WWU Psychology 2015-16 Newsletter

Table of Contents

Letter from the Chair | Faculty Notes and Activities | Emeritus Faculty News and Honors
In Memoriam | Welcome New Faculty | News and Honors from the Staff | News from Student Clubs Notes

Alumni Comings and Goings |The Department of Psychology and the Electronic Media

Letter from the Chair

Dear Western Alumni, Students and Friends,
It has been another successful year for the Psychology Department.
Although we have not hired a new tenure track faculty member this
past year, we are recruiting a developmental psychologist for next
year. Dr. Rob Bedi took a position at the University of British
Columbia. We were fortunate to hire Dr. Brennan Gilbert as an
instructor to replace Rob in some of his courses. Dr. Gilbert came to
us most recently from the Student Counseling Center. As well, Dr.
Jeff Cantle, from UCLA will be teaching behavioral neuroscience
courses.
Once again, our annual celebration of research, PsychFest, was a
resounding success. Over 140 students presented their research through talks and posters. The keynote
speaker was Dr. Andrea Stocco, from the University of Washington. His talk was titled “Manipulation and
Representation of Symbolic Knowledge in the Human Brain” and discussed direct brain-to-brain
communication systems. PsychFest is held on the Friday of the first week of June. You are invited to attend
next year’s conference.
The past academic year was productive for faculty research. The Psychology faculty authored 42 papers, 17
book chapters and 115 conference presentations. Most of these included student authors. In the case of
student conference presentations, the department was able to provide funding from donations to help
students travel to conferences. These activities are directly reflected in the classroom instruction that students
receive, resulting in an up-to-date knowledge base for students. As well, many students participated in service
learning components to their courses.

Western’s Psychology Department Newsletter Ψ

The activities of students and faculty require increased funding to assure the highest possible quality of
education. This is especially true at this time when the costs of higher education are on the rise. Your generous
donations to the Western Washington University Foundation in the past have helped us support students in
both the undergraduate and graduate programs by providing funding for student scholarships, conference
registration fees, travel to conferences, computer software to help support instruction, and computer lab
maintenance. We appreciate your support in the past and look forward to your continued support in the
future.
Sincerely,

Larry Symons, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Psychology
November 2014

Faculty Notes and Activities

Joe Trimble

Active Minds Changing Lives week at Western Washington University was kicked off by TEDxWWU. Over 1,000
people attended the TEDxWWU presentations in the Performing Arts Center. Dr. Joseph Trimble was one of 12
presenters who were selected from among many nominated speakers. The title of Dr. Trimble’s presentation
was “Culture and Leadership”. You can view Dr. Trimble’s presentation at the following link:
http://bit.ly/1Msbioy
Dr. Trimble is a Distinguished University Professor and
Professor of Psychology at Western Washington University
and a President’s Professor at the Center for Alaska Native
Health Research at the University of Alaska. From 2000-
2001, he was a Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University. For the
past forty years he has served on over 15 different scientific
review panels for the National Science Foundation and the
National Institutes of Health. He has over 140 publications
on multicultural topics in psychology including 20 books. He
has received close to 20 regional, national and international
awards for excellence in teaching and research in the field of
multicultural psychology.

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Kate McLean

This past year Kate McLean has travelled to Turkey, Sweden, Victoria B. C., and Miami to present on her work
on personal and master narratives. In this line of work she examines how the construction of a personal
identity narrative is both supported and constrained by larger cultural master narratives. In other words, as
adolescents and emerging adults develop their own personal identity stories, they must also negotiate with
(and sometimes wrestle with) the cultural norms and expectations for telling their own stories in ways that are
accepted and supported by the cultural at large. This work builds on the book she wrote, and which has just
been published by Oxford University Press this September: “The Co-authored Self: Family Stories and the
Construction of Personal Identity.” In this book she works with the idea of personal and master narrative
negotiation, by arguing that individuals are not only defined by their own personal stories, but also by other’s
stories, in this case the stories of their families.
McLean has also recently received an NSF grant with colleagues at Haverford College to fund the continuation
of a longitudinal study of students at Western and Haverford. She and her colleagues are examining the
development of personality and identity over the transition into, during, and out of college.

