DATA News: October 2018

 

Administrative Updates and Announcements

Please welcome Athena Lasco and Teeara Williams, who joined the Department of Psychology this week.  

Athena Lasco, our new student worker, joined the main office team and is working Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. She is working towards her Bachelors of Science in Child Psychology. 

Working part-time, Teeara Williams, is assisting with area support for I/O and CAB. She is located in N211 and will be with us for the next 3 months. Teeara has a solid background in customer service at St. Paul College and at TCF Bank. 

 

Nominations for the College of Liberal Arts' Outstanding Service Awards are due Friday, October 26, 2018. These awards recognize outstanding service to the college by civil service, labor-represented and academic professional and administrative employees and work groups.

CLA welcomes and encourages peer nominations. Further information, including nomination guidelines and the cover page, can be found on The Neighborhood or contact Angie Plambeck (plambeck@umn.edu; 5-1805) with any questions.

 

Undergraduate Research Assistant List - At the end of spring 2018, undergraduate students who were looking to work as research assistants, completed a form with their interests, experience, previous coursework, goals, etc. This information has been compiled into a spreadsheet and is now available to Psychology faculty and grad students, in order to identify students who may be best suited for research projects. For access to this spreadsheet, please send Professor Mark Stellmack (stell006@umn.edu) an email. (All information in the spreadsheet is deleted/updated with new students each semester)

 

Awards and Accomplishment​s

Listed on the American Psychological Association (APA) Monitor, Professor Richard Lee is ranked among 33 of the most influential psychologists of our day! His research seeks to identify ways to improve the lives of racial and ethnic minorities. That article is located here.

 

A medium-scale neuromodulation trial is being conducted by Professor Angus MacDonald's TRiCAM lab. The study will build on results suggesting subtle transcranial electrical stimulation improves the rate at which patients benefit from and generalize cognitive training. In a collaboration with Kelvin Lim, this BRAINS initiative-funded R01 study will conduct a triple-blinded, placebo-controlled trial in both psychosis patients and healthy community members.

 

A new multi-site NSF grant studying the relationship between musical training and enhanced neural coding and perception of sound, will be led by Professor Andrew Oxenham. He will undertake a large-scale reproducibility study of some of the neural and perceptual effects that have been associated with formal musical training, which include enhancements in the ability to understand speech in noisy backgrounds. Former graduate student, Dr. Kelly Whiteford, will coordinate the two-year study.

 

Heather J. Peters, a former student of our graduate program and an Associate Professor with a Psychology Discipline at UofM Morris, has won the Charlotte Striebel Equity Award. This October, she will be honored at the Celebrating Changemakers Awards Program (formerly titled Celebrating the University Women)  

 

Graduated

Congratulations to our recent Department of Psychology Ph. D graduates!

Alex Ajayi 

Area: Counseling

Advisor: Moin Syed

Dissertation Title: Racial Ideology and Psychosocial Implications among African Americans: Integrating Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Approaches

 

AnnaMarie Vu

Area: Counseling

Advisor: Pat Frazier

Dissertation Title: Randomized Controlled Trial of Pacifica, a CBT and Mindfulness-based App for Stress, Depression, and Anxiety Management with Health Monitoring

 

Kelly Jordan

Area: Counseling

Advisor: Jo-Ida Hansen

Dissertation Title: Factor Structure of Career Adaptability and Vocational Identity Development and Relationship to Vocational Interests

 

Katie Broadwell

Area: CAB

Advisors: Chad Marsolek, Randy Fletcher

Dissertation Title: Handedness and Motivational Asymmetries as Precursors to Personality and Political Ideology

 

Merav Silverman

Area: CSPR

Advisor: Bob Krueger

Dissertation Title: Operationalizing Neuroticism Using Task-Based FMRI and Psychological Measures in a Large Sample

 

Alex Rautu

Area: PIB

Advisor: Colin DeYoung

Dissertation Title: Toward a Structurally-Sound Model of Uncertainty-Related Personality Traits

 

William Johnson

Area: Social

Advisors: Mark Snyder, Jeff Simpson

Dissertation Title: Associations between birth weight/gestational age and social/cognitive functioning across development: Do differences endure?

 

Upcoming Events

Mark your calendars…The Department of Psychology will be hosting two events for the Community Fund Drive. The Community Fund Drive (CFD) is the University of Minnesota’s annual charitable giving campaign where employees donate through payroll deduction or a one-time gift to the causes they care about—ending hunger, curing diseases, helping students pay their college tuition, preserving the environment, sheltering the homeless, or supporting the arts. Please consider donating!

Bake Sale on October 10th from 11-1 Room N230 

Chili/Soup cook off on October 24th from 11-1 Room N219

If you would like to participate by bringing in goodies for either event please email (Lisa Keith) lkeith@umn.edu.

Lisa - lkeith