Scrapbook & Recent Events Number 18
Spring Semester 2009 (January - June)
New Department Chair
Dr. Carolyn Schult
As announced in our last scrapbook edition, Dr. Gwynn Mettetal completed her service as Department Chair of Psychology on December 31 and will expand her School of Education role while maintaining her dual appointment in Psychology. We welcome Dr. Carolyn Schult who became Department Chair of Psychology on January 1. Dr. Schult is not new to our campus or department, of course. She arrived at IU South Bend in 1997. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Michigan and received her Ph.D. in 1996. She is a developmental psychologist who specializes in child cognitive development in particular. Dr. Schult has been recognized for her outstanding teaching by her induction into the all-IU Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) in 2004. We look forward to Dr. Schult's leadership and efforts.
Dr. Schult was recently asked to join the Society for Research in Child Development's (SRCD) Teaching Committee for a 4-year term. SRCD is the major national organization in the area of child development and selection for its governing committees is prestigious. Congratulations, Carolyn!
Advanced Lab Poster Sessions
Poster sessions for the advanced labs for Spring 2009 were held at the end of the semester. Dr. Kevin Ladd's P421 Social Psychology Lab students held their poster session in the Psychology hallways of Wiekamp Hall on April 28 while Dr. Dennis Rodriguez's P435 Human Learning and Cognition Lab students held their poster session on April 29. Pictures of the P421 and P435 students' posters may be found at the archive of psychology student posters.
Dr. Ladd's P421 students
Dr. Rodriguez and his P435 students
Research Activities
Two students mentored by Dr. Carolyn Schult attended and presented posters of their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in LaCrosse, WI in August. Lauren Wachowicz presented a poster titled "Generational Perceptions and How They Affect Workplace Interactions." In addition, Marc Oestreich's poster was "Incidental Affect and Politics: The Role of Incidental Affective States on Political Decision-Making in Three Political Issue Domains." (see Lauren's photo below)
Lauren Wachowicz and her poster at the 2009 National Conference on Undergraduate Research
Dr. Carolyn Schult, in collaboration with colleagues in Psychology at IU South Bend, presented two posters at SRCD's (Society for Research in Child Development) biennial meeting in April in Denver:
Carolyn A. Schult & Laura S. Talcott. (2009, April). The effects of parents' understanding of intent to lie on their children's theory of mind. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.
Carolyn A. Schult, Laura S. Talcott, Kathy L. Ritchie, & Gwendolyn Mettetal. (2009, April). Virtual parenting: Engagement and learning. Poster presented at the Developmental Sciences Teaching Institute, Denver, CO.
Dr. Kevin Ladd took the members of his Social Psychology of Religion Laboratory Team to the American Psychological Association's (APA) Division 36 mid-year conference on the psychology of religion, heldin early April at Loyola College in Columbia, MD. As part of the trip, the team visited Washington, DC and the headquarters of the American Psychological Association (see the photo below on APA's roof). They toured the offices, including the boardroom and spoke to the CEO of APA (see photos from DC and MD). During the conference in Maryland, the team presented 7 papers. They were:
Peruvian Shamanism and Bulimia: A Case Study. Melissa A. Lentine, Laura Broughton, Staci Dickson, and Tina Stout
Pageantry and Frequency of Prayers in the St. Joseph Daily Missal: An Empirical Linguistic Evaluation. Meleah L. Ladd, Cara A. Cook, Briana L. Becker, and Kevin L. Ladd.
Forgiveness and Beliefs: Insights from the Post-Critical Belief Scale. Kyle J. Messick, Wanakee L. Brown, Erik A. Ritter, and Kevin L. Ladd.
Symposium (4 separate papers) "Prayer Practices: Preliminary Findings from a Suite of Empirical Investigations":
A Framework for Investigating the Practice of Prayer. Kevin L. Ladd.
Sampling and Survey: Components and Issues. Kaitlyn M. Foreman.
Three Protocols: Cameras, Labyrinths, and Mannequins. Jamie A. Cora.
Preliminary Findings and Lessons Learned Thus Far. Sarah C. Mertes.
Approximately one year after Dr. Ladd's SPRL team began one of the first experimental studies concerning the use of labyrinths, APA installed a labyrinth on the roof of one of their buildings. left to right: Kevin Ladd, Melissa Lentine, Erik Ritter, Cara Cook, Kaitlyn Foreman, Alasdair Ladd, Kyle Messick, Sarah Mertes, Arryngton Ladd, Jamie Cora, Wanakee Brown, Meleah Ladd, Briana Becker.
Dr. Kevin Ladd also took the members of his Social Psychology of Religion Laboratory Team to the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto in early August. While at the conference, the team presented a paper titled "Experimental Prayer Research: Walking the Labyrinth" by Kevin L. Ladd, Cara A. Cook, Jamie A. Cora, and Kaitlyn M. Foreman. Among the highlights of the meeting was that Kaitlyn Foreman, one of Kevin's team members, got to meet and have her picture taken with Dr. Phil Zimbardo, among the most famous of all social psychologists (see photo below). Later in August, Dr. Ladd and his entire Laboratory teamto Vienna, Austria to attend the International Psychology of Religion conference. Details and pictures to follow (some are already posted at the SPRL website).
Dr. Catherine Borshuk attended in May the International Conference on Experiencing Gender held in Huelva, Spain. She presented a paper titled "Feminist Transformation in Social Psychology" at the conference.
Laura Talcott received a distance learning grant this summer to support the development of the first IU South Bend online course in Psychology. She will offer the course in the Spring 2010 semester for the first time.
Dr. John McIntosh presented a poster at April's 42nd annual meeting of the American Association of Suicidology in San Francisco. The title of the presentation was "Middle Age Suicide: Rate Changes a 'Mountain Out of a Molehill'?".
