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. 

On Friday, October 18th the Psychology department hosted a field trip to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. For the past few months, the center has hosted an art exhibit called 99 Faces which focused on the stigma of mental illness. This exhibit, by artist Lynda Cutrell, contained 33 pictures of people living on the bipolar spectrum, 33 people living on the schizophrenia spectrum, and 33 people who love these individuals. Our group explored the stories of some of these people and engaged in meaningful conversation about why stigma towards mental illness occurs. This unique exhibit will be traveling to multiple locations throughout the United States next, such as Tufts University and Gordon College.

http://www.99facesproject.com/

MANSFIELD, Mass. – Seniors Trevor Hott (Idaho Falls, Idaho) and Peyton Steinman (Pittsfield, Mass.) were nominated for the Man and Woman of the Year awards issued by the Northeast-10 Conference on Wednesday.