Department News and Research Highlights

Dr. David Diamond provides expert testimony on how stress affects memory in a manslaughter case. "Day care operator to stand trial." Read full story... "How people manage to forget the obvious". Read full story...

The Journal of Organizational Behavior recently celebrated its 30 year anniversary.  As part of the celebration they announced the 8 most influential articles published during the last 30 years in the journal. Paul Spector was an author of not one, but two of these articles.

Using self-report questionnaires in OB research: A comment on the use of a controversial method By Paul E. Spector (1994) http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/click.asp?p=6080416&m=19290&u=321252.  

Why negative affectivity should not be controlled in job stress research: don't throw out the baby with the bath water By Paul E.  Spector, Dieter Zapf, Peter Y. Chen, Michael Frese (2000) http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/click.asp?p=6080416&m=19290&u=323484

For the full "Thirty years of shaping a Discipline: JOB's Most Influential Articles, August 2009" article, see http://www.wiley.com/bw/wiley_vi.asp?ref=0894-3796&site=1.

Congratulations to our summer 2009 doctoral student graduates, from left:
Susan Himes, Jessica Curley Hankinson, Tovah Yanover, Rob Stilson, & Burcu Rodopman

Dr. David Diamond's work is mentioned in two Austin American-Statesman News articles. "Parents just need reminder of baby on board, researcher says: Psychology professor says forgetting kids is not negligence", read full story... "Couple tormented by tragic oversight: Parents try to overcome guilt after son dies in locked car",.read full story....

Congratulations to Associate Professor Jon Rottenberg for receiving an R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental health to study “Biobehavioral inflexibility and risk for juvenile-onset depression.” Children will be recruited from a carefully diagnosed sample of over 700 young patients with JOD (each with at least one sibling). These children represent a national, clinical sample in Hungary, who participated in a recent research project headed by Maria Kovacs of the University of Pittsburgh, who is leading the project with Dr. Rottenberg. The project is testing the idea that people who are vulnerable to depression will tend to be less flexible in how they respond to the environment. We will incorporate biological and behavioral measures of flexibility in the laboratory and examining to what extent an inflexible pattern of response to laboratory challenges predicts depression over the course of adolescence. Funding in the amount of $3.8 million will be awarded over five years to USF and the other participating institutions in the study: the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Szeged in Hungary.

Research Highlight

CNS program alumnus Eric Sellers is the author of one of the Top 10 cited papers (2006-2008) published in Clinical Neurophysiology. The article, 'A P300-based brain-computer interface: Initial tests by ALS patients,' which appeared in Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 117, Issue 3 (2006), Pages 538-548, was co-authored by Manny Donchin.

In the News

Dr. David Diamond's work is mentioned in Psychiatric News. Read full story.

Congratulations to our graduating doctoral students

Rickamer Hoover, Maria Brea-Spahn, Ashley Walvoord, Rebecca Bryant, Liu-Qui Yang, and Anna Tolentino.

In the News

Congratulations to graduate students Tadd Patton, Melissa Lehman, Kristen Shockley, and Dan Ispas who were honored at the Annual Provost's Award for Outstanding Teaching.

In the News

Nathan Heflick and Jamie Goldenberg's research on objectifying Sarah Palin garners media attention.
USF study: Focus on Sarah Palin's looks altered perception of competence.
Sex Appeal May Have Hurt Sarah Palin
Listen to a radio interview on March 9 on Michael Smerconish's Morning Show (Download audio).

In the News

David Diamond's testimony and research on stress and memory included in Washington Post Magazine. Read the full article.

In the News

Dr. Paul Jacobsen received the 2008 Researcher of the Year Award. He has been at Moffitt since 1994 and is currently the Chair of the Health Outcomes & Behavior department. Some of Dr. Jacobsen's achievements include being Principal or Co-Investigator on grants totaling over $35 million dollars & having more than 170 peer-reviewed original research articles and reviews. He is internationally known for his research on the psycho-social aspects of palliative care for cancer patients & some of his research products have been translated into several languages and are benefiting patients around the world. Our congratulations go out to Dr. Jacobsen for his accomplishments.

In the News

Research of Jon Rottenberg and Lauren Bylsma featured in New York Times story. Read the full story.

