Psychology Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 1
Homecoming was a proud day for the Department as Dr. Barry Arbuckle, a 1984 graduate, received the 2003 Outstanding Young Alumni Award. I won't say more here as you'll find an article about this event on page four of this Newsletter. A special thanks to Emeritus Professor Susan Hom for organizing a very enjoyable reception for Dr. Arbuckle and to all the Psi Chi officers and members who helped out. Alums, let us know what you are up to, faculty get such a kick out of any news of our graduates. Newer faculty are also motivated to learn that they can impact the lives of students. It is quite a reversal. We (the faculty) once had the power to change your moods with grades and assignments. Now you have that same power with a simple personal note about your life. So make old professors happy by letting us hear from you.
Well, we have started a new academic year and, as usual, there are changes, new challenges, and some of the same exciting work common to every school year. On page two you'll be introduced to three new people that have joined our department this year. Drs. Danae Hudson and Ann Branstetter filled the positions vacated by retirees Dr. Paul Companik and Dr. James Davis. Both Drs. Hudson and Branstetter are clinical psychologists with interests in the area of health psychology. Mr. Gere is our new academic advisor as well as a former graduate of the psychology clinical masters program. We have also added so we were quite confident of her teaching skills and happy to secure her on a permanent basis. The second lectureship was filled by Ms. Martaun Stockstill. Ms. Stockstill had been our academic advisor for the past three years. She has been an excellent advisor and part-time teacher but wanted to try fulltime teaching.
The department recently made a proposal to move "lock, stock, and barrel" from Hill Hall to Siceluff Hall. You may recall that Siceluff is just across the Carrington Mall to the north from Hill Hall. If our proposal is successful it would mean a huge disruption of our work lives for a while but, we hope, more classroom space, more research space, and more (if not better) offices. Space is always at a premium, so there are many legitimate competitors at the University but we think we have an excellent chance. Keep your fingers crossed for us. It would certainly be nice to occupy our own space instead of camping on borrowed space in Hill Hall. Since our administrative move from the College of Education to the College of Health and Human Services we have been seeking an opportunity to relocate physically as well.
Our new Psi Chi/Psychology Club Officers (Darcy Maynes, Rachel Tinsley, Lesley Cross, Kyle Wilberding, Laura Hill, Leighann Volentine, and Lindsey Strahan) have already been active. They were extremely helpful in serving as hosts.
Meet the New Faculty & Staff
I received my Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 2001, after completing an M.S. at North Dakota State University. I then worked for two years in a clinical setting/research position at Washington University School of Medicine and Siteman Cancer Center. My research interests include psychosocial outcomes in psycho-oncology, coping with health concerns, and adherence to medical regimens. These interests are embedded in a strong background of Behavior Theory. My most recent project is a treatment outcome study investigating the efficacy of CBT and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in decreasing distress among individuals with late-stage cancer.
I am originally from the Springfield area, and am looking forward to moving my husband and new daughter to the Ozarks.
I am excited to be working as the departmental academic advisor in the psychology department at Missouri State. I graduated from Missouri State with a B.S. in psychology in 2000 and an M.S. in clinical psychology in 2002. For the past year I have been working at the Ozark Correctional Center in Fordland, MO, providing counseling and therapy to state offenders. I previously worked at the Learning Diagnostic Clinic here at Missouri State as a clinician and taught PSY304 (abnormal psych). My research interests include student development, intellectual giftedness, learning disabilities, and adolescent ADHD vs. Bipolar disorder. I am looking forward to working with everyone in the psychology program; faculty, staff, and most importantly--the students. GO BEARS!
Dr. Danae Hudson
I received my Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Louisiana State University in 2003. At LSU, my research and clinical work focused primarily on eating disorders and obesity. I am particularly interested in the role of readiness and motivation to change health-related behaviors, and
how motivation for change can impact treatment. I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada and was lucky to be able to spend this past year back in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia Hospital where I completed my pre-doctoral clinical residency. At UBC, I specialized in the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, and eating disorders. I look forward to continuing both of these research and clinical activities at Missouri State and in Springfield. Currently at Missouri State, I teach both undergraduate and graduate classes in adult psychopathology. My husband and I recently bought a house and therefore have been very busy with home improvement projects. We enjoy spending time with our two cats and look forward to taking advantage of some of the outdoor activities the Ozarks have to offer.
