Ethan Knox

At the bottom of Allison McKinnon’s research lies one goal: to help people navigate their most intimate relationships, from the good to the bad.

“Most people don’t want to hurt anyone; most people don’t want to do anything that is wrong,” McKinnon said. “There are obviously exceptions to that, but I think it’s fair to say that a majority of people are not malicious. Maybe I’m an idealist. People want to know more; they want to know how they can do better. That’s the real impact of our research. We can ask our questions and run our statistics, but at the end of the day we have to apply our research so that we can deliver educational materials, we can help people.”

McKinnon, who is pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology at Binghamton University, works as a researcher in the Center for Transdisciplinary Research on Intimate Relationships. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Swarthmore College and her master’s degree from Binghamton University in 2013 and 2018, respectively. She has also been involved with the Psychology Graduate Student Organization since 2016.

McKinnon continues to research partner dynamics, although her focuses have changed several times along the way.

“My undergraduate research was largely focused on adolescents, their social interactions and their friendships and how that related to their own depressive symptoms,” McKinnon said. “I guess you could make the argument that I was always interested in interactions between two people. I graduated in 2013 and that was right around the time when national conversation and national attention on college sexual assault really started to increase.”

This attention came in part from heavy media coverage of complaints arising from Title IX, a federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, and a number of protests that accompanied them. McKinnon, after seeing some such protests at Swarthmore College, was drawn to find out more about relationships on college campuses—from consensual acts like hookups to even the most damaging aspects, such as rape.

She found a field with many unanswered questions and set to work, along with six other graduate students and her supervisor, Rich Mattson. Her research, which is generally done anonymously and electronically, presents people with hypothetical stories about sexual violence and intimate connections. The subject then defines what is going on, who is giving consent, and often, what they would do in such a circumstance. Other students study different aspects of these encounters.
“We really work as a team,” McKinnon said. “My favorite thing about the lab is how open generally it is to new research directions. As long as we can convince Rich [Mattson] that it’s somehow related to couples or couples functioning, I’m sure we could convince him to do any kind of study. He’s really open to student ideas. That’s why we ended up with a lot of research going different directions.”

As a clinical psychologist, McKinnon also examines patients in the field. From May 2018 to May 2019, McKinnon worked as a clinic assistant at the Binghamton University Psychological Clinic. Since May 2019, she is also a psychology extern at the Greater Binghamton Health Center, where she runs group and individual therapy sessions for two adult and one geriatric units.

With the many facets of her schooling drawing to a close, McKinnon is now in the process of deciding what she would like to do for a career post-graduation. Although she “loves research,” she is unsure whether the pressures of academic study are appropriate for her future. Her time at Binghamton has inspired another possible goal, however: teaching.

“Right now I’m thinking that maybe a more teaching focused kind of university, where there are opportunities to do research, but there’s not this constant grinding, crushing pressure of applying for grant funding and the expectations for publication,” McKinnon said. “Every time I communicate about my research, it reminds me of the potential impact. I think when people get down in the weeds and they’re focusing on the details day in, day out, it’s easy to lose track of         that.”

Until then, McKinnon, along with another doctoral student, Samantha Wagner, hopes to continue improving the way we talk about sex and relationships.

Together, the pair are developing a sex-positive sexual education intervention geared toward college-age women. Focused on increasing awareness about positive aspects of sexual acts, such as pleasure, desire and communication, the project is funded by the Ellyn Uram Kaschak Institute for Social Justice for Women and Girls. The Institute, which finances fellows from all over Binghamton University, has supplied $2,000 for the project.

“We keep hearing, even in New York state—which is relatively progressive—about all these sex ed curricula that are very, very focused on risks and safety. And while that’s super important, there’s more to this story,” McKinnon said. “We’re going to work with undergraduate women and hopefully set it up so that resident assistance or other student leaders would be able to give this intervention, and hopefully promote women feeling like it’s O.K. to be empowered.”