Inebriated Insights: Human Behavior Under the Influence of Alcohol

Sara McMullen, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Webster’s Psychology Department, where she also earned her BA. She earned her PhD and MS in Experimental Psychology with concentrations in Cognitive Neuroscience and Quantitative Methods from Saint Louis University.

McMullen completed a T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou) in Alcohol and Addictions Research. She has a deep passion for helping people improve their lives by building healthy habits.

McMullin started to consider working at Webster while she was doing her postdoc at Mizzou. After attending a conference, a day after her interview process, she was impressed with student research projects that were happening on campus and decided that she wanted to be part of their journey that she was once a part of. 

“The thing that I really enjoy about Webster is that I really get to work one-on-one with students with whatever their goals are, and because of my interest in doing research, a lot of the students also approach me. My decision also just stemmed from the experience that I had while I was a student here. I really felt welcomed, grew a lot, and the people here were great and showed that they care,” McMullin said.

When asked what got her fascinated about quantitative cognitive neuroscience specifically, McMullin said that she wanted to understand certain behaviors and try to find ways to intervene and help people engage in healthier behaviors. She  wanted to apply different statistical techniques because a lot of the statistical tools used now aren't very precise and accurate.  

McMullin has been researching how people make decisions while they are intoxicated.

“We brought people into the lab, got them drunk, and then we asked them questions. In some other studies that I helped with we loaded an app onto a person's phone, and then we asked them questions while they were just out drinking in their normal daily life. Because that is just getting closer to understanding human behavior within the context that person is drinking in. Because not everyone goes into a lab to go drink alcohol, right? I really enjoyed doing that work and applying those methods where I can assess people while they are already out in their own habitat,” McMullin said. 

By studying how people make decisions while under the influence of alcohol McMullin aims to understand how alcohol impacts people's decision-making ability and how it impacts their behavior overall. She wishes that her research can contribute to improving people's life by preventing fatalities in alcohol-related accidents. 

McMullin's greatest achievement is contributing to the submission of an S Stem grant to the National Science Foundation that funds low-income students pursuing a Biology degree. She also helped submit one for Psychology, that if funded, would provide scholarships to over a dozen low-income students for all four years of their time at Webster, as well as improve access to resources and experiences on campus. It is the first grant the Psychology Department has ever submitted, and one of the largest for the College of Science and Health.

“Be patient with yourselves. I know a lot of the students that I work with have very high expectations for themselves and want to do the best that they can, which is great. But I think sometimes that can get in our way a little bit. Embracing the learning process and knowing that there are going to be challenges and struggles with being in classes, I think is something important that they understand. It applies to faculty, as well. Even at a higher education institution, we shouldn't be stagnant, we should still be growing in our own way," McMullin said.