David Sattler

Dr. David Sattler published a critically acclaimed book, "The Miracle of Life at La Jolla Cove." Dr. Jane Goodall,
the world-renowned primatologist and conservationist best known for her landmark study on the behavior of
wild chimpanzees in Gombe National Park in Tanzania, wrote the foreword.

An award-winning photographer who teaches environmental psychology courses at Western, Sattler
presents 145 images of spectacular seascapes, marine creatures, and tide pools along one portion of
the Pacific Ocean coastline: La Jolla Cove. He also writes about environmental issues confronting the
marine environment and his passion for preserving lands for wildlife. We take care of what we love,
and that is an implied thesis of this work.

Jane Goodall gives high praise to the book in her foreword,
commenting that, "David Sattler has the eye of an artist and
the voice of the poet, and the combination of these gifts with
the extraordinary beauty of La Jolla Cove has resulted in this
magnificent and memorable book..."
Goodall, a United Nations Messenger of Peace, writes
poignantly about her experiences growing up near the ocean
in England. She has deep concern about threats to habitats
around the globe, but discusses with optimism her programs
that provide opportunities for children to connect with
nature. She founded The Jane Goodall Institute and Roots for
Shoots.
Sattler's appreciation of all nature is evident throughout the book. His hope is that we will work together to
protect and nourish the Earth, our only home. One solution that can keep us from feeling overwhelmed when
looking at all of the environmental problems facing the Earth, Sattler and Goodall agree, is for each of us to
care for the community in which we live. Together, one by one, piece by piece, we can thrive by living in ways
that will sustain our miraculous world.

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"The Miracle of Life at La Jolla Cove" is receiving high praise from Bill McKibben (Founder, 350.org), Ed Henry
(Board of Directors, San Diego Audubon Society), Elliott Hirschman (President, San Diego State University),
Pete Stauffer (Environmental Director, Surfrider Foundation), Tom Skerritt (Emmy-Award winning actor), Iris
Engstrand (Former trustee, San Diego Natural History Museum, and Professor, University of San Diego), Ed
Begley, Jr. (Actor and Environmentalist), Peter Ballantyne (Executive Director, Paralyzed Veterans of American,
Cal-Diego Chapter), and others.
The book is available at Village Books in Bellingham, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and other locations. For
more information and to view sample pages, visit http://www.lajollabook.com

Cristina Sampaio

Dr. Cristina Sampaio was on professional leave last academic year to establish a novel framework to conduct
research in her spatial memory and cognition laboratory. The project bridged two departments, Psychology
and Computer Science, and provided learning opportunities for students in both. The collaboration yielded a

set of dynamic 3-dimensional virtual
environments that contain lifelike
visual characteristics and allow for
active control of locomotion and
object placement by the user. That is,
these displays are interactive and
change in response to the individual’s
movements and commands through
the virtual space, enabling the study
of spatial memory and cognition as
people navigate. The approach
eliminates a number of critical
concerns in previous studies that
investigated spatial memory and
cognition either using overly
simplified paradigms or using real life environments. Studies started to be conducted to address the validity of
some existing research and to answer original questions (see photo of a student completing a test of spatial
memory in a virtual environment).

Tina Du Rocher Schudlich

Dr. Du Rocher-Schudlich currently has two active research projects in her lab: one study investigating the
impact of the family environment and interactions on preschoolers’ psychological adjustment and a second (in
collaboration with Drs. Byrne and Forgays) assessing the effectiveness of a community-based, dialectical
behavior treatment group for adolescents and young adults with self-harm, suicidal ideation, and emotion
regulation and problematic relationships. Students in her lab are currently working on data collection and
entering, scoring and transcribing data from both projects. Based on their own research interests within each
project students are presently working together to develop and submit posters to the upcoming Western
Psychological Association conference, and possibly manuscripts for publications, depending on what is found
for their papers. Two additional manuscripts are under revision for publication in the lab with student co-
authors on each.

