Category Archives: Faculty News

Dr. Lauren Kennedy-Metz, Assistant Professor, Has Been Published!

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DR. POWELL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT, HAS BEEN PUBLISHED!

Our very own Dr. Powell has been published! Her collaborative work entitled, “A Longitudinal Examination of Mothers’ Early Postnatal Adaptation: Relative Stability Across the First Eight Weeks” was published just last week after a review period of two years. Dr. Powell has definitely earned our congratulations both for her achievement, and her patience! Please read the abstract below, or view the article here.

Abstract:

Objective

Using person-centered analyses, this study examined the trajectories of women’s early postnatal adaptation and explored whether there were differences in their trajectories based on women’s status as a first-time or more experienced mother.

Methods

Data were collected from women (N = 137; Mage = 28.6 years, SD = 4.49; 48.2% first-time mothers) at 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-weeks postpartum. At each wave of data collection, mothers reported on their parenting self-efficacy, parenting satisfaction, anxiety, parenting stress, and depressive feelings.

Results

The creation of an amalgamated measure of postnatal adaptation demonstrated acceptable fit. Latent class growth analysis revealed four distinct trajectories of postnatal adaptation; two revealed stability across the early postnatal period and two had relative stability except for a change between weeks four to six. Women’s parity was not associated with differences in their trajectories.

Conclusions for Practice

These findings reiterate the importance of collecting data from women in the early postnatal period and identifying if a woman is struggling in those early weeks, as the women in our sample demonstrated relative stability in their postnatal adaptation across the first eight weeks. Furthermore, the findings suggest that work should be taken to dismantle the commonly held belief that parenting is “easier” after having already navigated the early postnatal period with an infant once before.

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Website: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

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Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand, Associate Professor in Psychology Department, Has Been Published!

Dr. FVN has now been published for her collaborative work entitled “Is Bullying Always about Status? Status Goals, Forms of Bullying, Popularity and Peer Rejection during Adolescence”. Congratulations Dr. FVN, we are so proud to say you are a Roanoke College professor! Please read the abstract of her work below, or visit the article here.

Abstract: Bullying has been associated with status goals among peers, but this research has not distinguished among forms of bullying, nor included actual status or popularity among peers in an integrated analysis. To this aim, in concurrent correlational data, we examined adolescent status goals as predictors of peer-reported physical, verbal, exclusionary and electronic bullying, and these further as predictors of popularity and peer rejection (N = 256; 67.2% girls; M age = 12.2 years). We also explored potential indirect associations of status goals with popularity and peer rejection via forms of bullying. The findings indicated that verbal bullying was the most common form of bullying. Status goals were positively related to all but physical bullying, yet only verbal bullying partially mediated this association with popularity. Electronic bullying was unrelated to popularity and peer rejection, when controlling for other bullying forms (but was positively related to rejection at the bi-variate level). The findings underscore the importance of assessing bullying as a heterogeneous construct, as related goals and adjustment among peers may depend on its specific form.

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Twitter: @RC_Psychology

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Website: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

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Introducing Dr. Michael Love, Psy.D. Enriching Roanoke College’s Psychology Department!

Roanoke College is thrilled to welcome a new addition to its esteemed Psychology Department, Dr. Michael Love Psy.D. With an impressive academic background, a passion for teaching, and a unique blend of research interests, Dr. Love promises to be a valuable asset to both the faculty and students at Roanoke College.

Educational Journey

Dr. Love’s journey in the field of psychology began with his undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2002. He later pursued his Doctorate in Psychology (Psy.D.) in counseling psychology at Radford University, successfully completing his degree in 2015.

One of the highlights of his academic journey was his dissertation, a longitudinal study on opioid injection rates among rural and urban adolescents and adults. Under the guidance of his advisor, Dr. Tracy Cohn, Dr. Love’s research yielded intriguing results which can be found at http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/229

Professional Experience

Dr. Love completed his residency at Virginia Tech’s counseling center from 2015 to 2016, then became a staff psychologist, developing a passion for working with students. During this time, he led Interpersonal Processing-Based Group Therapy and played a pivotal role in establishing a unique therapeutic gaming group. In this innovative program, individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder learned valuable social skills through the popular game, Dungeons and Dragons, focusing on perspective-taking and frustration management.

His teaching experience, acquired during his time in graduate school at Radford University and later at Boston University, paved the way for his decision to join the Roanoke College faculty. Dr. Love was deeply impressed by the level of student engagement and passion for interactive learning that he encountered on campus, making Roanoke College his preferred choice for nurturing the next generation of psychologists.

Courses at Roanoke College

Dr. Love is currently teaching multiple of courses at Roanoke College, including PSYC101 – Introduction to Psychology, PSYC384 – Abnormal Psychology, and INQ120 – Social Media: Influence and Health. His interactive teaching style and commitment to engaging with students promise an enriching educational experience for all who have the privilege of attending his classes.

Beyond the Classroom

Outside of his academic pursuits, Dr. Love has a diverse set of interests that reflect his multifaceted personality. He is an avid gardener, an enthusiastic chef, and a talented audio engineer. These passions not only enrich his personal life but also contribute to his holistic approach to psychology and learning.

While he is not currently accepting research assistants this semester, Dr. Love looks forward to involving students in his research endeavors in 2024. His wide range of research interests holds the promise of exciting opportunities for students eager to explore the world of psychology through hands-on experiences.

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Introducing Dr. Wen Bu: A New Addition to Our Psychology Faculty

Dr. Wen Bu

Roanoke College is proud to welcome Dr. Wen Bu as a new addition to our esteemed psychology faculty! Dr. Bu brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our academic community, making her a valuable asset to both students and colleagues.

Educational Journey

Dr. Bu’s academic journey is an impressive one, demonstrating her dedication to knowledge and her commitment to personal growth. She began her undergraduate studies at Furman University in South Carolina, where she pursued a double major in Political Science and Chemistry. This diverse academic background laid the foundation for her multidisciplinary approach to psychology.

After completing her undergraduate studies, Dr. Bu earned her Law Degree from Harvard in 2008. She gained valuable experience working as a clerk for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and later the O’Melveney & Myers Law Firm. However, she soon realized that her true passion lie elsewhere.

Driven by her deep interest in psychology, Dr. Bu decided to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, which she successfully completed in 2021. Her dissertation, guided by dual advisors Dr. Gene Borgida and Dr. Chris Federico, explored the intricate dynamics of racial and person of color identity and solidarity.

Postdoctoral Research

Following the completion of her Ph.D., Dr. Bu continued her academic journey with a postdoctoral position at Indiana University. Under the mentorship of Dr. Mary Murphy, she delved into the study of college students’ sense of belonging and the critical role that faculty and institutional mindset play in shaping the student experience.

Passion for Teaching

One of the compelling reasons Dr. Bu chose to join the Roanoke College community is her deep passion for teaching. She discovered her love for the classroom during her graduate studies and recognized that Roanoke’s small class sizes would provide her with the opportunity to truly engage with and support her students. Moreover, the proximity of Roanoke College to her hometown in Atlanta, Georgia, made this a perfect fit for her academic journey.

Diverse Interests

Beyond her academic pursuits, Dr. Bu is a multifaceted individual with a wide array of hobbies. She enjoys immersing herself in theater, singing in the choir, exploring the world of dungeons and dragons, mastering the art of knitting, and gliding gracefully in the ice skating rink.

Current Roles and Future Prospects

Currently, Dr. Bu is sharing her expertise with Roanoke College students by teaching PSYC 251 – Social Psychology and PSYC 204 – Quantitative Methods in Psychology. Her research interests span a wide spectrum, including intergroup relations, social identity, identity threat, stereotypes and prejudice, political psychology, and psychology in law.

While she is not currently accepting student research assistants, Dr. Bu has plans to engage students in her research endeavors starting in the spring of 2024, providing a valuable opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience in the field.

Roanoke College is privileged to have Dr. Wen Bu as a valuable member of our psychology faculty. Her diverse academic background, dedication to teaching, and passion for research make her a remarkable addition to our community. We look forward to the contributions she will make to the field of psychology and the positive impact she will have on our students’ academic journeys. Welcome, Dr. Bu!

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Dr. Buchholz Selected for Dean’s Exemplary Service Award 2022-2023

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Buchholz who received the Roanoke College Dean’s Exemplary Service Award last week.

Dr. Christopher Buchholz

The annual Dean’s awards are granted based on nominations from the college community and include awards for exemplary teaching professional life, and service.

“The Dean’s Exemplary Service Award recognizes outstanding faculty service – either at Roanoke College or in the larger community – in ways that advance the mission of the College in seeking to develop students as whole persons and prepare them for lives of purpose and meaning.  Professional service may involve many factors, such as the number, quality, range or focus of service activities; honors or awards received from off-campus organizations; and the time invested relative to the time available for service activities.”

The announcement from the Dean last week highlighted the incredible dedication Dr. Buchholz shows to the College through service:

“This year’s Dean’s Exemplary Service Award recipient (…) lives and breathes Roanoke College and models to others [the] pillar of service. He currently serves on —count them–nine different college-wide committees, task forces, and groups, along with being a Faculty Marshal. This doesn’t even count the myriad service opportunities he participates in within his department.” 

Dr. Powell, Interim Chair of the Psychology Department, stated: “In each of these endeavors, he is thoughtful – considering the needs of the students and the resources of the college; is reliable – if he says he’s going to do it, he does it in an exceptionally timely manner; and is diligent – ensuring all facets are accounted for and completed appropriately.” 

Another colleague commented: “I have also observed (…) him being a stabilizing agent – consistently working to consider, respect, and understand various perspectives on a range of issues, and modeling such behavior not only to students, but also to junior faculty who are themselves striving to serve students.” 

The psychology department is proud to have Dr. Buchholz on our faculty. His dedication has impacted countless colleagues and students and we can’t thank him enough. Congratulations, Dr. Buchholz, and thank you for your service to our community!

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Welcome Dr. Kennedy-Metz!

Dr. Kennedy-Metz

The psychology department is excited to welcome a new faculty member this year!

Dr. Lauren Kennedy-Metz graduated from Roanoke College with a B.S. in Psychology, a Creative Writing minor, and a Neuroscience concentration. She then went down the road to Blacksburg where she completed a PhD in Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health with a concentration in Neuroscience at Virginia Tech.

This year Dr. Kennedy-Metz has returned to her alma mater where she is currently teaching Introduction to Psychology and Cognitive Psychology, as well as serving as the faculty advisor for Psi Chi and RCPA.

When asked what brought her back to Roanoke, Dr. Kennedy-Metz shared that the Roanoke College Psychology Department was her “ideal scenario” for a work environment. She says the department is “where I learned the most about myself, my interests, my strengths as a student and as a human.” She adds that “it’s where I was afforded the opportunities to thrive through the encouragement of lifelong faculty members.” In addition, this native New-Englander shared that “the Roanoke area has always felt like home.”

Dr. Kennedy-Metz brings a unique research background to the department. She summarizes her work as follows:

“My research interests include characterizing psychophysiological indicators of acute stress and developing biofeedback-based approaches to stress management interventions.  Most importantly, I’m interested in taking a tailored approach to both of these things within specific high-stress populations both on campus and beyond (e.g., students, student-athletes, police officers, healthcare workers, kitchen staff, etc.).”

Dr. Kennedy-Metz says she became interested in this topic because the experience of stress is very relatable, but people are often left in the dark about how to respond to it appropriately. However, properly responding to stress is a critical topic, especially for the populations mentioned above.

Speaking to current psychology students, Dr. Kennedy-Metz encourages you to “get involved in things that interest them early on.” She recommends exploring research, clubs, club sports, internships, study abroad and anything else that catches your eye. When trying new things, Dr. Kennedy-Metz says, “worst case you learn that it isn’t for you, and you move on!” She closes with this sage advice. “If you push yourself outside of your comfort zone and end up finding a niche you love, you might look back one day and wonder how different things may have been if you hadn’t taken that first step.”

Be sure to say hi to Dr. Kennedy-Metz when you see her around on the 5th floor of Life Science.

Welcome back to Roanoke, Dr. Kennedy-Metz!

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Professor on the news!

Photo of Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand
Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand

Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand was featured on a recent story on WDBJ about classroom disruptions as students return to schools:

https://www.wdbj7.com/2022/08/09/schools-are-seeing-an-increase-classroom-disruptions-students-return-full-in-person-learning/

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Website: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

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congratulations TO Dr. Danielle Findley-Van Nostrand

Psychology faculty member Dr. Danielle Findley-Van Nostrand has recently had TWO publications. Her recent work is now published in the The Journal of Genetic Psychology and Emerging Adulthood. The psychology department extends our congratulations as we celebrate Dr. FVN’s recent accomplishments. Read about her publications below.

Image Not Avaliable

Interpersonal Rejection and Social Motivation in Adolescence: Moderation by Narcissism and Gender

Abstract: “Research on interpersonal rejection is voluminous, but less is known about perceived rejection in relation to social goals among peers during adolescence, especially while also considering factors that may moderate these associations. In a correlational design, we surveyed a diverse sample of middle school students to examine concurrent (Study 1; N = 269) and short-term longitudinal (Study 2; N = 321) links between rejection and adolescent communal (affiliation, closeness) and agentic (status, influence) goals, and narcissism and gender as moderators in the associations between rejection and social goals. Rejection was negatively related to (Study 1) and predicted decreases in (Study 2) communal goals. Narcissism was positively related to and predicted increases in agentic goals, and moderated the association between rejection and agentic goals (in both studies). One moderated effect of gender was found: perceived rejection predicted decreases in agentic goals for girls, but increases in agentic goals for boys. Our findings mostly align with existing research on interpersonal rejection in youth, and extend this literature by demonstrating that perceived rejection is meaningfully related to changes in trait-like social goals among peers, suggesting it may alter not only situation-specific cognitions, but also globalized goals, or motivations for peer interaction. The findings also call for further research on individual differences in associations between rejection and social goals, along with other outcomes.”


Popularity According to Emerging Adults: What is it, and How to Acquire it

Abstract: “Status among peers likely continues to play a role in social functioning and well-being beyond adolescence. This study examined how emerging adults in tertiary education defined popularity, and their beliefs regarding aggressive and prosocial behaviors affording status. The role of status motivation, own status, and gender in these definitions and beliefs were explored. Emerging adults primarily associated popularity with being central, liked, and respected. Gender prototypical features (attractiveness and likeability for women; power and centrality for men) were associated with high popularity. Compared to adolescence, popularity in emerging adulthood was associated more with likeability and less with attractiveness, power, fitting in, or antisocial behavior. Prosocial behavior, openness, extraversion, and dominance were identified as the most important ways to acquire popularity. The findings indicate that popularity is relevant to emerging adults and offer several directions for future research in order to benefit the social well-being of emerging adults in tertiary education.”

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Website: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

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New Publication Alert: Dr. Powell & Stephanie Gaines

gold dragon statue during daytime

Congratulations to Dr. Darcey Powell and alumni Stephanie Gaines (class of 2017) on their recent publication by Psi Chi. The publication is based on one of Gaines’s projects that took place in Dr. Powell’s lab during her time at Roanoke College. More information about the information can be found here, but you can read the abstract below:

Emerging adulthood is a time of great transition, including but not limited to the commencement of “adult roles” and responsibilities. The present study examined emerging adults’ (EAs’) perceptions of transitional (i.e., cohabitating, marriage, parenting) and gradual (i.e., religious beliefs, political beliefs, managing own health) roles. Participants were recruited from a small liberal arts college (N = 88) and from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform (N = 181). They were surveyed on the age at which they anticipated or reported achieving the examined roles and their current self-efficacy for the roles. Female EAs reported intending to or achieving the transitional roles at a significantly later age than female EAs of the late 20th century (ps ≤ .001, ds 0.77–0.95). Additionally, female EAs anticipated role achievement for cohabitating, marriage, parenting, and religious beliefs at later ages than male EAs (ps < .05, gs 0.33–1.33). Moreover, male and female EAs differed in a few role-specific self-efficacies if they had not yet achieved the desired adult role (e.g., marriage, parenting; ps < .05, gs 0.62–0.98), but did not differ if they had already achieved the role. Lastly, the difference between EAs’ age and their role achievement largely did not predict their role-specific self-efficacies. The results provide additional insight into EAs’ expectations and current perceptions of themselves and may be useful to individuals who work regularly with EAs who are apprehensive about the extent to which they are “on time” and “ready” to engage in the examined transitional and gradual roles.

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Blog: https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
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Twitter: @RC_Psychology

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Website: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

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Dr. Eyad Naseralla

Meet Dr. Eyad Naseralla!

Dr. Naseralla is a first year professor of psychology here at Roanoke College. Dr. Naseralla completed his undergraduate degree at Texas Tech University, and his PhD at St. Louis University. His research investigates perceptions of victims, focusing on victims of sexual violence. When asked about his research, Dr. Naseralla explained, “What I like to do is find things that are common, but also overlooked. Things like reporting. Sexual assault is really underreported, so looking at that and seeing how people respond to that.”

When discussing his research further, Dr. Naseralla gave us his two key takeaways as a researcher, “The two biggest takeaways as a researcher are not to get too caught up with things, I think that sometimes it is better to keep things moving. The second biggest thing is that it’s super important to be conscientious….Being organized and managing your time well. That is really key to doing the things that you love to do.” 

