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Professor Richard Co-Edits Text Book
Professor Richard and Dr. Stephen Huprich, who gave a talk at Rollins College in 2007, have co-edited a book entitled Clinical Psychology: Assessment, Treatment and Research which was published on September 5 by Academic Press/Elsevier. The book is aimed at graduate students and advanced undergraduates, and features chapters written by a variety of the field's leading experts. Dr. Richard plans to use this book in his spring semester offering of Introduction to Clinical Psychology. The book is the second major work edited by Dr. Richard, following on the 2006 text Handbook of Exposure Therapies (co-edited with Dean Lauterbach) which was targeted at students and practioners of behavioral therapy. The clinical psychology text book integrates assessment, treatment, and research; topics often relegated to separate texts and courses, and includes discussion of a variety of therapeutic approaches. As one would expect from Dr. Richard, the text emphasizes evidence-based practice and issues surrounding the validity of findings in clinical science.
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Rollins Students Co-Author Book Chapter
With the publication deadline of Clinical Psychology: Assessment, Treatment and Research fast approaching, Dr. Richard invited Dr. John Houston, who studies organizational change interventions, to co-author the chapter on program evaluation. Program evaluation draws on techniques and principles from a number of disciplines within the social and health sciences. Consequently, the literature is extensive, complex, widely scattered and occasionally contradictory. To cope with the sheer volume of material, two students from Dr. Richard’s 400-level Clinical Research Methods class, Erin Krauskopf and Julia Humphrey, were invited to help with the literature review. Having studied program evaluation in Clinical Research Methods, Erin and Julia quickly demonstrated their facility with the material and began to make substantial contributions to the chapter. Instead of just finding and summarizing articles, Erin and Julia drafted segments of the chapter using recent program evaluations to demonstrate how key concepts are applied during different stages of the evaluation process. They read through a small mountain of research articles, worked through weekends and spring break, and produced nearly 10 of the 50 pages of the chapter. In recognition of their contributions, Erin and Julia were added to the publishing contract and formally recognized as co-authors of Chapter 17: Program Evaluation and Clinical Psychology. Erin ('08) graduated with Honors in Psychology and is preparing to apply to graduate school. Julia is now a junior and working as a statistics tutor at TJ’s.
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Welcome Back Stacy Friedman Taylor, M.S., B.C.B.A. (’99)
Stacy Friedman Taylor (’99) is serving as behavioral consultant to the Rollins College Child Development Center, and will be supervising students from the Autism and Behavior Analysis class. While at Rollins Stacy worked in the operant animal lab with Dr. Maria Ruiz and conducted senior research with Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats exploring an animal model of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. While still a student here, Stacy began to take courses required to qualify to take the exam for certification as a Behavior Analyst. She also began to work at Quest Kids whose director, Chata Dickson (’94), was also a Rollins graduate. Quest Kids is a school for autistic children that uses behavior analysis to treat the needs of autistic children and their families. Behavior analysis has been demonstrated to be the most effective evidence-based treatment modality in the field of autism. After graduation Stacy began what became a ten-year career at Quest Kids, eventually becoming the school’s director. During that time she completed a masters program in Child Development as UCF and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Over the years she has supervised countless interns from Rollins working in this exciting clinical field. Now she is back on campus sharing her expertise so, come by and meet her.
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Intercession and New Spring Courses
Registration for the January and Spring terms is fast approaching. We would like to draw your attention to two January classes that will likely be offered by the department as well as two Spring courses that are new or rarely offered. During January, Dr. St. John is hoping to offer Your Brain On Music, a fun, must-take course for students interested in the brain or the psychology of music. We'd love to have musicians, music majors, psychology students and music lovers for the course. Also in January, Dr. Paul Harris expects to offer The Mind In The Machine again, so if you were wait-listed last time, here's another chance to take this fun course. In this course, analysis of "almost human" characters (robots, androids, and other artificial intelligence) from 80 years of cinema will help students gain a better understanding of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that help define humanity.
