The Psychology Department is pleased to announce that the Society for Personality and Social Psychology has selected Dr. Julie Peterson as a Teacher-Scholar Award Winner for the 2020 SPSP convention. This award recognizes teacher/scholars who teach and work exclusively with undergraduate students and comes with a cash award. Award decisions were based on the excellence of the submitted conference abstract.
In addition, out of 2289 single presenter submissions to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual conference, Dr. Peterson was one of only 36 individuals to be selected for a Data Blitz Session, where “hot” research in the field is presented as part of a series of short talks.
Dr. Peterson shares that the work that led to her selection for the Teacher-Scholar award is based on work completed with former psychology majors Janelle Sherman and Mackenzie Deveau, and current psychology major Hannah Christian. The title of the talk is Easy, Breezy, Beautiful? College Women Are Willing to Pay More Money for Cosmetic Products in Response to Identity Threats.
Here is a summary of the project to be presented:
College women’s pricing of cosmetic products (e.g., lipstick, mascara, anti-aging cream, foundation) increases following threats to their value as a mate (study 1) or status as women (study 2). In study 1, 175 women received bogus personality feedback that indicated either they would be alone (mate-value threat) or accident prone (misfortune control) later in life. All participants then evaluated and priced cosmetic products. Analyses revealed that women were willing to pay significantly more money for cosmetic products in the mate-value threat (vs. control) condition even though they did not increase liking for the products. In study 2, 161 women were randomly assigned to memorize statements reflecting either sexist or control beliefs. Participants then rated and priced a series of products as part of an ostensibly unrelated task. Women in the sexism (vs. control) condition were willing to pay significantly more money for cosmetic products, but not for other types of products related to domestic labor or daily life. Together this work suggests that college women may exaggerate the monetary value of makeup in response to different types of identity threats.
Dr. Peterson is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. You can learn about her research and opportunities for UNE undergraduates in her research lab at: https://longuapetersonlab.wixsite.com/selflab
Northern bog lemmings are listed as a threatened species of
statewide conservation concern in Maine, and are similarly listed as species of
greatest conservation need in six of the seven U.S. states in which they occur. There is an urgent need for more information
about the distribution of Northern bog lemmings as their alpine habitats are
under pressure from climate change and potentially in conflict with wind energy
development. Unfortunately traditional tools are not effective at identifying
Northern bog lemming populations. To address this issue, the Olson lab has been
working with grants from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund and the Maine
Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to create a new, DNA-based tool to
find out where Northern bog lemmings are living in Maine and beyond.
On October 1, 2019, Dr. Olson presented the results of those efforts at The Wildlife Society’s annual conference, held in Reno, Nevada. The presentation described the new genetic tool that can identify species like the Northern bog lemming based on DNA extracted from field-collected fecal pellets, the use of which will decrease the time and effort needed to find Northern bog lemmings moving forward. An important result of the work thus far was a reconfirmation of Northern bog lemming presence in Baxter State Park, where Northern bog lemmings were last confirmed nearly 50 years ago. Moving forward, the group hopes to use the new genetic tool to search more broadly for Northern bog lemmings, and to initiate genetic, demographic, and behavioral studies of this cryptic native species.
If you are a UNE undergraduate and are interested in helping Dr. Olson with his research on this species, please email him at zolson@une.edu
Dr. Seth Davis says hello to one of the rats that will learn in the lab section associated with PSY 384
Hands-on Training: Understanding Learning and Behavior Change in Psy 384, Animal Learning and Behavior
Sitting at the intersection of Animal Behavior and Psychology are the powerful techniques for predicting and controlling behavior known as Classical and Operant Conditioning. Originally discovered over 100 years ago, these techniques have proven essential for our understanding of both human and animal behavior, with important applications in animals training, clinical psychology, business management, advertising, physical/occupational therapy and more. It’s critical that our students learn about this!
Unfortunately, with over a 100 years of vocabulary terms, complexity, theory refinement and experimental data, these topics can get pretty complex and sometimes start to seem a little dry to students sitting in a classroom. However, that is NOT the case here at UNE. Using equipment donated from UNE’s COBRE project and a collaborator, Dr. Seth Davis, Associate Professor Michael Burman, has developed an exciting hands-on curriculum in which students get to work with live rats.
However, it’s not all snuggly fun with the animals. The purpose of this experience is to recreate and expand upon some of the classical operant conditioning experiments in order to better understand how these techniques work. The students are trained in the use of modern high-tech cages called “operant chambers” or “skinner boxes.” In these cages the rats, just like UNE students in the cafeteria, are motivated to earn sugary treats.