Dr. Naseralla is currently teaching two Psych-101 courses, as well as Psych-319: Psychology and Law. When asked what his favorite part of teaching at Roanoke College was so far, Dr. Naseralla responded with, “The fact that the students here are extremely eager. The smaller classes make things feel more personal. It feels like there is more of a relationship there, and students are really eager to learn and participate. I really enjoy that.” 

We are very excited to have Dr. Naseralla with us at Roanoke College this year!

Dr. Andrea Burchfield

Meet Dr. Andrea Burchfield!
We are excited for her to join our psychology team this year 🙂

Dr. Burchfield gives us a little background information about herself when she writes, “I grew up in Northern Virginia before finding my home in the Roanoke Valley. I earned a BS in Psychology from Radford University in 2006, and then worked as an ABA Therapist with the Blue Ridge Autism and Achievement Center before returning to school. I earned a MA (2012) and PhD (2018) in Psychology from George Mason University, where my research focused on the effects of a mindfulness-based program for parents of children with autism.

I enjoy bringing my clinical experiences into the classroom through sharing relatable stories, exposing students to the practice of mindful meditation, and by using the science of behaviorism to teach course material effectively. My favorite thing about teaching is building relationships with students, and watching them learn and succeed. Therefore, I’m passionate about discovering ways to enhance access to connections, education, and opportunities on campus, particularly for students with disabilities.”

We are lucky to have her here at Roanoke College!

CONGRATS DR. POWELL ON RECENT PUBLICATION!

Congratulations to Dr. Powell on her recent publishing in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, titled “A multi-study examination of attachment and implicit theories of relationships in ghosting experiences.”

Abstract: “Ghosting is a dissolution strategy where the initiator ends all communication with the other person, ignoring attempts to reestablish the interaction. We examined the associations between attachment (i.e., anxiety/avoidance) and ghosting, and replicated previous work on implicit theories of relationships (i.e., growth/destiny) and ghosting. Study 1 (N = 165) was an exploratory analysis of attachment and ghosting experiences, with those previously ghosted by a romantic partner reporting higher anxiety than those not previously ghosted by a romantic partner. Those who had ghosted a partner reported more avoidance than those who had not previously ghosted a partner. Study 2 (N = 247) was a pre-registered replication of Study 1 and replication of ghosting and implicit theories. Study 3 was pre-registered and replicated the findings from Studies 1 and 2 with a substantially larger sample (N = 863). Specifically, individuals who had been ghosted or had both ghosted and been ghosted reported significantly higher anxiety than those who had ghosted or had no prior ghosting experience. Individuals who had ghosted or had both ghosted and been ghosted reported significantly higher avoidance than those with no prior ghosting experience. Similarly, individuals who had ghosted or had both ghosted and been ghosted reported significantly higher destiny beliefs than those who had been ghosted or had no prior experience with ghosting. Finally, a meta-analysis across the three studies examined the strength of the associations between ghosting experiences and attachment. Taken together, these studies consistently demonstrate an association between attachment anxiety and being ghosted, as well as destiny beliefs and ghosting a romantic partner.”

For more information on the article, follow this link, and once again congratulations to Dr. Powell for her recent publication!

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Congratulations Alumnae Alex DiFelice ’17 and Dr. Powell on recent publicaton!

Congratulations to Alumnae Alex DiFelice ’17 and Dr. Powell on their recent publishing in the Journal of Sport Behavior, titled “Self-Efficacy of Female Youth Athletes in An Intensive Training Camp”.  This paper is based on DiFelices’ Honor in the Major Project and specifically, examined how sport-specific self-efficacy, as well as sources of sport-specific self-efficacy, changes post attending an intensive training camp. They found that intensive training camps are in fact effective for increasing both sport-specific self-efficacy, as well as sources of self-efficacy. For more information refer to the graphic below, and once again congratulations to DeFelice ’17 and to Dr. Powell for their recent publication!

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Get Connected!

Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Twitter: @RC_Psychology
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Website: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology
Instagram: rcpsychology

Congrats Dr. Powell and Alumnae Jensen ’17 and Preston ’17 on Recent Publication!

Congratulations to Dr. Powell and co-authors Katherine Jensen ’17 and Victoria Preston ’17  on their recent publishing in the Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, titled “‘Talking’ as a Romantic Interaction: Is There Consensus?”

Abstract: “Emerging adults (EAs) use many phrases to refer to their romantic interactions. In two studies (N1  = 110; N2  = 222), EAs’ knowledge and perceptions of “talking” were examined. In Study 1, a majority of college students had heard of “talking,” and perceived “talking” as distinct from “friends with benefits” (FWB) and dating. In Study 2, about half of a broader EA sample had heard of “talking” and perceived “talking” as being significantly less emotionally and physically intimate, and less committed than dating; they did, however, perceived “talking” to be similar in some ways to being FWB. Additionally, EAs varied in their agreement regarding the what, why, and how of “talking.” Incorporating these results into youth relationship education programs may be beneficial to promoting healthy relationship development and reducing relational uncertainty.”

For more information on the article, follow this link, and once again congratulations to Dr. Powell, Jensen, and Preston for their recent publication!

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Get Connected!

Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Twitter: @RC_Psychology
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Website: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology
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Welcome Dr. Anthony Cate!: An Interview

Dr. Anthony Cate, Psychology Professor at Roanoke College

 

The Psychology Department would like to welcome Dr. Anthony Cate to our faculty as our newest professor.  The following is an interview with Dr. Cate where he answers some questions about himself, his interests in psychology, and what he’s looking forward to in terms of teaching at Roanoke College.

Where are you from?

I was born in New Jersey, and I moved a lot when I was young.  I have lived in every state between Washington, D.C. and Boston, except for Delaware.  After I got my Ph.D. I also lived in Canada (Ontario) and northern California.

Where did you receive your undergraduate degree from and what did you study in undergraduate? What was that experience like?

I got my undergraduate degree from Yale University.  I began as a religious studies major, but I thought that those classes involved too much memorization of names and dates, so I switched to psychology.  Actually, I switched to being a triple major, at least on paper: psychology, linguistics, and East Asian studies.  I shed majors when I figured out that psychology interested me the most.

I was lucky that I was able to help out in three research labs that had different missions and lab cultures.  I learned that I was bad at doing brain surgery in a rat lab.  I lost some patients.  Everyone there seemed anxious all the time too, which was poignant because anxiety was part of what they studied.  I conducted my first research project in a lab that studied human fear conditioning.  My advisor was a very kind scientist who helped me feel like an important part of the lab, but I disliked having to give participants electric shocks.  I also frequented the lab of my favorite professor, who had taught my perception course.  That lab was very welcoming.  People could just walk in to say hi and check out the experiments, there was a dog, and the students were very productive.  All of those experiences taught me to consider the social environment when I was choosing a graduate program.

Have you received any other additional degrees? Where did you receive them from?

I went to Carnegie Mellon University to get my Ph.D. in psychology, which was part of a joint neuroscience program with the University of Pittsburgh.

Have you taught anywhere else besides Roanoke College?

I first taught when I was a postdoctoral researcher at Western University in Canada.  My advisor talked me and two other postdocs into teaching one third of a course each, which seemed like a lot at the time.  Later I taught at Virginia Tech, where I worked for nine years before moving here to Roanoke.

What are you most excited about teaching at Roanoke College?

I am very excited to teach at Roanoke for many reasons!  It has been hard for me not to talk a mile a minute while teaching during these first few weeks.  It is exciting when students ask me questions, including when I don’t know the answer, because then I get to track the answers down later.  I was very eager to start teaching smaller class sizes.  I think personal interactions form the most effective ways to learn, and instructors get to learn from their students this way, too.  It is also a privilege to join an excellent psychology department where the faculty and staff are so engaged in their mission.

Dr. Cate in front of MRI machine at Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System in Martinez, CA (2007)

What are your research interests? Why are you interested in this/these field(s)?

My research investigates how visual perception works, and how it influences other cognitive skills like memory and reasoning about numbers.  I am particularly interested in understanding how different parts of the brain work together.  I have studied techniques for visualizing computer models of brains in order to make maps of which cognitive skills are associated with different brain regions.

Can you tell us about any research you have already completed in these areas?

I have published some research about how we perceive the 3D structure of objects, and about how brain damage can alter these perceptions.  I enjoyed learning how to make 3D images using computer graphics, and I especially liked getting to learn what people living with brain damage had to teach me about perception.

What course or courses are you currently teaching?

I am teaching Introduction to Psychology and Cognitive Psychology this semester, which is a great combination.  I have been teaching Cognitive Psychology for over nine years, and it is so familiar to me that I get excited when my favorite topics are about to come up in class.  I have never taught Intro Psych before.  It feels like a big responsibility to introduce the entire field.

Are you interested in taking on students as research assistants?

Yes!  Students make research better.  I realized a few years ago that when undergraduates helped me with a project, we considered the problems less narrowly.  The projects were much more enjoyable because of all the conversations we got to have.

What qualities are you looking for in any students who are interested in joining your lab?

Mainly curiosity, and an appreciation of research for its own sake.  My research questions are usually less about “how can we apply this science?” and more about “how does this work?”  I have had wonderful contributions from students with backgrounds in art and design, but that’s because we had similar interests, and not because students need any particular artistic abilities.  The same has been true for students who are interested in neuroanatomy and computer science.  A passion for those topics makes for a good fit, but students definitely don’t need to have expertise already.

Welcome to Roanoke College Dr. Cate! Thank you again for taking the time to answer our questions. We are excited to have you here and look forward to learning more about you in the semesters to come!

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Congrats Dr. Nichols on Recent Publication!

Congratulations to Dr. Nichols on his recent publishing in the Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics Journal, titled “Validation of Critical Ages in Regional Adult Brain Maturation.”

In this article, Dr. Nichols identified that there are linear and non-linear maturation rates that impact different biological mechanisms. With this, he simulated data with known maturation patterns and a single critical age characterizing a qualitative change in maturation to establish the validity of a non-parametric fitting method, the smoothing spline, combined with processing steps for determining the form of the pattern and the associated critical age. In this study, both biological data and generated data were examined through multiple models. The findings suggest that smoothing splines were shown to be a valid means of identifying a set of maturation patterns for adult ages and were shown to contain the essential information required to determine a single critical age for the patterns. Moreover, it was found that for a majority of non-linear areas, new critical ages were identified. However, Dr. Nichols suggests that further modifications to the analysis procedure could include a wider set of maturation patterns and the inclusion of multiple critical ages to help determine distinctions between brain areas in the timing of developmental or degenerative events that influence their volume.

For more information on the article, follow this link and once again congratulations  Dr. Nichols for this recent publication!

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Undergrad Advice from the Psych Department!

We are so excited to have so many familiar faces back on campus, and all of the new ones as well! This semester is going to look far different than any before, so some of the professors in the psychology department are here to offer up their best advice from when they were undergraduates!

Dr. Buchholz

-Get organized. Build a schedule but leave plenty of extra time because things often take longer than you may expect. 

-Ask for help, even if it is embarrassing. 

-Prioritize assignments and other things that you want to accomplish. That way if something comes up and you can’t do it all, you will know what to focus on. Relatedly, pay attention to the syllabus and how much each assignment is worth. If time is short, don’t waste time on things that are not worth that much, focus on doing a good job on the things that count.

-Have fun. Most of you will look back on this time as one of the best times of your life. Get out there, make friends, take risks (safely). 

Dr. Allen

-Talk to your professors, and don’t wait until the situation is desperate.  We are human.  

-Try to set good habits from the beginning.  It’s a lot easier to form a good habit than to break a bad one, and I say that as someone who is trying to break a couple of them.

 -And something I often find myself telling students who’ve messed up, even in a big way: admit you made a mistake, ask what you have learned from this (I sometimes learn that I need more sleep) and then move forward.  Don’t keep beating yourself up about the mistake other than to remind yourself that you don’t want to make it again. 

Dr. Hilton

-Say yes to more things that make you nervous/a little scared. I have learned so much from doing things that initially scared me. Sometimes fear is trying to help us learn things about ourselves and the only way to learn it is to lean into that discomfort (within reason obviously)

-Invest more in other people. I was very driven (as I know our psych students are as well) and sometimes I chose to pursue academic/career goals over relational goals. I have come to recognize that relationships provide meaning to everything else we do and I sometimes wish I had said yes more often to late nights, last minute trips, coffee meetups, etc., instead of working.

-Be kind to yourself. Set lofty goals but also be nice to yourself when you fall short. Failing is part of learning and growing…not something to be avoided but a step along the way.

Dr. Nichols

-Go to class! Even if you think you can keep up with the readings and learning on your own, it’s helpful to keep yourself on track and keep up to date on any announcements if you go to class every day. Honestly, sometimes I would sit in class and do homework for other classes, balance my checkbook, or write love letters to my girlfriend (it was easier to get away with such things at a large state school), but I felt better prepared for each of my classes when I attended them regularly.

-Talk to your professors! At first I didn’t speak to my professors, then I pestered them with questions after class that challenged half of the psychology studies presented in the slides, and finally I learned to attend office hours and have a more civil conversation. Your professors are passionate about the topics they teach and would love to help you learn the material better and most likely know some other ways to present the material than what was done in class, so use office hours to chat and/or learn.

-Talk to students in your class! As a student I was a weird mix of quiet/shy/isolated thinker who tended to sit in the back and not talk to anyone combined with class-clown/passing notes/whispering jokes, depending on the topic and whether I had friends in class. However, I learned to enjoy the friendships that developed by talking to students before or after class that I didn’t know going into the semester. Oftentimes we ended up studying together or inviting each other to parties, but it was nice even to just chit-chat with someone to feel more connected to the class.

Dr. Carter

-Seek out professors who do work that’s interesting to you, and find a way to work for/with them. It’s amazing how those experiences help shape and reveal your interests, and how they can translate into opportunities later.

-Learn how to go to bed at a reasonable hour. It turns out a lot of stuff happens before 10am.

-Always get apartments on the top floor of the building. That way the neighbors can never stomp on the floor when you make the slightest bit of noise. That’s the worst

This semester is uncharted, but the advice offered by some of our professors will help us all make it through! Also, remember to have grace for yourself and your professors, because we are all trying to figure this out and no one has all of the right answers. Good luck Maroons!

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Welcome Back!

Welcome class of 2024 and welcome back to our returning students! While the start of this semester may look different than other years, the professors and faculty of the psychology department are as excited as ever for the start of classes and for this semester.

We were able to catch up with some members of the psychology department to see what they are looking forward to and how they are handling this semester!

Ellen Dyer

Ellen Dyer wearing a mask and patiently awaiting the return of the psychology students

I am looking forward to having all the students back.  It has been too quiet here in Life Science these last few months.

Dr. Wetmore

Dr. Wetmore wearing a mask and showing off her new teaching setup!

Although teaching will look a lot different coming from my home office, I am just as excited to meet RC’s new students and see our returning students, as any other year! Daisy isn’t so sure about everyone interrupting her nap times but I think she’ll get used to it. If you do see me around campus I will be rocking my RC mask!

Dr. Wetmore’s pup daisy being interrupted from her nap for a photo-op with Dr. Wetmore’s desk setup!

Dr. Osterman

Dr. Osterman wearing a Roanoke College mask and showing off her new work setup!

Welcome back, everyone! In preparation for teaching remotely this semester, I’ve turned our basement bar area into my home office/recording studio for PSYC 354: The Podcast (hence the towels and other sound-absorbing barriers) and video demos for PSYC 204. It is cozy and has soft lighting and candles that smell like chocolate, which will put me in a great mood while I’m grading your assignments!

Dr. Buchholz

Dr. Buchholz showing off his new remote teaching setup!

Welcome back, everyone! This is my home office. It is much fancier and more nicely decorated than Dr. O’s (towels, really?), which will make me happy as I work to create a great experience for you all in History of Psychology and Research Seminar.      

Dr. Powell

Dr. Powell rocking a mask and goggles!

This summer and the beginning of the academic year certainly hasn’t unfolded as any of us had hoped. So, although remote courses very much change the delivery of our teaching, it doesn’t change the passion we have for working with students and our excitement to share what we know about psychological science! 

Temporarily working from my dining room, rather than the 5th floor of Life Science, means that every day has the potential of being “bring your pet to work day”! There’s a very real possibility one or both of the kitties will make unscheduled appearances during my classes as they leap onto my lap. Otherwise, not much else has changed. My computer is here, the books and files I need are here, I’m still responding promptly to emails, and I’m still crossing-off tasks from super long to-do lists to ensure students have a great learning experience! 

We don’t go out much in my household (thank goodness for Kroger pick-up and Target delivery!); but, when we do, we wear filtered masks and goggles. They might not be the most comfortable “accessories” or the most fashionable thing I’ve ever worn, but it’s worth adding them to our outfits. These two accessories ensure that I’m protecting myself and protecting others. Habits can take some time to develop, so we keep our masks and our goggles right by the door as visual don’t-forget-me reminders! 

Dr. Powell’s remote-teaching setup!

Dr. Nichols

Dr. Nichols wearing a mask by his remote-teaching setup!

Hello Psychology Students!

I hope that you all are doing well and looking forward to the start of the semester! This has been a tough period of time for many of us for many different reasons. Our family endured the loss of my wife’s father, Kelly, and our Goldendoodle, Oakley. We also experienced some positive, exciting times as a family – my eldest child, Kennerly, got her learner’s permit, and we hiked to see wild ponies at Grayson Highlands State Park! Most of my summer has been spent working at my make-shift home office desk since my wife, Professor Nichols, has been working from home for years and gets the better desk.

