Fordham Memorializes Former Psychology Chair Marvin Reznikoff

With golden leaves serving as backdrop beyond the gothic windows of Duane Library, family, friends, colleagues of the late Marvin Reznikoff, Ph.D. celebrated his memory on Sunday, Nov. 3.

Reznikoff, who died on June 20, began his tenure in Fordham in 1968 and was chair of the psychology department from 1981 to 1985. He was appointed professor emeritus in 1994.

2013 Anastasi Lecture - Standardized Measurement in Behavioral Science: Blessing or Curse?

 

John R. Nesselroade, Ph.D.

Hugh Scott Hamilton Professor of Psychology Emeritus

University of Virginia

 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013  |  5:30 p.m.

 

12th-floor Lounge  | E. Gerald Corrigan Conference Center  |  Lowenstein Center

113 w. 60th St.  |  Lincoln Center Campus  |  Fordham University  |  NYC

 

  Measurement is fundamental to good science. But progress in behavioral science theory building has not been very rapid. Nesselroade will examine selected aspects of current measurement practices, including the heavy reliance on standardized measurement in a field where important concepts often cannot be directly measured. He will sketch a possible remedy and speculate on its implications for measurement in future behavioral research.

 

 

John R. Nesselroade earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1967. He is a past-president of Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging) of the American Psychological Association (1982-83) and of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology (1999-2000), and has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research.

 

 

The lecture is open to the public. A reception will follow.

For more information, contact David Budescu, Ph.D. at budescu@fordham.edu.

Congratulations to Dr. Monica Rivera Mindt on her SMART Lifetime Achievement Award

SMART held their 15th Annual Graduation on Wednesday, June 26th at the James Weldon Johnson Community Center. It was a wonderful day celebrating the achievements of the women and the many exciting events at SMART over the past year.

A big congratulations goes out to the women who earned a SMART University Completion and to
our Valedictorian and Salutatorian.  We also recognized an amazing woman with our Diva Award and 3 brilliant researchers – Ann-Gel Palermo, Monica Rivera Mindt (center) and Janice Scobie – received the SMART Lifetime Achievement Award. Please visit the SMART website for more information.

 

 

A Beautiful Day

 

Every year it seems each graduation is a better one than the last! This year, our 15th annual graduation, seemed to be that one that will stay in our minds and hearts for years to come.  Indeed, the event echoed another year of transformation for all of us at SMART: From the space at the James Weldon Johnson Community Center in East Harlem being transformed into an elegant dining hall; to our advanced cooking class learning to create, from beginning to end, a spectacular banquet; and most importantly, our women who were honored for their participation and dedication who are agents of change in their lives and for others.

Weeks before, the planning and staging of the event began when Sam Clare started working with our advanced cooking class to design the menu for the day’s festivities. As a result, this special day came together with exquisite taste and beauty that showcased the talents of our SMART Body women.  The majestic purple table décor were accented with orchids of the same color and served another purpose post-event: They were given as tokens of appreciation to 10 extraordinary women who volunteered invaluable time and energy to SMART to bring us to another successful year.

 

 

What is a “SMART Graduation”?  This is something we are asked every year since our women are welcome to stay with SMART as long as they want.  A “SMART Graduation” is a profound and unique experience. We celebrate, recognize and honor the women and their accomplishments throughout the academic year. This year, Janet Carter and Dina Bolshinsky painstakingly went through the attendance books so that each woman was counted for her effort because each one has a different story to tell. Some women have participated in SMART since it was founded in 1998, and some women started during the Spring 2013 session, but individually gained something of value from SMART.

 

 Our resident "M.C.," Gloria Searson, gave each woman the personal touch as she called the names of the ones who earned a SMART University Completion and then those who received the special awards of Valedictorian, Salutatorian, and Honor Roll.  The Diva Award was presented to an incredible SMART Woman who has shown the most growth and “personality” this past year.