Faculty News Bits
The Missouri State Psychology Department has been playing a leading role in the National Wrestling Coaches Association's (NWCA) new "Leadership for Life" program. Dr. Tom Kane, with the assistance of Missouri State Alumni Steve Winton (M.S. degree 2003) and current student Nicole Wetteroth (class of 2006), has developed a one hour graduate course for coaches. The course is called Developing Sport Team Leaders (PSY 555) and was designed to train coaches to better develop the leadership skills of student-athletes who participate in their programs. In the spirit of supporting leadership development programs, the U.S. Marine Corps is fully sponsoring the tuition of the next 85 coaches who enroll in Developing Sport Team Leaders.
* Drs. Jay Brown, Annette Parkerson, and Brooke Whisenhunt each received a faculty summer fellowship for Summer 2004
* Dr. Russell Carney
Carney, R. N., Levin, J. R., Barber, L. S., & Miller, R. C. (2004, April). Mnemonic learning of people, their names, and political affiliations. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego.
Carney, R. N., Levin, J. R., Robertson, C. E., Mascorro, C. I., & Ragozzine, F. R. (2003, April). Musical
mnemonics: A systematic technique for retaining your composers. Roundtable presented at the
annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
* Dr. Harry Hom
Wright, D. E., & Hom, H. L., Jr. (2003). Altering frequency estimates of hindsight bias inothers via
stereotyping Asians as a model. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research. In press. Denessa Wright is the first undergraduate from Missouri State to achieve publication in this journal sponsored by the National Honor Society in Psychology which has approximately 1000 chapters.
* Dr. Robert Jones
Jones, R.G. and Parameswaran, G. (Under review). Predicting the human weather: How differentiation and contextual complexity affect behavior prediction. Prospectus accepted for I.A.P./I.S.C.E. Managing the Complex book series, vol. 1., Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Jones, R.G., Levesque, C., & Masuda A. (2003). Emotional displays and social identity: Emotional investment in organizations. In Skarlicki, D., Gilliland, S.J., and Steiner, D. (Editors), Social Values in
Organizations. Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
Grebinoski, J. & Jones, R.G. (2003). Aversive discrimination in the employment interview: Investigating
mitigating institutional pressures. Paper presented as part of symposium, "Beyond mere compliance: Applying psychology to reducing discrimination" at Society for I/O psychology (SIOP), Orlando.
Jones, R.G., Parameswaran, G., and Helms, J. (2003). Evaluation of culture and gender equivalence of
Wonderlic Personnel Test- Revised. Wonderlic, Inc., Libertyville, IL
Condolences
The department was saddened this past year by the loss of two of our majors to unfortunate accidents. Jennifer Stewart wasan extremely bright, young student that also had a special ability to communicate with diverse populations. Her goal was to enter graduate school to become a clinical psychologist. We are sure she would have become an outstanding professional. We extend our deepest sympathies to Jennifer's family and friends. We also extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Amber Joslyn, who died in an auto accident on October 24, 2003. Amber demonstrated, in her first year at Missouri State, her commitment and dedication to the field of Psychology. Already, she had taken steps to clarify her career goal of becoming a grief counselor; served as an elected officer to Psychology Club; and had established a working relationship with Dr. Branstetter to assist in her research on pain and coping.We are truly sorry not to have the opportunity to continue to work with her and become even better acquainted.
Outstanding Alumni Honored
We are proud to announce that Dr. Barry Arbuckle, B. S. 1984, received a 2003 Missouri State Outstanding Young Alumni Award. While at Missouri State he majored in Psychology and minored in Child and Family Development. He conducted research with Dr. Harry Hom that resulted in a 1988 publication, "Mood induction effects upon goal setting and performance in young children." Barry earned his M.S. in Family and Human Development at Arizona State University and completed his Ph. D. at the University of North Carolina in Human Development and Family Studies/Health Policy and Administration. Currently, he is the President/CEO of Memorial Health Services in Long Beach, CA. He is responsible for over 2900 physicians and 10,000 employees with an annual business of $1 billion dollars. Barry's success is a large one by any standards. As a department, we are interested in personal updates from all alumni, with reports of their accomplishments, great and small. We really appreciate those emails and surface mails--keep them coming--it would be neat if you would increase their volume!
Great Plains Student Psychology Conference
In March of 2003, Dr. Ragozzine and Dr. Fanetti took a group of students to the annual Great Plains Student Psychology Conference, which was held in Kearney, Nebraska. As usual, our students did an excellent job, and some won awards in their division for their work. The students who presented, and the titles of their presentations, are as follows:
· Meagan Howell – Encoding Specificity: Effect of Auditory Stimulation with Music on Free Recall. Won first-place award. *** Cristine Cordero – Effects of Background Music on Spatial Reasoning Ability. Won second-place award. ***Shanna Brooks – Hindsight Bias in Parents' Reactions to Genetic Testing. ***Courtney Cook – Effect of Vicarious Positive and Negative Reinforcement on Performance.***Billy Myers – Relationships Between Music Listening While Studying and Personal Characteristics.