Your professors and I are very much looking forward to seeing you all again, whether in person or online! Our community is one of the personal relationships more so than physical space and it is joyful and encouraging to join together in a community where ever we are!

Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand

Dr. FVN wearing a mask while awaiting students’ return!

I’m looking forward to making the best of this semester and learning how to deal with it all together!

Dr. Carter

Dr. Carter wearing a mask in his office!

Welcome back! It’s been great to see campus start to come alive with the arrival of freshmen. And as weird as it will be to see everyone on tiny little boxes on my computer screen for a while, I’m really looking forward to seeing my students in one form or another. Although I was working from home most of the summer, I’m doing most of my teaching from my office on campus (pictured), just to spare my wife several unwanted lectures on Social Psychology while she is also working from home. I’ve moved into Dr. Nichols’s old office, and it clearly needs some decoration. (I’m working on that.) Hopefully I’ll see you on campus soon, and just know that I am actually smiling at you from behind the mask.

Not pictured, Dr. Allen, Dr. Cate, Dr. Haegmann, and Dr. Hilton are also all excited to start teaching and meet you all soon!

While remote, the fifth-floor of life science will continue to cheer you on this semester! Good luck to everyone and let’s have an amazing semester!

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Dr. Powell Honored with the Dean’s Exemplary Teaching Award!

Congratulations to Dr. Powell who was recently awarded the Dean’s Exemplary Teaching Award! Each year, Roanoke College selects one recipient that they feel best showcases the aspects of this award.

According to Roanoke College, “pursuing excellence in teaching, professional life, and service to the College are all aspects of faculty life at Roanoke College, and each spring the Dean acknowledges outstanding faculty members through awards given in these different areas.”

This past year, Dr. Osterman, another member of the Psychology Department, was honored with this award!

Congratulations to Dr. Powell for this honor and to both of these professors for this amazing achievement!

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WELL WISHES & UPDATES FROM THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT!

These last few weeks have no doubt been challenging for everyone in some way, shape, or form. With finals starting tomorrow and being away from Roanoke College, we wanted to share some well wishes and updates from some of the Psychology Department professors!

Dr. Buchholz:

We are living through strange and trying times; however, I am heartened by the way we, the students, faculty, and staff of Roanoke College, have risen to the occasion. I am encouraged by the leadership of President Maxey, Dean Smith, and many other staff during these difficult times. I am thankful for our departmental secretary, Ellen, who continues to be the glue that holds our department together. I am proud of the faculty in our department for handling this moment with grace and compassion. Likewise, I am proud of our students for how they have reacted to these challenges. From the many kind words expressed in emails, to the understanding we receive when we can’t figure out zoom or have had some other problem adjusting to teaching online; I am thankful for the kindness and patience of our students. The way our community has come together, even if apart, reminds me of why I love Roanoke College.

 For those of you who are struggling during this moment, I wish you and your families the best, and I want you to know that we are all here for you. For those of you who are graduating, congratulations and I hope to see you at the rescheduled graduation; and for the rest of you, I look forward to seeing you in the fall. Be well, stay safe, and take care of yourselves.

Dr. Carter:

I miss my students! My stats jokes are wasted on my family. I don’t even get an eye roll from a good t-test pun.

Dr. Carter making his kids breakfast during the quarantine (aka Will Forte in The Last man on Earth)

Dr. Carter’s kids completing a puzzle!

I’m extremely, extremely jealous of the people who don’t have anything to do during this quarantine. My wife and I are both trying to work full time while also taking care of two children under three (i.e., requiring constant supervision). So if I’ve learned anything new, it’s just how effective an active bird feeder can be as a babysitter. (Seriously though, getting to spend a lot of time with my kids is really nice. It’s just stressful trying to do so much at once.)

 

 

Dr. FVN:

I miss my students! I am super proud of everyone in my classes and in my lab, who have all worked super hard to make the most of this situation. It’s been an experience, but it’s been one we are all figuring out together. 

Dr. FVN’s son and dog!

I’ve especially appreciated the love during student meetings when my son or dog pop in for a hello! They have filled my days while my husband and I juggle our work. In fact, my favorite (non-work) thing has been going on backyard adventures and spending time on creative ways to stay entertained and engaged, like building obstacle courses.

 

I can’t wait to get back to in-person teaching, I miss my people! And, congratulations to the seniors! 

Dr. Hilton

I have been encouraged in speaking with students in my courses to hear about the diligent work you are all putting in amidst this almost overwhelming uncertainty we face on a daily basis. I applaud all of you for continuing to do your best and finding ways to make this unexpected challenge a time of growth. In addition- I also want to encourage you all to keep in mind that now is the time to practice that self-care we all talk about, yet rarely put into practice if we’re honest…We will have bad days in the coming weeks and we will have good days. Take them in stride, do your best (the definition of which might change daily…), and find whatever ways you can to keep your spirits and hopes up.

I’ve been reading a lot- which is a welcome change; watching a lot of TV (I’m rewatching Community on Netflix right now); and finding time for both quiet space alone and not so quiet time with my family. I also built a pull-up bar on the rafters in my basement with steel pipe so once this thing is all over- I may be able to do a few of those!

Dr. Nichols:

Dr. Nichols and Alumni hanging out on Zoom!

I was able to gather with some alumni from my lab on Zoom on Friday, 4/17, with graduates from 2011 to 2019. All but one of them are in graduate school now, the other one has a PhD and is currently in a post-doc position. The alumni present (in order of graduation) are: Madison Elliott & Paige Arrington (2011), Nikki Hurless, Lauren Kennedy-Metz, & Victoria Godwin (2014), Stephanie Shields & Lauren Ratcliffe (2017), Alex Grant (2018), Noelle Warfford (2019).

Dr. Osterman:

There’s a quote from Freud that has occurred to me a few times since all of this started: “One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.” I’m not sure if that’s exactly an encouraging or optimistic sentiment, exactly, but if Freud is right, it does suggest that our future selves will be overly sentimental and a little callous toward this very difficult situation we’re all going through right now, which makes them a common enemy against whom we can all fight. That’s something.

The deck couldn’t have been done without this helper!

The deck couldn’t have been done without this helper!

For myself, I walked 101 km in a week and learned that I have no desire to ever walk 101 km in a week ever again. Dr. B and I built a deck, with some help from Dr. B’s son James and our cats. I also took a quiz about which characters from various TV shows I am (it’s actually a very cool quiz by a psychometrician) and learned that I am Tyrion Lannister… I think because I drink and I know things? 

Dr. Powell

This video depicts wow we’re all feeling

There’s a lot of fails when trying to find that perfect backdrop for Zoom sessions #Halo #SpaceShipEncounter

Dr. Powell’s out of this world zoom background!

We’re missing our 5th-floor co-workers and the students, soo much! Our new Coworkers are soo needy!

Dr. Powell’s new needy co-worker!

From the Psychology Department, we wish you all the best with conquering finals this week and next! Stay strong Maroons!

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Ellen Dyer Receives 2019 STAR Award

Pictured left-to-right: Ellen Dyer, Rick Fox, and Sandy McGhee, recipients of the 2019 Roanoke College STAR Award. Photograph courtesy of Roanoke College News.

In 2019, the Psychology and Biology Department’s very own Ellen Dyer received the STAR Award!

“I was quite surprised and felt very honored to get [the STAR] Award. It’s nice to know that you are appreciated” said Ellen when asked on how she felt upon receiving the award.

The “Service to All Roanoke” or STAR is given annually to Roanoke College employees who have an “outstanding positive influence” on the College campus and with their local community as well, going above and beyond what is required.

The STAR Award is competitive, with only one recipient chosen from each employee category: exempt, non-exempt, and hourly.

Dr. Osterman, who wrote the nomination for Ellen, said this:

Ellen is amazing, embodying the perfect intersection of competence and kindness. We have all been hopeful that she would win the STAR Award for a number of years now and we were so thrilled to see her recognized for all of the outstanding work that she does with us. We’re really lucky to have her.

Mrs. Ellen Dyer, secretary of the Roanoke College Psychology and Biology Departments, with award. Photograph courtesy of Dr. Buchholz.

Dr. Buchholz, department chair of the Psychology department, agreed, saying:

Ellen is amazing! She is essential to the daily functioning of the Psychology (and Biology) departments. She is kind, considerate, and a really great human being. She is truly deserving of this award.

Continue reading Ellen Dyer Receives 2019 STAR Award

NCFR Conference 2019!

© ncfr.org

On November 20-23, Dr. Powell took two students to the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) Conference in Fort Worth, Texas to present research through poster sessions and to attend presentations. These students included Rachel Harmon ’20 and Morgan Hamilton ’21.

Morgan Hamilton Worked alongside Dr. Powell and presented their poster titled “The Association Between Implicit Theories of Relationships and Emerging Adults’ Expectations for Romantic Relationships,” which was based on a subset of results from Taylor Kracht’s ’18 honors in the major study.

The students have since given some insight onto what it was like presenting at the conference as well as their reactions to the conference and Fort Worth, TX: 

Rachel Harmon and Morgan Hamilton at the NCFR conference

Rachel Harmon

I attended the annual NCFR conference with Dr. Powell and my fellow lab-mate, Morgan. Although I did not present at the conference I enjoyed attending the poster sessions and symposiums that were relevant to my current and future research interests, as well as supporting Morgan and Dr. Powell during their presentation. I specifically enjoyed attending presentations on the topics of disability and immigrant youth and families. Attending this conference was beneficial for me as I am currently applying to graduate programs in Human Development and Family Studies and Clinical Psychology. While I was at the conference I was able to interact and network with professors in Human Development and Family Studies programs as well as to receive feedback on my own research. Attending NCFR also prepared me to present my own research at a conference next semester. I am very thankful that Dr. Powell and Roanoke College encourage their undergraduate students to attend conferences to gain valuable experience in their areas of interest. Overall, I really enjoyed exploring Fort Worth with Dr. Powell and Morgan. The things I enjoyed most about the city were the food and the nice weather! 

Morgan Hamilton and Dr. Powell presenting their poster

Morgan Hamilton

The opportunity to present at NCFR was incredible. Leading up to the poster session, I was very nervous because I had never presented to a group of scholars. After the session began and I had spoken to a few people who gave high praise to our research, my nerves significantly calmed. It was so cool to hear people’s thoughts about how our research applied to their own work. Although presenting was a great experience, my favorite part of the conference was listening to other scholars talk about research they conducted on topics I want to pursue and am truly passionate about. I was able to sit in a room with thirty people who all cared about adolescent mental health and was also able to meet a few professors at graduate programs too. It was fascinating to see how Psychology is growing & gave me great ideas about potential future research I would like. Finally, Fort Worth was such an amazing city! Rachel, Dr. Powell and I spent a lot of time walking around the shops in the city and finding great food along the way. Overall, the experience was something I am super grateful to have been warranted and I’m sure it will stand out as a highlight of my academic career at Roanoke College.

Fort Worth, TX gearing up for the holiday season!

Congratulations to all those who attended the conference and for having a successful presentation! 

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CALLING ALL ACTORS!

Do you enjoy acting?

Then this is the study for you!  Even if you  have no experience acting, everyone is welcome to participant so long as you are comfortable being recorded while acting out different scenes.

Dr. Dane Hilton is conducting a study in which you will be acting out different scenes and then evaluating your performance. These videos will be used in future research studies. but don’t stress if you have no experience acting, you can still come and participate!

Participants will be getting a $15 gift card for participating. This study is not being run through SONA, so if you are interested in signing up or have further questions then email Dr. Dane Hilton at hilton@roanoke.edu.

Hope to see some of you there!

©GIPHY

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SSEA CONFERENCE 2019!

The students who attended SSEA at dinner

On October 1012, Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand and Dr. Powell took three students to the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA) Conference in Toronto, Canada to present research through poster sessions and presentations. These students included Casey Jo Gough ‘20, Sophie Bacon ‘20, and Abbey Packard ‘21. 

Students presented research through two different poster presentations. Casey Jo Gough and Sophie Bacon both worked alongside Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand and presented their poster titled “Emerging Adults’ Social Goals for Peer Status: Associations with Aggressive Reactions to Provocation”. Abbey Packard worked alongside Dr. Powell and presented her poster titled “Teaching self-efficacy of emerging adults across a first-level education course with community-based learning”. 

The students have since given some insight onto what it was like presenting at the conference as well as their reactions to Toronto: 

Sophie Bacon and Casey Jo Gough with the poster they presented

Casey Jo Gough

The opportunity to not only partake in undergraduate research but to then fly out of the country to present at a professional conference was an unforgettable learning experience. This was my first experience leaving the country, and it was fun to explore the streets of Toronto and take in all the sights. Presenting at the conference gave me confidence in my research abilities as I prepare for grad school. I was able to speak to other researchers and received great advice about my career path as a future school psychologist. I think the best part of the conference experience was the opportunity to attend lectures and poster sessions of unpublished research. I was able to speak to other researchers about their studies and look at exciting unpublished data in my areas of interest. I can’t wait to see where my research will take me next! 

Sophie Bacon 

Attending SSEA in Toronto was an incredible experience. Presenting our poster and findings was a really fulfilling experience and everyone who we talked to was so friendly and excited about our interest in research. Also, because I am still unsure of the direction that I want to go in when pursing graduated school, it was so helpful to talk to others who were recently in my shoes! I found walking and looking at all of the other posters to be really informative and eye-opening regarding the knowledge that we can learn about this newly defined stage of life. I felt very lucky that we were able to travel to such a cool place like Toronto, the city felt so walkable and had an abundance of hip-restaurants and soaring skyscrapers!

Abbey Packard

Abbey Packard with the poster she presented

Canada was an amazing experience overall and as an undergraduate research student I gained lots of insight into graduate level research and felt confident being able to present my work to graduate and PhD students. The other presentations were extremely impressive and networking opportunities were all around which is always a bonus! Being able to go to Toronto was a wonderful experience thanks to the help of Dr. Powell! The city was beautiful and was an experience I’ll never forget. 

Dr, Powell

Dr. Powell standing beside the poster students have been working on alongside her

Dr. Powell also presented one poster titled “Emerging Adults’ Bid Responses: A Pilot Study on Romantic Communication” as well as two papers, “How to break up: Individual differences in emerging adults’ normative beliefs about ghosting” and “Emerging adults’ perceptions of what it means to be “Talking””. 

 

One of the paper presentations Dr. Powell gave

The second paper presentation Dr. Powell gave

Congratulations to all those who attended the conference and for having successful presentations! 

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CONGRATS DR. OSTERMAN AND THERESA HECMANCZUK ON RECENT PUBLICATION!

© someecards.com

Congratulations to Dr. Osterman (Roanoke College) and recent graduate Theresa Hecmanczuk ‘19 on their recent publishing in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationshipstitled “Parasocial forgiveness: The roles of parasocial closeness and offense perceptions.” 

In this article Dr. Osterman and Theresa Hecmanczuk expand on research that investigates how predictors of interpersonal forgiveness, such as relationship closeness and offense severity, also predict forgiveness of a parasocial target. Using an interpersonal forgiveness measure to examine forgiveness of parasocial targets as a function of parasocial closeness and offense perceptions, they used two studies and found that pre-offense closeness was associated with greater forgiveness and current closeness, and that forgiveness significantly mediated the relationship between pre-offense and current closeness. They also found that perceptions of apology sincerity were associated with greater forgiveness and current parasocial closeness, and that a brief measure of parasocial closeness was comparable to the Parasocial Interaction Scale in its associations with forgiveness and related outcomes.    

For more information on the article, follow this link and once again congratulations to Dr. Osterman and Theresa Hecmanczuk for their publishing! 

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CONGRATS DR. HILTON ON RECENT PUBLICATION!

Congratulations to Dr. Hilton (Roanoke College), Dr. Jarrett (The University of Alabama), Dr. Rondon (The University of Alabama), Josh Tutek (The University of  Alabama) and Mazheruddin Mulla (The University of Alabama) for their recent publishing in the Child Psychiatry & Human Development Journaltitled “Increased Working Memory Load in a Dual‑Task Design Impairs Nonverbal Social Encoding in Children with High and Low Attention‑Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms.” 

In this article, Dr. Hilton and fellow researchers look into the relationship between working memory and nonverbal social cues. By testing children with High and Low ADHD symptoms through computerized tasks of social encoding and working memory in both single- and dual-task conditions, they revealed that both children with High ADHD and Low ADHD performed significantly worse during the dual-task condition compared to the single task conditions. They also found that children with High ADHD
had significantly lower performance than Low ADHD children on task-based social encoding and working memory.

For more information on the article, follow  this link and once again congratulations  Dr. Hilton and his fellow researchers for their publishing!

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CONGRATS DR. FINDLEY-VAN NOSTRAND ON RECENT PUBLICATION!

...Congratulations to Dr. Kuchynka (University of South Florida), Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand (Roanoke College), and Dr. Pollenz (University of South Florida) for their recent publishing in the CBE-Life Sciences Education Journal, titled “Evaluating Psychosocial Mechanisms Underlying STEM Persistence in Undergraduates: Scalability and Longitudinal Analysis of Three Cohorts from a Six-Day Pre–College Engagement STEM Academy Program.” 

In this article, Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand and fellow researchers look into the ability to scale the size of the SA program to accommodate more students and replicate the previous findings with two additional cohorts.  Through longitudinal analysis of three different cohorts, they were able to discover that the SA program increases sense of belonging and science identity, and that these attitudinal changes promote undergraduate persistence in STEM.

