Department of Psychology updates: May 9, 2016

Date

Faculty and students in the Department of Psychology have actively published and presented their research around the country in recent weeks.

Nikki Ditchman, assistant professor of psychology, and her graduate students gave three presentations at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference in Chicago on May 5-7, which included:

  • “Intellectual disability and sexuality: How culture impacts attitudes,” a research study conducted by Amanda Easton (Ph.D. ’15), Noopour Shah, Elizabeth Batchos, Sean Rafajk, and Ditchman;
  • “Effects of dating relationships on mental health and life satisfaction of college students,” a poster presentation by Samreen Kalani; and
  • “The relationship between individualist/collectivist orientation and stigma towards intellectual disability,” a research project conducted by Rafajko, Ditchman, Easton, Shah, and Kalani. 

In addition, the poster presentation, “Mediators of quality of life in survivors with brain injury,” has been accepted to the Association of Psychological Sciences Annual Convention. The conference will be held on May 26-29 in Chicago.

Alissa Haedt-Matt, assistant professor of psychology, and two of her graduate students, Krystal Badillo and Liz Dougherty presented two posters, “Social media use and eating pathology,” and “Gastrointestinal distress and purging in purging disorder: An ecological momentary assessment study,”  at the 2016 International Conference on Eating Disorders held in San Francisco on May 5-7.

Sam McAbee, assistant professor of psychology, published a paper in the journal, Frontiers of Psychology, entitled, “The impact of interpersonal discrimination and stress on health and performance for early career STEM academicians.” The paper can be read online.