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Welcome Back!
Shrink Rap is a monthly newsletter for psychology majors, students enrolled in psychology classes, and friends of the department. In this first issue of the 09-10 academic year, we'd like to welcome our continuing students back to campus, and to introduce our new students to the department. The Rollins Psychology department consists of a dedicated staff, including administrative assistant Vicki Long, laboratory assistant Kevin Miraglia, animal care technician Evelyn DeMello, and 11 full-time faculty members. This Fall, Dr. Ruiz will be on sabbatical and Dr. Queen will be away the full year. Dr. Queen was recently tenured and promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. We are pleased to welcome Dr. Suzanne Woodward to the department to teach Cognitive Psychology while Dr. Queen is away. Dr. Woodward will also bring some exciting new courses to the curriculum over the next two years, including those based on her extensive background in sleep and dreaming research. This year, Dr. Harris will be serving as Department Chair. The geographical home of our department is in the Johnson Center annex of the Bush Science Center, and the majority of our classes are taught on the first and second floors of Bush. Our department has a reputation for putting students first. If you have any questions about the major or the coming year, Vicki, Kevin, and our entire faculty are more than happy to meet with you.
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Who Let The Profs Out?
What did you do with your summer vacation? Several Psychology Professors spent time travelling the world this summer. Dr. Alice Davidson (pictured in the red cap) joined 10 Rollins faculty on a tour of China that ranged from the mega-cities of Beijing and Shanghai to remote western provinces. Dr. Davidson will incorporate these experiences into Advanced Developmental this fall. Dr. Martin Farkash spent three weeks in Israel and Jordan. In addition to visiting historical sites such as Petra, Dr. Farkash turned his academic eye to studying how Israelis cope with the stress of a slumping world economy and tense international pressures including the development of nuclear technologies in Iran. Dr. Sharon Carhahan spent two weeks assisting a summer camp of 50 teenage and young adult students who had survived the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Dr. Carnahan visited households headed by children and observed villages that had benefited from immunization programs of UNICEF. Dr. Jennifer Queen, in celebration of her recent promotion, visited Morocco for a week at the beginning of summer. A jealous Dr. St. John reports that he spent a week in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.
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Student-Faculty Summer Collaborations
One of the great benefits of attending a small school like Rollins College is the opportunity to work one-on-one with professors on research projects that can lead to publication and national exposure. Summer is often the best time to engage in research, when both students and professors have a break from the pressures of classes and can devote their attention to research full time. This summer was no exception. Mai-Han Nguyen and Megan Joyner began a project with Dr. David Richard to refine measures for assessing pathological gambling, and Julia Humphrey continued her work with Dr. Richard on cognitive biases in people with anxiety disorders. Shakirra Meghjee collaborated with Dr. Steven St. John on changes in taste perception in rats challenged by low body sodium, a condition commonly found in human athletes depleted following vigorous exercise. Jessica Dunn and Kaitlin Reynolds participated in a workshop on coding children’s narratives about interpersonal conflict. This work took them to Memphis, Tennessee (pictured) to Rhodes College, and the collaboration between Rhodes and Rollins will continue in the fall as Jessica and Kaitlin collect children’s narratives about peer conflict at Fern Creek Elementary School in Orlando.
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Faculty Present Work At National Meetings
In late Spring and over the Summer, several faculty members presented their work (some involving student collaborations) at national and international meetings. Dr. John Houston (pictured at APA with Phil Zimbardo of Stanford) and Dr. Paul Harris presented a poster at the American Psychological Association meeting in Toronto that included the work of Rollins alumna Jennifer Gasparri, and presented a second poster at the Environmental Design Research Association meeting in Kansas City. Dr. Bob Smither and MLS student Samir Gupte presented their work on the implicit personality theory of Hinduism at the Interamerican Congress of Psychology meeting in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Dr. Steven St. John presented much closer to home at the Association for Chemoreception Sciences Meeting in Sarasota, with Rollins alumni Erin Krauskopf and Anya Marshall as co-authors. Dr. Roger Ray presented work at the Association for Behavior Analysis meeting in Phoenix in collaboration with Rollins alumni Kailtlin Causin and Nicole Hogan and Psychology colleague Dr. Sharon Carnahan. Dr. Maria Ruiz also presented at ABA along with Rollins alumni Melissa Bernardo and Sara Jacobsen. Dr. David Richard attended the 14th International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and gave two presentations with Rollins students Megan Joyner and Mai-Han Nguyen.
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Sigmund Freud is remembered for his theory of psychoanalysis, but did you know that Freud first studied physiology and anatomy? Under the direction of the eminent physiologist Ernst Brucke, Freud completed a major work on, of all things, the sexual organs of eels. Later Freud investigated the anesthetic properties - and also the therapeutic possibilities - of cocaine.
Dr. David Richard, whose research interests have now broadened to include pathological gambling (see stories, this issue), is the director of a local charity poker league on Wednesday nights at Flanagan's Sports Pub. Currently the tour is raising money to support the American Red Cross.
•9/4 Last Day to Drop Class (no W)
•9/7 Labor Day (no classes)
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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.
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