For more information on the article, follow this link and once again congratulations to Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand and her fellow researchers for their publishing!

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CONGRATULATIONS TO RACHEL HARMON AND DR. POWELL!

© Rachel Harmon

This past summer Rachel Harmon was selected as a recipient of the 2018-2019 Summer Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Undergraduate Research Grant from Psi Chi, the international psychology honorary, where she spent several weeks in Mexico working on her project titled, “Cross-Cultural Comparison of Caregiver Concerns and Resources for Children with Disabilities.” 

Rachel Harmon was in the list of top 11 applications and so Dr. Powell was awarded a faculty stipend as well. 

A brief interview was done with Harmon to learn more about this project and process: 

Thank you for taking time to answer some questions, to start off, can you describe what the grant process was like and how you discovered it?  

I began the grant application process in December of last year but ended up not submitting the grant until the May due date. I heard about the grant through Dr. Powell, who recommended applying, and advised me throughout the process. The grant required me to provide a concise version of my Literature Review and a brief Methodology section, and all the scales that I would use. I found that the grant helped me to determine the specific methodology I would use for my project and helped me to determine the specific scales that I would use. 

Can you tell me more about your project?  

The title of my project is “Cross-Cultural Comparison of Caregiver Concerns and Resources for Children with Disabilities”. I have collected both observational and quantitative data in both Mexico and the United States to compare the resources that are available for children with disabilities in each country and how this impacts caregiver stress levels and the emotions they feel, regarding caring for their child with a disability. I originally got the idea for my project when I traveled to Nicaragua the summer before my freshman year. While I was walking through a market in Managua, I saw a woman who was working and had her daughter who had a disability in what we would consider a baby stroller. I have worked a lot with individuals, specifically with children with disabilities and developmental delays, and I was naturally compelled to investigate the topic further.  

What drew you to Mexico for this project?  

I was originally supposed to return to Nicaragua for my project, but due to the current political environment, it was not ideal for travel. Jesse Griffin, who serves on the committee of my project knew of several connections that our college has with research facilities and other institutions in the Yucatán. One of the facilities was conveniently across the street from a Centro de Atención Múltiple, which is a government funded special education school, which was a great resource for collecting observational data and distributing surveys.  

 What did a normal day look like for you in Mexico as you worked on this project?

© Rachel Harmon

For the first month I spent in Mexico I was in Oxkutzcab, which was a small, rural town. This was where the C.A.M. school was. Each weekday I would go to the school at 7:30, and I would rotate which classroom I was in each day. The school has seven classes serving student from ages 2-28. Depending on which classroom I was in, I would either observe the class, and participate in class activities, or work one on one with students who needed more individualized attention. The school days in Mexico only last from 7:30 to 12:30, so in the afternoons I would explore or relax, and work on other research tasks.  

I spent the second month in the capital of the Yucatán, Mérida. Here, I was working with an internationally run non-profit called SOLYLUNA. The organization provides special education opportunities and access to physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy for children who have a diagnosis of multiple disabilities and their caregivers. The dynamic of the organization was very different than the C.A.M. school, so it was an adjustment. The organization requires that a caregiver accompanies the child for the full day from 7:30-1:30. My job as a volunteer was to assist the parents when needed, and to observe the teachers and therapists. I also worked with the volunteer coordinator and director of the organization to create a document about potential resources to provide for caregivers, and I took pictures for them to use for promotion purposes. Since I was now in a larger city there was a lot more to explore in the afternoons, and I enjoyed travelling on the weekends.  

You mentioned that you had opportunities to explore while in Mexico, what was the coolest place you visited/most favorite?

© Rachel Harmon

I did have a lot of time to explore while I was in Mexico, especially on the weekends. I enjoyed exploring nearby towns and venturing further to other landmarks. I think my favorite place I traveled to while in Mexico was Isla las Mujeres. This was an island off the coast of Cancún, where we were able to hear lots of live music, enjoy the beach, and go snorkeling. I met a group of other students from Millsaps College, in Mississippi while I was there, and I enjoyed traveling with them and meeting them at different places on some weekends.   

If given the opportunity would you go back and work, there again?  

© Rachel Harmon

© Rachel Harmon

Absolutely! While I was there, I formed a lot of connections with the kids, caregivers, teachers and therapists that I was working with and I would love to see them again (I miss them a lot)! It was hard to leave such amazing people, and such an amazing place.   

 Is there anything else you would like us to know?  

Overall, my experiences in Mexico taught me more than I could have ever imagined. I especially learned a lot about collecting data in another culture, which is an experience I consider myself lucky to have had at this point in my academic career. Whether it is through research, or a different study abroad program, I highly recommend spending time in another country to everyone, because it allows you to learn so much about yourself and the world.  

Congratulations again to Rachel Harmon and Dr. Powell and thank you for taking time to answer some questions!

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JOIN DR. POWELL AT THE MAY TERM TRAVEL EXPO THIS THURSDAY!

Are you interested in taking a class in another part of the world? If so, come out to the Ballroom this Thursday, September 5 between 12 – 1 pm to hear about the awesome May Term Travel courses being offered this coming spring! Dr. Powell will be there sharing information on the course she is teaching, IL 377: Emerging Adults in Thailand – A Cross-Cultural Society, which counts as an elective for those in the Human Development concentration but is also a wonderful opportunity for all those interested in human development. Other faculty will be sharing about their courses that are also being offered as well!

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How the Psychology Department Celebrated April Fools 2019

Dr. Camac and Ellen Dyer laughing at something Dr. Osterman said

Walking past the elevator, you might notice the new pictures for the faculty members, where their representations if they were South Park characters have been carefully designed by the Master of Photoshop, Dr. Lindsey Osterman.

Further in to the Psychology Department, you might notice the googly eyes staring back at you from Dr. Osterman’s door frame. If you walk inside her office, you will quickly realize that you are being stared at from multiple googly eyes, including those on her phone, lampshade, chairs, books and the different memes she has on her walls for decoration.

“They missed a few good opportunities. I’m kind of disappointed,” said Dr. Osterman as we examined her room a few weeks ago and found more and more googly eyes.

The Googly Eyed April Fools Prank

If you were part of Dr. Allen’s class, you were likely suddenly told that you had an exam without any previous mention and were given a link that took you directly to a certain music video titled “Never Gonna Get Over You.”

You were properly rickrolled.

This is how the Psychology Department celebrated April Fools Day 2019.

What will happen next year? No one knows, but that’s the fun of it.

Dr. Osterman confirmed that she is already planning her revenge.

Want to see what happened last year, including another tale of revenge that occurred after years of planning? Click here.

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Dr. Powell’s Research Lab at SRCD Conference 2019

Image result for srcd 2019
Click on the image to go to SRCD’s official website.

Overview:

The second part of the blog posts discussing the students and professors who traveled to Baltimore on March 21st through 23rd to present research at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Conference, this post will focus on Dr. Powell’s Research Lab.

Students and professors presented research through six different poster presentations, as well as one essay presentation that was part of a symposium. Dr. FVN and Dr. Powell presented one poster together, titled “Variations on a Lifespan Development Project Intended to Enhance Quality of Student Outcomes and Reflection of Reality.”  Dr. Buchholz’s and Dr. FVN’s labs collaborated to present their work on “Early Adolescent Cognitive and Affective Empathy: Direct and Interactive Ties to Social-Emotional Adjustment.”

The students who traveled include: Taylor Kracht ’18 (alumna; Dr. Powell’s lab), Cody Dillon-Owens ’19 (worked with both Dr. FVN and Dr. Buchholz; officially part of Dr. Buchholz’s lab), Aislinn Foutz ’19 (Dr. FVN’s lab), Kiah Coflin ’19 (Dr. Powell’s lab), Ciprianna Azar ’19 (Dr. FVN’s lab), Rachel Harmon ’20 (Dr. Powell’s lab) , and Alaina Birkel ’21 (Dr. Powell’s lab).

Descriptions of the presentations have been included to learn more about the types of research the two labs are doing.

Left to right: Dr. Powell. Alaina Birkel, and Taylor Kracht

Dr. Powell’s Research Lab

Statements: 

Dr. Powell: 

The first disciplinary conference that I attended was SRCD during my senior year of college. I was not presenting that year, but rather I tagged along with the faculty member and graduate students with whom I was working. I am very appreciative that Roanoke College also supports undergraduates to attend and present at disciplinary conferences! Hearing the students enthusiastically discuss the scholars they heard from and the ideas it provoked related to their research between sessions and over group dinners is exactly why I encourage my research assistants to attend a disciplinary conference.

SRCD’s biennial conference is quite large and so it can be difficult choosing between sessions to attend, as so many overlap at a single time. However, I was able to attend several that are related to my research agenda as well as a few related to topics that I teach in my Life-Span and Child Development courses. Another thing that I make it a point to do at conferences is to reconnect with colleagues. My Alma mater, WVU, hosted a social for current students and alumni of their developmental program, and I was able to grab lunch with a few other colleagues. It was enjoyable catching up with them and updating each other on the status of our careers.

Left to right: Dr. Powell, Rachel Harmon, and Kiah Coflin

Kiah Coflin ’19: 

This year’s biennial SRCD conference was held at the Baltimore convention center and it was huge! I have attended a poster presentation before, but my expectations were exceeded by SRCD, its number of intriguing speakers and talk topics, and its overall expanse across the convention center. It was certainly unique to see so many approaches to childhood and development, and an incredible experience to network with other students, professors, and scholars!

Personally, I presented a poster with my fellow lab mate, Rachel Harmon, on preliminary data exploring the impact of short-term, study-abroad programs on the Intercultural Competencies (ICCs) of Emerging Adults (EAs)… AKA I got to talk about my amazing May Term! We discussed the changes my May Term class perceived in our ICCs from a month before our trip, the middle of our trip, and a week after we returned. Our poster was well received and many were interested in how the data collection will progress when Dr. Powell continues to bring more students on future May Terms to Thailand!

Who says conferences can’t be fun? – Left to right: Kiah Coflin, Rachel Harmon, Alaina Birkel, and Dr. Powell

Posters:

Overall, there were three posters presented from this lab, though one was presented by Dr. FVN and Dr. Powell.

This particular poster was presented at the “Developmental Teaching Institute pre-conference on possible modifications to the life-span paper project.”

Left to right: Dr. Powell and Dr. FVN

The other two posters were presented by students and Dr. Powell. As mentioned above, Kiah Coflin, Dr. Powell, and Rachel Harmon discussed their findings in conjunction with Dr. Nipat Pichayayothin of Chulalongkorn University “on the development of students’ intercultural competencies” during their May Term course to Thailand in 2017.

The other poster was presented by Taylor Kracht (an alumna, now studying at William & Mary), and Alaina Birkel, who presented a poster based on Kracht’s “Honors in the Major project at the conference on how emerging adults’ implicit theories of relationships can be modified after watching certain types of romantic media.”

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Dr. FVN’s Research Lab at SRCD Conference 2019

Overview:

On March 21st through 23rd, Drs. Findley-Van Nostrand and Powell took seven students (including one alumnus) to the Society for Research in Child Development to present research through poster sessions, presentations, and a symposium. These students included Taylor Kracht ’18, Cody Dillon-Owens ’19, Aislinn Foutz ’19, Kiah Coflin ’19, Ciprianna Azar ’19, Rachel Harmon ’20, and Alaina Birkel, ’21.

Students and professors presented research through six different poster presentations, as well as one essay presentation that was part of a symposium. Dr. FVN and Dr. Powell presented one poster together, titled “Variations on a Lifespan Development Project Intended to Enhance Quality of Student Outcomes and Reflection of Reality.”  Dr. Buchholz’s and Dr. FVN’s labs collaborated to present their work on “Early Adolescent Cognitive and Affective Empathy: Direct and Interactive Ties to Social-Emotional Adjustment.”

Descriptions of the presentations have been included below to learn more about the types of research the two labs are doing.

Dr. FVN’s and Dr. Powell’s research labs are presented separately. In this post, Dr. FVN’s Research Lab is the focus; Dr. Powell’s Research Lab will follow shortly.

Image result for convention center baltimore md

Dr. FVN’s Research Lab

Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand: 

I think the conference went really well. It was great to catch up with old friends and colleagues, and even better to get the students exposure to the work being conducted by SRCD members. It is a large and prestigious meeting, so they should be proud of their accomplishments. There were not many undergraduate students in attendance, let alone presenting their work! So very proud of all them from both labs being represented. I also appreciated that interactions with audience members and folks stopping by posters gave us several

good ideas for future research and even refinement of the research we presented. This was also my first time attending the SRCD Teaching Institute, which was a great opportunity. I left with good ideas and was able to share some of ours (mine and Dr. Powell’s) as well!

Cody Dillon-Owens: 

At SRCD 2019 I had the amazing opportunity to present my lab’s research on how different forms of empathy can affect the social-emotional adjustment of adolescents. Being such a large conference, there were a vast number of symposiums to choose from that incorporated many other topics of interest besides developmental psychology. I had the chance to learn about new research ranging from community initiatives’ effects on adolescents’ political involvement, to how gut microbiota can affect our health across time, to how racial discrimination can affect children’s perceptions of the world. The conference was also a great time to network with other researchers and find out more about where our field is headed!

Symposium & Posters:

There were four posters and one symposium from Dr. FVN’s lab. Included in the poster session was a collaboration between Dr. Powell and Dr. FVN where they presented together on “a number of variations we have made to a cumulative assignment that is commonly used in Lifespan Development courses, all which aim to improve learning outcomes and interest from students.”

The symposium was titled “Circle Up: Using interpersonal theory and the interpersonal circumplex to study interpersonal relationships across development.” Dr. FVN and her colleague presented on “Social Goal Development during Middle School: Normative Changes and Prediction by Self-Esteem and Narcissism” as part of this symposium. This manuscript is in review for publication.

My colleague and I presented research examining trajectories of social goals across early adolescence in the framework of the interpersonal circumplex model. Specifically, we discussed how agentic (striving for social status, respect, dominance) goals and communal (striving for closeness, friendship, affiliation) change across three time points, beginning to end of middle school. We also examined growth trajectories of combinations of these overarching goals. Finally, we examined how self-esteem and narcissism deferentially predict later goals. In short, narcissism predicts heightened agentic goal strivings, but primarily the social dominance (low communal) form of agency.”

Dr. Findley – Van Nostrand

Ciprianna Azar ’19 (left) and Aislinn Foutz ’19 (right)

There were three student posters from Dr. FVN’s lab. Aislinn Foutz and Ciprianna Azar presented a poster based on Aislinn’s Honors project, titled “Associations among Parental Perspectives of Children’s Theory of Mind, Relationships with Parents, and Social Difficulties.” The manuscript of this research is currently in preparation for publication. To learn more about Aislinn’s Honors research, click here. Aislinn also presented another poster at the conference with Dr. FVN, discussing research that they and Dr. Ojanen, Dr. FVN’s graduate school advisor, completed. This was titled “Early Adolescent Self-Concept Clarity: Negative Affect, Aggression, and Mediation by Self-Esteem.”

For the latter poster, Dr. FVN elaborates on the topic, saying: “Self-concept clarity refers to the degree to which an individuals’ self-concepts are clear and consistent to an individual. This construct has long been associated with positive emotional adjustment and behaviors in adults, but research on adolescents is limited. Research on youth in Dutch samples has established that self-concept clarity is related to lowered depression, and greater identity commitment, but this research has not concurrently assessed self-concept clarity and self-esteem and has not been extended to US samples. This study establishes self-concept clarity as a predictor of lowered negative affect, and this association is mediated by self-esteem. Further, when examining both self-concept clarity and self-esteem, self-concept clarity alone is related to lower levels of peer-group aggression.”

Dr. FVN also adds that: A manuscript reflecting a similar set of studies in young adults is presently in review for publication. This manuscript is in preparation for publication.

Cody Dillon-Owens ’19

The final poster was presented by Cody Dillon-Owens on research conducted by himself, Dr. FVN, Dr. Buchholz, and Dr. Ojanen. The title of this work is: “Early Adolescent Cognitive and Affective Empathy: Direct and Interactive Ties to Social-Emotional Adjustment.”

In this study, we examined cognitive (e.g., perspective-taking) and affective (emotional) empathy in relation to a number of indices of social-emotional adjustment in a diverse sample of middle school students. These two forms of empathy show diverging relations with adjustment: whereas cognitive empathy seems to be almost universally good, emotional or affective empathy can sometimes elicit problems when experienced. Recent research in adults utilizing a common assessment of empathy, the Basic Empathy Scale, have found that this measure actually better reflects three sub-factors of empathy: cognitive empathy, emotional disconnection, and emotional contagion, the latter of which explaining some of the associations found between emotional empathy and social-emotional problems. We validated this three-factor structure of the Basic Empathy Scale in early adolescence, a period in which development of empathic understanding might be particularly important. Results suggest that emotional contagion is related problems like negative affect, victimization by peers, and low social self-efficacy, but to higher friendship quality, whereas cognitive empathy was related to positive social-emotional adjustment.

Dr. Findley – Van Nostrand

Dr. FVN also adds that this manuscript is in preparation to submit for publication.

Stay tuned for the next blog post, which will highlight Dr. Powell’s research lab at SRCD!

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Dr. FVN Speaks on Bullying and Teenage Aggression at Andrew Lewis Middle School

Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand was recently able to speak  to teachers and students at Andrew Lewis Middle School about bullying and teenage aggression as part of a guest speaker series called “One Book, One School Community.”