In the Spring, Dr. St. John will be offering, for the first time, The Mind-Body Problem. (Actually, Dr. Harris' Intercession course would make a nice introduction to this class.) If you've enjoyed topics like synesthesia, blindsight, dreaming and sleep, hallucinations and delusions, and subliminal messages in other pscyhology courses, then Mind-Body will be a fun elective for you. Tell your friends in Philosophy, Physics, and Biology - we want this as interdisciplinary as possible. Also in Spring, Dr. Smither will bring a new course Tests and Measurements to the curriculum. This course will take a "hands-on" approach to psychological testing with class members developing portfolios of their own personal results on well-known measures of intelligence, achievement, and mental health.
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Travel To Costa Rica with Dr. Carnahan
In January, students will have an opportunity to register for a May, 2008 course PSY 215F: Costa Rica's Mothers and Children. As part of this exciting and moving experience, students will travel to San Jose, Costa Rica, visit local schools, and study psychological and health issues facing women and children in Central America. Need-based, merit, and Holt scholarships are available, so don't let cost inhibit you from taking advantage of this experience! All interested students should get in touch with Dr. Carnahan as soon as possible - space and financial support are limited.
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Teachers Pet: Dr. Harris & Emma
Shrink Rap: Please introduce your pet.
Dr. Harris: Emma is a one year old Devon Rex cat, although she takes after her father who was a Sphinx (think Mr. Bigglesworth in the Austin Powers movies).
SR: Do you think that your pet reflects your personality?
PH: I think that theory works more for dogs than cats. Although I like dogs, I am definitely a "cat person." Dogs are too eager to please -- that much unconditional positive regard makes me nervous. Emma and I are alike in that we both like tuna fish sandwiches, I like to read and she likes to sit on books I am trying to read, I am allergic to cat fur and Emma is virtually bald. However, there are far more differences than similarities: I am rather sedentary and Emma is very active, I am a bit nervous and she is fearless, she likes to climb on top of the television while I prefer to watch the television, and, most important, she is a cat and I am a human being.
SR: Has your pet taught you anything about psychology?
PH: Absolutely. There is very little social psychological research on relationships between pets and human beings, but Emma and I definitely interact, communicate, and have distinct and enmeshed patterns of behavior that vary depending on the situation. Living alone, I also think that pets are a form of social support -- this may explain some of the initial findings that pets can be therapeutic. Also, Emma has taught me that bald is beautiful!
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Dr. St. John's Students Get A Taste Of Research
Alternate title: Dr. St. John's students turn blue in the face. As part of learning about correlational research in PSY 361: Statistics & Research Methods II, Dr. St. John's students took a food survey, rated the intensity of taste solutions, and then counted each other's taste buds. That last exercise requires staining the tip of the tongue blue and counting the raised fungiform papillae on the surface of the tongue. Our class was not able to replicate the reported positive correlation between fungiform papilla number and sensitivity to the tastant PROP, but we were able to divide the class into tasters and nontasters and show some correlations with sensitivity to other tastes as well.
• The SuperTaster Test - good reading, but if you want to get tested, save the $5 and visit Dr. St. John
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ABOUT THIS ISSUE
Shrink Rap is an email publication of the Rollins College Department of Psychology. This issue can also be found online. The newsletter is sent monthly during the academic year to Psychology majors and minors in A&S and Holt, students in A&S psychology classes, psychology faculty and staff, and friends of the department.
LINKS
OUR FACULTY
The Cross-Race Facial Recognition Deficit describes the fact that, while people are generally very good at recognizing whether they have seen a face before, they are poorer at doing so when the face is from a different race (for example, Caucasians are less adept at recognizing whether an African-American face was or was not previously seen). This once-robust effect is, however, smaller today than when first observed decades ago. New research suggests that people focus on features that allow them to individuate a face if it is from their own race, but focus on features that allow them to make a group classification if the face is from a different race (Levin, 2000).
While he was a student at Georgetown University, Dr. John Houston took Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Dr. Bob Smither and also did research with him. Dr. Smither even wrote letters of recommendations for Dr. Houston's applications to graduate school. (So be nice to your professors... you never know when you'll be working with them!)
•10/23 - 26 Fall Break
•10/27 - 31 Pre-registration
•11/3 - 11/7 Advising
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