Daniel Berehulak via Getty Images

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.

Our annual State of the Department Report for 2019 summarizes our scholarship, undergraduate education, and graduate education activities for the past academic year. We’ve had a busy year! A brief summary is below, and you can read the full report here.

Psychology’s research and scholarly activity has been very vigorous during the last year. With regard to the most important aspect, namely peer-reviewed journal articles, our department presented 218 publications (i.e., about 6.4 per faculty member) and many of these were in the best, discipline- specific and cross-disciplinary journals. Other indicators, such as grant funding (combined 29 active grants with a total volume of $29 million) and national-level awards to our faculty are consistent with a highly productive department. Aside from a strong emphasis on basic-science research, faculty in our department also often engage in research with direct, societal impact.

In terms of teaching, Psychology continues to be one of the largest and by all metrics, most efficient providers of student credit hours on campus.

In terms of graduate education, Psychology continues to attract highly talented graduate students and we can afford to be highly selective in our admissions (14 admissions out of 438 applicants). At the same time, the department should work on growing our class size by 2-3 students per year, which may require extra recruitment efforts and/or adjustments in our initial interview offers. Our clinical graduate program serves a particularly important function in terms of training research-oriented clinical psychologists and its involvement in the associated Psychology Clinic, which provides both training opportunities and serves the community’s mental health needs.

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/psychology/files/2019/06/SOD-2019-Final-Draft-Combined.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

Dr. Jennifer Freyd

Professor Jennifer Freyd was interviewed by the Washington Post for their new piece titled, “Hollywood’s greatest betrayal: How sexual predators used their power to operate in plain sight.” Dr. Freyd discusses topics that she is well known for in her work, betrayal trauma and institutional betrayal, in this 8 minute mini-documentary on sexual harassment in Hollywood.

Read more about Dr. Freyd’s work on betrayal trauma theory on her lab’s website.

We’re excited to share our 2017 Psychology Department Newsletter! This was a great year for the department and we’re excited to share it with you. The highlights for 2017 include welcoming new faculty member, a new research center (Center for Digital Mental Health), growing portfolio of faculty research, awards and honors for our fantastic graduate students and faculty, and alumni news and updates.

We hope you enjoy reading the newsletter! It can be downloaded as a PDF (here) or you can read it in your browser below. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback.

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/psychology/files/2017/12/Psychology_Newsletter_2017-23f5uqn.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

Professor Freyd has compiled a list of evidence-based advice for being an effective and responsible listener when someone discloses sexual assault or harassment to you. The advice was recently posted on the APA’s “Psychology Benefits Society” blog, here.

Alumni: The department would like to hear about your updates so we can include them in our annual newsletter! Please fill out this form with your updates about new projects, positions, awards, developments, etc., since Fall 2016. We’re looking forward to reading about what you’re up to!

A team of graduate students, postdocs, and affiliated faculty hosted the Eugene site of BrainHack Global, 2017. Brain Hack brings teams of scientists and programmers together to develop code to address outstanding scientific challenges. From the Brain Hack site:

Brainhack is a unique conference that convenes researchers from across the globe and a myriad of disciplines to work together on innovative projects related to neuroscience. Year after year, global Brainhack events have brought together researchers to participate in open collaboration, and regional Brainhack events keep the momentum going throughout the year. Brainhack Global 2017 will unite several regional Brainhack events throughout the world during March 2-5, 2017.

Great work, team! We look forward to seeing what you built this weekend!

Every February, the University of Oregon celebrates the research achievements of its McNair Scholars during the McNair Symposium. These achievements are made possible by faculty mentors who guide scholars through scholarship activities and help prepare them for the challenges and culture of graduate school.

McNair Scholars participate in paid summer research internships in their fields of study. During the internships, students are involved in original research culminating in a presentation of their findings. Held winter term, the McNair Symposium provides a public forum for students to share their work with peers, mentors, faculty and staff, family members and the general public.

On February 15, 2017, the Department of Psychology recognized five McNair Scholars:

Kristina Lowney – Feelings of Belonging and Future Persistence in STEM

Dr. Sara Hodges, Mentor

Tonya C. Hansberry – Sequelae of Maternal Trauma: Attachment Relationships and the Development of Empathy in the Next Generation

Dr Jennifer Ablow, Dr. Jeffrey Measelle, Xiaoning Sun, Mentors

Megan Carson – Age difference in a “Short Long-term Memory” System for Visual Information

Dr. Ulrich Mayr, Atsushi Kikumoto, Mentors

Bradley M. Boyce – Passive Carryover and Conflict Triggered Regulation: Differences in Early Visual Components

Dr. Ulrich Mayr, Dr. Don Tucker, Mentors

Stefani Paige Evans – Mother-Preschooler Interactions Measured Using the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior

Dr. Maureen Zalewski, Dr. Elizabeth Skowron, Mentors

Congratulations Scholars!

Visit the UO McNair website for more information on the McNair Scholars Program.