 Since 2008, we began to recognize and show appreciation to the people who have volunteered in exceptional ways at SMART, as well as in the community, with our SMART’s Lifetime Achievement Award.  This year, we bestowed this honor to 3 brilliant researchers – Ann-Gel Palermo, Monica Rivera Mindt and Janice Scobie -- who have worked with us diligently over the past year to put SMART on the road to being research-ready.

 

Amidst the laughter were the tears shed at the tribute for our beloved John Falkenberg, our long-time champion and advisory board member and now our everlasting guardian angel. A close friend of his, Nancy, spoke eloquently of his brilliance, generosity, passion and dedication to SMART.  One of our SMART women was moved to read a poem she wrote in his honor.  The beautiful rendition of “You’re the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me,” sung by the gifted songstress, Michele Sweeting-Decaro, was the touching close to a very tearful and emotional part of the program.

 

 The "pièce de résistance" came after the ceremony when everyone was able to sit at the magnificently set tables and share the vast array of culinary delights -- a labor of love finely executed to the most minute detail by our SMART Body women and Sam.  “I am so proud of all the women. Their hard work really was showcased in the food and in the transformation of a basketball court into an elegant, sophisticated banquet,” said Sam.

This unique celebration was the culmination of many things -- staff and SMART women working together to create the most special day of the year for us to share with friends, family and the community. Even our SMART youth lent a hand, serving the food, cleaning up and assisting with the awards. It was a beautiful day that, when witnessed by our guests, provided a small glimpse into the miracles that have happened over the past year at SMART.

 

 

Photographs courtesy of M.Saidia Mclaughlin

Dr. Warren Tryon sets department record for successful dissertations

From left: Dr. Kathleen Schiaffino

Dr. Warren Tryon

Dr. David Glenwick

Dr. Isabel Rodriguez

Dr. David Chabot

On April 30th, 2013, Isabel Rodriguez successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “ Ethnicity And Age Of Initial Symptom Onset As Predictors Of Neurocognitive Performance And Adaptive Functioning Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders”.

 

Dr. Rodriquez was mentored by Dr. Warren Tryon, a (43 years) veteran of the psychology department. She is the 85th successful dissertation student to be mentored by Dr. Tryon, setting a new departmental record.

 

Congratulations to Drs. Tryon and Rodriguez!

Faculty Achievements - Dr. Celia Fisher chairs SRCD policy committee

The Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, or “Common Rule”, provides the basis for Institutional Review Boards, such as the one at Fordham University, to evaluate research involving infants, children, and adolescents.  It was last revised in 1991 in a time when most research was conducted in universities, colleges, and medical institutions and took place at a single site.

Dr. Celia B. Fisher, Ph.D.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services is proposing to update the Common Rule policies in response to ambiguities in the current framework highlighted by the expansion of human subject research into other disciplines and an increase in multi-site studies.  Any changes to these policies would have a significant impact on institutional research in the social and behavioral sciences involving minors.

Dr. Celia Fisher has recently served as the chairperson of a task force convened by the Society for Research and Child Development (SRCD) charged with the creation of a report that ensures that any proposed changes to the “Common Rules” serve the interests of and do not present barriers to the responsible conduct of socio-behavioral research.  The resulting report, “Preserving and Enhancing the Responsible Conduct of Research Involving Children and Youth - A Response to Proposed Changes in Federal Regulations” provides recommendations to policy makers for ensuring the responsible conduct of child and adolescent research in whatever final regulatory changes are enacted.

In this report, Dr. Fisher and her colleagues note that the regulations as currently specified in the “Common Rule” were originally created with biomedical research in mind and that the application of these policies to social and behavioral research has created barriers to conducting research with children and youth.  

The complete report can be obtained from the SRCD web site.
 
Resources

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects ('Common Rule')

Social Policy Report - “Preserving and Enhancing the Responsible Conduct of Research Involving Children and Youth: A Response to Proposed Changes in Federal Regulations” (PDF)

News Release - HHS announces proposal to improve rules protecting human research subjects

The Research Colloquium Series presents: Elke Weber, Ph.D.

Elke Weber, Ph.D.

