‘It’s validating that people resonated with the study’

Malia Gady ’25 knew from a young age that she wanted to better understand people. In middle school, she realized psychology could be her path to do so. She recalls searching for career paths that would put her in a field that supported people via a hands-on approach, learning from other’s lived experiences. This began her passion for psychology.

“I knew that I wanted to work with people face-to-face every day so I can better understand how they’re impacted by the world,” Gady says. “I always had the mindset that to ‘fix’ systemic issues that negatively impact communities, you have to talk to people and listen to their experiences directly.”

Upon arriving at Clark, Gady immersed herself in the field of social psychology, with a particular interest in studying marginalized identities. She joined Professor Abbie Goldberg’s laboratory — drawn to Goldberg’s research on LGBTQIA+ families and social psychology focus — and now works as a lab manager.

Gady is completing an honors thesis that focuses on how individuals on the asexual spectrum navigate relationships through the context of their identity. The asexual spectrum describes a wide range of identities and experiences that can exist under the term “asexual,” which is defined as someone who feels a complete or partial lack of sexual attraction or lack of interest in sexual activity with others.

As recently as 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or the DSM) characterized asexuality as a disorder rather than as a legitimate sexual identity. That inaccuracy and other gaps in published social science literature have propelled Gady’s interest in researching the experiences of individuals on the asexual spectrum.

“Since asexuality is so often an invisible identity, there are many misconceptions about it — even in the psychological research world — I think researchers need to learn about what a community is experiencing and what they can do for that community to help support and uplift them through their research,” says Gady. For example, there are misconceptions about how asexual people experience love. This can include romantic, platonic, or other kinds of relationships depending on preference, she says.

Gady’s research process included a Qualtrics survey where she asked for input from those on the asexual spectrum about their past and current relationships. She spent a lot of time making sure that she wasn’t creating questions to lead to a specific answer, attempting to minimize bias in her hypothesis. She distributed the survey via social media platforms in the fall, to garner as wide a reach as possible. Upon launching the survey, Gady was unsure what results it would elicit — she was surprised and excited to see it received more than 130 responses in just a few days.

“I was shocked because having to cut down the sample size to something manageable was not the issue I thought I would have,” she says. “But it was so validating to see that people really resonated with the study and wanted to get involved.”

Encouraged by the results, Gady narrowed her sample size to participants who were 18-25 years old to further examine their survey answers. At the same time, she began the tedious process of getting approval from Clark’s Institutional Review Board to research human subjects.

The next steps for Gady involve gathering and organizing her carefully collected data and then interpolating that data to draw a conclusion that she will defend in her finished thesis paper this spring. Thus far, one pattern Gady is noticing in participants’ answers is a large desire for emotional connection with a romantic partner.

Gady is bringing this research to the Eastern Psychological Association conference in New York in March. The conference has a designated poster section for undergraduate students to display their research. She is excited to attend the event and share her data with such a large number of professionals, and to start a conversation about expanding psychological literature dealing with the asexual identity spectrum.

Outside of Clark, Gady is interning for the City of Worcester’s assessing department. She grew up in Oahu, Hawaii, and learned about Clark after her mother found the psychology program listed in the “Colleges that Change Lives” guide. Living in Massachusetts is certainly a big change for Gady, but she is finding many opportunities to connect with others in the community.

After graduation, Gady intends to gain experience in community work and engagement, looking for positions as a peer support specialist or care coordinator. She wants to work with teens and adolescents, specifically in the LGBTQIA+ community, before pursuing a master’s degree in social work.