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Professor Jennifer Ablow and her colleague at OHSU Elinor Sullivan have a new piece featured on The Conversation, “Pregnancy during a pandemic: The stress of COVID-19 on pregnant women and new mothers is showing. They write:

We are part of an international study to understand how women who are expecting to or have given birth are affected by stress related to the pandemic. We are finding that mothers are worried about catching the virus, transmitting it to their newborn and keeping their child safe during infancy. And this stress is on top of an already high stress load for pregnant women and new mothers.

Thank you, Professor Ablow, for your work on this important topic and on the excellent science communication in the article!

The Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development – Early Childhood Study (RAPID-EC) led by Prof Phil Fisher of the Center for Translational Neuroscience, is an ongoing survey of the pandemic’s effects on families with young children. The RAPID-EC study provides high-quality, quantitative evidence about how the pandemic is increasing stress in children and families, particularly in low-income and underserved communities. The study is beginning to shape the national conversation about the pandemic’s effects in the media, including the articles below.

All of the reports from the project are available here.

A group of Psychology faculty led by Professor Philip Fisher are leading a study to measure the effect of the coronavirus epidemic on young children and their families:

“There is very limited actionable science-based, data-driven information to inform federal and state policy about the best ways to manage the situation in order to buffer children from long-term toxic stress effects,” Fisher said. “The situation is extremely fluid, with new information about the state of the pandemic and local, state, and policy decisions being made on a daily basis.”

Read more about the study in the report from the first wave of data collection and in Around The O.

The research is made possible by three new grants totaling roughly $500,000 from the Heising-Simons Foundation, the JB and MK Pritzker Family Foundation and the Valhalla Charitable Foundation.

Professor and Department Head Ulrich Mayr wrote an article in The Conversation addressing the question of whether people become more prosocial with age. He writes:

Also, older participants tended to become more willing to give their money to charity or to volunteer in this experiment. And when assessing their personality characteristics through questionnaires, our group found that they exhibited traits such as agreeableness and empathy more strongly than younger participants.

These observations align with growing evidence of more altruistic acts in the elderly. For example, the share of their income that 60-year-olds give to charity is three times as much as for 25-year-olds. This is significant even though they tend to have more money in general, making it easier to part with some of it.

People who are 60 and up are about 50% more likely to volunteer. They are also nearly twice as likely to vote as those under 30.

The entire piece is in The Conversation and was also picked up by the Chicago Tribune and Mic. The article summarizes a recent review by Dr. Mayr and a collaborator, Alexandra Freund, in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Assistant Professor Sarah DuBrow has been named a 2020 Sloan Research Fellow! The Sloan Fellowships are prestigious awards given to outstanding early-stage scholars in the natural sciences. Congratulations, Dr. DuBrow!

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation congratulates the winners of the 2020 Sloan Research Fellowships. These 126 early-career scholars represent the most promising scientific researchers working today. Their achievements and potential place them among the next generation of scientific leaders in the U.S. and Canada. Winners receive $75,000, which may be spent over a two-year term on any expense supportive of their research.

Congratulations to Professor Jagdeep Bala for winning the prestigious Tykeson Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences!

Divisional Dean for the National Sciences Hal Sadofsky surprised Jag by presenting the award to Jag during her Peer Advisors class meeting. All the other CAS deans were in attendance (Ford, Blonigen, Scher, & Wonham), plus Department Head Ulrich Mayr, former Tykeson Teaching Award winner Jordan Pennefather, multiple Psychology Department faculty, some staff members, and the three advising GEs in Psych (Everett, Fridman, and Bedford-Peterson) who work with Jag. Jag’s husband, Avinash, was also able to be there for the surprise.

You can read what Dean Hal Sadofsky said about Bala’s teaching and see pictures below:

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/psychology/files/2020/02/Bala_Award_Tribute.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

Professors Baldin, Measelle, and Pfeifer are featured in the latest issue of Oregon Quarterly! They discuss the science of child development and ways parents and society can foster healthy learning and growth. Excellent work, team!

You can read the article here.

Congratulations to Sarah DuBrow and Kate Mills on being named “Rising Stars” by the Association for Psychological Science, the most prominent international psychology research society! The competitive award goes to outstanding early career researchers across all fields in psychology “whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions.” Congratulations, Sarah and Kate!

We are very proud of alumnus Keely Muscatell (BA, 2006), who also received the prize. Muscatell since earned her doctorate at UCLA and is now an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Congratulations, Keely!

DARVO on South Park

Professor Jennifer Freyd’s concept of “Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender”, or DARVO, in a perpetrator’s response to accusation was featured in a recent episode of the Comedy Central show South Park. Now that’s what we call effective Science Communication! Congrats, Professor Freyd, on your conceptualization reaching the mainstream!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jd3Ml7YsDk