In the News

President Judy Genshaft announced this past fall that she had identified the Neurosciences as a key area for major development throughout the University of South Florida. We are most excited to announce the first phase of the new USF Neuroscience Collaborative. This initiative is designed to identify and bring together the wealth of talent in the clinical and basic neurosciences and all related fields at USF to maximize our research productivity and global impact in this critical area. The main initial thrust of this effort will be to help our faculty to find new partners, to develop collaborative research projects, and to identify funding opportunities which will facilitate the procurement of new grants. Dr. Clifton Gooch (College of Medicine, Department of Neurology) and Dr. David Diamond (College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology) have been named the directors of this ground-breaking project.

In the News

Dr. Paul Spector interviewed about stress and workplace nastiness. Listen Now

In the News

Jon Rottenberg interviewed about crying on the BBC. Listen to this programme in full. His segment starts just before minute 24. (you need Real Player to play this file).

Research Highlight

Associate Professor Marc Karver and Professor Krista Kutash received a $1.5 million dollar grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) to evaluate the state of Florida’s efforts to reduce the rate of suicide in youths aged 10 to 24. The Florida A.S.A.P.(Adolescent Suicide Awareness and Prevention) Partnership project will evaluate the effectiveness of training adults employed in community agencies, parents, and youths to identify and refer at risk youths, evaluate the effectiveness of case management services and related services for those referred to services by selecting a sample of youth who were referred for services and asking the youths and their parents about the effectiveness of their services and potential predictors of effectiveness, and evaluate the effectiveness of social marketing techniques meant to increase overall community awareness of suicide prevention strategies . The project is funded for three years.

Read about Doug Rohrer's work on classroom learning

Read more about David Diamond's talk at the 2008 Advancing Science Seminar
Zamp Bionews
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Please see the article on David Diamond's research on PTSD that appeared in USF News

Please see the article on stress and learning that appeared in the Los Angeles Times quoting Dr. David Diamond .

Emeritus Distinguished Research Professor Jim Jenkins to be Honored at Fall Acoustical Society of America Meeting

Jim Jenkins will be recognized this November at the meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. There will be a special session honoring his contributions to speech acoustics and perception through training and mentoring as well as research. The papers at the session will be by former students and academic "grandchildren" and "great grandchildren." (students of students and students of students of students....)

Occupational Health Psychology Training Grant

Drs. Paul Spector and Tammy Allen's Occupational Health Psychology training grant has officially been re-funded. They were awarded about $351K over three years. They have 10 OHP trainees, 7 being supported this summer on the grant. This grant is part of the Sunshine Education and Research Center (see http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/erc/index.htm) from Public Health which has an annual budget of $1.2 million and has been refunded for three years.

Spring 2009 Award Recipients

Congratulations to the recipients of this year’s departmental scholarships and awards. It is our pleasure to honor the accomplishments of both our undergraduate and graduate students.

Lauren Bylsma & Erika Litvin & Ariz Rojas
Valerie Reed Memorial Award

Phillip Zoladz & Joseph Mazzola
Eve Levine Graduate Teaching Award

Sari Chait
Stefanie Gilbert Endowed Scholarship in Psychology

Ariz Rojas
Richard Labarba Memorial Scholarship

Tegan Lesperance
PAR Award for Excellence in Psychology

The Psychology Awards Committee
Ed Levine
Marcie Finkelstein
Bill Kinder
Diane Dwyer
Chris Wheldon

Congratulations to Professor Judy Bryant who just received a teaching award from the USF Athenaeum Chapter of the Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society! As part of the award Judy was made an honorary Mortar Board member (she was in good company as Mayor Pam Iorio was also made an honorary member at the festivities).

Mortar Board is a national honor society that recognizes college seniors for outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. The USF Athenaeum chapter of Mortar Board was established in 1959 by Grace Allen, wife of USF's first president John Allen, and Professor Margaret Fischer. Mortar Board provides opportunities for continued leadership development, promotes service to colleges and universities and encourages lifelong contributions to the global community. Some notable Mortar Board members include former President Jimmy Carter, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Lance Armstrong, former First Lady Barbara Bush, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, reading advocate Maya Angelou, and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.......and now Judy Becker Bryant!!!

