Welcome home, Hawks, and welcome to the Psychology Department blog! This blog provides information for psychology majors, psychology minors, or anyone who has an interest in the psychology field through articles mostly written by our own students regarding upcoming and ongoing events, as well as useful information for poster sessions and conferences, and information about our students and faculty. To start, here’s a recap of some of what we’ve been up to in this first month back and some opportunities to get involved this year. Congrats Maddie Scavatto (’19) The department would like to congratulate our own Maddie Scavatto ’19 for earning the 2018 Fr. Bernard Holmes, O.S.B. scholarship award, which is given to an incoming senior who shows care for and helps others, is a leader on campus, and shows a love of learning. Maddie is a psychology and Spanish double major. She is very involved on campus through being an Academic Resource Center tutor, participating in Relay for Life, volunteering to deliver groceries to residents of Manchester, coaching youth hockey, and being a member of AVERT. Maddie is the co-captain of the women’s ice hockey team and received Academic All-American honors. Psychology Department Meet and Greet: On September 13, 2018, faculty from the department held a meet and greet for all psychology majors and minors. This was an opportunity for returning upperclassmen to reconnect with faculty and for the freshmen to have a chance to put a name to a face. The faculty and students were able to connect about classes, future pathways, and research opportunities. It was a great opportunity to officially welcome in the new school year! Opportunities to get Involved in the Psychology Department: Psychology Ambassadors The Psychology Ambassadors are a group of students that help the department during open houses, giving tours of the department and answering questions regarding their experiences in the department and at St. A’s, going to conferences and poster sessions across New England, and attending dinners and talks with distinguished speakers. A call for applicants interested in the program will be sent out during the Spring semester. Psi Chi Psi Chi is the International Honor Society of Psychology, an organization that focuses on providing opportunities to enhance members’ personal and professional lives, chapter experiences to give members continued engagement, and encouraging members to conduct research and apply the research findings to the field of psychology. Professor Finn and Professor Ossoff are co-sponsors of the Saint Anselm chapter and will contact students that are eligible for this academic honor. (The up and coming!) Psychology Club Psychology Club will be starting up this year, and this club will offer students of all majors the opportunity to come together and discuss research, opportunities in the department, and participate in social activities that are intended engage them in meaningful conversations and discussions and to enjoy some out-of-the class room time together! The club will meet regularly and begin to organize psychology-related events, volunteer and fundraising opportunities, and social activities for this school year. The first meeting will be held on Sept 25 at 6pm in Goulet 3100.

Psychology majors studying abroad this semester share their experiences (Part 1 of a 3 part series)

Grace Wirein: Semester Abroad in Orvieto

My name is Grace Wirein and I am a sophomore/rising junior psychology major at Saint Anselm College, and I am from Dublin, New Hampshire. I’m studying for the semester in Orvieto, Italy through the Saint Anselm College Orvieto program. From the start of my time at college I knew I wanted to study abroad, but my country of choice remained undecided. After attending an info session for the Orvieto program and hearing about all the opportunities and great classes being offered, I knew I had to sign up. Italy had always been a country on my bucket list of destinations, and I was so happy to be given the chance to study and live in a different part of the world. The courses are Saint Anselm classes taught by Saint Anselm professors, and students live with peers from the college in apartments located in the city. One of the best things about living in Orvieto is the community and the friendly locals. Everything is in walking distance, and the streets and parks are beautiful. Every Thursday morning I go to the Farmer’s

Market in the Market Square right outside my apartment and buy fresh fruit and even clothes! And, the people are so friendly and welcoming, and are very patient with me even with the language barrier. I love going into my favorite café, getting one (sometimes two) espresso and just sitting/relaxing. This semester I am enrolled in Chiavi, Christian Spirituality, War and Culture in the Ancient World, and Italian Food Wine and Culture. Chiavi is a required course for everyone in the program where we participate in seminar on Mondays and then have field trip days on Wednesdays and Fridays. Chiavi also requires daily journal entries, so that ended up being a great way to document my travels and memories :). The field trips also correspond with what we’re learning in the classroom so it makes the lessons more engaging. One of my absolute favorite trips has been the pasta workshop where we got to spend the day at a local farm/restaurant, play with the cutest dogs, learn how to make pasta from scratch and prepare a spaghetti lunch.    

Psychology majors studying abroad this semester share their experiences (Part 3 of a 3 part series)

Michelle Bui: Semester Abroad in Sevilla

Hola desde España!  I currently live in Sevilla, Spain where there’s always something to do, from the market in Triana to visiting the Cathedral which is the third largest church in the world. While in Spain, I have visited many different cities including Madrid, Toledo, Rhonda, Alicante, and many more to come! The weather is beautiful (70 degrees), the people are so welcoming, and the culture is so fascinating. I live with a Spanish host family and my host mom makes the best food! Some of my favorites are paella (yellow rice dish with chicken or pork and vegetables), patatas bravas (potatoes with a red or aioli sauce), and tortilla Española (egg omelet with pieces of potatoes incorporated throughout). We eat dinner at 10pm

