Administrative Updates & Announcements
Please welcome Matthew Ogbeifun to the
department. Matthew will be working as a Student Tech for PsyIT.
Matthew is an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota
pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. Originally from St.
Paul Minnesota, Matthew enjoys listening to music, watching independent
films, and volunteering/researching at the Minneapolis VA Medical
Center.
Matthew's work schedule will be as follows (N211 Elliott
Hall):
Mondays: 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Tuesdays: 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Wednesdays: 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Fridays: 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
This fall, students may withdraw from classes without instructor of College approval through the tenth week of class.
The final date that students may withdraw is November 10. Previously,
students could withdraw without approval through the eighth week of
class. Deadlines for cancelling or adding classes are available on the
One Stop website.
You want an undergraduate research assistant. You
are swamped with requests from students looking for research positions.
You wade through all the requests and most of them are from students
who don't have what you're looking for. You spend time exchanging
emails with students who did not provide enough information in the first
place, only to find that they won't work out for you either. Time
passes. Frustration builds. Work goes unfinished. OR...You request a
copy of the Available RA List containing information from students
looking for RA positions and you find all the information you want in
convenient spreadsheet form. You choose an RA who has the right
background and interests. Done. The list has been updated in the past
few weeks with all new information. Faculty and graduate students
conducting research can request a copy of the list from
Mark Stellmack.
Psychology Advising is on FaceBook!
This fall, an undergraduate intern will be
working with Psychology Advising to raise our social media profile.
Check out our page, Like us, and encourage undergraduates in your
classes and labs to get connected.
Awards & Accomplishments
Professor Gene Borgida was quoted in the St.
Paul Pioneer Press on implicit racial bias in the treatment of a man
accused of trespass in a public area of the St. Paul skyway system,
subjected to Taser, and taken to jail - all while waiting to pick up his
children. To read the article and watch the video of the incident,
visit here.
Professor Andrew Oxenham was elected to the
Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS).
CORLAS is dedicated to the pursuit of scientific advances in the broad
field of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology. Membership in this international honor
society is by invitation only, and is limited to 6 non-clinical members
from the U.S.
Professor Jeff Simpson's research on how couples deal with insecurities was featured in The Huffington Post article "
The Buffer Zone: Romance and Insecurity" and the DatingAdvice.com article "Dr. Jeffrey Simpson: The Go-To Source on Romantic Attachment Theory".
Emeritus Professor Gloria Leon was appointed
Chair of the NASA Standing Review Panel, Behavioral Health and
Performance Scientific Element, reviewing research progress on
NASA-funded projects.
We are pleased to see members of our faculty represented in the
article titled "
An Incomplete List of Eminent Psychologists of the Modern Era" by Ed Diener, Shigehiro Oishi and JungYeun Park published in the in the APA Archives of Scientific Psychology
Former graduate student Sandra Davis
(Counseling, 1973), co-founder and immediate past CEO of MDA Leadership
Consulting, was recognized by the George Family Foundation as one of 84
exceptional women leaders making remarkable contributions to building
the Twin Cities in an event on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Davis and other
honorees were recognized at the "
Celebrating Twin Cities Women Leaders"
event at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The event celebrated women
in the Twin Cities who have served as CEO, board chair or president of
prominent companies and organizations in the community. Of the 84
honorees, Davis is the only one to head a leadership development firm.
Events
Department of Psychology Colloquium
Sponsored by the Personality, Individual Differences, and Behavior Genetics (PIB)
and Biological Psychopathology (BP) Areas
Speaker: Raymond A. Mar, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, York University
Friday, October 3, 2014
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Elliott Hall N639
Can Consuming Narrative Fiction Create Empathy?
Most of us engage with fictional
narratives on a daily basis, be it a novel, film, or favourite
television show. In doing so, we often imagine the inner worlds of
others who are quite different from ourselves, which may provide an
avenue for developing perspective-taking and empathy towards others. In
this talk I will provide a critical overview of the available research
on whether exposure to narrative fiction can improve our capacity to
understand other people. This includes work based on various
methodological approaches, including neuroscience, developmental
psychology, cognitive psychology, and individual differences.
Department of Psychology Colloquium
Sponsored by the Social Psychology Area
Speaker: Hazel Rose Markus, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, Stanford University
Monday, October 6, 2014
10:00 - 11:30 a.m.
Elliott Hall N639
Inequality, Social Class and Self
The U.S. is increasingly marked by inequality and divided along social
class lines. The divide is evident in what eat for dinner, how we
parent, how we vote, and how long we live. In this talk I integrate
many of the powerful and previously unexamined psychological
consequences of social class, suggesting that societal rank has its
influence on behavior through one’s experience of self. In North
American settings, those with higher rank (whether measured or
manipulated) tend to experience themselves as independent selves—as
separate from others, as expressing and promoting their own interests,
choices and goals, and as influencing and controlling social
interactions. Those with lower rank tend to experience themselves as
interdependent selves—as connected with others, as responsive to the
social situation and to others’ goals, emotions and needs, and as
adjusting and deferring to others in interaction. The more unequal we
become and the more different our selves become, the more societal
dysfunction we will experience. Addressing inequality in health,
education, and political engagement requires policies and practices that
bridge these socioculturally shaped differences in self.
Department of Psychology Colloquium
Speaker: Brian Engdahl, Ph.D.
William L. Anderson Chair in PTSD Research & Adjunct
Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience & Cognitive Sciences,
University of Minnesota
Thursday, October 16, 2014
3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Walter Library 402
Neuroimaging, PTSD, Resilience, and Posttraumatic Growth
The search is on for biological markers
of mental disorders. Neuroimaging techniques that assess brain function
(EEG, PET, MRI) are providing tools in this search. We are using
magnetoencephalography (MEG), a unique neuroimaging technique that is
simple (task free resting state), safe, short (1 minute), dynamic (based
on ongoing activity collected every millisecond) and sensitive to
changes in brain communication patterns. MEG allows excellent
discrimination between controls and disorder-specific groups. We have
studied nearly 2000 subjects. Findings on multiple select groups will be
presented, highlighting neural differences in PTSD, trauma adaptation,
and posttraumatic growth.
Visiting Scholars
Marion David, Postdoc at the
University of Lyon in France, has been invited by Professor Andrew
Oxenham to visit our Department from November 2014 - August 2015. This
will be Dr. David's second visit to our department, her first visit as a
graduate student for six months earlier this year. Dr. David will
continue to participate collaboratively with department researchers in
the areas of human auditory perception and neuroscience with particular
emphasis on auditory scene analysis.
