Psychology Department Home Page - Denison University

"Psyche Opening the Golden Box" by JW Waterhouse (1903)

Welcome to the Psychology Department at Denison University!

Psychology is the study of physiological, behavioral, and mental processes in humans and animals. Psychology has several interrelated facets, being a scholarly discipline, a scientific field of study, and an applied profession.

As a scholarly discipline, psychology represents a major field of study in academic settings. The primary goal of the Department of Psychology at Denison University is to teach students the significant concepts, theories, research findings, and methodological approaches of contemporary psychology.

As a scientific field of study, psychology entails the investigation of human and animal phenomena, principally by examining the factors that affect psychological processes. The psychology faculty at Denison are actively involved exploring various aspects of human and animal functioning through their own research, and an important component of a student's training at Denison is direct involvement in psychological research.

As an applied profession, psychology involves the application of knowledge, skills, and techniques to the prevention and solution of individual and social problems. Applied psychologists may work in clinical, counseling, educational, industrial, or social settings. Denison students have the opportunity to gain experience in applied psychology through the department's Field Experience course, the Organizational Studies program, or individual work with faculty.

Announcements

UPCOMING EVENTS - SPRING 2012

Michael T. Turvey visits the Psychology Department at Denison:

M. T. Turvey, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Conneticut, will be visiting Denison during the first week of February. The author of over 350 book chapters and journal articles, M. T. Turvey has sustained a rich and successful career studying the relationship between perception and action. He has distinguished himself as both an educator and researcher.

Theory of Perception-Action for All Organisms: What Kind of Science Does It Entail? [Thursday, February 2 at 7:30p in the Slayter Auditorium]

Haptic Perception: An Ecological Analysis of Knowing by Touching [Friday, February 3 at 4:30p in the Higley Auditorium]

For more information about M. T. Turvey, and his scheduled presentations, please visit the Psychology Department blog (link below).

Read further about upcoming speakers, awards, and recent events here:

Psychology Department News

Faculty Research

Faculty Research 2012

Dr. Nestor Matthews published an empirical paper in the Journal of Vision titled "Right Hemifield Deficits in Judging Simultaneity: A Perceptual Learning Study". The paper was co-authored by Jenna Kelly ('10) and Michael Vawter ('14). The article incorporates Michael's 2011 Anderson Summer Science Research project completed under the direction of Dr. Matthews.

Faculty Research 2011

Dr. Nida Bikmen published a paper titled “Asymmetrical effects of contact between minority groups: Asian and Black students in a small college” in Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. This study draws from Dr. Bikmen’s study of the process of social identity negotiation among minority students. In addition, Dr. Bikmen co-authored a chapter titled “Building solidarity across difference: Social identity, intersectionality and collective action for social change” in the book Social Categories in Everyday Experience. Following a different line of inquiry, Dr. Bikmen also presented a paper in July at the Annual Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology titled “Difficult dialogues: Turkish students’ willingness to talk about inequality with Kurds and Armenians”.

Dr. Cody Brooks authored an entry on "Retrieval Cues and Memory" for the Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, edited by Norbert M. Seel, Ph.D..

Dr. Seth Chin-Parker presented a poster titled “What Varying Category Structure and Learning Task Reveals About Inference Learning” at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society in Boston, MA. The study examined how feature prediction functions as a category learning task.

Dr. Gina Dow and Dr. Lyn Robertson of the Education Department at Denison presented a poster titled “Co-reading affects predictive relationship between pre-emergent literacy tests and emergent literacy” at the annual meeting of the Association of Psychological Science in Washington, DC. Their research has found that interactive book reading in a school setting can help “at-risk” children develop the knowledge of expressive language they need as emergent readers.

Dr. Harry Heft presented the paper "What is Psychology's Unit of Analysis?" at the meeting of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, Thessaloniki, Greece, in late June. This historical and theoretical paper discussed some of his developing ideas about the significance of 'the situation' in which psychological processes transpire. Also, Dr. Heft completed a book review this summer for the APA publication Psycritiques. The review, called "Loose parts of environmental psychology," was a critical examination of the book Urban Diversities - Environmental and Social Issues edited by M. Bonaiuto, M. Bonnes, A. Nenci,, & G. Carrus.

