2008 Psychology Newsletter

The Scientific Study of Behavior

Since the beginning of history, humans have wondered why people and animals behave as they do. Why do birds sing? Why do children think that the moon follows them wherever they go? Why do ducks follow their mothers all in a row? How do people fall in love? The modern study of psychology has brought those musings into the realm of scientific thought.

At Lafayette, psychology majors examine behavior, thinking, emotions, and physiological processes. The department courses encompass historically experimental fields, such as learning, cognition, and physiological psychology. Other courses focus on clinical, developmental, health, and social areas and some examine the psychology of industry and organizational behavior.

As students progress through the major, they study advanced research designs and statistical methods and explore the different areas of psychology in increasing depth.

Psychology majors, helped by department advisors, may choose between working toward a B.S. or an A.B. degree. Many A.B. students choose to double major, combining psychology with economics and business, government and law, a foreign language, etc. Students majoring in another subject may also minor in psychology. The psychology department jointly oversees the neuroscience major with the biology department, an interdisciplinary program which includes many psychology courses.
 

Special Opportunities

Junior and senior students who are interested in pursuing a career applying psychology in a professional setting such as social or human services, business, health care, education, or legal organizations, may elect to take an internship based course. This course allows them to spend 8 to 10 hours a week working at a local agency or industry while also participating in a seminar supervised by a faculty member.

Students also have the chance to work individually with a professor on research. Each year, approximately six to eight students who excelled in their coursework choose to conduct a two-semester honors thesis. There are also many other opportunities to work individually with faculty. Students often present the results of their research at undergraduate or professional conferences and may even co-author papers with faculty members in scholarly journals.

Outside the classroom, many psychology students join the Psychology Club and the Lafayette chapter of Psi Chi, the national psychology honor society. These organizations sponsor evening speakers, brown bag lunches, and organize trips to psychology conventions.

Facilities

Oechsle Hall, a state-of-the-art teaching and research facility for psychology and neuroscience, opened in fall 2002. The 45,000 square-foot building includes laboratory space designed for human and animal research, a large auditorium, smaller classrooms, multimedia seminar rooms, teaching labs, and several laboratories used in the study of human cognition, observational methods, and social phenomena.

After Graduation

Recent Lafayette graduates have continued their work in psychology at a wide range of graduate programs at prestigious universities, including at Columbia University, Yale University, New York University, the New School for Social Research, University of North Carolina, Penn State University, Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, Clark University, University of Kansas, Rutgers University, and George Washington University. Psychology majors have also pursued graduate degrees in education at Columbia University, University of Wisconsin, Harvard University, and Rutgers University.

Others have gone on to law school at Stanford University, Harvard University, and Rutgers University; into dentistry at Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania; medicine at University of Pennsylvania Medical School, New Jersey College of Medicine, Syracuse University Medical School, and New York College of Osteopathic Medicine; veterinarian medicine at University of Pennsylvania; forensic science at George Washington University; occupational and physical therapy at Boston University; speech therapy at George Washington University; social work at Bryn Mawr College, Smith College, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan; and public health at University of Washington, University of Michigan, and Yale University.

Psychology graduates have also gone into personnel work, case work, mental health technology, law enforcement, and management with such employers as Aetna Life Insurance, Bausch & Lomb, Bell Atlantic, Henry Lehr Inc., IBM, The Prudential, AT&T, and Vogue magazine.

Faculty

Robert W. Allan, Associate Professor. Ph.D., New York University. Teaching areas: applied behavior analysis, learning, statistical analyses. Research interests: operant-respondent interactions, conditioned reinforcement, factors that influence choice behavior in both pigeons and humans.

Susan Basow, Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology and Acting Assistant Head. Ph.D., Brandeis University. Teaching areas: abnormal psychology, psychology of gender, personality, counseling psychology. Research interests: clinical/social psychology, gender issues, women's body image. Recipient of the Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award and the Jones Lecture Award.