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Barbara Lehman

Barbara Lehman’s research group examines processes involves with stress and coping. Recently, her students
have been conducting research on the benefits of brief mindfulness meditation interventions. For example,
undergraduate students Alysia Noriega and Jennifer Gruber, alumnus Juliann Salisbury, and graduate student
Diana David all traveled to New York City in May 2015 to present three research projects related to
mindfulness. Diana’s poster (co-authored with Dr. Lehman and graduate alumnus, Dusti Jones) found that
while a self-directed one week intervention that began with a two-hour instructor instructor-led mindfulness
class was effective in reducing stress and improving coping. A similar intervention using only a phone
application was not successful. This year the group is studying the effects of meditation on attention and
rumination, and also collaborating with Dr. Jeff Grimm in a study of the effects of mindfulness meditation on
food craving.
The other recent area of focus in Barbara’s lab has been on social support processes. Former graduate student
Julie Kirsch used an experimental design and sophisticated multilevel modeling analyses to examine the
effects of social support visibility on blood pressure and negative emotions. Current graduate student Tabitha
Smith is beginning to research the extent to which text messaging can promote the effective recruitment and
use of socially supportive relationships.

Alex Czopp

Dr. Czopp has two projects currently ongoing in his lab. Graduate student Naomi Skarsgard and
undergraduate Kari Blomberg and Dr. Czopp gave a survey to students to assess their understanding of the
terms transgender man, transgender woman, and transgender person. About 75% of respondents provided
accurate definitions of these terms, which is a substantial majority but still fewer than the 92% of participants
who believed that they knew the correct definition. The most common error was reversing the definitions of
transgender man and transgender woman. Dr. Czopp is also collaborating Adriana Manago on another
ongoing project. They are interested in developing a new measure of sexual assertiveness. The existing
measures of sexual assertiveness were designed for women. Researchers have attempted to administer these
measures to male participants, with mixed success. They plan to develop a new set of measures that can be
used effectively to measure sexual assertiveness in both men and women.

Adriana Manago

Undergraduate students in Dr. Manago's
research lab are currently working on a daily
diary study of adolescent technology use and
the characteristics of their relationships with
their parents and peers. The sample includes
an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents
between the ages of 15 and 18 years old
across the state of Washington. For six days
participants completed an online diary about
their use of social media and other
communication technologies with parents,
close friends, and acquaintances. On the seventh day, adolescents filled out an online questionnaire about

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their relationships with parents and peers. Data analysis is now underway! Dr. Manago is also working with
graduate student Chelsea Melton on a study about college students' values for publicity and privacy on social
media, and are currently in the process of data collection. Last summer, Dr. Manago returned to her field site,
an indigenous Maya community called Zinacantan in the Southern Mexican state of Chiapas (see photo of
Zinacantan), to follow up with the adolescents who participated in her dissertation research six years ago. She
found 68 out of the 80 original participants and interviewed them about their lives and about the changes
they have observed since the introduction of cell phones and the Internet in their community five years ago.

Anna Ciao

Dr. Ciao and her students in the Eating and Body Image (EBI) lab are conducting a research
project investigating inclusive eating disorder prevention interventions with college students. In the summer
of 2015, the EBI lab conducted a focus group study that revealed college students' desire for body image
conversations that are more inclusive of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. This research informed an adaptation
of an evidence-based eating disorder prevention intervention for more inclusive use with college students.
A pilot trial will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of this intervention, and the EBI lab recently
partnered with Western's Body Empowerment Peer Health Educators to evaluate peer-facilitation of this
adapted intervention. The EBI lab is also conducting research on the availability of evidence-based eating
disorder prevention and intervention services on college campuses.

Dale Dinnel

Dr. Dinnel and his Positive Psychology Research Lab students have conducted a number of correlational
studies of mindfulness in areas such as sleep quality, emotion regulation, academic achievement, flourishing,
and ecological behaviors. Based on a model of mindfulness and ecological behaviors (Perez & Dinnel, 2012), he
conducted two experimental studies in three different locations: Bellingham, Washington, USA; Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada; and Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico to test this model. In the first study, after 8 weeks
of training, participants who were trained in mindfulness meditation that included an emphasis on connecting
with nature engaged in higher levels of personal ecological behavior than participants in a progressive
relaxation training group, and an environmental education group in all three countries. In the second study,
with different participants from the first study, the model was tested to determine if mindfulness training
would be effective in enhancing people’s connection to nature and political actions to affect pro-
environmental policies of corporations and government agencies. After 8 weeks of training, participants who
were trained in mindfulness meditation with an emphasis on connecting with nature and political advocacy
engaged in more activities focused on policy changes (e.g., contacting policy makers in industry and all levels
of government, joining demonstrations against the Keystone pipeline, coal trains, and industries that are
identified as producing high levels of pollutants) than participants in a progressive relaxation training group,
and an environmental education and advocacy group in all three countries. Presently in Dr. Dinnel’s Positive
Psychology Lab, students are focusing on proposing and testing a model of academic resilience in university
students.