As part of a statement, Dr. FVN said:

On Friday, March 29, I spoke to Andrew Lewis Middle School (here in Salem) students and teachers about adolescent aggression and bullying. I was invited to be a speaker as a part of their “one book one school” program. I addressed research on non-traditional forms of bullying, consequences of bullying (for victims, bullies, and others exposed to but not directly involved), individual differences in adolescent aggression, and several common misconceptions about bullying and aggression. Students had great questions and hopefully learned a thing or two!

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Pie a Prof 2019

Do you want revenge on your professors? Maybe you just like a bit of fun. Quite possibly, you even like raising money for a good cause.

If any of the above apply to you, then take heed! April 11th at 4 pm on Colket Patio you will get to see 9, yes 9, of our esteemed psych professors get a pie in their face! The kicker? You could be the one that delivers it!

So all professors will be pied regardless, but like last year, the professor with the most donations in their name will get a giant pie. If you make a donation of at least $5, you will get to personally pie the professor of your choice. Instead of one charity this year, there will be 3 charities with each professor being assigned to a team. The team with the most money overall has the profits donated to their charity.

Whether you donate based on professor or charity, revenge or generosity, we hope to see you there! Cash donations can be made to the lock box on the 5th floor and Venmo can be sent to @rcpsych! We will also be tabling in Colket the week prior.

Team 1: Brain Injury Services of SWVA

  • Dr. Wetmore
  • Dr. Buchholz
  • Dr. Allen

Team 2: St. Francis Service Dogs

  • Dr. Osterman
  • Dr. Hilton
  • Dr. Nichols

Team 3: Children’s Trust

  • Dr. Powell
  • Dr. FVN
  • Dr. Carter

If you have any questions, please contact Cody Dillon-Owens, president of Psi Chi.

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Congratulations to Kiah Coflin and Dr. Powell!

Last month, Kiah Coflin and Dr. Powell were awarded funding for Coflin’s HIM project, “Factors impacting emerging adults’ bid responses in romantic relationships,” from Psi Chi, the International Psychology Honors Society. They were selected as recipients for one of the 2018-2019 Fall Undergraduate Research Grants.

Generally, funding is only provided to the student. However, because Coflin’s proposal scored within the top 11 applications, Dr. Powell was also awarded a faculty stipend.

Kiah Coflin describes her project below and how she felt upon learning she had gotten the research grant:

For my project, I am conducting a survey on Emerging Adults (ages 18-25) on their romantic relationships/dating trends. We will be looking to see how the individuals chose to react and communicate in a series of vignettes that I have created in a set up similar to the ‘Choose your own Adventure’ books we read as children. With this, I’m hoping to gain a better understanding of the reasons and process behind why individuals choose to break up with their significant other.

Upon receiving the email from Psi Chi, I was incredibly appreciative of their interest in my project and their kind words. It was a wonderful email to receive in the midst of finals week, and makes me feel even more driven than I previously was to go through with this project. Of course, I have always been interested in this HIM proposal, but I was glad to find out others believed it was equally as interesting and notable among all of the other grant applications they received.

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RC Psychology Professors on the Radio

During The Academic Minute’s Roanoke College week in December, professors from different departments including psychology, biology, and chemistry were asked to record short segments describing their recent research findings and an ‘I didn’t know that’ fact.

Drs. Osterman and Powell represented the Psychology Department.

Dr. Lindsey Osterman spoke about the perception of actors following the wake of the #MeToo movement, where the sexual misconduct scandals surrounding several prominent celebrities in recent years resulted heated public debates. In the segment below, Osterman discusses the research study she and her co-author (Theresa Hecmanczuk, Roanoke College senior) performed in determining the answer to the question: ‘after a scandal, who forgives a previously beloved media figure and who turns on them?’ Listen below to learn more.

Dr. Darcey Powell described how prenatal expectations differ from postnatal experiences and postnatal desires regarding the division of labor, and how they impact women’s adaptation to motherhood. In addition, Powell explained how important it is for parents with a young infant to find the time to discuss their desires regarding sharing the duty of caring for their little one. To learn more, listen below.

To listen to all of the segments, click here to see Roanoke College News’ post, published in December.

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Congratulations to Dr. Dane Hilton!

Congratulations to Dr. Dane Hilton on obtaining his Clinical Psychologist licensure! He explains the process of attaining the licensure and his future plans below.

On November 14 I received an email from the Virginia Board of Psychology that I had been approved for licensure as a Clinical Psychologist in Virginia. This was a pretty exciting moment and marked the final step in a long process that started over 8 years ago when I decided to pursue a career as a psychologist.

To become a licensed psychologist in most states, you must complete your PhD from an APA accredited program, complete a year-long clinical internship year from an APA accredited internship site, fulfill post-doctoral or pre-doctoral supervised clinical hour requirements, and pass the 225 question Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP).

It’s a lot but I thoroughly enjoyed (almost) every moment of my training and education.

Now that I have my license, I can pursue independent practice as a clinical psychologist. More specifically, this means I can engage in therapy, assessment, consultation, and supervision of trainees within the Commonwealth of Virginia. I am very excited to begin working in the greater Roanoke community to help provide access to mental health services. I do not yet have a specific plan for clinical practice and I am really just enjoying the feeling of relief to have made it over that last hurdle in my clinical training.

I am always happy to talk with students who are curious about the field of clinical psychology or who want to talk about the specifics of education and training.

Congratulations again to Dr. Hilton!

If you would like to know more about becoming a Clinical Psychologist or have any questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Hilton at hilton@roanoke.edu.

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Get Connected!

 Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology

Twitter: @RC_Psychology

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Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

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A Belated Birthday Post

Happy (if belated) Birthday to Dr. Osterman!

Dr. Nichols continued his tradition of creating a GIF in celebration of departmental birthdays, the first being the legendary ‘flossing’ for Dr. FVN last semester. Watch the video below to see what he did this semester for Dr. O (and her reaction).

Dr. Osterman’s Birthday Surprise!

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Get Connected!

 Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology

Twitter: @RC_Psychology

Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about

Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Instagram:  rcpsychology

Mental Health in Rural Appalachia

Dr. Dane Hilton will be discussing mental health in rural Appalachia tomorrow (Wednesday, October 3rd) at 7:00 pm in Life Science 502.  Specifically, in terms of prevalent mental health diagnoses and problems with accessibility to treatment in these areas.

This talk is sponsored by the Roanoke College Honors Program.

All are welcome.

Hope to see you there!

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Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Mindfulness Meditation: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and Why You Should Care

Dr. Dane Hilton was asked by a student assistant to discuss mindfulness meditation, specifically about what mindfulness is and the many misconceptions regarding it. Thank you, Dr. Hilton, for taking time to write this post. Enjoy!

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Mindfulness meditation is a topic that has exploded into the popular culture in the past 10-15 years. In 2018 alone, dozens of books have been published with Mindfulness as the main subject, with titles including Mindful Me: Mindfulness and Meditation for Kids by Whitney Stewart, Falling Awake: How to Practice Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and the cutely illustrated A Sloth’s Guide to Mindfulness by Ton Mak. A quick search of Google Scholar for the term “mindfulness meditation” included in anything published in 2018 gets you 129,000 hits. I will admit I did not filter through all of those results to verify but the point is this: mindfulness is getting a lot of attention.

As a researcher of mindfulness meditation, I am glad that this topic is getting its time in the limelight. Mindfulness has the potential to improve the lives of humans in a variety of ways, though the questions of how, in what ways, for whom, and under what circumstances are still up for debate and empirical examination. While I am happy on one hand, on the other hand I do worry about issues that arise with the rapid increase in interest surrounding mindfulness. As we all know, popular things are marketable things. They generate buzz, get people to click on your article or blog post (like this one!), and make publishers excited when you come to them with a “cutting edge” book that claims to cure all that ails you. When demand increases, everyone is more than happy to contribute to the supply. Unfortunately, that increased quantity doesn’t equal quality. Quite frankly- you may not even get what you think you are getting…So I want to briefly talk about what mindfulness is, clarify what it is not, and present some literature supporting why I still believe you should care.

Let me be clear: mindfulness meditation is not new. It is not “cutting edge.” It is not a product of new technology or “third-wave” psychology or even a better understanding of human nature. Mindfulness is actually quite old. The mindfulness that most folks think of today is actually rooted in thousands of years of history in Eastern religions, including Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The practice itself is not new. What is new is the recognition by researchers in health and medicine that meditation can have profound physical and psychological effects on the body. I will mention some of these toward the end of this post. Regrettably, the influx of passengers on the mindfulness bandwagon- that, I must admit, includes me- has sometimes led to a watering down, or even total misrepresentation, of mindfulness.

So what is mindfulness? Mindfulness, simply put, is an open and nonjudgmental stance toward one’s present moment experiences. In other words, mindfulness is an approach to existence marked by awareness and acceptance of the full spectrum of human experience- including all the things we think of as positive (e.g., joy, surprise, laughter, love), negative (e.g., sadness, fear, loss, anger), and anything in between. We can be mindful of physical sensations (e.g., breath, pain, fatigue), thoughts (e.g., “I’m awesome,” “I feel so stupid right now”), emotions (e.g., sadness, happiness, irritation), interactions with others, experiences of the outer world, and even our relationship to ourselves via our inner world. It is an approach to living that allows you to experience fully- embracing, rather than fighting, all the things that come with being human.

So what is mindfulness not? It is not a “tool.” It is not one more technique you pull out of your grab bag of breathing exercises, stress relief tactics, and progressive muscle relaxation scripts to use when life starts getting to you. It is not a shield from the tension and busyness of this thing we call life. Despite the fact that mindfulness is clearly not meant to beat back hectic schedules, difficult relationships, troubling inner thoughts, or anxiety about impending deadlines, much of the information you will find on mindfulness presents as just that- a tool to guard against the horrors of 21st century life. Decreased stress, increased sense of well-being, better clarity of thought, and improved psychological functioning are certainly potential byproducts of regular mindfulness practice but to say that you should engage in mindfulness with those things as the goal is to totally miss the point. All the cool effects of mindfulness that make for attention grabbing headlines are, in fact, just side effects of a more open, aware, and accepting approach to the stuff life slings our way.

Another thing that mindfulness is not is a religion. I think this is an important distinction because in my short time practicing mindfulness and talking with others about it, the issue of whether mindfulness is indicative of a specific religious group or set of beliefs is often a sticking point and potential barrier to individuals looking further into it. While mindfulness meditation certainly does have roots in religion and can even be traced back to specific religious teachings, as I mentioned a few paragraphs back, the basic tenets of mindfulness meditation can fit within any number of worldviews and beliefs. If you believe that life happens now- not 5 seconds ago or 5 seconds from now- then mindfulness might just be for you.

So now that we have a brief outline for what mindfulness is and what it is not, we still have the question of why you should care. The first reason I will suggest is simply an opinion- and probably a philosophical one at that. Life is happening now. Life is happening in this present moment and once that moment passes, it is gone for good. A mindful stance to life helps us to experience these moments more fully- in essence, living more fully. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t want my life to pass by not having had the chance to truly live it. The second reason comes from my practical and scientific side- mindfulness appears to be immensely beneficial to those who practice it. As I said earlier- health and wellness are not the explicit goals of mindfulness practice, but it does have some super nice side effects.

Mindfulness practice has been associated with improved cognitive functioning (Zeidan et al., 2010), fewer depression and anxiety symptoms (Chiesa & Serretti, 2011; Hofmann et al., 2010), improved adjustment to major health problems (e.g., cancer diagnosis; Ledesma & Kumano, 2008), less pain and improved functioning in those with chronic pain (Zeidan et al., 2012), greater engagement in positive health behaviors (Jacobs et al., 2016), improved self-regulation and greater resilience in children (Coholic et al., 2012; Semple et al., 2010), and functional brain changes in areas associated with self-regulation/emotion regulation, higher cognitive function, and memory, among other functions (Gotnik et al., 2016; Gartenschläger et al., 2017). This isn’t even close to a comprehensive list but you can check this article for a well-written overview of some of the benefits of mindfulness practice. There is a reason so many people are studying mindfulness and other forms of meditation. It is an exciting time in research as we come to better understand the numerous effects of mindfulness and the mechanisms by which these effects occur.

I will end this post with a final thought on our conceptualization of mindfulness. You may have seen a picture depicting a cartoon human whose thought bubble is “mind full” while his cartoon dog’s thought bubble is “mindful.” The dog is supposedly more mindful because his thought bubble reflects the environment he is in- sun, grass, trees- while the human’s mind is filled with busyness- thoughts of other people, cars, music, bills, etc. I get the artist’s intention but I still think this misses the mark. Part of being human is that our minds are often wild and out of control. Even in this state, we can be mindful of our experience. It is when we stop fighting against the experience of the moment that we can start to appreciate living in the moment. This is mindfulness.

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Get connected!
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Roanoke College Featured in “Eye on Psi Chi Fall 2018”

Click on the image to be taken directly to the PDF version of the magazine.

Roanoke College’s Psi Chi chapter was recently featured in the latest edition of Eye on Psi Chi, the official International Honors Society’s magazine.

In this Fall 2018 edition, all chapters throughout the country were able to share their accomplishments from the previous semester. These categories include: Community Service, Convention/Conference, Fundraising, Induction Ceremony, Meeting/Speaker Event, Recruitment, and Social Events.

For Roanoke’s Psi Chi chapter, we had thirty-four new members inducted in the spring.

We also had two major fund-raisers: Psy-Dye and Pie a Prof, with the latter earning around $550.00 in proceeds to support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

A special feature on Pie a Prof will be coming soon, with pictures and videos included of that fateful day.

Congrats Psi Chi for being featured and thank you for all of your hard work! We are proud and look forward to seeing what you do in the future.

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Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

ESP? Dr. Lindsey Osterman Takes a Look

Dr. Lindsey Osterman was recently interviewed by a student assistant on a podcast about ESP or extrasensory perception.

ESP is believed to be akin to a “second sight” or “sixth sense”.

For their 149th episode, the podcast, Serious Inquiries Only, focused on a meta-study published in the American Psychologist that indicates there might be some truth to the existence of ESP.

As a follow-up to their initial podcast, they asked Dr. Osterman, an expert in Experimental Psychology, to discuss the article and whether the findings reported in the meta-study were legitimate.

According to Dr. Osterman,

“…the podcast itself [Serious Inquiries Only] is a show about science, philosophy, and current events, all discussed from a ‘skeptical’ perspective in the truest sense of the term ‘skeptical.’ The host (Thomas Smith) is committed to approaching all the topics he covers with both curiosity and a critical evaluation of the evidence, and he does his best to correct for (and be transparent about) the preexisting biases that might be contributing to his thinking about those topics.”

Dr. Osterman had been featured on Serious Inquiries Only two years previously, where she discussed a critique on the history of evolutionary psychology published by a historian.

Both of my appearances served a similar goal, which was to provide a nuanced and evidence-based opinion about a scientific-sounding claim that was not actually rooted in high-quality evidence. In the first one [from two years ago], I responded to an interview that Thomas conducted with a historian, who had published a very-detailed — but in my opinion, very ill-informed — critique of evolutionary psychology.

Similarly, in this latest podcast, Dr. Osterman responded to a conversation…

[Smith] recorded with a professor of philosophy and a clinical psychologist about a review paper (published in American Psychologist, a respected, peer-reviewed journal), which argued that the empirical evidence for psi (or paranormal cognitive abilities, like being able to see the future) is very strong and consistent. My contention was that the article omitted critical details about the evidence, and in turn, presented a case that looked much stronger than it actually was.

Thank you to Dr. Osterman for being awesome as usual.

For those interested in knowing more details about the article and what Dr. Osterman found within it, the links to the podcasts are below. The first episode has been included for those who want to know what sparked the debate and to have a better idea of what Dr. Osterman and Thomas are discussing in the later episode.

In addition, click here for the link to the PDF of the article that sparked this debate.

Take a listen.

SIO149: Is ESP Real? No, Really… It Might Be…

Dr. Osterman’s analysis:

SIO150: Ok ESP Isn’t Real… with Dr. Lindsey Osterman

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Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
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Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

A Brief Interview with Dr. Stacy Wetmore

The following is a brief interview with Dr. Stacy Wetmore, a new tenure-track professor at Roanoke College. A student assistant was recently able to interview her to learn more about her, her interests, and some cool facts that readers may not know. There’s a picture of a cute puppy at the end of this interview: keep reading to see it.

So, how do you like Roanoke so far? Is it very different from what you’re used to?

So far, I’m loving it!! I’m excited that the semester is underway and I get to teach some really interesting topics. I like that I have fairly small class sizes and I will know all of my students’ names in no time. RC is similar in a lot of ways to where I most recently taught, so now it’s just a matter of learning the little quirks about how about things work here.  One thing that is a little different are the class times, so I’m always a bit nervous I’m going to be late!

Where did you go to undergraduate and graduate school?

University of Oklahoma

For my undergraduate (BA in Psychology) and Master’s degree (Experimental Psychology) I was at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. And I got my PhD from the University of Oklahoma. (Dr. Osterman and I actually met there many years ago!!!).

What classes are you teaching right now and what types of courses will you be teaching in the future?

Currently, I’m teaching two sections of the INQ 260 Psychology in the Media, and one PSYC 101 Introduction to Psychology. In the near future, I’ll be teaching Cognitive Psych and Research Methods.  I will also be developing (over the upcoming years) a new INQ 110, a Memory course, and a Psychology and Law/Forensic Psych course as well.

What are some of your past and current research experiences and interests?