On Wednesday, April 10th, Elke Weber, Ph.D. (Jerome A Chazen Professor of International Business Director, Center for Research on Environmental Decisions Director, Center for the Decision Sciences Columbia Business School), will be presenting for the Psychology Department's Research Colloquium Series.

Her presentation is titled "Query Theory - Knowing what we want by arguing with ourselves".

Psychologists and behavioral economists agree that many of our preferences are constructed, rather than innate or pre-computed and stored. Little research, however, has explored the implications that established facts about human attention and memory have when people marshal evidence for their decisions. This talk provides an introduction to Query Theory, a psychological process model of preference construction that explains a broad range of phenomena in individual choice with important personal and social consequences, including our reluctance to change and excessive impatience when asked to delay consumption.

This presentation will take place on the Rose Hill Campus in Walsh Library's Freeman Hall. All university students are welcome.

Faculty Achievements - Dr. Fred Wertz

Fred Wertz, Ph.D.

Dr. Fred Wertz was recently elected to the executive board of the American Psychological Association Division 5--Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation as representative of the Section for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology.

Dr. Wertz has recently published a book on qualitative data analysis entitled, “Five Ways of Doing Qualitative Analysis” (Guilford/2011).

Dr. Wertz is also currently president of the Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists. In 2014, he is slated to receive the Society for Humanistic Psychology’s Rollo May Award for independent and outstanding pursuits of new frontiers in humanistic psychology.

A selection of Dr. Wertz’s published works can be found listed on his faculty Web page and in Fordham University’s research repository “DigitalResearch@fordham.edu”

Dr. Jay Wade receives Fulbright Senior Research Scholar Award

Dr. Jay Wade of the Fordham University Psychology department has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar Award in support of his research project titled “Masculinity, Changing Gender Roles, and Marital and Life Satisfaction Among Indonesian Men.”

Starting this September, Dr. Wade will spend a total of 10 months in Indonesia working on this project.

For more information on Dr. Wade’s Fulbright research project, visit the project’s information page on the psychology department’s Web site.

For information on the Fulbright Scholar Program, see:

http://www.cies.org/about_fulb.htm

Faculty Achievements - Dr. Tiffany Yip

Dr. Tiffany Yip

Dr. Tiffany Yip, current director of the graduate program in Applied Developmental Psychology, has recently joined the Editorial Board of the APA Div 45 Journal "Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology" as an Associate Editor.

She has also been elected as a Fellow of the American Psychological Association to divisions 45 (The Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues) and 7 (Developmental Psychology).

To learn more about Dr. Yip, her research, and her scholarly achievements, visit her faculty Web page.

Dr. Ann Higgins-D’Allessandro publishes “Handbook of Prosocial Education”

Dr. Ann Higgins-D'Allessandro

Dr. Ann Higgins-D'Alessandro has recently published the Handbook of Prosocial Education with Philip Brown, Rutgers, and Michael Corrigan, Marshall University.

She authored Chapter 1:The Second Side of Education, arguing for the necessity of developing shared perspectives and research methods to identify effective teaching across interventions ranging from character and social-emotional learning to mindfulness and diversity education and from democracy and civics to service learning and afterschool programs that promote students' personal and social development that, in turn, supports their academic learning in classrooms, schools, and after school.

Roger Weissberg, NoVo Endowed Chair of Social and Emotional Learning, University of Illinois-Chicago, states that, “Leading scientists and educators' chapters are scholarly, research-based, and practical. This landmark volume will shape education, research, practice, and policy for years to come!”

Dr. Higgins-D’Alessandro is member and former director of the Psychology Department’s Applied Developmental Psychology program.  For more information about her research and scholarly achievements, visit her faculty Web page.

Upcoming event: Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo speaks at Fordham

Philip G. Zimbardo of Stanford University will be speaking on “The heroic imagination:  How can we inspire our students for heroic actions?”

This public forum is hosted by Fordham University, its Psychology Department and Center for Teaching Excellence and will be held on Monday, March 4th, 2013 from 1-3pm in the Walsh Library’s Flom Auditorium.

