By JUSTIN LAFLEUR/Lehigh Sports Communications
Entering Lehigh in the fall of 2012, Devon Carter’s main focus was basketball.
Flash forward four years and things have drastically changed. Carter is enrolled in graduate school with aspirations of earning his PhD. Although he’s gained other passions beyond basketball, basketball is still a passion, and skills learned from his passion on the court have led him to tremendous success off the court in the area of psychology.
“Basketball has taught me the idea of competition,” said Carter. “Competition is something I can use to not only contribute on the basketball court, but also contribute in my academic field. Just like the basketball court, the area of psychology is extremely competitive.”
The idea of competition is something Carter has really embraced.
“Devon’s scholarly interests have been in the area of understanding competitive drive, and how performance is impacted by the different ways people channel their competitiveness,” said Dr. Gordon Moskowitz, Professor of Psychology at Lehigh. “He is personally a competitive person which motivates him to work hard, while his intellectual interests are in understanding the competitive drive and how it is best expressed.”
Four years ago, Carter’s competitive drive was channeled almost solely towards basketball. A marketing major at first, he eventually found a passion. A season-ending knee injury that cut his freshman season short led him to personal reflection, and an ensuing switch to psychology paved the way for an entire change in mindset.
“After the injury, I thought about my future after basketball,” said Carter. “Asking myself, who Devon Carter is besides basketball, was a big, big, challenge. Learning about the opportunities within psychology, it seemed like a perfect transition from basketball into something where you need the same amount of work ethic, the same drive and the same persistence.”
Because of the injury, Carter was awarded a fifth year of eligibility and has returned to the Lehigh men’s basketball program in 2016-17 to continue playing, while working towards his graduate degree in psychology.
Carter’s support system helped him see that he would thrive in the area of psychology.
They were right.
“My family told me that I’m really good with people and I’m really good at knowing why social interaction is happening,” he said. “I reached out to Dr. Moskowitz going into my junior year and he told me what I had to do to switch majors. He gave me a guideline.”
It became apparent to Carter pretty early that he wanted to take the psychology degree beyond undergraduate work.
“My junior year was when I knew I wanted to get a PhD,” he said.
“As Devon moved through the major, it became clear he was interested in social psychology and was doing quite well in the advanced courses in that domain of psychology,” said Moskowitz. “He started working in my lab as a research assistant, and it was during that period that I began to appreciate his evolving interest in a possible career as an academic psychologist. My impression then, and now, is that he is a serious student with very clear goals and is extremely hard working.”
In his third full year in psychology (two as an undergraduate student and now as a graduate student), Carter has already made waves with his research. He is working with Dr. Moskowitz on research regarding time perception, while also working on his own research related to goal attainment.
“Going off the work from psychologist Carol Dweck, she thinks that people attain goals in two different ways – mastery goal attainment and performance goal attainment,” said Carter. “Mastery goal attainment is when someone wants to achieve something just because they want to master it. However, with a performance goal orientation, they’re more focused on how they appear to someone else. If they don’t perform a task well, they’re going to think that others think they’re not smart.”
Carter in turn wants to know when someone pursues their goals better – someone who’s mastery oriented and just wants to do better, or someone who doesn’t want to look bad to others?
As someone who is intrinsically motivated and wants to do well for the sake of doing well, Carter’s competitiveness has helped him adjust to balancing the rigors of his first year of graduate school.
“Being at one of the highest levels in both academics and athletics is extremely tough,” he said. “There’s less class time, but I have to get more work done outside of class, and have to apply myself to do my own research. There isn’t necessarily a timetable with research, but it’s something I’m passionate about and want to get done.”
Carter’s typical day includes everything from class to homework to research and practice. With his classes running from 4 to 7 p.m., he often comes to practice late, but he knows it’s his responsibility to make sure he catches up.
“I have to sit down and talk to Coach Reed about the film session that we had before practice,” said Carter. “I have to talk to him about what I missed during practice. I have to talk to him about different schemes in our offense, or the defensive breakdown from that day. After all that’s done, it’s about 10 p.m. when I’m actually getting home. On top of that, I have at least two more hours of homework.”
The nature of what Carter is doing is very challenging.
“When Devon started the graduate program, he had to start from scratch,” said Moskowitz. “He revealed his interest in competition as a psychological variable, which was a completely new direction from his senior thesis project. This has meant spending this entire semester immersed in a literature and becoming an expert in a domain in a way he has never had to do before. That level of inquiry is unique to graduate school, and is a relentless pursuit, since the literature is seemingly infinite. There is always more one can read, more one can learn.”
Carter looks at his schedule as a challenge, but it’s a challenge he’s embracing. He sees it as a positive and an opportunity for continued improvement.
