Wednesday, September 25th, the department welcomed back our Neuroscience, Animal Behavior, and Psychology majors and welcomed all our new first year students. The event, co-sponsored by our student groups, was held outside (in beautiful weather!) and fun was had by all.
If you weren’t able to attend, be sure to connect with our four departmentally affiliated clubs/organizations:
Dr. Brandsma interacts with students in PSY 430 Introduction to Art Therapy
The Psychology Department is proud to participate in the delivery of a special minor, Introduction to Art Therapy. This minor is interdisciplinary, with students completing courses in counseling and mental health from Psychology and courses in drawing, painting, and ceramics or sculpture with the Department of Creative and Fine Arts. One thing that is definitely true about the minor is that it involves lots of hands on activities. In the capstone course, PSY 430 Introduction to Art Therapy, students frequently can be found working on art projects in the classroom with Professor Nancy Rankin and learning how such work can be used with others. While the minor does not lead to certification as an art therapist, it does provide students with a good foundation in the principles of the discipline and prepares them for further study (e.g., a master’s degree in art therapy).
To help students consider how art, writ broadly, can be integrated into counseling approaches, in the spring semester of 2019 Professor Rankin invited Dr. Lynn Brandsma to present to her class. Dr. Brandsma is a music therapist, UNE ambassador extraordinaire, and an instructor here at UNE.
Armed with her guitar and an IKEA bag full of small instruments and colorful fabrics, Dr. Brandsma led the students in many of the common musical activities she uses with her clients. As a group, the students and Professor Rankin participated in a drum circle as well as a sing a-long, moved to the music with a particular directive (i.e., “pretend you’re walking in water”), and played “follow the leader” with the fabrics. In addition, Dr. Brandsma shared information on the rigorous curriculum to become a music therapist and showed several videos demonstrating the impact of music therapy with a variety of clients.
Professor Rankin shared “It is often said that music is a universal language, and in the brief time that we had, I know my students developed an appreciation for the power of that language, both clinically and personally. We had so much fun! Thank you, Dr. Brandsma”!
Thanks to Professor Rankin for the information and pictures for this post. You’ll find Professor Rankin teaching PSY 430 again this coming Spring. Dr. Brandsma is offering PSY 295 Listening & Communication skills this semester (Fall 2019) and will be offering a special topics course on Group Leadership in Spring 2020 (PSY 305).
Julia Beebee, Dr. Trish Long, & Kristin Macek (along with Savannah Vanduyn) present their research to President James Herbert and first lady, Lynn Brandsma (far right)
On Friday the 3rd of May, UNE’s College of Arts & Sciences hosted the 20th Annual Spring Research Symposium. Students from all of our majors were in the house, presenting amazing work that they have completed over the past year!
Students from the department presented 26 research posters and 16 oral presentations over the course of the day! That reflects the work of 87 students and 7 faculty members!
Mackenzie Deveau (left) and Ashley Karpowicz (right) discuss their research with Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour
A panel of faculty from across the College of Arts & Sciences had conversations with students about their work and four of the ten projects receiving Honorable Mention Awards were from the Psychology Department! Congratulations go out to Mackenzie Deveau, Kana Colarossi, Ashley Karpowicz, and Dr. Julie Peterson who presented on Sexism and Female Consumer Behavior.
Jimmy Welch and Christina Torlone presenting their work at the symposium
James Welch, Christina Torlone, Alina Mauthe, Brooke Shea, Dr. Zach Olson, and Dr. Kristin Burkholder received an award for their work on Animal Foraging and Disgust: Effects of Pathogen Cues and Pathogen Risk on Scavenging Behavior.
Makaela Rice at her poster presentation
Makaela Rice and Dr. Mike Burman were awarded for their work entitled The Influence of Neonatal Pain on Maternal Behavior.