It is a busy time for everyone this month, from turning in essays to last minute exams. I think I speak for everyone when I say we are all eager to spread our wings and fly home for the summer. But while we are all anxious to pack up and go home, there’s a special group of people who can’t wait to get on to campus. That’s right, in the fall we will welcome the incoming class of 2023 to the Psychology department. So it seems only appropriate to give them an Anselmian sneak peek into the department and some advice from the amazing professors in it. Freshman year is crazy, to say the least. Being in a new environment, making new friends, and adjusting to classes can be a lot to take on all at once. So before we talk about how to succeed as a psych major, here is something you should know: it’s going to be amazing. When people tell you college is fun, they’re telling the truth. You’ll meet your best friends here, learn from amazing professors, and the food here is pretty great! So smile and shake off any nerves you have; you’re going to love it here. So how do you do well in the Psychology department? I have consulted a variety of faculty to give you some sage advice for your first few weeks on

The Psychology Department welcomes the new Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience Majors at freshman orientation

On September 26th, Professor Flannery (Psychology) and Professor Frutos-Bencze (Business and Economics) hosted a Design Thinking Workshop for students at Saint Anselm College. Design thinking is a creative problem solving process developed by researchers at Stanford University which includes hands-on activities and collaboration. Organizations can use Design Thinking to develop products, services, and processes with a human-centered approach. Students from Professor Rickenbach's Adolescent Psychology class attended the event and worked on solutions for questions such as "How might we build a diverse and inclusive campus community?" and "How might we help new students adjust to the competing demands of college life?" Facilitators of the workshop included Dr. Ande Diaz, Dr. Stephan Unger, Dr. Robert Gigliotti, Dr. Ian Durham, Dr. Renee Turner, and Dr. Christine Gustafson.

Welcome back to the Hilltop, everyone, and to the Psychology Department blog! This blog provides information for psychology majors, psychology minors, or anyone who has an interest in the psychology field through articles written by students and professors regarding upcoming events, useful information for poster sessions and conferences, and summaries of events from throughout the year. Here are just some of the activities of the Psychology department... Psychology Ambassadors: The Psychology Ambassadors are a group of students that help the department during open houses, give tours of the department and answering questions regarding their experiences in the department and at Saint Anselm College, go to conferences and poster sessions across New England, and attending dinners and talks with distinguished speakers. The Psychology Ambassadors are looking forward to organizing speakers to come to the college and are excited to assist Saint Anselm College as the host of the New Hampshire Psychological Association conference this upcoming year! Psi Chi: Psi Chi is the International Honor Society of Psychology, an organization that focuses on providing opportunities to enhance members’ personal and professional lives, chapter experiences to give members continued engagement, and encouraging members to conduct research and apply the research findings to the field of psychology. Professor Ossoff is the sponsor of the Saint Anselm chapter (along with Professor Finn who is on sabbatical this year) and will contact students that are eligible for this academic honor. Psychology Club: Psychology Club offers students of all majors the opportunity to come together and discuss research, opportunities in the department, and watch movies that will engage them in meaningful conversations and discussions. Last Spring, the Psychology Club took a trip to the 99 Faces exhibit, which includes 33 photos of people with Schizophrenia, 33 people with Bipolar disorder, and 33 people that are caregivers or loved ones, in Lebanon, NH at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and met with individuals from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) regarding the exhibit.    

Students in the Psychology department are busy working on research year round. Two students, in particular, were supported by the New Hampshire-INBRE through an Institutional Development Award (IDeA),  P20GM103506, from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH. Rebecca Spaulding ’21 spent the summer working with Professor Troisi in the department’s animal research lab. Two recent alumni of the department (Julia Valine ’19 and Erin Conley ’19) had done experimental studies with female rats, in which they used a drug discrimination paradigm to identify the differences in the effect of nicotine on operant behavior during the different stages of the estrous cycle (the rodent’s equivalent of a menstrual cycle). Building upon their work, Rebecca Spaulding and Professor Troisi began an experimental study with four more sets of rats. This time, however, two of these four sets of rats were male. The same drug discrimination paradigm was used, and half of the rats (equally male and female) were trained to associate nicotine with the presence of reinforcing food pellets, while half were trained to associate the control (saline) with the same. The rats, if under the drug condition for which they were reinforced with food pellets on a VI-30 schedule, learned to poke their nose in a small hole in a Skinner box for the pellets. After it was evident from their nose-poking that the rats had learned to discriminate between the drug and non-drug states, extinction sessions were begun. In these extinction sessions, the reinforcing food pellets were removed. The sex differences in the decrease in nose-poking among the rats reinforced with nicotine were the focus of the study. It was found that the only noticeable difference between the male and female nicotine-reinforced rats was on the second day of extinction training with nicotine, which was, while close, found not to be statistically significant. Rebecca and Prof. Troisi presented these findings at the Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (NH-INBRE) conference in August at the Omni Mt. Washington Hotel, and they are continuing with their research this fall.

The psychology department’s own Janelle Fassi ‘21 was also involved in INBRE-supported research alongside Professor Rickenbach this previous summer. Janelle and Professor Rickenbach examined a sample of grandparents who take care of their grandchildren. By developing a daily diary correlational study, the two researchers evaluated some of the stressors that affect a grandparent’s ability to care for their grandchildren. Some of the stressors included financial difficulties, the children’s parents visiting unexpectedly, a family member falling ill, or even larger societal issues, such as the opioid epidemic. The grandparents’ stress levels were measured via a survey that focused on their emotional and physical well-being. Although data analysis is still ongoing, preliminary findings suggest that grandparents who regularly care for their grandchildren have unique challenges that intersect with co-occurring aging-related changes. In the past, Janelle and Prof. Rickenbach have presented their research at the New England Psychological Association (NEPA) conference in Worcester, MA, at Saint Anselm’s own Showcasing Our Art and Research (S.O.A.R) program, and at the INBRE conference in August.