For additional information contact Harold Takooshian at takoosh@aol.com.

Born in the Bronx in 1933, Philip Zimbardo went on to become one of the world's leading behavioral scientists of the 20th Century. On this return to his Bronx roots at age 80, he shares his 50 years of experience as a scientist and educator--described at www.zimbardo.com.

He is widely known as a "Master teacher" who authored THE textbook in introductory psychology for decades, edited the "Discovering Psychology" video series, and directs the "Heroic Imagination" project. Dr. Zimbardo is known for his faculty workshops, is a popular TED speaker, and is internationally recognized as the “voice and face of contemporary psychology” through his widely viewed PBS-TV series, Discovering Psychology, his media appearances, best-selling trade books, and his classic research, The Stanford Prison Experiment.

Zimbardo has been a Stanford University professor since 1968 (now emeritus), having taught previously at Yale, NYU, and Columbia University. He also continues to teach at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey (courses on the psychology of terrorism), and is professor at the Palo Alto University (teaching social psychology to clinical graduate students). Zimbardo has been given numerous awards and honors as an educator, researcher, writer, media contributor, and for service to the profession of psychology. He has been awarded the Vaclav Havel Foundation Prize for his lifetime of research on the human condition. Among his more than 400 professional publications, including 50 trade and textbooks, is the oldest current textbook in psychology, Psychology and Life, and Core Concepts in Psychology in its 7th Edition. His popular book on shyness in adults was the first of its kind, as was the shyness clinic that he started in the community and continues as a treatment-research clinic at the Palo Alto University in Palo Alto.

His current research interests are in the domain of experimental social psychology, with a scattered emphasis on everything interesting to study from: Time perspective, persuasion, madness, violence, political psychology, and terrorism. His current passion is The Heroic Imagination Project, exploring and encouraging the psychology of everyday heroes.

Noted for his personal and professional efforts to actually 'give psychology away to the public', Zimbardo has also been a social-political activist, challenging the Government's wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as the American Correctional System.

Zimbardo has been President of the American Psychological Association (2002), President of the Western Psychological Association (twice), Chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP), and now Chair of the Western Psychological Foundation, as well as the Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Policy, Education, and Research on Terrorism (CIPERT).

He is excited about his recent trade books, including: “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil,” (Random House, 2007, paperback, 2008), “The Time Paradox: Reconstructing the Past, Enjoying the Present, Mastering the Future” (with John Boyd, Free Press, 2008), The Demise of Guys (with Nikita Duncan, TED books, 2012) and Time Heals: The dynamic new treatment for PTSD (with Richard and Rosemary Sword, Wiley, 2012).

Resources

• Philip G. Zimbardo: Professor Emeritus of Psychology
  http://www.zimbardo.com
  
• The Heroic Imagination Project
  http:/www.heroicimagination.org
  
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
  http://www.prisonexp.org 
  
• The Lucifer Effect
  http://www.lucifereffect.com
  
• TED Talk: “The Demise of Guys”
  http://www.demiseofguys.com
  
• The Time Paradox
  http://www.thetimeparadox.com  

Event recap: Centenarian Study Reception

On November 11th, 2012, Dr. Daniela Jopp of the Applied Developmental Psychology program hosted the Fordham Centenarian Study Reception to honor participants in her two-year study. There were over 70 guests in attendance including 10 centenarians, Fordham administration and faculty, study staff and special guest, Grant Campany of Archon Genomics X PRIZE.

Dr. Daniela Jopp

Fordham Dean of Research Nancy Busch welcomed reception guests and opened the event. Dr. Jopp introduced attending centenarians and gave an overview of preliminary findings of the Fordham Centenarian Study. The study documents the experience of life at age 100 and intends to bring awareness to a growing, but rarely studied population. Dr. Jopp emphasized the challenges centenarians face, for example with respect to health, but stressed that most centenarians who participated in the study indicated to enjoy and value their life. She also highlighted the fact that centenarians have high levels of psychological strengths, such as feeling in control, experiencing life as meaningful, and wanting to live, which helps them to be happy and satisfied and may have contributed to reaching such an advanced age. Mr. Campany presented the 100 Over 100 Competition, noting its significance in learning more about genes that promote longevity and health in centenarians and consequently its imminent impact on healthcare. Two centenarians shared experiences and their take on their own longevity with the audience.