The students in the course will first habituate the subjects to the chambers and teach them that sugar pellets or sugary water is available to them. Once an animal is excited to play, the students will then begin to train them to work for their rewards. The student’s job is to teach the rats to press a lever to earn their treats. After that, the students can start to ask more sophisticated questions: Does the size of the reward matter? What about a delay between the effort and the reward? How does changing the rate of pay effect behavior?
At the end of the class, a member of the group will often adopt their rat, bringing home a new friend and a constant reminder of the strength of operant conditioning in our lives.
Join us tomorrow, Thursday October 3rd, to hear Hal Herzog, Professor of Psychology at Western Carolina University, speaking about animals and people in interaction!!
He’ll be giving a talk at 12:30 – 1:50pm in St Francis Room called “Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: On Our Attitudes Towards Animals.” At 5pm, he’ll participate in a panel discussion on the same topic in St Francis Room.
Here’s the blurb:
“Hal Herzog has investigated the complex psychology
of our interactions with other species for more than two decades. He is particularly interested in how people
negotiate real world ethical dilemmas, and he has studied animal activists,
cockfighters, animal researchers, and circus animal trainers. He is both a
prolific scholar and an award-winning teacher and researcher”.
The faculty of the department invite all of our Neuroscience, Animal Behavior, and Psychology majors and minors for an evening with ice cream! Come and meet us and your fellow students, learn about the clubs associated with all our majors, and have some fun!
Questions can be directed to Kana Colarossi at kcolarossi@une.edu
Nic Africo virtually embodying Beatriz as she first begins to struggle with the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease while working as a classroom teacher
The
phrase is often heard that we learn by
doing. While this is very often
true, in order to learn about aging, it is typically really hard to “do.” As a young person, there is only so much to
be learned from perspective taking and reading about age-related change. There are many media portrayals of older
adults, but often characters in these outlets are colored by the negative
stereotypical biases of society or the director, or show only the most glossy
portions of life as an older adult. A
large part of the real aging process
is a mystery until we reach older age ourselves…until now!
Embodied
Labs (https://embodiedlabs.com/) has created Virtual Reality (VR) lab
experiences that can give us a more realistic view of life in the shoes of
simulated older adults who are experiencing one of a number of common
age-related challenges.
A glimpse into Alfred’s perspective with macular degeneration. Photo: Embodied Labs
Students in my Psychology of Aging (PSY 325) class this semester were asked to experience life as an older adult in three different labs over the course of the semester. At the beginning of the semester, when the class was covering some of the physical changes that take place to the body during the normal aging process, students completed the “We Are Alfred” lab that presented a virtual older man Alfred, a 74-year old man who was struggling with both macular degeneration and high-frequency hearing loss. During the lab, Alfred struggles to see and hear as he spends time with his family, visits a doctor, and receives a diagnosis. Upon receiving hearing aids, Alfred’s struggles to hear sounds from his environment decreases remarkably, but the effect of the macular degeneration persist.
Later in the semester, we discussed some of the clinical and mental health challenges that are frequently correlated with later life. In our class discussions, we covered Alzheimer’s Disease among other neurocognitive disorders found in the aging population. While many students have had a life connection, either through a grandparent or other older relative, to someone diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, it is a very different perspective living as the older person directly experiencing symptoms of the disease themselves. In order to get a glimpse into this experience, students completed the Beatriz Lab, which allows students to virtually embody Beatriz, a middle-aged woman, as she progresses through early, middle, and late stage Alzheimer’s Disease.
Nic Africo, as he virtually experiences cognitive testing as an Alzheimer’s patient
Finally, we closed out the semester with discussions of some of the end of life decisions and related caregiving. These topics tend to be the most foreign to students in the typical college demographic. Many of my students expressed surprise with the wide range of emotions they experienced while working their way through the last of the virtual reality labs. In this VR experience, the students embodied Clay Crowder, a 66-year old man with stage IV terminal lung cancer.
A virtual view of Clay’s perspective as he works through the end of his life. Photo: Embodied Labs.
Prior to this semester, UNE’s
College of Osteopathic Medicine students were the primary viewers of these
labs. By integrating these virtual lab
experiences into the Psychology of Aging course, I have been able to bring a
bit more of the “do” into the learn by
doing notion for the students in my class and continue to expand the active
learning components for students interested in the Psychology of Aging.
UNE, through the UNE Library Services and the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s 2016 National Network of Libraries of Medicine New England Region (NN/LM NER) Technology Grant, is working with Embodied Labs and offering virtual, immersive case studies designed to teach students about the aging experience, from the first-person patient perspective.