“I focus on the fact that I’m improving every single day,” he said. “I don’t have any time not to improve, which is a blessing because going into my junior year, that’s one of the biggest things I wanted to accomplish.”
Carter’s improvement is evident as a student, athlete and person. He is grateful for the mentoring of his parents, and his time at Lehigh, for allowing him to truly blossom.
“My parents wanted to make sure that academics was the priority and basketball is a privilege,” said Carter. “Lehigh is paying for you to not only excel on the basketball court, but off the court as well. I didn’t understand that until I had to take the step back due to my knee injury and figure out why I’m here.”
The injury allowed him to effectively “reset.”
“I asked myself, what I can do to make myself better, not only with my knee rehab, but you could also call it academic rehab,” said Carter. “I had to figure out how to get back on my feet and stay on my feet academically. It was a time when I wasn’t only struggling physically, but I was also struggling mentally.”
Carter isn’t struggling anymore. He has expanded his interests beyond his sport, but he’s also as focused and determined as ever on the court. Last season, Carter emerged as a key contributor for a Mountain Hawks’ team which advanced to the Patriot League Championship Game. When he knew he’d be returning to Lehigh for graduate school, he immediately wanted to explore the possibility of playing a fifth year for the Mountain Hawks.
“Last year, I talked to Coach Reed about my eligibility for a fifth year and if I’d be able to get that year back,” said Carter. “Coach Reed was tremendously supportive. He is one of the big reasons why I’m back right now.”
Reed’s goal as a head coach is to develop young men. There’s no better example than Devon Carter.
“Coach looked out for me during my sophomore year when he asked if I was sure marketing was what I wanted to do, because my grades weren’t reflecting an interest in marketing,” said Carter. “He gave me the opportunity to look in the mirror to figure out what I wanted. Then, when I came to him and said what I wanted, he was right there willing to help in any way he could.”
Carter’s basketball career is in its final chapter. He is a key veteran presence on this Mountain Hawks’ team, which hopes to be building something special.
“This is my fifth different Lehigh basketball team, so I feel like I know what works and what doesn’t work,” said Carter. “The big thing I’m trying to stress this year is that we’re going to win and lose as a team. It’s up to us to figure out whether we want to win or lose.”
Carter’s mentoring of younger players will be vitally important.
“Devon can be a stabilizing factor for our overall program, with our attitude, behavior and everything we’re trying to do,” said Reed. “His role on the court is still to be determined, but we do know that he has influence and teammates respect him. We want him to uphold that responsibility. I have every confidence that he will.”
Having experienced heartbreak last season, Carter hopes to help lead the Mountain Hawks to their first Patriot League Championship since 2012.
“Especially after a tough loss last year, we’re hungry, and we’re bringing the freshmen along with us,” he said. “That three-point loss (in the championship game) is helping us strive to be a better team. We know what the feeling was like to be so close and to lose. It’s something we all went through together, and we’re going to continue to be together in everything we do.”
Carter has learned to live his life, every day, no matter what he’s doing, with the same competiveness that he exudes on the basketball court.
“There’s so much that goes into the process of a basketball season,” he said. “It’s the same thing for psychology. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that has to go into when you actually see the work come to fruition.”
The work is coming to fruition in many different ways. Carter’s present is strong, as is his future.
“Devon has been able to work with teammates to help that group function in a way that can help them attain our team goals,” said Reed. “He has also worked hard to be prepared and has also tried to maximize his personal strengths. Those are the same types of principles that are going to apply to a career – working with other people effectively, being able to perform personally at a high level and being fully committed.”
“There are certain steps you have to take to get to your end goal, and it’s never easy,” said Carter. “Without basketball, I wouldn’t understand that there needs to be steps in between identifying what you want and getting there. Basketball has taught me a lot about drive, not quitting and when things get tougher, fighting through.”
Carter has fought through and now, he’s making a positive difference in the Lehigh community.
“One must have both aptitude and effort, and Devon has always displayed high levels of both when it comes to social psychology,” said Moskowitz. “He is thoughtful, kind, positive and in a work environment where there are long hours and people working in close proximity over extended periods of time, having a positive environment makes a big difference. Devon is the kind of person who contributes to the climate in the department in this way.”
Carter has learned, and embraced, life lessons through his journey at Lehigh.
“When some people quit, Devon had a no-quit attitude,” said Reed. “He worked through pain, he worked on his rehab, he worked through disappointment and he worked through a variety of different roles within our program.
“In every situation, he’s continued to persevere and come out ahead. Those are fantastic characteristics and life lessons for anybody.”
Leave a Reply