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October 2009 issue | Volume 3, Issue 2 Latest Information | Issue Archives | Unsubscribe
Boys Will Be Boys?

The current issue of Sex Roles: A Journal of Research includes a paper by Dr. Alice Davidson entitled "It makes me a man from the beating I took": Gender and Aggression in Children’s Narratives About Conflict. Including co-authors Marsha Walton of Rhodes College and Alexis Harris of Penn State University, the authors coded personal conflict narratives written by 364 4th-6th graders for severity of violence, type of aggression, explanations, characters’ mental and emotional states, and moral evaluations. One of the findings of this work was that girls and boys provided more explanations and moral evaluations when describing girl or relational aggression, as opposed to boy or physical or psychological aggression, reflecting a "boys will be boys" norm for aggression. The paper represents the first publication from an ongoing collaboration between Dr. Davidson and researchers at Rhodes College, who recently together conducted a workshop at Rhodes College on the coding of children's narratives. Two Rollins students, Jessica Dunn and Kaitlin Reynolds, participated in that workshop.
Preregistration
Pre-registration for the Winter Intercession and the Spring 2010 term opens on October 26. Pre-register October 26 - October 30. Advising week will be November 2 - November 6. The Psychology Department is offering one Intercession course, The Mind In The Machine. In the Spring, Dr. Suzanne Woodward is offering Sleep, Dreams, and Behavior, a popular course not offered at Rollins for several years. The Spring slate of courses also includes Cross-Cultural Psychology from Dr. Carnahan and Autism & Behavior Analysis, Dr. Ruiz's 400-level course.
Tests & Measurements
Are you a psychopathic deviate? A feeling or thinking type? Smarter than a fifth grader?

Get an in-depth picture of yourself - including your intelligence, career interests, psychological adjustment, and standing on the Big Five traits - in Tests & Measurements with Dr. Smither next semester. We will take different assessments as we look at how psychologists and employers use tests and how tests are constructed. We will even be constructing our own valid and reliable psychological tests. Mondays and Wednesdays 3:30 - 4:45, Spring 2010.
The Return of Psycho-Cinema
For several years, Psychology Club hosted PsychoCinema, a movie night featuring a psychology-themed movie and a post-movie discussion. After a hiatus of two years, PsychoCinema returns this year. On October 5, students gathered to watch Awakenings, the Robin Williams classic about a group of post-encephalitis patients struggling to overcome Parkinsonian symptoms. In the movie, based on a true story, the patients emerge from catatonia thanks to a wonder drug - L-DOPA - only to return to a catatonic state as the effectiveness of the drug declines with time. The next PsychoCinema event is scheduled for October 27, 4-6 pm in Bush Auditorium. The film featured will be the award-winning A Beautiful Mind starring Russel Crowe - another based-on-true story that chronicles the life of John Nash, Nobel Prize-winning physicist who struggled with paranoid schizophrenia. Join us for what promises to be another fun event.
What Can I Do With My Degree? Career Help
The Careers in Psychology class in affiliation with the Psi Chi Honor Society will present a panel discussion on "Life in Graduate School in Psychology" on Wednesday, October 28, 3:30-4:45 in Bush 162. Panelists will all be current graduate students including:

   Will Perry: M.A. Program in Human Resources, Rollins
   Julie Nestle: M.A. Program in Counseling, Rollins
   Amanda Santos: M.A. Program in Counseling, Rollins
   Carla Rivera-Cruz: MA Program in I/O Psychology UCF
   Dan Miller: Ph.D. Program in I/O Psychology, UCF
   (TBA): Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology, UCF

After brief introductory remarks by panelists, the discussion will follow a question and answer format. The event is particularly designed for those considering graduate school in psychology or a related field. For further information please contact Dr. John Houston
Dr. Houston's Students Measure Up
Statisitics and Research Methods I is a foundation course for the Psychology major in which our majors learn the fundamentals of research design and basic statistics. As much fun as that sounds, it's also serious work. Here, Dr. Houston's Stats I crew is getting a lesson in frequncy histograms - they say you never fully understand them until you're in one. Here, the neat bar graphs of humanity are converted into a frequency polygon with the help of - yes - a roll of toilet paper. If you haven't yet had the pleasure of taking Stats I, you can now look forward to someday being able to construct frequency polygons using only everyday household items and your best friends.
Clean Your Room, Fool!
In a study by Dr. Harris (Harris & Sachau, 2005) published in the journal Environment and Behavior, 336 college students read an account of a fictitious man or woman whose apartment was described as being particularly messy or clean. Ratings of the characters’ personalities suggested that stereotypes for poor housekeepers are primarily negative, with messy characters rated as more open to new ideas, but also less emotionally stable, agreeable, conscientious, intelligent, and feminine. And ladies, you're not off the hook: these negative impressions were found regardless of whether a male or female was doing the rating. So if you invite someone over, clean your room!
Suicide Prevention Walk: Take Part!
Vicki Long, Administrative Assistant in the Rollins Psychology Department, is again organizing the Out Of Darkness Walk for suicide prevention in honor of the memory of her father, who committed suicide in 2004. The 2010 3rd annual 5K walk will be Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 9am (sign-in at 8am) at Baldwin Park. The Rollins Psychology team is already getting organized! Check out The Out Of Darkness website and the information page on the Rollins PSY for Vicki team, where you can register to walk or to donate. Get involved with this great cause!
DID YOU KNOW?
The cerebellum is a relatively small part of the human brain, but contains as many neurons as the rest of the brain put together. It is also a part of the brain that is particularly sensitive to the effects of alcohol. In fact, many of the "field sobriety tests" administered by police officers examining suspected drunk drivers are essentially neuropsychological tests of cerebellum function: walking on a straight line, touching the finger to the nose, etc. Occasionaly, people with cerebellar damage (due to tumor or head trauma) are initially misdiagnosed as alcoholics because the movement dysfunctions are so similar. And the similarity reminds us that if you get behind the wheel drunk, you are essentially operating a motor vehicle while brain damaged.
FACULTY FACT
Dr. Jennifer Queen has nearly completed her world tour, and will do so before the year is out. Her travels since 2008 have taken her to North America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Hawaii, Ontario), South America (Argentina), Oceania (Australia), Europe (Ireland), Asia (Japan), and Africa (Morocco). In December, she will take a cruise to Antarctica and complete the world tour. We cannot confirm rumors that she is negotiating with the Russians for a trip to the International Space Station, however.
•10/26-30 Pre-registration
•10/27 Psychocinema
•10/28 Careers panel
•10/30 Last day to Drop (WF deadline)
•10/31 Boo!
•11/2-6 Advising
OUR FACULTY
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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.