Research Highlights

At this year’s University Undergraduate Research Symposium, Psychology Honors students took home four awards in the Social Sciences division.

• Ashley Sponaugle, first place oral presentation in natural sciences
• Kelly Foyle & Bethann Bower , tied for first place in social science posters
• Ken Alipour , tied for third place in social science posters
• Martha Walter , second place oral presentation in social sciences

From the Honors class, 13 of the 14 students who submitted had their papers accepted at the Symposium, and this total was roughly 40% of all of the papers presented in the Social Sciences division at the Symposium. Mark Goldman gave the keynote address and Kim Badanich organized the judging. Congratulations are also in order to all of the faculty and graduate students who mentored honors students this year and/or served on their committees.

Research Highlights

Congratulations are due to six of our undergraduates who traveled to Embry Riddle (in Daytona Beach) earlier this week to give a **spoken** presentation of their research at the Second Annual Florida Student Conference for Human Factors and Applied Psychology. Each student is part of the honors program, which means that their advisors and Kevin Thompson deserve kudos as well. Thanks also go to Psi Chi, which oversaw the trip and paid for it.

And a special shout out to Emilija Djurdjevic, who not only presented but also chaired a session, and to Christina Donaldson (and her advisor, Chris Ruva), who won the award for the best undergraduate presentation!

The names of all six students are listed below, along with the titles of their talks and their advisors.

Adolescent Binge Ethanol Exposure Enhances Voluntary Ethanol Intake in Adulthood in Male and Female Rats
Authors: Kent Alipour, Antoniette Maldonado, Cheryl Kirstein

The Effects of Pretrial Publicity on Evidence Evaluation: A Story Model Framework Authors: Christina Donaldson (Advisor: Chris Ruva)

What Makes a Leader? Examining Followers’ Implicit Leadership Schemas under Various Leadership Contexts
Authors: Emilija Djurdjevic, Russ Johnson

The Effects of Weight Bias in the Courtroom
Authors: Mallory Hussin (advisor: Kevin Thompson)

Effects on Mental Health in College Students
Authors: Donna Smith, Tom Sanocki

Japanese Parent’s Beliefs about Polite Behaviors of Children who are Exposed to Japanese and American Culture Authors: Naomi Watanabe (advisor: Judy Bryant)

Research Highlights

Assistant Professors Jon Rottenberg and Co-investigator Kristen Salomon received a R21 grant from the National Institute of Mental health to study “Vagal fluctuation as a predictor of concurrent and future depression.” This project will examine the hypothesis that depression risk is related to a lack of dynamic cardiac vagal control, which is potentially important because it suggests that easily acquired and potentially manipulable measures of heart rate variability could be used to assist in the early assessment of depression risk, and perhaps to develop interventions that operate directly upon the vagal pathway itself. The study will be funded for two years.

The Mood and Emotion Lab

Festschrift for Distinguished Research Professor Douglas Nelson

View Arichive of this event
Festschrift for Distinguished Research Professor Douglas Nelson
Presented by the Department of Psychology

Sponsors
Department of Psychology, USF
College of Arts and Sciences, USF
Provost's Office, USF
Scientific Directorate of the American Psychological Association

Location
Vincent A. Stabile Research Building
12902 Magnolia Drive
University of South Florida (on campus)
Tampa, Florida 33620

Research Highlights

Erika Litvin, a third year doctoral student in our clinical program, was selected by the APA Board of Scientific Affairs as one of only 21 graduate students across all areas for special recognition at this year’s APA conference in Boston, including giving an oral presentation during a "Psychological Science Superstars: Datablitz!" The title of Erika’s study is "Impulsivity and smokers' reactivity to affect and smoking cues." Congratulations, Erika!

Dr. Jane Noll had surprise visitors during her Thursday morning Introduction to Psychological Science class. President Judy Genshaft--along with Vice Provost Dwayne Smith, Dean of CAS John Skvoretz, Associate Dean John Cochran, and the Chair of Psychology Emanuel Donchin--was there to announce that Dr. Noll is one of the recipients of this year's "Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award." The award for "Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching" is reserved for those who encourage excellence in teaching our undergraduates. Congratulations, Jane!