Luke Hicks has spent the last two years studying under Dr. Jill Shelton in the UTC CALM Lab. Photo by Dixie Edmondson.
For Luke Hicks, a graduate student studying psychological science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, research isn’t just about data—it’s about helping people.
A native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Hicks attended Samford University during his undergraduate days, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Wanting to become a clinical psychologist after receiving his doctorate, Hicks knew he needed to gain experience.
When choosing where to attend his graduate-level program, Hicks chose UTC for its research opportunities.
“I knew that I wanted to pursue applied psychology and be in the clinical psychology realm,” Hicks said. “I knew that in order to do that, you have to have research. That’s why I ended up pursuing the degree here.”
Once on campus, his research focused on differences in goal-setting between neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals.
“My idea was to essentially allow people to plan and carry out different kinds of goals that they set for themselves over the course of five days,” he said. “In particular, I was interested in prosocial motivation, which involves supporting or benefiting another person. You are motivated to complete a goal because it benefits someone else.
“There are a lot of people who suggest that autistic and ADHD people don’t have the capability of understanding how other people feel. It’s really hard for them to take another person’s perspective on things, which I don’t necessarily agree with.”
Hicks found that both sets of individuals completed goals similarly and showed greater commonality in goal completion than differences.
“They’re establishing that maybe there aren’t as many differences as we think there are in terms of their actual performance on completing goals,” he explained. “Also, there wasn’t a difference in terms of how people were completing prosocial goals versus self-interested goals.”
Hicks believes it’s important for neurotypical individuals to better understand the neurodivergent population.
“As a researcher who is not autistic, it’s also my duty to try and inform people who aren’t autistic or inform neurotypical individuals of the importance of trying to understand their perspective and their strengths,” he said.
Luke Hicks has spent time learning, teaching and researching through the UTC Department of Psychology. Photo by Dixie Edmondson.
UC Foundation Associate Professor Jill Shelton, Hicks’ faculty advisor and the psychological science master’s degree program director, said it was a “pleasure” to work with him during the project. Shelton is also the director of the CALM Lab, which conducts psychological research on cognition, attention, learning and memory.
“You could tell he was genuinely excited about that kind of research and passionate about supporting people from marginalized backgrounds,” Shelton said. “I knew he’d be a good fit to work in my lab with his goal of being a clinical psychologist. I knew we could give him some of the skills to be more competitive for those programs.”
Hicks hopes to one day work in a hospital or clinical setting, performing diagnostic assessments, evaluations, family support and intervention programs that support the success of autistic individuals.
“I’ve always known that I wanted to work with underrepresented or undersupported people,” Hicks said. “I feel that my idea of psychology—like philosophy, the ethos behind psychology—isn’t necessarily just research, but it’s to support people. It is a health care profession and where my mind has always been.”
Shelton described Hicks’ impact on the CALM Lab and his research project as “instrumental.” He has also worked with the Chattanooga Autism Center, assisting with data analysis through a United Way grant and volunteered as a peer mentor in the UTC Mosaic Program.
“He’s really engaged with whatever he does,” Shelton said, “whether it’s research, community engagement or supporting undergraduate students. He is authentic and wants to provide support for people and help them achieve their goals. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with him and watch him develop over the last two years.”
Hicks credits Shelton for her support throughout his journey, whether it’s teaching introductory psychology courses to undergraduates, conducting research or volunteering in the community.
“She’s been fantastic,” he said. “The support that she gives is very individualized, so not every student’s going to be the same. The way you mentor is not always the same. She has this ability to individualize her approach that maximizes the potential of each of her students.”
Hicks said he learned many communication and soft skills during his time at UTC and hopes to find a place similar when pursuing his Ph.D.
“I will think fondly of my time here, not only because of how prepared I am now, but also just because the culture is so unique,” he said. “I made it a point in my search for Ph.D. programs to try to simulate what I assumed is their culture based on UTC’s. So that is the one thing that I’m going to try to carry over. I want to foster that type of personability and open line of communication within a professional environment.
“Then I’m not going to lose contact with the people, my friends here; I’ll still be in touch with them. Especially with my mentor, Dr. Shelton. We’re going to be yapping for years. She’s definitely my mentor. She’s a professional I look up to. She’s also just a friend, someone I can talk to about whatever with. You rarely get that. I know that wherever I am, I can call her up and talk about whatever I need to talk about.”
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