Aubrey Sahouria and Nicole Martin with their poster on reading comprehension
Nicole Martin, Ellie Leighton, Aubrey Sahouria, and Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour were also honored for their project, Can Font Change How You Read: Exploring Font Types’ Effect on Comprehension and Reading Speed.
Here’s a selection photos showing many of our students and faculty with their work.
We are very proud of the amazing work all our students and faculty completed over the past year and showcased at the symposium! Congrats to all!!
Thanks to Drs. Linda Morrison, Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, and Zach Olson for all the great photos.
Ellie Leighton (left), Trish Long, Annie Rademacher (right), & Jimmy Welch (far right) have their photo taken after the students receive Outstanding Student awards for PSY, NEU, and ANB
UNE’s Biddeford Campus Awards Ceremony was held last night, April 23, 2019, and students from the Department of Psychology came away with an impressively tall stack of prizes. Congratulations to all the winners, and nominees from the department!!
Dr. Jennifer Steigler-Balfour & Courtney Parent
The Susan J. Hillman Science/Math Education Award was presented to Courtney Parent, Psychology major and Mental Health minor.
Cassie Trask (right) after received an UG Research & Scholarship Award in Natural Science, with Dr. Amy Kierstead
The Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Awards for Natural Science was presented to Cassie Trask, Neuroscience major and Mental Health minor.
Dr. Julie Peterson & Mackenzie Deveau
The Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Award for Social Sciences was presented to Mackenzie Deveau, Psychology major, Women’s and Gender Studies minor, and Political Science minor.
Dr. Jennifer Stieger-Balfour & Nicole Martin
The Sophomore
Award for Academic Excellence was presented to Nicole Martin, Psychology major, Neuroscience minor, and Special
Education minor.
Jacob Liff demonstrates his work in the Makers’ Space to President Herbert
The Outstanding Student in Biophysics Award was presented to Jacob Liff, Neuroscience major.
Jimmy Welch
The Outstanding Student in Animal Behavior Award was presented to James Welch, Animal Behavior and Environmental Science double major.
Annie Rademacher
The Outstanding Student in Neuroscience Award was presented to Anneliese Rademacher, Neuroscience major.
Dr. Trish Long presents Ellie Leighton with the Outstanding Student award for PSY
The
Outstanding Student in Psychology Award was presented to Ellie Leighton,
Psychology major, Mental Health minor, and Special Education minor.
The Outstanding Student in Women’s and Gender Studies Award was presented to Mackenzie Deveau, Psychology major, Women’s and Gender Studies minor, and Political Science minor.
Dr. Julie Peterson with Tarryn Nutt and Mackenzie Deveau
The Jessica
Cox Henderson 1886 Award for Activism in Women’s and Gender Studies was
presented to Tarryn Nutt, Animal
Behavior major and Women’s and Gender Studies minor.
A few of our Psychology Club members are here to invite you to join them at future events!
Have you ever wanted to discuss
something fascinating you learned about in your psychology class with someone
who knows what you are talking about, but in a fun, low pressure setting? Do
you like pizza and ice cream? If you answered yes to any of these questions,
you should check out the Psychology Club because all of their events check at
least one of those boxes.
The Psychology club is open to
anyone interested in psychology – you don’t have to be a psychology major to
join. The club kicked off the fall semester with a joint social event with the
other psychology clubs. This yearly event is a great opportunity to meet your
professors in a more casual setting, connect with other students, and enjoy a
full ice cream sundae bar. Look for the social to return in September 2019!
Later in the fall, the Psychology club had the opportunity to work with the Title IX office on campus on an event and installation called “What Were You Wearing?,” a student-survivor art installation focused on dispelling rape culture myths that place blame on victims for what they were wearing when they were sexually assaulted. The Psychology club sponsored clothing and a quote from a survivor for this powerful installation.
Most recently, the club participated in “The Longest
Table,” a program designed around the idea that there are only a certain
number of seats in this country at tables where important decisions are made.
