When Monique Whitaker decided to delve into the psychological ownership of cancer for her senior research project at UAH, her interest was more than just intellectual. The former nurse and Ohio native is, as it turns out, a breast cancer survivor. But what began as an assignment, she says, "was very healing for me personally." Whitaker was first introduced to the world of online cancer support forums by assistant professor of psychology Dr. Aurora Torres, who suggested she research the language used in posts to determine ownership. So with the help of fellow student researcher Adam Schneider, she set out to collect, analyze, and compare hundreds of posts from two cancer discussion boards, one for breast cancer and one for prostate cancer. "I copied the whole post or a series of posts, took out any personal identification, and assigned them a number," she says, adding that any non-cancer posts were immediately eliminated. "Then I took note of any information about their or type or grade or stage of cancer, and I started counting pronouns."