Thanks to Dr. Leclerc for providing this content and photos. You can find Dr. Leclerc in PSY 250 Lifespan Development every semester. She will teach PSY 324 Social and Emotional Development in Childhood in Spring 2020 and will offer Psychology of Aging again in 2020-2021. Dr. Leclerc is currently working with other faculty at UNE to develop an interdisciplinary Gerontology minor.
Students in Dr. Stiegler-Balfour’s section of PSY285 at the 2019 CAS Undergraduate Research Symposium
The University of
New England Psychology Department prides itself on offering students with the
opportunity to get involved in scientific research whether they’re studying
psychology, animal behavior or neuroscience.
Daria Cassaza, Nikonas Aganis, Brianna Jewett & Jessica Larsen investigated whether positive self-affirmation could offset levels of stress in college students depending on whether someone had internal or external locus of control
A terrific example of how we enable students to get hands-on experience with science is in our Research Methods (PSY285) class. For Dr. Stiegler-Balfour, one of the department faculty members who teaches this class, taking Research Methods as an undergraduate was the course that inspired her to become a researcher and make a positive contribution to the world of science and the field of psychology.
Meagan Thompson, Ashley Johnson, Cassidy Morey & Erin Murphy investigated how an individual’s perception of dogs is effected by their experiences and the breed
At UNE, one of the goals of the research methods course is to teach students to use the tools of psychological science to answer everyday questions and/or to become better consumers of research. As part of the class, students work together in groups to complete a research project under the direction of the instructor.
Nicole Martin, Bobbi Brandau, Zane Getman and Elizabeth Vigue explored the effects of mood and trait level optimism on one’s perception and judgements of others
At the beginning of each semester, Dr. Stiegler-Balfour encourages students to explore research journals and articles for inspiration, and consider which questions remain unanswered or require a more extensive examination. But great research ideas aren’t limited to building on existing studies. Looking closely at everyday life and identifying potential solutions to practical problems or establishing a deeper understanding of why a phenomenon occurs often reveals exciting research ideas.
Kaela Kee, Riley Kelly, Amanda Bettencourt and Josh Morris researched how individuals interpret horoscopes depending on their locus of control and perception of their future success
Once students
begin to develop an idea of what they might be interested in studying, Dr. Stiegler-Balfour
likes to use a “speed dating” activity where students chat with classmates to
see whether there are overlaps in interests. Ultimately, this results in students
being put into groups of 3 or 4 to work on developing a research idea together.
Students are involved in all aspects of research from determining a research
idea and forming a hypothesis to developing the study materials, data collection
and analysis, and interpreting the results.
The students who
come up with the best projects are invited to present their findings at the CAS
Undergraduate Research Symposium at the end of the academic year. The CAS Undergraduate
Symposium is one of the biggest events on campus each spring and students from
all departments get to present all the wonderful work they have done in their
classes and research labs throughout the academic year. For more information
about the CAS Undergraduate Symposium also see this UNE news release (https://www.une.edu/news/2019/2019-college-arts-and-sciences-spring-research-symposium-awards-announced).
Most students who have taken the class would probably agree that this is one of the more challenging classes they will take during their college career; however, many students find it also very rewarding. All you need to do is look at their proud faces when you see them presenting their projects. Dr. Stiegler-Balfour had a fantastic lineup of students complete four different research projects in her Research Methods class in Spring 2019. The students worked extremely hard to put together their research projects which ranged from examining the impact of a person’s experience on their perceptions of different dog breeds to examining whether the use of positive self-affirmation can offset stress in college students.
Thanks to Dr. S-B for all she does with the students and for the information for this post.
A guest post by Zane Getman about his experience as part of PSY 300 Internship
My internship at Sweetser during Spring 2019 was both rewarding and challenging. Sweetser is a prominent behavioral healthcare organization with several residential locations throughout Maine. While there are resources provided to adults in need of Sweetser’s services, Sweetser mostly provides assistance to children, adolescents, and their families. Recipients of Sweetser’s care services are often adolescents suffering from trauma, depression, ADHD, and behavioral/cognitive issues.
As an intern I was essentially a Youth and Family Counselor in training at one of their sites in Saco. I worked in the Portland Adolescent Unit (PAU) which included eight adolescent boys. Sweetser creates individualized programs based on the clients’ strengths and tendencies in order to help them overcome certain behaviors that prevent them from thriving in a public setting. In my unit, the clients shared difficulty with self-restraint, sexualized behaviors, and oppositional defiance to any type of authority. My role at Sweetser was to build connections with each client to identify their strengths and weaknesses to help them overcome these behavioral issues, as well as to work with my fellow staff members to provide empathic and effective care.