The idea of the program is that instead of excluding important groups of people
and their opinions from these discussions, we build a longer table. The event
is designed to bring members of the community together to have open and honest
conversations on topics that can sometimes be challenging to talk about.
Upcoming events include a BBQ with the Women’s and Gender Studies program on April 28 (edited to correct date). In addition to the Social, the Psychology club is planning several events for the fall including a panel discussion on addiction and a psychology-themed movie night. The club is also working on a Facebook page to connect students and share news and events.
The Psychology club is always open to new members and ways to be involved in the community. If you are interested in learning more, contact Dr. Nicole McCray, faculty advisor to the psychology club at nmccray@une.edu.
A guest post by Eryn Bardsley about the work she is completing as part of PSY 300, Internship
My internship for my Psychology major is at a Batterer’s Intervention Program (BIP) called Violence No More in Biddeford, Maine. The program provides services for men who have been charged with domestic violence and are court mandated to attend the program in order to fulfill their probation. I intern for the night classes which run from five till nine each night from Monday through Thursday. My role is that of intern but also educator. I help take attendance each night, I help do check-in in which we listen to their stories about what led to their referral into the program, and I help to facilitate discussions surrounding specific lessons.
When I first started at the site, it was a bit intimidating. I wasn’t sure how to act around the men in the program and their stories during check-in were difficult for me to hear. I was nervous about how I’d react to those stories in the moment. As I became more comfortable, I was able to communicate more with the men and I learned more about myself and how to work effectively with the men during the class. I was more often able to speak up and to help the men do the hard work they were there for.
Due to the nature of the program, the stories told by the men can be painful to hear. However, it has also been the most eye-opening experience. This internship has allowed me to grow into my style as a future clinician and educator. At first, I kept trying to project my voice and be a loud, commanding presence so that the men would listen to me. It felt awkward and unnatural since I am normally a quiet person. My supervisor, Marty, told me to allow myself to be who I truly am in the classroom. I learned then that my quiet, calm voice holds as much power as a loud, boisterous voice.
This experience has also taught me that opening up to this type of work has been powerful. At the end of the class every night, once the men have left, all the staff check in with each other and discuss how the class went. It has been great to have the support of my supervisor and the others as I’ve been in the internship.
Along with learning how to be more open and become an authentic educator, I also had to use certain concepts from class very carefully when working with this population. For instance, ethics is a very important concept for any health profession but in this case, it is doubly important due to the history of some of the men. Confidentiality has been a part of ethics that I have worked closely with these past weeks. Mainly, I’ve had to be very careful when discussing the work I’m doing with the other members of my internship class (making sure to keep my stories anonymous and not using any identifying characteristics about the clients). When I see the men in public, I also have to be certain not to engage in conversation with them unless they come up to me first and I have to keep the conversation neutral and short. Outing any of these men could result in their community finding out about their involvement in the BIP, losing their jobs, issues with friends and family, and ostracization within the community.
Not only has this internship taught me so much about myself, it has also solidified my future goals in psychology. I have always been interested in working with the incarcerated population due to the unique challenges they face while in prison along with the struggles that occur after release. I personally do not believe that caging people helps to decrease crime and it does not tackle the actual issues of poverty, violence, and mental health issues that usually precede criminal activity. After working at Violence No More, I am attracted to the idea of working in a correctional facility or a rehabilitative program in group therapy settings.
While the experience can be a difficult one, and the work at this site is no easy task, I’d encourage students to take on the challenge if this population interests them because not only do you learn more in a group therapy setting than sitting in a college classroom, you also get the amazing experience to grow into yourself, embrace all aspects of yourself, and challenge the way you think about violence and society.
Yesterday, Dr. Julie Longua Peterson, Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Women and Gender Studies Program at UNE, was interviewed by reporters with Channel 6, News Center Maine about the new Gillette ad.
We Are ANB, PSY, NEU, Art Therapy, & MHR at UNE 