Seminars & Events
Fri., Feb 24- Dr. Laraine Glidden will present research as part of Psi Chi's Discovering Psychology Lecture Series. 3pm in Goodpaster Hall 195. Other Details TBA.
Fri., Mar 23 - Dr. Rebecca Ryan will present "Nonmarital Childbirth and Child Development: The Relevance of Marriage Propensity and Family Change" as part of the Psychology Lecture Series: Populations in Need. 3pm in Goodpaster Hall 195.
Fri., Apr 6 - Dr. Noemi Enchautegui-de-Jesus will present research as part of the Psychology Lecture Series: Populations in Need. 3pm in Goodpaster Hall 195. Other Details TBA.
+ VIEW CALENDAR for more details/later events
PsycSMP students should click here for SP12 meetings and deadlines
Grant News
In AY11-12...
Katerina Placek '12 was selected as the recipient of a 2011-12 Psi Chi Undergraduate Research Grant in the amount of $1,158.69. The award will support her SMP research "Early postnatal sensory stimulation as a means to overcomne emotional deficits from gestational exposure to fluoxetine" under the mentorship of Dr. Aileen Bailey.
Sasha Goluskin '12 was selected as the recipient of a 2011-12 Psi Chi Undergraduate Research Grant in the amount of $1,500. The award will support her SMP research, "Investigating the role of the 5-HT 1B receptor in the CA1 of rats" under the mentorship of Dr. Aileen Bailey.
Department News
- First Psyc Alumni Newsletter released in October 2010.
- Stephanie Klapper, a psyc major and Nitze Scholar from the class of 2010, has been named one of four national Portz Scholars in the National Collegiate Honors Council's competition for outstanding undergraduate honors paper (Note: SMCM can only nominate one student per year for this award. Dr. Michael Taber, Director of the Nitze Scholars program, submitted the nomination on Stephanie's behalf). Stephanie will travel to the to attend the NCHC's national conference Kansas City, Missouri this October to receive her award, $250, and to give a 15 minute presentation of her paper, "Exploring Kawaii in a Sample of Japanese College Women: a Mixed-methods Study" which she wrote as part of her SMP under the mentorship of Professor Renee Dennison.Stephanie did a lot of advance planning for her SMP, for she spent the fall of her senior year at Akita International University, in Japan, with which SMCM has an affiliation.
Project Abstract in Stephanie's words: Kawaii is a Japanese concept that roughly translates to "cuteness" in English. This study explored the meaning of kawaii to Japanese college women at Akita International University. A measure of kawaii was developed and administered with the Bem Sex Role Inventory to 64 students. Individual interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with 18 students from the surveyed sample. The data showed that there was no relationship between self-rated kawaii and masculinity or femininity. Additionally, there was no relationship between kawaii and the priorities of having children and having a career. Kawaii as a norm among Japanese women, kawaii styles, characteristics of kawaii, and kawaii appearance as compared to behavior, were examined. Implications for future research are discussed.
Congratulations, Stephanie!
(From FA10) The department has changed a bit since the end of SP10.
- Dr. Ceyhun Sunsay joined the department as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Please help us make him feel welcome!
- Dr. Anne Marie Brady was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of Psychology by the Board of Trustees. During the summer of 2010, she supervised two psychology majors conducting full-time research in her behavioral neuroscience laboratory. Erin Cammarata '11 was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and Julie Bernstein '11 was awarded a Psi Chi Summer Research Grant. During her AY10-11 sabbatical, Anne Marie will continue her work on a NIDA-funded project examining addictive behavior in an animal model of schizophrenia. She also plans to develop a new line of research investigating the long-term effects of early exposure to bisphenol-A, a common component of plastics and a known endocrine disrupter, on brain structure and behavior. The bisphenol-A project was inspired by a recent St. Mary’s Project designed by psychology major Dan Kircher '10. Congratulations, Anne Marie!
- Dr. Debbie O'Donnell was also granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of Psychology by the Board of Trustees. During summer 2010, Debbie and her family traveled to The Gambia, West Africa to continue her line of research there as well as to supervise several SMCM directed research students completing cross-cultural psychology projects as part of the College's Summer Field School Program in The Gambia. Debbie and her family came back to the US briefly and then headed back to The Gambia to conduct research there through the winter, the first half of her AY10-11 sabbatical.Congratulations, Debbie!
- Welcome back to Dr. Jennifer Tickle! Jennifer taught a course on the Psychology of Food at the SMCM signature study-abroad program in Alba, Italy during her AY09-10 sabbatical.
- Welcome back also to Dr. David Finkelman! David worked on writing a psychology and law textbook during his AY09-10 sabbatical.
- Dr. Renee Dennison, her husband, and son welcomed a new addition to the family in July. Congratulations, Renee and Welcome, Baby Hewitt!
- Majors can now visit the Psychlogy Student Information Center next to GH123 for hard copy versions of various resources (Career Planning, Grad School, Academic Planning, Degree Requirement Checklist, Diversity Requirement, ACE Declaration and SMP info) offered on our Student Resources page.