Founders Building, Egham, England.

My most exciting research experience was getting to be a Postdoctoral Researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London, in Egham, England. I hadn’t yet finished my dissertation, but accepted a position overseas to work on a project evaluating the U.K.’s eyewitness identification system/technique. I got to be a researcher, without any teaching responsibilities for 1.5 years and learned a lot of new stuff, as well as did research that could inform policy abroad.

In terms of research interests, Dr. Wetmore explains…

The overall focus of my research examines the intersection between cognition and the legal system. Research that I have been involved in, thus far, has been in three major areas.

Dr. Wetmore

The first is research on jailhouse informants. Jailhouse informants are a leading cause of wrongful conviction, yet very little is known about this form of evidence, including how jurors perceive and weigh this information, and if there are effective safeguards against it.

Another cause of wrongful conviction that I have studied are eyewitness identifications. Specifically, my research focused on show-up identification procedures, in which the individual must make a decision from a single face. My colleagues and I found that the show-up was a more unreliable memory test than a more traditional six-pack lineup. I’m interested in developing other procedures or methods of evaluating eyewitness memory in order to make it a more effective source of evidence at trial.

Lastly, related to eyewitness identifications, I’m interested in facial processing and memory in general. Humans are made specially to be able to process faces super-fast and efficiently, however there are still instances when this mechanism breaks down and I’m interested in examining these instances when it falters. For instance, a well-known phenomenon is the cross-race effect, or own-race bias, in which we are better at identifying someone from our own race better than from another race. Although we know the phenomenon exists, little is known about what cognitively could be different in the processing so I want to investigate this issue further.

What are some random/cool facts about you?

  • I was a collegiate athlete in tennis.
  • I lived abroad for 2 years in England as a postdoctoral researcher.

    Dr. Wetmore’s adorable puppy, Daisy.
  • Super allergic to 100% grape juice – but can drink the not healthy stuff, wine, and eat grapes… I think this fits under random.

Is there anything else that you’d like to mention?

I have the cutest (I might be biased) 7 month old puppy, Daisy, that I walk around campus every morning between 6-7 (depending on when I can drag myself out of bed) and every evening, so anyone who runs into us is welcome to say hello. 🙂

Thank you Dr. Wetmore for taking your time to answer our questions, and welcome again to Roanoke College! We are glad to have you here (and Daisy too)!

 

Get connected!
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Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
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Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

A Brief Interview with Dr. Dane Hilton

A student assistant for the psychology department recently interviewed Dr. Dane Hilton, a new faculty member this semester, about himself, his interests in psychology, and some other little-known facts.

The following is the interview:

So, how do you like Roanoke so far? Is it very different from Alabama?

I have really enjoyed settling into the Roanoke area. It is a good bit different from Alabama geographically, as Alabama is fairly flat where I lived in Tuscaloosa. At the same time, I’m from western North Carolina originally and spent five years in Boone for school, so being back in the Appalachian region is kind of like coming home. The area reminds me a lot of some of the cooler places I’ve visited in the south east- it’s a bit like Chattanooga, Birmingham, and Asheville, NC all rolled into one compact and livable place. The college is beautiful and I’ve really loved how down to earth and friendly everyone is. That is one thing that is not different from Alabama- everyone is super friendly!

Where did you go to undergrad and grad school?

I did my bachelor’s at Appalachian State University in psychology and then stayed for two more years to get my master’s in Clinical Health Psychology. I then moved to Tuscaloosa, AL and did three years at The University of Alabama for my PhD in Clinical Child Psychology. Finally, I did my pre-doctoral internship- a year-long clinical residency- at the WVU-Charleston Division School of Medicine in Charleston, WV. It’s been a long road…

What classes are you teaching right now and what types of courses will you be teaching in the future?

Right now I’m teaching Psychology in the Media and Personality Psychology. I think both of these courses will stay in my rotation for a few years but I will also be teaching Intro to Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and hopefully a course in Applied Behavior Analysis at some point in the future.

What are some of your past and current research experiences and interests?

My research has always been related to individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in some way, and I will likely continue this line of research for many more years. My primary research program is focused on understanding the relationship between executive function- an important set of cognitive skills- and social functioning in folks with and without ADHD. I also do intervention research- again, primarily in the area of ADHD. I am currently working with the WVU Department of Behavioral Medicine to study the mechanisms of treatment outcome in group-based behavioral parent training for ADHD. I was awarded a grant while on internship to conduct this research and our group plans on applying for a larger grant to continue studying these processes in the next year or two. Lastly, I study mindfulness meditation. I have been leading mindfulness meditation groups for about 5 years and studying the effects regular mindfulness practices have on ADHD symptoms, anxiety, depression, and mind-wandering. I’m currently talking with individuals at RC to begin developing various ways to integrate mindfulness practice into curriculum, wellness programs, and intervention groups.

What are some random/cool facts about you?

Before starting graduate school at Appalachian State, I seriously considered becoming a bison farmer- yes, those giant looking beasts in all the Yellowstone pictures. It was between that and psychology. I honestly think I would have been happy doing either but I’m glad I’m here now. Some other random stuff… I was able to dunk a basketball in eighth grade, I once recorded an album in Chapel Hill, NC with my former folk band Foscoe, and I have hiked over 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail with my wife. That pretty much exhausts my cool facts reservoir…

Is there anything else that you’d like to mention?

Just that I am super excited to be at Roanoke. The psychology department is full of fabulous teacher-scholars who are also super chill and fun to be around. I look forward to getting to know the students here and being a part of the really great community that exists at RC.

Welcome to Roanoke College, Dr. Hilton! We are glad to have you here in the Psychology Department, although being a bison farmer sounds pretty great too.

 

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Pie A Professor TODAY!

Today is the day. The day you get to see your professors pied! From 5pm-6pm at Sutton Terrace RCPA and Psi Chi will make your dreams come true by pieing 6 of our beloved professors for your enjoyment, all while raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Pieing will occur at 5:30pm, with the opportunity for students to pay $10 to personally pie a professor of their choice. Bring your friends!

The current rankings are:

  1. Dr. Buchholz & Dr. Carter (tied for first)
  2. Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand
  3. Dr. Nichols
  4. Dr. Osterman
  5. Dr. Allen

Belated April Fools: Psychology Department Antics

This year, April 1st fell on a Sunday.

So, naturally, the psychology department decided to celebrate Belated April Fools the following day.

What resulted was nothing less than genius.

Part of this included a revenge plot that had been brewing for years.

Dr. O tells her side of the story below:

Weeeeeell… It all started many moons ago, in Spring 2014, when Dr. Nichols was on his way to do an optical illusion demonstration in his Research Methods class and got the bright idea to don his George W. Bush mask (a prop in the demonstration), his trench coat, and his fedora (all together, a rather intimidating combination), and slowly peeked around the doorway of my office in an attempt to get me to pee my pants.

It very nearly worked.

After I recovered from my extreme fright, I told Dr. Nichols in no uncertain terms that wearing a mask in public on a non-Halloween day was highly illegal behavior (which we later confirmed), and that I wouldn’t tolerate it in my workplace. I also vowed, privately, to seek revenge upon him at the first opportunity.

Months passed.

Years passed.

And I bided my time, quietly, patiently. Until one day, in February 2018, I walked into Life Science 502 a few minutes before the start of my Quantitative Methods class and noticed atop the “technology tower” in the corner of the room… The Mask, completely unattended (and very creepily staring at the ceiling with its vacant, soulless eye-sockets). Immediately, I grabbed The Mask and ran back to my office to conceal it until April 1st.

A close-up

Over the intervening weeks, I discussed with esteemed colleagues on what prank I might involve the mask. Many excellent ideas were put forward (e.g., perhaps we could dangle the mask by a string from the ceiling; perhaps one of us could put on the mask and startle Dr. Nichols as he had startled me), but eventually, we landed on the following plan:

We would construct a lifelike “scarecrow” from garbage bags, recycled paper, and dress the scarecrow in the mask, trench-coat, and fedora (the latter of which Dr. Nichols usually leaves in his office). We would sit the scarecrow in Dr. Nichols’s desk chair, and Dr. Buchholz would construct a complicated pulley system connecting the office door to the desk chair, so that when Dr. Nichols entered his office, the chair would spin around to face him, and hopefully cause Dr. Nichols to shout in alarm.

The plan went off without a hitch, but I found Dr. Nichols’s reaction somewhat underwhelming. So, over the course of that  fine Monday, the scarecrow moved around from office-to-office, scaring a number of colleagues (including myself, somehow), and I came up with one final step in the plan.

At the end of the day, Dr. Nichols was teaching his Neuroscience lab, and a few minutes before the end of class, I donned the scarecrow’s disguise, and seated myself, perfectly still, in Dr. Nichols’s chair. When Dr. Nichols entered his office, he thought it was just the scarecrow, and was not alarmed until my hands sprang into the air like scary claws and I yelled “RAAAAWR” and Dr. Nichols said “Ah!” and it was my very favorite moment of my entire life.

And that is the story of the mask.

Test One:

Dr. Nichols confirmed the events of that fateful day, telling his side of the story:

The mask is something that I use in PSYC 202 to tell a hopefully amusing story about some silliness my friends and I did in college. However, I scared Dr. Osterman with it in her first year at Roanoke College when I wore it down the hall on my way to class. Since then, I include in class a life lesson that apparently wearing a mask in public outside of Halloween is illegal in many states, including Virginia. Apparently, the last time I used the mask in PSYC 202, I left it in the classroom and Dr. Osterman found it, planning a frightening surprise when the chance arose.

On Monday morning, April 2nd, I came into the office a little bit later than I usually do since my kids were on Spring Break and I didn’t have to get up as early as I normally do. I said ‘hi’ to Dr. Buchholz, who ‘just so happened’ to be out in the hall on my way in. I opened my door and noticed that someone seemed to be sitting in my chair with a hat and trench coat on and remembered thinking something like ‘That’s weird that there is someone sitting in my office chair in the dark. Huh, how about that?’. Then when I opened the door completely, the chair swung around and it looked quite realistic. I started slightly before realizing it was my mask. I was quite impressed by the system of fishing line that was rigged up to get the chair to move that way!

Then, at the end of the day after the dummy had been moved around to the offices of other department faculty, I came back to my office after my afternoon class was over. The day had not gone well at all because of technical difficulties preparing for Neuro lab, so I was feeling exhausted but glad that the lab had gone alright in the end. Dr. Allen was waiting out in the hall and took out her camera to film me entering my office, which seemed suspicious. I remember saying something like ‘I’ve seen it already’ because I expected the dummy to be back in my office, though suspected something else to possibly be going on.

When I entered the office, the dummy sprung to life as it jumped out of my chair! I started on the inside but didn’t have too much of a physical reaction, though it was a very good set-up with Dr. Osterman inside a padded suit so that it looked pretty much just like the original dummy, even though someone was now inside it.

I very much appreciated the thought and planning that went into both surprises! It’s great to work in a department that enjoys one another so much. 🙂

The Real Dill:

Get connected!
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Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
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Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Pie a Prof!

It’s that time of the year!

Stop by the table outside of Colket or by the box in the hallway of the 5th floor to choose your victim(s) to get pied! The professor with the most money in their jar will get a special pie, with sprinkles.

All proceeds will go to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Hope to see you there!

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Mr. Dane Hilton is Looking for Student Research Assistants!

Dr. Dane Hilton, a new faculty member in the Department of Psychology, is recruiting student research assistants to start in the fall.

The research conducted in the lab will focus on:

  • Cognitive mechanisms of social encoding
  • Mindfulness meditation and other alternative treatments for self-regulatory deficits
  • Improving measurement of social information processing
  • The use of technology in psychotherapy research/intervention
  • Treatment mechanisms in ADHD Parent Training

He is looking for research assistants who:

  • Are conscientious and hard-working
  • Have excellent time-management skills
  • Are intellectually curious
  • Interested in ADHD, executive function, or social interaction (preferred, not required)
  • Are familiar with MS Office/Google Docs
  • Have some familiarity with research methods and statistics (preferred, not required)
  • Interested in applying technology (e.g., smartphones, activity trackers, etc.) to research (not required)

Research assistants will be involved with many aspects of the research process, including developing experimental materials, data collection (in and outside of the lab), data entry, and literature reviews. Highly motivated students will have opportunities for more involvement in study design, statistical analysis, and other more advanced aspects of the research process.

Interested students from all class years are encouraged to contact Dr. Hilton for an application (dchilton@crimson.ua.edu).

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Welcome Dr. Dane Hilton!

The Psychology Department would like to welcome Dr. Dane Hilton as our newest tenure-track professor starting this upcoming fall semester. Dr. Hilton obtained his Masters in Clinical Health Psychology from Appalachian State University and his PhD in Clinical Child Psychology from the University of Alabama.

At Roanoke, Dr. Hilton will be teaching courses such as Abnormal, Personality, and Clinical Psychology. His research interests focus specifically on social encoding, executive functioning, and mindfulness. Dr. Hilton has conducted research on social skills in youth and emerging adults, especially those with ADHD, and on psycho-social interventions for those with executive functioning deficits.

Dr. Hilton is currently looking for student research assistants to start next semester. If you’re interested, follow this link to learn more.

Welcome again to Dr. Hilton! We are excited for him to be joining the department!

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Dr. Stacy Wetmore is Looking for Research Assistants!

Dr. Stacy Wetmore, a new faculty member in the Department of Psychology, is recruiting student research assistants to start in the fall.

The research conducted in the lab will focus on: 

  • Intersections between cognition and the legal system
  • Factors that influence eyewitness identification accuracy and confidence
  • Underlying processes of memory for recognizing faces
  • Examining the perceptions of cooperating witnesses (including jailhouse informants and accomplice witnesses)
  • Examining and understanding the safeguards that are in place to help jurors evaluate cooperating witnesses

Looking for research assistants who: 

  • Are conscientious and self-motivated
  • Are able to juggle a variety of tasks at once
  • Are intellectually curious (ideally with knowledge of cognitive psychology)
  • Share some level of interest in the above topics
  • Are familiar with MS Office/Google Docs
  • Have some familiarity with research methods and statistics (preferred, not required)

Research assistants will be involved with many aspects of the research process, including developing experimental materials (e.g., mock crime videos and mugshots), data collection (in and outside of the lab), data entry, and literature reviews. Highly motivated students will have opportunities for more involvement in study design, statistical analysis, and other more advanced aspects of the research process.

Interested students from all class years are encouraged to contact Dr. Wetmore for an application (stacy.wetmore@gmail.com).

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Welcome Dr. Stacy Wetmore!

Dr. Stacy Wetmore

The Psychology Department would like to welcome Dr. Stacy Wetmore to our faculty as our newest tenure-track professor. She will be joining in the fall of 2018 and will teach Research Methods, Cognitive Psychology and other topics in the cognitive domain.

Dr. Wetmore received her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Oklahoma with minors in biological and quantitative psychology. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London from 2015-2016 and, most recently, taught at Butler University.

Dr. Wetmore’s research interests are focused primarily on studying the complexities and  implications of the psycho-legal field. Her current research involves comparing the performances of lineups and show-ups, in addition to studying the cross-race bias in recognition memory.

She is also seeking student research assistants of all class years. To learn more, follow this link.

We are excited to have Dr. Wetmore joining the department next semester!

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

SPSP Conference 2018

The first weekend of spring break, Drs. Buchholz, Osterman, Carter, and Findley-Van Nostrand, in addition to several students, traveled to Atlanta to present their studies at the 2018 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference.

The students in attendance included:

  • Cody Dillon-Owens ’19, who presented on “Understanding moral decision making using self-driving cars.” This study was supervised by Dr. Buchholz and included several other students, including Megan Miller ’18, Allison Smith, Lauren Powell ’21, and Seth Poore ’20. They found that participants generally thought positively of self-driving cars. Faced with a moral dilemma on who to save during an impending crash, the participants were generally more likely to save themselves and their mothers over anyone else. Participants were also more likely to save “significant” individuals rather than strangers.
  • To learn more about the study, please contact Dr. Buchholz at buchholz@roanoke.edu.

  • Lauren Furlow ’19 and Nicole Moughrabi ’19 presented on the “Allocation of Mate Budgets as Function of Environmental Threat and Life History Strategy.” From Dr. Osterman’s lab, Furlow and Moughrabi added to further research to the field discussing how  “women’s mating psychologies shift as a function of early environment and current environment demands.”
  • To learn more about this study, email Dr. Osterman at osterman@roanoke.edu.

Sabrina McAllister ’18 presents her findings.

  • Sabrina McAllister ’18, a member of Dr. Nichols’s lab, discussed the results of her study titled “Time Perspective as a State-Based Measure.” To learn more about her study, follow this link. (If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Nichols at dnichols@roanoke.edu.)

  • Lauren Powell ’21, also a member of Dr. Buchholz’s lab, discussed the study titled “The moral dilemma of self-driving cars.” As this study was conducted alongside the first discussed study, the same researchers also worked on this inquiry. The main goal in this study was to see how gender and empathy would affect how the participants answered the moral dilemmas. However, the results showed that neither gender nor empathy predicted the answers, but that there was a “three-way interaction between gender, cognitive empathy, and affective resonance.” They also found that men possessed significantly more positive attitudes towards self-driving cars than women.

