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