Dr. McIntosh also published two chapter entries in the book Encylopedia of Death and the Human Experience (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2009). Dr. McIntosh's chapters were "Suicide" and "Suicide Survivors." In addition to the two chapter entries, Dr. McIntosh was on the Advisory Board for the volume which was edited by Clifton Bryant and Dennis Peck. A copy of the two-volume reference book has been donated to the IU South Bend Schurz Library.
Awards
The recipient of the 2009 James R. Haines Reseach Award was Lauren Wachowicz. Laura's paper "Generational Perceptions and How They Affect Workplace Interaction." was selected from among this year's submissions. Along with past recipients and a description of the award, Laura's paper may be found through a link at the Haines Award website. (Lauren's photo, presenting her paper at a national conference appears above.)
This year's recipients of the Award for Excellence in Psychology were Ben N. Smith and Sarah Mertes. Past recipients of the award may be found at the Award Website. Congratulations to all our award winners!
Psi Chi
The induction of new members into the IU South Bend chapter of Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology, was held this spring. Details and pictures will be posted soon.
Officers for 2009 were elected for Psi Chi. The officers appear in the picture below with the Psi Chi faculty advisor Dr. Dennis Rodriguez at the right. The officers are (left to right): Crystal Sivia, Vice President; Valerie Ratner, Secretary; Ben Smith IV, Treasurer; Christy Tidd, Co-President; Ryan Bronkema, Co-President.
Farewell
Dr. Michelle Verges decided to leave IU South Bend and move to Philadelphia. She has taken a visiting position at Rutgers-Camden for the current academic year. We all wish Michelle the best in her career and personal endeavors.
After two years in a visiting appointment, Dr. Ginger DeBrule has gone to Indianapolis to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at the Indiana University Medical School, where she will be obtaining her license as a clinical psychologist through working in an inpatient mental health facility. We extend our best wishes as she works in this intense year.
Both Michelle and Ginger contributed to our department, students, and campus. We will welcome new colleagues in the fall, but Ginger and Michelle will be missed. Good luck to you both!
Funding for Research and Training in Severe Mental Health
Dr. Daniel DeBrule and Dr. John McIntosh of the IU South Bend Psychology Department have been awarded a gift of $238,000 by the Alice Swarm Trust for the benefit of Louis Swarm and on behalf of the Swarm family. Dr. DeBrule will be the project’s primary investigator. The gift funds are for research and the study of severe mental illness. The research effort will offer IU South Bend psychology students the opportunity to receive training and experience as undergraduate research assistants.The primary research topics to be investigated with be expressive writing research as well as various suicide-related research activities. The funds will also permit mental health programs and professional training in the South Bend area, including lectures by visiting scholars, and scholarly collaboration with national universities and medical facilities. An article will appear in the IU South Bend Alumni magazine Foundations later this fall that will highlight the gift. Information about the award may be found at the Office of Communications and Marketing as well as the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences websites.
Even preceding the award of the Swarm Family Gift, Dr. DeBrule had already begun to establish his Writing, Anxiety, and Mood Research Team to study issues of expressive writing and mental health issues such as PTSD and suicide. The first team members are shown in the picture below.
Writing, Anxiety, and Mood Research Team (July 2009): From left: Esther Hendrick, Giuseppe "Joey" Marturano, Casey Grisham, Natalie Galbraith, Dr. Daniel DeBrule. Photo by Kathy Borlik.
HIV Prevention Gap Analysis
Dr. Dé Bryant and Wanakee Brown (a junior Psychology major and member of Dr. Bryant's Social Action Research Project team), conducted a gap analysis of high priority populations (i.e., those who are substantially contributing to new HIV infections in a jurisdiction) and high risk individuals for whom there are little to no recorded data on behalf of the Indiana State Department of Health Community Planning Group. The Community Planning Group is a collaborative process by which health departments work in partnership with the community to develop and implement a comprehensive HIV prevention plan that best represents the needs of populations infected with or at risk for HIV.
The three-fold basic intention of the community planning process involves increasing meaningful community involvement in prevention planning, improving the scientific basis of program decisions, and targeting resources to those communities at highest risk for HIV transmission/acquisition.
The gap analysis brought the experience of the targeted populations together with the observations of community service providers, particularly from areas of the state that had been under-represented in the planning process. Findings from the gap analysis provided recommendations for a blue-print to HIV prevention planning, enhancing the knowledge and skills of those who are engaged in or who need to be aware of HIV prevention activities throughout the state of Indiana.
From left: Dr. Dé Bryant, Wanakee Brown
Advising
All majors, minors, and associate degree students should be aware that the IU South Bend Psychology Department requires that all students be advised at least once each year by a faculty advisor. This advising session serves several important functions. Of course, it allows you to get advice about courses for the next and upcoming semesters. It also ensures that your advisor can attempt to monitor your movement toward your degree, both in psychology and with respect to other degree requirements. This will help to identify problem areas or omissions early so that you can address them and graduate without delay. Finally, advising can also provide you with important information and input regarding your career planning, résumé writing, and other developmental issues crucial to your life success. As you can see, advising is much more than just course selection. Please be advised regularly.
Alumni, Attention!
We would love to include information about our alumni as part of this scrapbook. If you are an IU South Bend Psychology Alumnus and would forward information about yourself, education, career, accomplishments, etc., we would be happy to post it here with your permission. Include a photograph and we will try to include it also. Please indicate your year of IU South Bend graduation.
If you have accomplishments or other events you would like to see included here, please forward them to the department or to Dr. Schult.
Earlier scrapbooks may be found in the Psychology Department Archives.