Our two newest tenure-track faculty members, Anna Han and Scott Mirabile, and Visiting Assistant Professor, Maureen (Mo) Mathews (who will be with us again in AY10-11) have made seemingly smooth transitions into the Department. Please help us make our new colleagues continue to feel welcome!
On April 24, 2010, 6 students were honored at Awards Convocation.
On April 16, 2010, 17 students were inducted into the Psi Chi Honor Society.
On March 27, 2010, the Psyched for Life Team, consisting of Angie Draheim (captain), Jenn St. Germain, and their families & friends partcipated in the 6-hour, first annual SMCM American Cancer Society Relay for Life event. Dr. Anne Marie Brady and her family came out to cheer on the team. Overall, the team helped to raise cancer awareness as well as $2440 (which included several donations from Psyc dept faculty & staff) for ACS research & patient support programs.
On December 11, 2009, 18 students were inducted into the Psi Chi Honor Society.
On December 10, 2009, students from Dr. Anne Marie Brady's PSYC422 (Biological Psychology with Lab) course presented study findings at the 11th Annual Fall Student Research Poster Sympoium hosted by the Biology Department.
On December 4, 2009, former SMCM Psychology Professor (1994-2008) Dr. Terell Lasane spoke on "Gender Role Orientation and Sexual Orientation in Elucidating College Student Academic Behavior" at in Cole Cinema as part of the Psychology Diversity Series. In this talk, Dr. Lasane shared excerpts of his final publication while teaching at St. Mary's College of Maryland, an autobiographical chapter from a multidisciplinary volume on race, social class, and sexual orientation among higher education scholars, Resilience: Queer Professors from the Working Class. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/04/30/resilience. After summarizing the content of this chapter, Dr. Lasane discussed how the autobiographical experiences contained therein shaped his career path and research program on gender and college student achievement. He challenged the audience to consider how diverse aspects of culture and social experience can help psychologists to reconceptualize the way we approach research problems, providing an alternative to a hetero-normative framework.
Dr. Lasane returned to SMC as an Adjunct Professor in Spring 2010 to teach PSYC362 (Focus on Psychology: Intimate Relationinships).
An article published by '03 psyc alum, Brian Jobe, and Dr. Laraine Glidden [Jobe, B.M.* & Glidden, L.M. (2008). Predicting maternal rewards and worries for the transition to adulthood of children with developmental disabilities. Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 14, 69-80] was selected as the top 2008 paper eligible for the Brown and Percy Journal on Developmental Disabilities Student Publication Prize. The prize goes to the student, so congratulations, Brian!
The Brown and Percy Journal on Developmental Disabilities Student Publication Prize... is intended to... encourage student contribution to the journal. The prize is awarded to an author of what is judged to be the most outstanding student contribution published in a calendar year. A student contribution is deemed to be a paper that has been successfully peer-reviewed and published in the Journal on Developmental Disabilities based on research or ideas of someone who is currently a student, or of someone reporting work completed while he or she was astudent (e.g., a thesis). Normally, an eligible author for this award would be the first author of the paper.
The winner of this award receives a cash prize as well as recognition via a publication in the next issue of the journal, and through an announcement at the annual conference of the Ontario Asssociation on Developmental Disabilities, which publishes the journal.
In June 2009, Dr. Roy Hopkins retired after 29 years of distinguished service to SMCM and the psychology department. We are happy that we see him on campus now and then in his role of Professor Emeritus. Best wishes, Roy!
On November 7, 2008, Dr. Laraine Glidden received the Arc of the United States' Distinguished Research Award during the Arc's National Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her 20-year NIH-supported research, Project Parenting, demonstrates that both adoptive and birth families are, by and large, extremely resilient and find great rewards in meeting the challenges of raising children with special needs. This research was done collaboratively with undergraduate students who were important contributors and served as junior scholars, often presenting at national conventions and publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Congratulations, Laraine!
Drew Solyst '09 was one of twelve students (selected from 500 applicants) who were placed in psychology laboratories at George Mason University, George Washington University, the University of Maryland, and The Johns Hopkins University for six weeks during summer 2008 as part of the APA's Summer Science Fellows Program. Students were mentored by some of the most outstanding researchers in the Washington, DC area. During the intensive, expenses-paid summer program, the Fellows had the opportunity to work closely with faculty, graduate students, and postdocs, all while receiving one-on-one guidance from an SSF mentor.
In October 2008, Dr. Elizabeth N. Williams was named as a Fellow in APA's Division 29 (Psychotherapy). Fellow status is an honor bestowed upon APA Members who have shown evidence of unusual and outstanding contributions or performance in the field of psychology. Election to Fellow status requires evidence of unusual and outstanding contributions or performance in the field of psychology. Fellow status requires that a person's work has had a national impact on the field of psychology beyond a local, state, or regional level. Congratulations, Libby!