Jamila Bookwala, (Home Page), Associate Professor. Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh. Teaching areas: adult development and aging, Alzheimer's and other dementias, advanced developmental psychology, research design and analysis, advanced applied psychology. Research interests: psychology of aging (the role of social relationships in health, family caregiving, and gender-related issues in health as we age). Recipient of research grants from the National Institute on Aging, the Lindback Foundation, the MIDUS Pilot Grant Program, the Anthony Marchionne Foundation, and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study Pilot Grant Program.

Carolyn Buckley, Psychology Laboratory Coordinator and Instructor. Ph.D., Lehigh University. Teaching areas: introductory psychology and comparative animal behavior. Research interests: behavioral science education, neuroendocrinology, animal behavior, and the physiological control of food-gathering and food-hoarding.

Alan W. Childs, Professor. Ph.D., University of Tennessee. Teaching areas: introductory psychology, social behavior, health psychology, history and systems of psychology. Research interests: social aspects of health care, patient-practitioner interactions. Recipient of Student Government Superior Teaching Award (3 times), the James P. Crawford Award, the Golden '34 Award for service to alumni, and also the Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award.

Lisa Gabel, Assistant Professor. Ph.D., University of Connecticut. Teaching areas: physiological psychology, psychopharmacology, advanced neuroscience, neurophysiology, quantitative methods. Research interests: synaptic plasticity, epilepsy, neurodevelopmental disorders.

Wendy L. Hill, Provost and William C. '67 and Pamela H. Rappolt Professor of Neuroscience. Ph.D., University of Washington. Teaching areas: physiological psychology, behavioral neuroscience, animal behavior. Research interests: behavioral neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social behavior of birds and mammals. Recipient of Jones Lecture Award, the James E. Lennertz Prize for Exceptional Teaching and Mentoring, and the Delta Upsilon Distinguished Mentoring and Teaching Award. Named 1999 Pennsylvania Professor of the Year by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Ann V. McGillicuddy-DeLisi, Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Psychology. Ph.D., Catholic University. Teaching areas: introduction to psychological science, child and adolescent development, adult development and aging, design and analysis, development of social conscience. Research interests: children's intellectual development, moral reasoning, parental beliefs, development within the context of the family. Recipient of Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award, Jones Award for superior teaching, Jones Lecture Award, and Student Government Superior Teaching Award.

Jeannine Pinto, (Home Page), Assistant Professor. Ph.D., University of Virginia. Teaching areas: perception, design and analysis, advanced applied psychology, introductory psychology. Research interests: perception of human and animal movement, function and acquisition of category- or object-specific processes.

John S. Shaw, (Home Page), Associate Professor and Acting Head. Ph.D., UCLA; J. D., Stanford Law School. Teaching areas: social psychology, advanced social psychology, introduction to psychological science. Research interests: eyewitness memory and confidence, jury decision-making, the adaptive value of overconfidence, decision making in genetic testing. Recipient of Student Government Superior Teaching Award (five times), the James P. Crawford Award, the Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Jones Faculty Lecture Award.

Jennifer M. Talarico, (Home Page), Assistant Professor. Ph.D., Duke University. Teaching areas: cognitive psychology, memory, research design and analysis. Research interests: the influence of emotion on remembering personally-experienced events, memory for socially significant life events.

Andrew J. Vinchur, Associate Professor and Department Head. Ph.D., University of Memphis. Teaching areas: industrial psychology, organizational behavior, statistics and research design, psychological testing, history and systems of psychology. Research interests: employee selection and productivity, psychometrics, statistics, the history of psychology (especially the history of industrial psychology). On Leave: Academic Year 2008-09

John S. Shaw
Acting Head, Psychology,
(610) 330-5289
shawj@lafayette.edu

For general information:
Office of admissions
Lafayette College
Easton, PA 18042
(610) 330-5100
FAX (610) 330-5355
admissions@lafayette.edu