Next year's conference will take place on March 5 and March 6 in Kansas City. A deadline for submission has not yet been announced, but will most likely be some time in January or February of 2004. The department has traditionally been able to provide funding for the student presenters. Students interested in presenting their work at this conference should contact Dr. Ragozzine by email: frr807f@missouristate.edu. A reminder about the conference will be emailed to faculty early in Spring semester, 2004.
Josh Sulier and Kate Katsulas assemble an
operant conditioning chamber in the Animal Learning Lab
Psychology Funds by Harry Hom
Thanks again for your contributions to the department's alumni funds. Since the 1980's, I have served as the chairperson and have enjoyed sending many of you a thank you note along with informal department updates about the achievements of our students.
In the fall of 2003, Dr. Barry Arbuckle (B. S. in Psychology, 1984) received the 2003 Missouri State Outstanding Young Alumni Award. He is the President/CEO of Memorial Care--Memorial Health Services in Long Beach which is a network of hospitals comprised of over 2900 doctors and 10,000 employees. Dr. Arbuckle in appreciation of his time at Missouri State provided the department with a gift of $5000. His gift energized faculty, staff, and members of Psi Chi to attempt to match his gift within 1 year (2004) to establish the Arbuckle Fund. It will require a total of $10,000 to endow this fund. Once this fund is endowed, five $100 recognition awards will be given to students who have displayed leadership in the areas of research, service to Psi Chi/Missouri State/Community, and peer advisement. Please consider making a pledge to get behind and support Dr. Arbuckle, students, and the department to establish the fund (R4505). If this fund does not meet your needs, please make a pledge to 1 of 2 other endowed funds to promote student travel to convention or to the Psychology Department General Fund.
The first endowed fund is the Psychology Developmental Fund (R4503) that supports both undergraduates and graduate students. And the second fund (R4504) was endowed through the generous efforts of Dr. Skip Phelps and her husband, Harry, support student travel for I/O students (R4504). They are doting grandparents, so we appreciate very much their willingness to share a part of their legacy with the department. Last year we helped to fund 1 undergraduate and 2 graduate presentations at National conferences. Each had expenses over $400 and the department contributed a stipend ranging from $100 to $300 for each of them. Also, the department provided full support to 5 undergraduates ($753) attending the Great Plains Student Research Convention. Two of these students earned awards for their research efforts. The presentations are often instrumental in helping students to achieve their career objectives.
The last fund, is the Psychology Department General Fund, R4501, which has several functions including partial support of food and recognition awards for members of our local chapter of Psi Chi. The chapter engages yearly in fund-raising to support their activities of picnics, induction ceremonies, and local service activities. Also the fund is used to supplement the endowed travel funds.
Graduate Programs Postings
Clinical
Eight new students began the clinical masters program in August 2003. Our second year class has six students; all who are in the process of completing their second practicum or internship experience. In addition, they are putting the final touches on their thesis or seminar papers. Feedback from graduates indicates that about two-thirds are employed in the mental health profession while about one-third are continuing their graduate education in doctoral programs.
Experimental
As most are aware the Experimental Master's track, compared to the IO and Clinical, has a much smaller enrollment due to the apprenticeship model of graduate training and is a newly implemented program. This year it is expected that the program will have its 2nd, 3rd, and 4th master's degrees awarded, leaving 1-second year student and 2 first year students enrolled. It is anticipated that 3 to 4 new students will be accepted for this coming August 2004. Our 1st graduate, Keith Gora, is plugging away in his Ph.D. program in Developmental Psychology at the University of Texas. Over this past year the current experimental students have been successful in get research accepted at national conferences. There were two papers accepted last year and we have two submitted for conferences this year.
Industrial/Organizational
Eleven new students started the program in August, 2003. We are planning on taking a large group of first and second year students to the annual conference of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) which is being held in Chicago, IL in April 2004.
The ten second-year students are waiting on comprehensive exam results and are gearing up on the final phases of theses and seminar papers.
Two of our May 2003 graduates headed to doctoral programs; three more conquered the PHR exam; and all seem settled into jobs or life situations they are happy with for now. The two year survey went out and we are anxious to hear from our alumni.