Psychology 2009-2010
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Overview
The Psychology Department offers a broad range of courses covering the variety of topics in psychology. After taking Psychology 100 (A First Course in Psychology), students choose from courses in such areas as social psychology, developmental psychology, child psychology, educational psychology, personality, abnormal and clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, research methods, and neuroscience. By their junior year, students begin to take advanced seminars in their areas of interest and do independent field work and research one-on-one with faculty members. Class size is kept small, with no more than 45 students in the introductory course, around 20-25 students in the basic courses, and around 7-15 students in seminars. Many students do one or more independent projects for course credit in the form of independent fieldwork, research, or thesis.
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
The department emphasizes a “collegial” model of learning, in which students become active participators with faculty. Many students work on research with professors, both for course credit during the academic year or through paid research internships in the summer. Each year, several students co-author published papers and give presentations of their work at national and regional psychology conferences.
INTERNSHIPS
To provide students with practical experience, the department offers a number of internships that can be completed for independent study credit. Recently, students have worked in a center for autistic children, a battered women’s shelter, biofeedback clinics, employee assistance programs, residential facilities for emotionally disturbed children, and on a suicide phone line. Others have run groups for shy teenagers at a local high school, worked in day care centers or elementary schools, and consulted at local businesses. A list of possible internships can be found on our website (see below).
AFTER UNION
Students often combine psychology with other majors such as biology, economics, mathematics, sociology, or political science. As a result, our majors go into a wide variety of fields. Many, either immediately after graduation or within a few years, enter some type of graduate program. Some of these students enroll in professional schools for medicine, dentistry, law, education, or nursing; other students enroll in business-related graduate programs for master’s degrees in business or health care administration. Many of our majors seek advanced degrees in clinical or counseling psychology or related fields such as social work and speech pathology. Some of our majors enter graduate programs leading to the doctorate in various areas of academic psychology.
Additional information about the department can be found at the Psychology homepage.
THE FACULTY
Cay Anderson-Hanley
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., The University at Albany, State University of New York
Clinical psychology with interests in health psychology, gerontology, and clinical neuropsychology. She teaches courses in Abnormal Psychology, Psychotherapy, and a seminar in Clinical Neuropsychology.
Suzanne Benack
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., Harvard University
Adolescence and early adulthood, moral and epistemological thought, ego development. She teaches courses in personality psychology, psychotherapy, sex roles, and seminars in adolescence and moral development.
George Bizer
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., Ohio State University (Columbus)
Social psychology with a focus on attitude formation and strength. He teaches courses in Social Psychology, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Statistics, Research Methods, and a seminar in Political Psychology.
Daniel Burns
Gilbert R. Livingston Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., SUNY/Binghamton
Cognitive psychology with special interests in memory. He teaches courses in statistics, experimental psychology, memory and thinking, and advanced courses in cognition.
Christopher Chabris
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., Harvard University
Cognitive psychology/cognitive neuroscience, with a special interest in individual differences in cognitive abilities. He teaches classes in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, statistics, and individual differences.
Megan Cooper
Visiting Instructor of Psychology
M.A., University of Connecticut (Storrs)
Experimental psychology, perception, and psychophysics. She teaches Statistics, Research Methods, Memory and Thinking, and Sensation and Perception.
Kenneth DeBono
Gilbert R. Livingston Professor of the Behavioral Sciences
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Psychology of persuasion, psychology of religion, motivations underlying people’s religious beliefs. He teaches courses in social psychology, statistics, and psychology of religion.
Gail Donaldson
Lecturer in Psychology
M.A., New School for Social Research
She teaches Personality, Abnormal Psychology, and the Psychology of Women.
Joshua Hart
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Personality and social psychology, with an emphasis in processes related to close relationships, self-esteem, worldviews (i.e., belief systems), and defensiveness. He teaches courses in introductory psychology, personality, psychology of emotion, and a seminar on “Love and Death.”
Stephen Romero
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Colorado
Cognitive function after brain injury, role of memory in the acquisition of cognitive skills, neurological basis of numerical processing. He is the director of the Neuroscience Program at Union. He teaches courses in cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, and statistics.
Linda Stanhope
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Virginia
Parents’ discipline styles, children’s temperaments, and the development of altruism. She teaches courses in developmental psychology, educational psychology, statistics, and seminars on children and families.
Carol Weisse
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Medical psychology, pain management/treatment, and stress. She is the director of the Pre-Health Professions and Leadership in Medicine programs at Union. She teaches courses in neuroscience, health psychology, and a seminar in brain and behavior.