Interview with Magdalen Toole '07

Did you know you were going to major in psychology when you came to Clark?

Magdalen: I'd pretty much decided I was going to study psychology, but I'd never actually taken a psychology class. So I wasn't completely sure and was open to having it change.

What happened when you started taking psychology classes?

Magdalen: I loved it, and pretty much decided right away that that was what I wanted to do. At the beginning of my junior year I took a seminar on gender and family with Professor Abbie Goldberg and really enjoyed it. Since then, I've been working in her lab doing research.

How did you end up doing that?

Magdalen: There's a research requirement as part of the major and I really liked her class and working with her. She asked the students in her class if anyone wanted to join her lab the next semester. So I talked to her about it and it seemed like something I'd be interested in doing. At that point I wasn't sure how interested in research I was, but since then I've really enjoyed it.

Can you describe more specifically what her lab focuses on?

Magdalen: We do research on transition to adoptive parenthood for same sex and heterosexual couples. Professor Goldberg interviews couples and tape-records the interviews. We undergrad research assistants transcribe interviews, do data entry, order articles and other lab tasks. I'm also writing an honors thesis using data from these interviews. I've gained a lot of in depth knowledge about adoption and gay parenting. I feel like I know a whole lot about it that I didn't know before, and being able to explore a subject like that has been great.

So the topic of gender and family has become your main area of interest?

Magdalen: Yes. I've always been interested in working with children, but families have become more of my focus, in addition to child development.

What is your senior thesis about?

Magdalen: I'm examining responses to a couple questions from the larger interview that Professor Goldberg does with couples before they've adopted a child, when they're working through the process of adoption. She asks them what kind of parent they think they'll be, and what kind of parent they think their partner will be. Do partners expect to parent differently? Have different roles? I'm looking at responses from the lesbian couples specifically and whether gendered ideology might play into their response, and what they think their strengths and weaknesses will be in terms of parenting. I'm studying 30 couples.

How do you go about analyzing the responses to these sorts of questions? What's your process?

Magdalen: I read through the transcripts of all the interviews several times and started looking for themes. For example, I started noticing that some women's responses were very positive while others were a little worried that differences with their partner might cause problems. I came up with a coding scheme for perceptions of parental roles and a coding scheme for explaining the responses-like different personalities or similar values, experiences they've had, or whatever they think will shape parenting roles. Women's feelings about their roles--positive, negative, neutral--would be another group of codes.

What have you found so far?

Magdalen: A lot of the women describe roles that will be different from their partners, but my research suggests that gendered ideologies don't play a big role for most. They don't generally use terms such as "I'll be more motherly, she'll be more fatherly," that kind of thing, although a couple did. They talk more about how their own personalities and experiences with children will affect future parental roles. And they're generally very positive about how they'll be as parents.

Is this a fairly new area of research?

Magdalen: It is. There isn't a lot of research on gay and lesbian parenting, and what research I've found seems to focus on couples after they've had children, and that often by artificial insemination rather than through adoption. So I think it's fairly new and that's exciting.

What's it been like working with Professor Goldberg?

Magdalen: She's very knowledgeable. She's great--very on top of things and really organized. I've really liked working with her. I also like her research because she focuses on policy, too, and how adoption agencies can do better.

How do you think learning by doing research is different from learning in a classroom?

Magdalen: It's just so much more in depth. In the classroom you're looking at other people's work or the professor is lecturing, but when I'm doing this research and listening to a lot of tapes of couples and their stories, I feel that I've heard so much about the experience of adoption and how the process works and what the challenges are that are associated with it. It's just a lot more in depth, I feel like I understand it a lot more than I would if I was just hearing about it in the class.

The psychology department has a very strong Ph.D. program. Were there grad students working in your lab as well?

Magdalen: Yes, and they're also really helpful. It's great having them around, because they can help out with things in the lab. And they're a great resource when you're thinking about grad school.

Have you been able to do any internships related to your psychology interests during your time at Clark?

Magdalen: Yes, I worked at a nearby residential treatment center for kids with emotional and behavioral challenges. It was great to get hands on experience. Overall I loved it, even though some days I went home hating it and never wanting to go back. It can be rough but I do like the direct care.

I understand that you applied and were selected for an internship at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development near Washington D.C.

Magdalen: Yes. I'm going to be doing research on acculturation. I'm not exactly sure yet, but I think I'm going to be working with Korean-American mothers and their infants, looking at child development and how these mothers are raising kids in this country and their parenting beliefs.