Dr. Erin J. Henshaw and Megan Greenhouse (’11) presented a poster titled “Effect of Message Framing on Views of Postpartum Depression” at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, IL. The focus of their study was on how using a loss-framed message about post-partum depression increased the perceived need for treatment but also increased negative opinions about a woman suffering from depression. Dr. Henshaw also sponsored two poster presentations made by students during the Psi Chi session at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, IL. Melanie Warning (’11) presented her senior research titled “The Relationship Between Body Dissatisfaction, Relationship Dissatisfaction, Self-Silencing, and Depressive Symptoms in Perinatal Women” and Bethany Sabourin (‘11) presented her senior research titled “Current Status of the “Psychology-Religion Gap”: Christian Religiosity and Mental Healthcare Treatment Seeking Behaviors and Attitudes”. Dr. Henshaw then traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in order to deliver a paper, co-authored by Dr. Heather O'Mahen (The University of Exeter in the United Kingdom), at the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies. The paper, titled "Messages about Postpartum Depression: Intended and Unintended Effects of Psychoeducational Materials”, discussed an extension of Dr. Henshaw’s work on message framing to include a sample of British mothers. Dr. Henshaw had her paper “Patient Preferences for Clinician Interactional Style in Treatment of Perinatal Depression” published in Qualitative Health Research this summer. The paper was the result of collaboration with several co-authors from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and the University of Exeter in the U.K.. Dr. Henshaw also was second author on a paper published in The Journal of Affective Disorders this summer. The paper titled “Stigma and depression during pregnancy: does race matter?” examined how stigma associated with depression affected a mother’s decision to seek treatment and how that relationship varied between Black Women and White Women.

Dr. Sarah Hutson-Comeaux, Hillary Moore (’11), and Laurel Brabson (’11) presented a poster titled “Explanations Offered for Workplace Anger: Implications for Female Leaders’ Effectiveness” at the annual meeting of the Association of Psychological Science in Washington, DC. Their study examined several factors that influenced participants’ ratings of the effectiveness of a female in a leadership position within an organization.

Following a line of research established by Dr. Susan Kennedy, Taylor Blake (’11), Ellen Puce (’12), Dr. Kennedy, and Dr. Gary J. Kennedy (from the Ohio State University) presented a poster titled, “Neonatal Isolation and Methylphenidate Alter Social/Play Interactions in Juvenile Rats” at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, IL. Their study examined how the interaction between experiencing stress as a rat pup and later exposure to a stimulant affected social behaviors of the rats.

Dr. Nestor Matthews was involved with two posters that were presented at the annual conference of the Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL. Dr. Matthews and Sarah Theobald ('11) presented a poster titled “Attention-Dependent Hemifield Asymmetries When Judging Numerosity”. Their research explored how several factors related to the distribution of objects across the visual field affected participants’ abilities to make judgments about the numbers of objects presented. Jenna Kelly ('10) and Dr. Matthews presented another poster titled "Attentional Oblique Effect When Judging Simultaneity: A Perceptual Learning Study". In this study, participants were asked to make judgments about objects that appeared at different locations within their visual field. Their research illustrated some of the constraints on the participants’ abilities to make those judgments.

Dr. Robert Weis, Devanshi Unadkat (’11), and Lauryn Sykes (’11) presented a poster titled “Academic and Cognitive Deficits of College Students with Learning Disabilities” at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, IL. They also presented a poster titled “Qualitative Differences in the Psychoeducational Profiles of College Students With Learning Disabilities” at the annual meeting of the Association of Psychological Science in Washington, DC. Their research examined the relationship between academic and cognitive ability scores of post-secondary students identified as having a learning disability. They considered how that relationship varied depending on the type of post-secondary institution the student was attending.

Student Summer Research 2011

Seven students remained on campus during the summer to engage in collaborative research with faculty from the Psychology Department. During the 10 week session, they immersed themselves into the existing literature related to their interests, designed and implemented their studies, and then analyzed and shared their findings. At the start of the fall semester, they presented their research at a campus-wide summer science poster presentation.

Kinsey Brayant-Lees - Gender Differences in the Range of Appropriate Emotional Expressions in an Interpersonal versus an Achievement Context

Jeanine Cerney - Men's Hair Loss as a Factor Influencing Evaluations in Organizations with Different Cultures

Casey Nottingham - Memory for Social and Non-social Stimuli in Children and Adolescents with and without Autism Spectrum Diagnoses

Colleen Russo - Exposure Factors Affecting Children's Analogical Problem Solving: Does Interaction Beat Watching Television?

Elena C. Speridakos -Psychoeducational Functioning of Community College Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Michael Vawter - Hastening Visual Attention with Practice: A Perceptual Learning Study

Chonthicha Vongchucherd - Will a Cue Not Associated with Extinction Also Reduce the Relapse of Ethanol Self-Administration after Chronic Stress in Male Rats?

Gateways