There are many valuable things that I learned throughout this internship, but the most significant one to me has been the importance of establishing connections. The adolescent boys that I spent 120 hours with all required different types of attention, and it is impossible to meaningfully help them make progress if you are unable to build a trusting relationship with them individually. At first whenever I would try to intervene if a client was having a rough week or try to offer them advice, they were not receptive to it at all. However, as I became more present in the unit and the clients, and I got to know each other more, we began to respect one another and I became popular among them as a staff member that they would gravitate to. Many times I would simply listen to their issues stemming from their families, homes, school, and peers, but many of the adolescents in my unit do not open up to adults often.
With this in mind I was able to recognize the position I found myself in as a youth and family counselor, and they began to view whatever words I had to offer with value. Another aspect of my internship that I valued is empathy. Understanding that many of these children are spending their childhoods in these cottages (one client in my unit has been at Sweetser for 7 years, and will be until he is discharged at age 18), away from their families, should be taken into consideration deciding to work there. However tough I may think my schedule is during the week, I tried my best to leave it all at the door when I would walk into my unit and begin working with kids that had been living there for years without an idea of when they will finish their program and return home.
This internship has also influenced my potential future career path by introducing me to people involved in various different fieldwork positions based in psychology. I mostly worked alongside other Youth and Family Counselors in my unit and I learned that they are some of the most important people at residential sites like Sweetser because they are the ones that the clients spend a majority of their time with. I was also introduced to the first licensed clinician I have ever met; Jess is the LC assigned to the Portland Adolescent Unit and she is amazing at what she does. She included me in individual meetings with the clients where we discussed their progress in school and managing their behavioral tendencies. In some of these meetings the clients’ families would be present, and I was allowed to sit in with them and listen to their thoughts as well. During my internship I also met with various behavioral therapists, sometimes walking individual clients from my unit to their offices for their weekly meetings to discuss how their medication routines were going.
Another aspect of fieldwork in psychology that I have been exposed to throughout my internship is the position of a caseworker. I was present during an admissions meeting for a new client, and this meeting consisted of myself, my unit’s licensed clinician, the new client, his family, and also his caseworker. She represented him in this meeting similarly to how a lawyer represents a client in court; she was knowledgeable of his weaknesses and approved of Sweetser’s program that was intended to improve his behaviors. Having met people in all of these mentioned positions and seeing how they do their job in the field of psychology has been helpful in showing me a variety of potential future career options that I will consider as I continue my studies.
Working in a unit where the primary focus is rehabilitating adolescent’s overly sexualized behaviors, I have seen issue firsthand that I learned about at UNE. Most of these concepts are recalled from my sophomore year when I enrolled in Abnormal Psychology, which include paraphilia, oppositional defiance disorder, sociopathic behaviors, trauma/abuse, and just overall lack of respect for the boundaries of others. All of the boys in PAU have violated others’ boundaries in some form and are prone to respond defiantly or violently to authority, which relates to what I learned about oppositional defiance disorder being common in many young boys. Some have experienced or witnessed abuse in their family backgrounds, which can explain why they believe their behaviors are justified when done to others since it was what they were exposed to during very crucial developmental stages of their early lives. In Abnormal Psychology we thoroughly studied paraphilia, another concept that I have noticed is a common theme in many of my unit’s clients’ backgrounds as well. Overall, working at Sweetser and with these children was an eye-opening experience in how it introduced me to the field of psychology in the real world, as well as brought many concepts that I had studied over the years at UNE to life before me.
Our thanks to Zane for sharing his thoughts about his internship experience. All psychology majors complete at least one internship, PSY 300, as part of their degree. In this class they work directly with a faculty supervisor who helps them make connections between their work on site and the concepts they are learning about in their coursework.
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).
Students get to know one another at the Meet the Department event in August
The faculty are happy that you are all here and we are looking forward to another exciting year on campus! To all our returning students, please welcome our incoming class of 2023.
The faculty are happy that you are all here and we are looking forward to another exciting year on campus!
Plans are currently in development for a social and each of our clubs (Neuroscience, Psychology, Animal Behavior, and Psi Chi) are busy creating plans for fun activities for the year.
We, and your team of professional advisors, are here to help you.
Professional Academic Advisors gear up for the new year
We hope you’ll stop by our faculty offices to say hello.
We Are ANB, PSY, NEU, Art Therapy, & MHR at UNE 