In addition, Drs. Osterman and Findley-Van Nostrand also presented their research. Specifically, Dr. O presented findings found in conjunction with Dr. Gornick of the Virginia Military Institute, Mr. Brian Matera, and Mr. Alexander Carr, titled “Trait Empathy Moderates Belief Bias in Emotionally-Evocative Reasoning Tasks.” To learn more, please contact Dr. Osterman at the above mentioned email address.

Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand’s study was titled: “Sense of Belonging Drives Intentions to Leave STEM in Undergraduate Students: Mediated and Short-Term Longitudinal Association.” She worked alongside Drs. Sophie Kuchynka, Jennifer Bosson, and Richard Pollenz, all from the University of South Florida. If you are curious about the study and want to learn more, Dr. FVN can be contacted at findley@roanoke.edu.

Finally, the day before the official SPSP conference began, Dr. Carter presented his study on “The Effect of the American Flag on Political Attitudes Has Declined Over Time: A Case Study of the Effect of Historical Context on Priming Effects,” at the JDM preconference.

The preconferences are one-day, mini conferences that allow for colleagues to gather to discuss their specific areas of interest. For Dr. Carter, this was to discuss the changes since the first study he and his fellow researchers had conducted in 2011, wherein his research revealed that using the American flag as a primer has become less effective in shifting participants towards more politically conservative attitudes and beliefs. The effect is shown to be roughly zero at present. To learn more, please contact Dr. Carter at tjcarter@roanoke.edu.

(Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of Dr. Carter while he was presenting at the JDM preconference. Instead, Dr. O provided a dramatic reenactment via hard work and editing skills.)

When asked about the experience, Dr. Osterman said…

We had a fantastic time at SPSP, and all of our student presenters did a wonderful job of talking about their research with other scholars. They represented the college and department exceedingly well.

Cody seconded this, saying:

SPSP went really well! It was a wonderful opportunity to present research to a large body of our peers in psychology, as well as learn about a lot of the exciting new research that’s being conducted in the field. I definitely look forward to attending my next conference!

Congratulations to our students and professors for their successful SPSP conference!

Get connected!
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Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

The Story Behind the GIF

In honor of three very special birthdays, including Dr. FVN and recent alums Stephanie Shields and Nikki Hurless, Dr. Nichols demonstrated how to “floss.”

Naturally, it was made into a GIF.

For a brief period of time, it was also shown on the psychology television near the elevators.

To see the original video that inspired this masterpiece, click here.

Get connected!
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Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Manuscript Published!

Congratulations to Dr. Powell (Roanoke College), Dr. Freedman (Dartmouth University), Dr. Le (Haverford College), and Dr. Williams (Purdue University) for their recent publishing in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, titled “Ghosting and Destiny: Implicit theories of relationships predict beliefs about ghosting”!

The research article focuses on two studies conducted by the authors to determine how implicit theories such as destiny and growth influence relationship terminations and how participants view “ghosting.”

For more information, follow this link to see the original study.

Again, congratulations to Dr. Powell and her fellow researchers for their manuscript publishing!

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Toy Like Me ’17

A Student at Oak Grove Receiving Her Toy. Original Source: Roanoke College News

Last December, Christmas was made particularly special for a class at Oak Grove Elementary School in Roanoke, Virginia.

As reported by the local WDBJ7 news station, Roanoke College students and biology professor, Dr. Frances Bosch, delivered toys they had altered to Mrs. Gruber’s special education classroom.

For children with disabilities, finding toys that look like them can be difficult and they can sometimes feel left out as a result.

As Dr. Bosch points out,

[… because only] twenty percent of the population have a disability of some sort, it is unlikely that major manufacturers would make toys to truly give every child a toy like them.

Yet, for students of this classroom, and for many other children as a result of the Toy Like Me project in Roanoke and the UK, finding toys that represent them has been made a little easier.

The Toy Like Me project at Roanoke College began when Dr. Bosch was researching for her 2015 May Term class, and she read about the Toy Like Me program started by Rebecca Atkinson in the UK.

Atkinson recognized the need for more diversified toys and started the program in order to lobby major toy manufacturers into producing toys more diverse toys.

The following year, while planning for her 2016 May Term class, Dr. Bosch decided not to wait for toy manufacturers to start diversifying their products.

I contacted Rebecca and asked if we could modify toys and give them away in the name of Toy Like Me. 

Atkinson approved.

So, the May 2016 class modified $300 worth of toys, and we gave most of them to Carilion Clinic’s Children’s Hospital in Roanoke.

Dr. Bosch helps a student during her May Term class. Source: Facebook

This was not the end, however, as this project would spark continued projects in the name of Toy Like Me at Roanoke College. As Dr. Bosch describes,

Last school year, we did a Santa Claus Toy drive, and gave away $1600 worth of toys. [We] then gave toys away for Valentine’s [Day], and again in April.

My May 2017 class modified $700 worth of toys for the Pediatric Oncology ward at UVA through RC alumna Karra (Slaughter) Lee, who is a PA in that ward.

This year’s Santa Claus toy drive saw toys go to children in several schools in Roanoke City and County.

Including Oak Grove Elementary.

Last semester, we partnered with  Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand’s Developmental Psychology classes. They modified toys with us, then participated in the delivery of toys to Oak Grove Elementary.

According to Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand, her students worked with Professor Bosch, the “heart and soul of the program” in order modify the toys based on each individual student.

If someone is in a wheelchair, a doll can be modified to include a wheelchair; if a child has a feeding tube, a tube can be inserted in toys; if a child wears glasses or has crutches, they add those […]

RC Students and Dr. FVN introducing themselves at Oak Grove. Not Mine: Roanoke College News, David Matheny

For Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand, the Toy Like Me program was “a memorable experience” as she “loved seeing the kids get so surprised and excited over the toys, and it was a great opportunity for my students as well.”

Dr. Bosch notes plans to partner with Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand’s class again this semester, as well as with Psi Chi, the Honors Society for psychology.

Tenure Track Professor Candidate Research Talk

The Psychology Department would like to invite the campus community to attend a presentation by Dane Hilton, a candidate for a tenure track professor in the department, on the “Social Functioning and the Executive System: Improving Theory, Informing Intervention” TODAY in Life Science 402 at 4:00 pm.

For more information, please contact Dr. Buchholz.

Hope to see you there!

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Dr. Powell and Ms. Lawrence at NCFR

Courtesy of Dr. Powell. The NCFR was held in Florida.

Recently, Dr. Darcey Powell and Ms. Riker Lawrence were able to present their studies at their first visit to the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR).

NCFR is an annual conference that is the “premier professional association for understanding families” through various ways.

Dr. Powell presented on a study by herself and Sophia Bolton of Duke University, titled “Parental Knowledge and Adjustment of Mothers in a Treatment Facility.”

@Dr.DarcyPowellFB

She posted on Facebook, saying about the experience:

The lab’s first #NCFR17 won’t be our last NCFR! Our projects were well received, catching up with colleagues and networking with new ones was productive, and (last, but certainly not least) the sunny Florida weather was much enjoyed!

Ms. Riker Lawrence also presented on her research, which was in conjunction with Dr. Powell and Dr. Katherine Karraker of West Virginia University, and titled “Caring for Toddlers: Parents’ Experiences, Desires, and Satisfaction.”

 

Overall, we’re incredibly proud of our department’s Dr. Powell and Ms. Lawrence for their successful presentations at NCFR and for representing the department and Roanoke College well.

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Congratulations to Dr. Powell and Dr. FVN on their Manuscript Acceptances!

The Psychology Department would like to congratulate Dr. Powell and Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand on getting their manuscripts accepted for publishing this semester!

Dr. Powell has published two articles this semester. The first was in conjunction with Elizabeth Babskie and Aaron Metzger, titled “Variability in Parenting Self-Efficacy Across
Prudential Adolescent Behaviors” and can be found here.

The second article, titled “Prospective Parents’ Knowledge About Parenting and Their Anticipated Child-Rearing Decisions,” has received special promotion by the National Council of Family Relations as one of the five “early view” articles from their journals for October, and was co-written with Dr. Katherine Karraker of West Virginia University.

Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand has also had a manuscript acceptance for her article on  “Affective-interpersonal and impulsive-antisocial psychopathy: Links to social goals and forms of aggression in youth and adults”,  which is co-authored with Tiina Ojanen, a professor at the University of South Florida, and will be published in the journal Psychology of Violence.

For Dr. FVN’s description of her article and findings, please follow this link.

Again, congratulations to both professors on their recent article acceptances!

A Brief Interview with Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand

Dr. Findley Van-Nostrand is pictured above. She is a new Psychology professor here at Roanoke College.

A student assistant was recently able to interview Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand amidst the chaos and confusion that is midterms about herself and her research interests, as well as her recent manuscript acceptance in the journal Psychology of Violence.

So, how do you like Roanoke so far? Is it very different from Florida?

It’s great! Definitely different from Tampa. Smaller city, slower pace, cooler weather…all good things for me.

Can you tell me about your academic background?

I did my undergraduate degree at the University of South Florida. I also remained there, for a variety of reasons, for my Ph.D. (and Masters along the way). Towards the end of my doctorate, I broadened my interests some and was involved in a couple of projects outside of the Psychology department that involved applying psychology to the problem of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) student persistence. These projects ended up leading to an offer to remain as a postdoctoral researcher after wrapping up my dissertation. So, after my postdoc, here I am!

What classes are you teaching right now and what types of courses will you be teaching in the future?

Right now I am teaching PSCY221- Developmental Psychology, and PSYC321- Child Development. In the near(ish) future I will teach these, as well as Intro to Psychology, Adolescent Development, and a Research Seminar in Developmental Psychology.

What are some of your past and current research experiences and interests?

My research interests are related but twofold. In my primary research, I am interested in peer relationships and social behaviors during adolescence and early adulthood. In this line, I have

focused on aggression among peers, underlying motivational factors, and the ways in which aggression is tied to social status among peers. I also have continuing research aimed at understanding the role of the self in aggression and prosociality, and my studies in these area are driven by both developmental and social psychology literatures and studies. In my second line of research, I’m also interested in understanding how social experiences, like felt belonging, as well as self-concepts and motivation may drive interest and persistence in STEM disciplines. Much of the research in this area is also related to academic persistence and achievement more broadly, but has some specific nuances related to the STEM context.

I recently heard that you have been approved to publish an article in a journal, can you tell me more about that?

Sure! The paper will be published in the journal Psychology of Violence, and includes two studies (one in early adolescence, and one in young adulthood) examining two forms of psychopathy, social goals, and forms of aggression. In previous research, we’ve demonstrated that social goals for status predict heightened aggression (especially relational aggression) over time in adolescents, and social goals for closeness and affiliation are related to lower levels of aggression. In a separate line of research, psychopathy and callous-unemotional traits are consistently tied to high aggression. In our study, we demonstrated differences in relationships between psychopathy and social goals based on form of psychopathy (one form entailing interpersonal manipulation was related to social goals, whereas the other form entailing behavioral impulsivity was not), and that social goals mediated the links between psychopathy and aggression in both age groups. So, within the context of psychopathy as a risk factor, targeting social goals may help in aggression-related interventions.

What are some random/cool facts about you?

First, my husband and I have an 1 ½ year old son, who keeps us busy and I’m forever in awe of. Second, I am a huge Formula 1 racing fan! We have a lot of awkward hours in our house where we will wake up to watch the European races live. It’s a much more complex sport than you might think, and the psychology of the drivers, their competitiveness, decision making, team dynamics, etc. is really fascinating.

Is there anything else that you’d like to mention?

Everyone here has been super welcoming. So thanks!

Congratulations Dr. FVN for your recent manuscript acceptance and thank you for taking time to answer our questions!

 

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC @RC_Psychology
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

A Brief Interview with Dr. Travis Carter

Dr. Travis Carter, Psychology Professor at Roanoke College

A student assistant for the psychology department was recently able to interview Dr. Travis Carter, a new Psychology professor at Roanoke College this year, as a follow-up interview to learn more about him, his interests in psychology, and other cool things as the semester is now in full-swing. The following is the interview:

So, how do you like Roanoke so far? Is it very different from Maine?

I think it’s great! Everyone I’ve met has been incredibly welcoming, and although we’ve just started to explore the area, it seems like there’s a ton of stuff to do. And yes, it is very different from Maine in a lot of ways, but I think the biggest differences will be apparent this winter. I am not going to miss shoveling 3+ feet of snow from my driveway.

Can you tell me a little about your educational background?

I did my undergrad at the University of Chicago, which has a reputation as a large research university, but the undergraduate population is actually not all that big, so it operates more like a liberal arts college. I received my PhD from Cornell University, and then returned to Chicago for a postdoc in the Center for Decision Research, housed in the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

What classes are you teaching right now and what types of courses will you be teaching in the future?

Right now, I am teaching PSYC-251: Social Psychology and PSYC-204: Quantitative Methods in Psychology. I’ll continue to teach those courses in the future, and will teach what I hope will be a fun INQ-120 course this coming spring, called A Perfect World. It aims to examine past utopian visions through the lens of modern psychological research. Next year, I’ll also be teaching some upper level courses, including a course in Judgment and Decision Making, and one on Social Cognition.

What are your past and current research interests?

I continue to have a diverse range of research interests, examining everything from political attitudes to consumer behavior to a fairness bias exhibited by Major League Baseball umpires. Broadly speaking, I’m interested in the ways that our judgments, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors can be biased by both external forces (subtle exposure to a symbol in the environment, a manager screaming at an umpire about a bad call) and internal motivations (political ideology, desire to gorge yourself on potato chips).

What are some random/cool facts about you?

Just this summer my wife and I had a baby, who I think is in the running for cutest baby of all time. (And as someone who studies biased beliefs, I can comfortably say that my opinion about her cuteness is completely objective.)

Other than that, I love music, technology, and the boring sports (baseball, soccer).

Thank you Dr. Carter for taking time to answer our questions and congratulations on having a baby! We’re glad to have you at Roanoke College!

Recruiting Student Research Assistants for Fall 2017!

Dr. Travis Carter, a new faculty member in the Department of Psychology, is recruiting student research assistants to start in the fall.

The research conducted in the lab will focus on:

  •  Bias in social judgments
  • The role of introspection in biased self-assessments
  • Motivated reasoning and self-deception
  • Happiness and consumer behavior
  • Political belief formation

Looking for research assistants who:

  • Are conscientious and hard-working
  • Are able to juggle a variety of tasks at once
  •  Are intellectually curious (ideally with knowledge of social psychology)
  • Are familiar with MS Office/Google Docs
  •  Have some familiarity with research methods and statistics (preferred, not required)
  •  Have some programming skills, or an interest in learning (preferred, not required)

Research assistants will be involved with many aspects of the research process, including developing experimental materials, data collection (in and outside of the lab), data entry, and literature reviews. Highly motivated students will have opportunities for more involvement in study design, statistical analysis, and other more advanced aspects of the research process.

Interested students from all class years are encouraged to contact Dr. Carter for an application (travis.carter@gmail.com).

 

Recruiting Student Research Assistants for Fall 2017!

Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand, a new faculty member in the Department of Psychology, is looking for research assistants to begin in the Fall semester.

Research topics in the lab will include:

  • peer relationships from early adolescence through young adulthood
  • development of social behaviors (aggression, prosociality, withdrawal), social motivation, and status among peers
  • the self and personality in relation to social behaviors and social-emotional adjustment
  • the role of social experiences in academic persistence and motivation (especially in STEM: science, technology, engineering, and math fields)

Looking for students who…

  • are hard working
  • are motivated
  • share some level of interest in the above topics
  • of any class level (Freshman-Senior)
  • have some experience with statistics and methods and familiarity with SPSS and Microsoft Office (preferred, not necessary)

Students in the lab can expect to work on a variety of tasks related to the research process, with potential for increased involvement.  For instance, research assistants may work on any combination of data entry/coding, data analysis, literature reviews, study design, and data collection (in-lab and community-based studies most likely in local schools).

Interested??

For questions or an application, email Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand at dfindley@mail.usf.edu.

Welcome Dr. Travis Carter

Dr. Travis Carter will be joining the Psychology Department in the fall of 2017 as our newest Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Social Psychology. He received his PhD from Cornell University and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago. Most recently he worked as an Assistant Professor at Colby College in Maine.

At Roanoke College, Dr. Carter will teach Quantitative Methods, Social Psychology, and will eventually design new courses in the Social-Personality domain. He has conducted research in the areas of judgement and decision making, social cognition, and consumer behavior, focusing on the internal and external forces that produce biased judgments. For instance, one study examined the effects of accusations of bias on Major League Baseball umpires’ subsequent ball and strike calls. We are excited to have Dr. Carter join the Department!

Welcome Dr. Danielle Findley-Van Nostrand

Dr. Danielle Findley-Van Nostrand will be joining the Psychology Department in the fall of 2017 as our newest Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology. She comes to us from the University of South Florida in Tampa, where she completed her PhD and holds a Post-Doctoral position in STEM education.

At Roanoke College, Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand will teach courses in Developmental Psychology. Her research is interdisciplinary and focuses on social experiences and their relation to the self and adjustment in adolescents and young adults. We are excited to have Dr. Findley-Van Nostrand join the Department!

Undergraduate Publication!

capture13

Congratulations to Stephanie Shields, Caitlin Morse, Drew Applebaugh, Tyler Muntz, and Dr. Nichols for their most recent publication in Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education.

The article is based on a project they completed during NEUR/PSYC430-Research Seminar in Neuroscience in the Spring 2016 semester that will help guide the use of different EEG equipment in the Principles of Neuroscience Lab and more widely in our Neuroscience Concentration.

To read the full article, please follow this link:

www.funjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/june-15-29.pdf.

