Price Ledbetter knew he wanted to dive into as many research opportunities as possible. He didn’t realize just how deep those experiences would take him shortly after arriving on The University of Alabama campus.
The Homewood native and recent UA graduate already had in mind what he wanted to accomplish in his professional life. His plan was to prepare himself for a career that put him in a position to bring about positive change in the world. At The University of Alabama, he was ready to make it happen.
Mixing Majors
In May, Ledbetter earned bachelor’s degrees in both psychology and criminal justice. This set him up for an academic and postgraduate career that makes a difference in the world.
“I really, really like psychology, and people tell me I would make a really good lawyer,” Ledbetter said. “I had also thought about political science because I love the idea of justice. It lights a fire in me.”
So he decided to combine the two.
“I knew that what I wanted to do was psychology, specifically forensic psychology, sort of overlapping psychology and the law,” he said. “And that evolved a little bit as I got into college to include neuroscience as well.”
After finding his academic path, much of Ledbetter’s experience was guided by some of the brightest minds in the field of psychology.
“I’ve had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Jennifer Cox, Dr. Randy Salekin, Dr. Karen Salekin — great professors who I’d read about before committing to come here,” Ledbetter said.
Purpose-Driven Research
He started his research journey near the end of his freshman year. The ongoing projects he was involved in included initiatives that will have an impact on hundreds of thousands of lives.
Ledbetter finished high school with several Advanced Placement course credits that transferred to UA. That enabled him to get his research plans started earlier than he expected.
“I worked with Dr. Katie Garrison using EEG to look at how a person’s ability to inhibit their impulses correlated with various factors,” he said.
Ledbetter’s research experience led him to the Translation Research for Injury Prevention Lab, or TRIP Lab.
“TRIP Lab is focused on reducing teen driving incidents and reducing the risk of driving in general, which is a big problem in Alabama,” Ledbetter explained. “It’s a big problem across the nation, but it’s a big problem in Alabama specifically.”
“The TRIP lab specifically is probably the highest degree of professionalism I’ve seen in a lab setting, and the level of technological complexity behind the driving simulator is incredibly impressive.”
“The engineering side of my brain really gets scratched for that kind of stuff, and it’s all addressing a really important issue.”
Also through UA’s Institute for Social Science Research, Ledbetter was able to focus on his drive to support individuals who need it most.
“I worked with Dr. (Randy) Salekin studying the presence of conduct disorders in juveniles with behavioral issues,” he said. “How juveniles are treated within the justice system is something I’m passionate about.”
Ledbetter wants to make sure minors are properly represented and advocated for during what can be a scary process.
“I want to be able to go in, help to evaluate people in a court setting and see, are they competent to stand trial? Can they be held criminally responsible for X, Y, or Z?” he said. “I want to ensure that people who are able to be held responsible are, and people who are not able to be held responsible aren’t.
“If you are hungry, you will be given every opportunity to do meaningful research. That’s just the spirit of The University of Alabama overall.”
“The more research side I’m particularly interested in is how juvenile justice and rehabilitative ways of handling sentencing is how juveniles are perceived in the courtroom when they’re described in certain ways,” he said. “Like, if you have a kid and you call him callous and unemotional. How does that reflect his judicial outcomes?”
Ledbetter is currently participating in research on the toll of head injuries in veterans in a project called BRAVO-Vets*. He works with veterans who have gone through the criminal justice system at some point after their service.
“I hadn’t worked with veterans before, and I was very surprised at some of the outcomes we were finding,” he said. “We were screening for traumatic brain injuries and mental health issues and serving as the middleman between the veterans and nonprofits or other resources. Around 60% of all justice-involved veterans have a history of traumatic brain injury.”
Ledbetter added that being part of the honors in psychology program has been a cornerstone of his Alabama experience.
Qualified sophomores in psychology can apply to the program, which covers four semesters through their junior and senior years. Students are matched with a faculty mentor and conduct an independent research project with their mentor’s guidance. That project then culminates in a complete paper at the end of senior year.
“I think it’s the single most important thing I did as an undergrad in psychology,” he said. “The absolute best way to learn is by doing, in my opinion, and this program is the epitome of that.”
Ph.D., Per Chance?
Ledbetter is still working on campus in various labs while he applies to colleges to pursue his doctorate.
“I’ve always wanted to teach,” he said. “Maybe I’ll even go to law school and eventually open a forensic psychology practice.”
Whatever end goal Ledbetter achieves, he’s confident that his time at UA has more than prepared him for it.
“I had always heard that you wouldn’t get to do any meaningful research until senior year. That was absolutely not the case,” he said. “If you are hungry, you will be given every opportunity to do it. That’s just the spirit of The University of Alabama overall.”
*This research was supported by the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs under grant number UA3071018.
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Jennifer Brady, UA Strategic Communications, jennifer.brady@ua.edu