Reception guests enjoyed hearing about Fordham Centenarian Study and getting the chance to meet and learn more about centenarians.

In the future, Dr. Jopp intends to follow up with the study through a project focused on the perspective of the caretakers, children and relatives of the centenarians. She is currently planning on presenting results of the study at the upcoming Gerontological Society of America Conference. Dr. Jopp has recently been featured in Psychology Today and the Financial Times Germany in interviews about her work.

For more information about the Centenarian Study and Dr. Jopp’s other projects, visit the Web page for Dr. Jopp’s Adult Development and Aging Lab.

Center for Ethics Education hosts multidisciplinary career panel

Interested in pursuing a career in ethics?  On Thursday, February 7th, the Center for Ethics Education will host a multidisciplinary panel of professionals and Ethics and Society program graduates engaged in or pursuing a variety of ethics-related careers.  Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions and interact with panelists.

Panelist will include professionals working at the Families and Work Institute, Montefiore Medical Center, Fordham Law School and Pace Law School, Fordham University’s Conservation Biology Program, Fordham Institutional Review Board, and HIV Research Ethics Training Institute.

This event will be moderated by Dr. Adam Fried, Director of the M.A. in Ethics and Society program.

This free event will take place in the Walsh Library’s O’Hare Special Collections room on Thursday, February 7th, 2013 at 6:30pm. Reception to follow.  RSVP to ethics@fordham.edu or call (718) 817-0926.

The Research Colloquium Series presents: Meghan Butryn, Ph.D.

On Wednesday, January 16th, Meghan Butryn, Ph.D., and Assistant Research Professor at Drexel University, will be the presenting for the Psychology Department’s Research Colloquium Series.

Her presentation is titled “Acceptance-Based Behavioral Intervention: Applications to Weight Management and Physical Activity Promotion”

This presentation is will take place on the Rose Hill Campus in Walsh Library’s Flom Auditorium.  All university students are welcome.

Sara Douglass, M.A., awarded SPSSI grant

The Fall 2012 Grant-in-Aid Program Committee members and The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) have announced that Sara Douglass has been selected to receive a grant in the amount of $400 to support her dissertation research.  The announcement of this award will be made in an upcoming SPSSI Newsletter.

Sara is completing her dissertation in the Applied Developmental Psychology program and is expected to graduate in May.

New Faculty Member - Fatima Varner, Ph.D.

Dr. Fatima Varner, Ph.D.

The psychology department is pleased to welcome Dr. Fatima Varner as a full time faculty member in its Applied Developmental Psychology Ph.D. program.

Dr. Varner is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Ph.D. program in Human Development and Social Policy and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context at the University of Michigan.  Her major research interests include the influence of parenting on ethnic minority adolescents’ academic achievement and mental health, contextual influences on mothers’ mental health and parenting, and uncovering disparities in achievement that may result from issues revolving around gender and ethnicity.

Her current research project, “Racial Discrimination Concerns and African American Mothers’ Parenting Practices”, funded by a Fordham University Faculty Research Grant, examines whether Black mothers’ concerns about the influence of racial discrimination on their children’s lives relate to their home and school-related parenting practices. She will conduct an online survey of Black mothers of children aged 5 -19 to also investigate child and parental characteristics that may influence the relationship between mothers’ discrimination concerns and parenting practices.

Regarding her decision to join the Fordham academic community, Dr. Varner states, “I am very excited about becoming part of the Fordham community. I have been impressed by Fordham’s  emphases on the holistic development of students and excellence in research and teaching. Additionally, working in New York provides unique opportunities to further my research on Black families and the academic and psychological development of Black youth.”

Dr. Varner will be joining the ADP program in January and will be teaching “Foundations of Psychology” and “Multicultural Issues in Education”.