career. Dr. Hackthorn of the Department of Psychology is my current advisor for my research project, so she has been really enthusiastic and helpful with that.  She has really pushed me to go above and beyond with all the different conferences I can attend and everything.  

 

Tell us about any accomplishments relating to your major. 

I am pretty proud of myself because I’ve made the Dean’s List four out of the six semesters that I’ve been here. Also, I’m currently the president of the Students of Sociology Club, and we have worked with The Merryman House, a charity that provides resources for victims and families of domestic abuse. Our club raised money for them by selling food at Tent City during Homecoming. 

I’ve also started an independent research project this year, so that’s in the works and I’m really excited to collect data and go through with that.  My project studies pornography and casual sex. I’m looking at how comfortable people are with engaging in casual sex and their thoughts about the morality of it, as well as how a bunch of different factors influence people’s motivation to engage it. In the psychology program, the faculty really encourage you to sign up for an independent project course and you get to decide what faculty member you want to advise you for that project.  I chose Dr. Hackathorn because she’s a social research psychologist, and a lot of her research focuses on sexual relationships and stuff like that. She helped me develop my idea, and we are doing an experiment instead of just using survey data, which is really cool. I will have two randomly assigned groups. The first group will be watching a two-minute video of two people interacting in an erotic massage, almost as an introduction to porn. The experimental group will be watching two minutes of sexual intercourse. After watching the video, the participants answer several questionnaires and rate their emotions from a given list that will assess their reaction to the video they watched.

 

What are your plans after graduation?

Tentatively, I am looking at taking a few years off to transition to life after school.  I don’t want to go into graduate school right away. I might either do research assistantship or get my certification as an EMT.  In a couple of years, I’ll probably go to graduate school to get my master’s or PhD in experimental social psychology.

 

What advice would you give an incoming freshman coming to Murray State?

I would say don’t hold back on the possibilities that are given to you.  Reach out of your comfort zone. I know everyone says that, but really just try a little bit of everything.  If you don’t like it, you don’t like it, but you just might find something that’s right up your alley. 

 

“Tully is a dedicated and enthusiastic student that consistently contributes to class discussions and group projects. I’ve enjoyed working with her in class and to see her grow since she began in the Sociology Program.” – Dr. Nititham