The Best of Both Worlds – Ashley Boisvert Combines Math With Psych Major

What do you get when you combine a math degree with a psych degree? You get a quantitative psychologist like Ashley Boisvert.

Boisvert earned her B.A. in psych and her B.A. in math at RIC in 2024. She’s now completing her M.A. degree in math, while managing the research lab of Professor of Psychology Thomas Malloy and serving as a teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. 

For Boisvert, it’s the best of both worlds, but her academic journey has been far from normal.

She made it to the finish line in four years with two degrees because of the Running Start Program she joined at her high school. In her senior year, she was able to take a full load of college courses for two semesters at CCRI, attending classes on the CCRI campus and completing most of her general education requirements. 

By the time Boisvert enrolled at Rhode Island College in 2020, she had accumulated enough credits to graduate with a math degree a year early. Instead, she tacked on a psych major to feed her interest in the human mind – specifically, quantitative psychology.

“I had never heard of quantitative psychology before,” she admits. “But in the spring of my freshman year at RIC, Dr. David Sugarman, who’s retired now, found out I was a double major in math and psych. He said, ‘Why don’t you look into quantitative psychology. It’s meant for people like you who can do both.’

“I heard that and thought – I can combine both? It was this mind-blowing moment of realizing I could combine two things that I very much enjoy. Dr. Sugarman told me that Dr. Malloy is the one who’s going to get me closest to that field because he’s the faculty member who does the most quantitative-based analysis in the psych department.”

Quantitative psychology is heavy in mathematical statistics. It’s about testing data and finding different ways to test that data using mathematical computations.

“The way you analyze data in both math and psychology is the same,” Boisvert explains. “Both disciplines use the same mathematical computations, the same type of tests, the same type of software. I first learned how to use the software in my math courses and then re-learned them in psychology. It’s just how you write it up that’s slightly different. Using the psych software came easier for me because I had used more complicated software in the math program.”

After her first meeting with Malloy, Malloy asked Boisvert to work in his lab. At the time, she was at the end of her freshman year, yet she would be learning the skills of a junior or senior in the program.

Malloy’s research lab partners with professors and Ph.D. students at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His interest is in dyad (two-person) and group behavior and the processes that occur when dyads or groups of people interact. Recently, with funding from the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Malloy has embarked on a program of research on listening and its consequences in dyads and groups. He uses a statistical model called the social relations model.

Boisvert’s thesis, directed by Malloy, is based on the social relations model. “Being Dr. Malloy’s research assistant put me not only on the path of quantitative psychology but social psychology,” she says.

As bright as Boisvert obviously is, working with Malloy challenged her.

“Dr. Malloy challenged me a ton. When I began working in his lab, I didn’t have a lot of psychology courses under my belt, I had only taken four classes. So, it was a huge jump to do independent research so soon in my college career. I had to learn how to do literature reviews, go through tons of articles and I had to learn how to do a lot of sophisticated writing, which wasn’t my strong point. I went back and forth with Dr. Malloy as he edited my writing. I also had to understand the research design that Dr. Malloy uses. It’s very complex. The actual design and analysis of the data I collected was more mathematically complex than most analyses.”

But it’s paid off. “I’ve done more research than I ever thought I could do in my four years with him,” she says.

Boisvert and Malloy are co-writing a study for publication, another study is awaiting approval from RIC’s Institutional Research Board and a third study is underway in his lab.

Recently, she presented her own research (her thesis) at the New England Psychological Association Conference in Springfield, Massachusetts, and won the Honorary Undergraduate Scholar Award. The award recognizes individuals with outstanding undergraduate records in psychology.

A RIC Presidential Scholar, Boisvert’s tuition and fees at RIC were fully covered all four years as an undergraduate, and her teaching assistantship covers her graduate tuition and fees.

Boisvert is currently applying to quantitative psychology and social psychology Ph.D. programs, with the goal of teaching at the college level.

“The relationships I’ve built at RIC – in both the math and psych departments – have been wonderful,” she says. “I know if I had gone anywhere else, to a larger school, I wouldn’t have been able to build the relationships I have. I’ve been able to have one-on-one relationships with professors who know me personally. I walked into the math department and there were faculty who knew me by name and I didn’t know who they were. It’s been great.

“At RIC, you’re going to make the connections you need. You need those connections when it’s time to look for a job. RIC helps you make those deeper connections. The professors reach out to you. They’ll say, ‘Hey, let’s go to this conference,’ or ‘Hey, I need someone to help me with this research.’ If a student comes in and makes an effort, the professors will make sure they’re very much set up for the next steps in their career. I’m very grateful.”
 

For information on a RIC mathematics degree, visit Mathematics B.A.

For information on a RIC psychology degree, visit Psychology B.A.