 

 

Faculty Publication: Dr. Darcey Powell

 

Powell Headshot 3capture12

Congratulations to Dr. Powell for her most recent publication in the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching! Please click this link to access this article!

 

Get connected!
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Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
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Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Virginia-Nordic Precision Neuroscience Conference

Scanning of a human brain by X-rays
Scanning of a human brain by X-rays

The world’s first international conference on the application of precision medicine to brain research, brain health and disease will be held in Roanoke, Virginia on Wednesday, October 5 through Friday, October 7, 2016.

The Virginia-Nordic Precision Neuroscience Conference  will bring together leading brain researchers, clinicians and physician-scientists from across the U.S., including from major Virginia universities and health systems and from leading Nordic universities and health systems with thought leaders from the pharmaceutical industry and the National Institutes of Health.

Speakers include a Nobel laureate, a winner of the Lundbeck Foundation International Brain Prize, the Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the Scientific Director of the Division of Intramural Research Programs at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) who will discuss the latest breakthroughs in basic, translational and clinical neuroscience with an individualized perspective.  Speakers and panelists will consider the technical advances, the promise, opportunity and the challenges related to the actualization of precision medicine in neuroscience.

The conference is being hosted by the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute (VTCRI – http://research.vtc.vt.edu/) in beautiful Roanoke, Virginia, U.S.A.  Information on registration, poster submissions, accommodations, CME credit along with details of the entire program can be found at www.vnpn.org

Faculty, undergraduate, graduate and medical students, fellows, postdocs, residents and science/health leaders at all career stages are welcome. Attendance and meals at the meeting are free but you must pre-register for the meeting.

REGISTRATION FOR POSTER SUBMISSIONS AND ATTENDANCE ENDS TODAY, 9/26!

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Crumley Lecture: Rosalind Picard

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Go to the website provided below to reserve your ticket!

https://www.roanoke.edu/events/crumley_lecture_rosalind_picard

 

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Faculty Publication: Dr. Nichols

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Congratulations to Dr. Nichols for his recent publication in the academic journal, Brain and Behavior! Dr. Nichols’ project is based on his post-doc work, which looks for evidence for position sensitivity in object-selective visual areas.

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Dr. Nichols’ article is titled “Position selectivity in face-sensitive visual cortex to facial and nonfacial stimuli: an fMRI study” and can be found directly at:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/brb3.542/full

 

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Welcome to Our New Faculty Members!

LETS GIVE A BIG WELCOME TO THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT’S NEWEST MEMBERS!

Athena Buckthought

Dr. Athena Buckthought

Dr. Buckthought received her B.Sc. in Physics, M.Sc. in Psychology (Neuroscience) and a Ph.D. in Psychology (’04) from Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. Her current research interests are visual perception, cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, specifically looking at stereopsis and motion parallax, as well as using psychophysics and functional brain imaging.

She is currently teaching Cognitive Psychology and Psychology in the Media. Dr. Buckthought is looking to recruit students for her research lab. More information on her lab and the type of students she is looking for can be found at: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology/research_and_internships/undergraduate_research/dr_buckthoughts_research_lab

Dr. Mills-Smith

Dr. Laura Mills-Smith

Dr. Mills-Smith received B.A.s in Anthropology (’09), English (’09), and Psychology (’10) from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in Psychology (’13) from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in Psychology with a specialization in developmental science (’16) from Virginia Tech. Dr. Mills-Smith’s research focuses on infant language learning and the social context in which it happens, specifically focusing on basic interests in audiovisual perception, face processing, joint attention, and the role and importance of contingency for language acquisition and social development.

She is currently teaching Intro to Psychology and Developmental Psychology. More information on Dr. Mills-Smith’s research lab can be found at: http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology/research_and_internships/undergraduate_research/dr_mills-smiths_research_lab.

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Welcome back students

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Everyone in the Psychology Department is excited to begin a new academic year. We want to welcome our new students, as well as our returning majors, minors, and students in concentrations.

You will notice a few changes in the Department this year. First, we have two new faculty members joining us this year: Dr. Athena Buckthought (cognitive neuroscience) and Dr. Laura Mills-Smith (developmental psychology). Please give them a warm welcome when you return. Second, you may noticed some upgrades to the classrooms, new hallway furniture, and our new Student Computer Lounge across from the elevator.

We are looking forward to working with all of you to make it a great year! Stay tuned to our blog and facebook page for upcoming events and opportunities.

Get involved

 Get connected

 Student Resources

Undergraduate Publication

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Congratulations to Alex Grant, alumni Rachael Benons, Ashley Johns, Melissa Hobson, and Dr. Nichols for their recent publication in Impulse! Impulse is a premier undergraduate journal dedicated to neuroscience.

Please see the link to read their article on Foreign Accent Perception and Processing with EEG: http://impulse.appstate.edu/articles/2015/foreign-accent-perception-and-processing-eeg

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Psychology Department Talk

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Kelly McEnerney will be presenting her research on Thursday, March 24 at 4:30 in Life Science 515. Her title is “Moral Self Development and Implicit Associations.”

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Department Feature: Dr. Katherine Luci

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Dr. Luci (adjunct lecturer) has enjoyed teaching at Roanoke College for the past few years in addition to her “day job” as a clinical geropsychologist at the Salem VA Medical Center. She received a B.A. in cultural anthropology from Mary Washington College in 1999, a M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Tech in 2003, and a Psy.D. in clinical and school psychology in 2010 from James Madison University. Dr. Luci’s teaching and research interests include aging, resilience, best practices in dementia care, and third-wave psychotherapies for caregivers and older adults.

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Department Feature: Dr. Brian Shenal

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Dr. Shenal (Adjunct Associate Professor) began teaching at Roanoke College in 2012.  He received his B.S. (’95), his M.S. (’98), and his Ph.D. (’01) from Virginia Tech.  Dr. Shenal completed his clinical internship and fellowship at the University of Florida. He is a practicing neuropsychologist and an Associate Professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. His research interests include the neuropsychology of emotion, lateralization/cerebral asymmetry, and teleneuropsychology.

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Clinician Therapist Position Available

A position for a Clinician Therapist serving community homes in Roanoke has become available by Intercept Youth Services!

If you are seeking a full-time position, please see below for the job description. They would to have the chance to see your resume and  interview you!

Provided is the Link to Intercept: www.interceptyouth.com

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Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Bloghttps://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Seeking Research Assistants!

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Professors in the Psych department are looking for lab research new members next semester!

Dr. Buchholz

His research and teaching interests include social psychology, evolutionary psychology, self, music, and complex systems theory. If you are interested in joining his lab, click the link below to apply and find out more info!

http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology/research_and_internships/undergraduate_research/dr_buchholzs_research_lab.

Dr. Gornick

Dr. Gornick’s research focuses on rhetoric in political, health and social-cultural context with an emphasis on Integrative Complexity.

If you are interested in joining her lab, go to link below to apply and get more info!

http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology/research_and_internships/undergraduate_research/dr_gornicks_research_lab. You can also stop by LS 525 to pick up an application.

Dr. Freedman

Her research focuses on the processes and consequences of social rejection with a special focus on the point of view of rejectors. If you are interested in Dr. Freedman’s lab, email her at freedman@roanoke.edu. Click the link below to get more info!

http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology/research_and_internships/undergraduate_research/dr_freedmans_research_lab.

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rcpsychology
Blog:  https://psych.pages.roanoke.edu/
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/RC-Psychology-8140491/about
Website:  http://www.roanoke.edu/inside/a-z_index/psychology

Faculty Research

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Congratulations to Dr. Nichols for his recent publication in JUNE!

Here is the journal issue:  http://www.funjournal.org/current-issue/

Direct link to the article is: http://www.funjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/june-14-74.pdf

 

Get connected!
Instagram & Twitter:  #PsychRC
Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/ (Join RC Psychology group)

RC recognized in the News: What that means in PSYC!

Roanoke was recognized as an A+ school for B students, but we work with and for ALL our students to help them be successful (however you operationalize it).

You may hear us use the term “whole person.” That means we care about you (!), what you have going on currently, your background, your goals in life and work, your health – the whole package.

This article: http://diycollegerankings.com/50-50-highlights-a-schools-for-b-students/8394/, which references the US News and World Report ranking and replicates it, suggest we are a good place for do-it-yourself(ers). I agree!

The truth is we teach you what you need to know to be successful in psychology but also in other ways that are meaningful to you. Check out more on our blog to see how our students (maybe that is or was you and you want to share your story – email us) have succceeded in love, life, and work.

We couldn’t be prouder and love our departmental community!

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#PSYCHRC

Meet the New Professors!

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Dr. Gili Freedman                                  Dr. Janelle Gornick

Come meet the New Professors in the Psych Department!

Who: Dr. Gili Freedman & Dr. Janelle Gornick

What?: The two new professors of the Psychology faculty will be talking about their research!

When?: Monday, September 21, 7-8pm

Where?: Life Science 502

Why?: Get to know our new professors! Snacks! Learn cool things!

(Plus teaser of upcoming events!)

Sponsored by: Roanoke College Psychology Association & Psi Chi

Alum Johnzelle Anderson Thanks Profs and Gives Update on Counseling Masters

Check out his recent blog post: https://jzeee92.wordpress.com/2015/09/12/to-my-former-professors-at-roanoke-college/.

Johnzelle is well on his way, starting his internship soon! Shortly thereafter, he will have his Masters in hand. Way to go, Johnzelle! We are incredibly proud of your accomplishments. Keep us updated! And, thanks for the shout out. We are glad we were / are able to help you be successful.

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RC Recognized as a Top Liberal Arts School Based on Professor Rankings

Does the title say it all when it come to Roanoke College?   “Accessible & Approachable Professors” Check out the news article here: http://www.liberalartscolleges.com/rankings/professors/.

There are 6 psychology professors ( 3 male, 3 female, and one staff member – our miracle working secretary) in the photo below; can you find them? The rest of those lovely faces are our students who could make it to this particular photo shoot! You have to love those GET PSYCHED shirts. They really capture our persona as a community.

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Congratulations Dr. Early on your coming retirement!

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Congratulations Dr. Early on your retirement! We will all miss you greatly!

The following is the resolution read at the last faculty meeting for Dr. Charles Early:

We the members of the faculty, staff and Trustees of Roanoke College rise to give tribute to and offer the following resolution honoring Dr. Charles Edgar Early, Professor of Psychology, for his long and distinguished service of 27 years to the Department of Psychology, to thousands of his students and to the entire Roanoke
College community.

Whereas, seeing little usefulness in dropping nuclear weapons on our foes, Chuck wisely decided that using psychology to communicate with the enemy and feeling their pain would be a better approach. Thus, he resigned from the Air Force and
began to pursue graduate studies in psychology. It is wise to remember he served as a Major in the U.S. Air Force as a ground traffic controller of fighter jets and also maintained nuclear targeting dossiers on the locations of various Soviet Generals,
and he earned his black belt in Tae Kwan Do style karate in Korea therefore it may be best we not get on the black-list he might still maintain.

Whereas, Chuck earned many academic degrees culminating in a Ph.D. from Penn State and attended the Air Command Intelligence School twice, we can be certain that he is indeed, by Air force and any other standard, intelligent.

Whereas, after Chuck relinquished his position as chair after years of distinguished service, his successor Dr. Ronda Carpenter referred to him as her first officer in the administration of the department. He has maintained this capacity as a fountain of administrative wisdom to all subsequent chairs of our department. His wise counsel
will be missed.

Whereas, Chuck’ history of psychology course has been recognized as a tough rite of passage for majors, it has spurred students to nominate him for the College-wide teaching award. He has led many students to succeed because he believed in them.  His advising success is a model for others in the department. Chuck is clearly well loved by his students who gave him an A+ rating on RateMyProfessor.com. They also awarded him a hubba-hubba chili pepper and likened him to Richard Gere.

Whereas, Chuck has been a life-long aficionado of the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs, we hope that he can make use of a portion of his retirement to explore the curious psychology of the feral child Earl John Clayton Greystoke, AKA “Tarzan.” Another interest of Chuck’s is amateur astronomy, and he has attended several
annual Texas Star Parties near Fort Davis, Texas, in the fantastically dark skies where the light from the Milky Way casts your shadow on the ground. We wish him many dark and clear skies in future Texas Star Party events.

Whereas, Chuck still works out even now at retirement age, can do chin-ups and out bench press weights not achievable by the majority of RC campus’ student body, faculty and staff. We wish him continued good health and physical strength to endure the rigors of retirement. We also hope he will send us “selfies”.

Whereas, Chuck is legendary as the person who never skipped desserts, it is known that his very favorite pie flavor of all time is Apple, Peach, Cherry, Pumpkin and Blueberry. Peanut butter pie need not apply. He and a former colleague, coined the term “piece-let” to refer to small slices of pie or cake that would reasonably be
conjoined into a “piece” of dessert. In fact, Chuck has used his conditioning techniques, taught in learning, to ensure that any department member who attends Commons lunch uses their carryout item as a dessert for Chuck when we are not
graced with his lunchtime presence.

Whereas, he retains his classic comic book collection, we hope that these increase in value over the years comparably to the original Superman comic book was recently auctioned at eBay for 3.2 million dollars. These can accompany his collection of over 3000 significant books in his hand-made beautiful bookcases in his living room and office.

Whereas, Chuck is the model of a Renaissance man who has taught 20 different courses, written a book, published 22 papers, 16 reviews of chapters or books, and made 49 significant presentations and co-editing of a massive “Pictorial history of Psychology.” Now that Chuck plans to move to the Savannah, GA area to be nearer
his daughter, a successful Roanoke College alumna, we reveal that one unit of the bookcases in his home office swings aside to reveal a secret room. Dr. Pranzarone has been sworn not to reveal what Chuck kept in this formerly secret room, so it is incumbent upon friends of Chuck to communicate with him frequently if they hope
that this information be divulged. We suspect superhero powers are at play.

Whereas, it is noted that while Charles is retiring, suspiciously coincident with the retirement of his colleague Dr. Jan H Lynch, we will no longer see that they quite frequently departed the department at the same time arm-in-arm. Rumors will now
cease as they are separated to divergent parts of the United States.
Whereas, Chuck is often looked to for guidance, wisdom, and calm; we will use key quotes of his to keep his spirit alive in the department: “Students are our motivation.” and “We are first and foremost a teaching college; let us not forget.”

Whereas, we all here as part of the Roanoke College family have greatly benefited from the friendship, warmth, sincerity, gentle good humor of this tall fellow, be it then resolved that we all wish him health, clear skies and fair weather in his retirement from professorship at Roanoke College; that he be granted long life and
prosperity and that his curiosity and drive for life-long learning never be diminished.

Therefore, it so resolved that these comments be then entered into the official minutes of the Meeting of the Faculty of Roanoke College in gratitude and celebration of the life and career of Dr. Charles Edgar Early.

 

 

SYNAPSE Conference 2015

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Dr. Nichols, Dr. Allen, and Dr. Shenal assisted students in neuroscience-based research and a few of those students got to present their findings at the SYNAPSE conference! They went to the University of North Carolina at Asheville and represented Roanoke College.

Caitlin Morse, Stephanie Shields, and Dr. Nichols presented on “An exploration on the reduction of artifacts in EEG studies.” 

[Shields, S.M., Morse, C.E., & Nichols, DF. (2015, March). An exploration on the reduction of artifacts in EEG studies. Poster presented at the SYNAPSE conference, Asheville, NC.]

Gladfelter and Friedman to Present at UVA Pedagogy Summit

Dr. Friedman and her lab manager, Jessica Gladfelter, will be leading an interactive session entitled “Teaching & learning in the research lab: Engaging students via first-hand experience” at the UVA Pedagogy Summit in May! They will highlight the benefits of participating in faculty-student collaboration from both perspectives while outlining a model for a successful undergraduate research lab.

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Faculty Fundraising!

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On May 2nd, Dr.Camac is taking a fundraising challenge, rappelling 11 stories down the Patrick Henry Hotel to help raise money for Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  Each rappeller has to raise a minimum of $1,000 by May 1st  (or thereabouts) in order to qualify.   Donations are tax deductible and can be made online or via check or cash.

Every little bit helps!   Check it out athttp://bigslittles.org/.  Below is a link to Dr. Camac’s fundraising page.

https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.firstgiving.com%2Ffundraiser%2FMaryCamac%2Fover-the-edge-roanoke&h=SAQELk-TL

Dr. Friedman and Former Research Seminar Students Publish in Top Cyberpsychology Journal

Dr. Friedman and her first research seminar group published an article, released this month, on the effects of gender and emoticons on Facebook jealousy in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, & Social Networking: http://online.liebertpub.com/toc/cyber/18/2.

Ben Hudson took the lead on the article following graduation, collecting extra data and making the publication happen! He is currently applying to graduate schools. Second author, Sylis Nicolas, was brought onto the project from Hollins and just finished her Masters at Oakland University. The other seminar student co-authors include Molly Howser who received her Masters in Speech & Language Pathology from Radford University, Ian Robinson who is currently completing graduate work at VCU in the school of dentistry, Kristen Lipsett, who is currently working for United Health Group, and Laura Pope who received her Masters in I/O from Radford University. Current sophomore, Abby Hobby, who is studying abroad this semester, and helped with editing and a final round of data collection, rounds outs the student co-authors.

Publishing in a peer-reviewed journal takes dedication. These students completed some impressive work during their time at RC and continue to thrive. The department could not be more proud!

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