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Emeritus Faculty News and Honors

Walter J. Lonner

Walter J. Lonner, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, recently received the American Psychological Association’s
Committee on International Relations in Psychology Award for 2015. The Distinguished Contributions to the
International Advancement of Psychology Award is the most prestigious award of its kind. The award included
an invited lecture at the 123rd Conference of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, Canada on
August 7, 2015.
Dr. Lonner has been deeply involved with the study of psychology and culture for 50 years. He is a charter
member, past president, and Honorary Fellow of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology
(IACCP). As either author or editor, he has been involved with 40 books, many of which have been central to
the filed. He is the Founding and Special Issues Editor of the flagship Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology with
the inaugural journal published in 1970. He is also the Founding Editor of IACCP’s Online Readings in
Psychology and Culture which was launched in 2001. From 1975-2000 he was co-editor of the SAGE
Publications book series, Cross-Cultural Research and Methodology. He has been a visiting professor at the
University of California—Berkeley, Waikato University and Victoria University in New Zealand, the University
of Saar in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, and the University of Yucatan in Mexico. Dr. Lonner has attended all
22 biennial international IACCP conferences and many of its regional conferences. He has lectured in more
than 30 countries. In 1993, Dr. Lonner was awarded the Paul and Ruth Olscamp Outstanding Research Award,
given annually by Western Washington University. He co-founded the Center for Cross-Cultural Research
housed in the Department of Psychology at Western Washington University. In honor of his many
contributions to the field, IACCP inaugurated the biennial Walter J. Lonner Distinguished Invited Lecture Series
in 2004.

In Memoriam

Elvet Glyn Jones

Dr. Elvet Jones passed away June 12, 2015 at the age of 93. In 1960, Dr. Jones was an Assistant Professor and
one of 11 founding members of the Department of Psychology at Western Washington University as they
distinguished themselves from the School of Education. In 1963, he was promoted to the rank of Associate
Professor and in 1977 was promoted to the rank of Professor. Upon his retirement in 1983, he was honored
with the title of Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Western Washington University. Dr. Jones was known as a
gentle, loving person with a great sense of humor, who liked to teach and was concerned for social justice.

Robert D. Meade

Dr. Robert D. Meade received his doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania where he also taught
classes and served as a professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut for 10 years. He was hired at the
rank of Professor of Psychology at Western Washington University in 1965 and retired in 1993 as a Professor
Emeritus of Psychology. While at Western, Dr. Meade was a co-founder of the Center for Cross-Cultural
Research and chaired the committee that created Huxley College of Environmental Science. In 1964, Dr.
Meade was appointed Fulbright Professor to Raja Balwant Singh College in India. He also served as a visiting
professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Rhodesia (now the University of

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Zimbabwe), the University of California—Berkeley, and Meerut University of Newcastle in Australia. Dr. Meade
was name a National Science Foundation Fellow of the United States National Science Foundation in 1971. He
was also elected as a member of Psi Chi, Pi Gamma Mu, and Sigma Xi—all honorary societies. He was listed in
American Men and Women of Science. Dr. Meade passed away on August 1, 2015.

Welcome New Faculty

Jeff Cantle

Dr. Jeff Cantle is a new non-tenure track instructor in psychology and behavioral
neuroscience. A recent graduate of UCLA, Jeff’s thesis work looked at gene
transcription networks that are altered in the brains of Huntington’s disease model
mice. Jeff has a love for teaching and held a National Science Foundation GK-12
fellowship to teach high school biology in Los Angeles. A move to Western for
teaching and postdoctoral research studying Huntington’s in Jeff Carroll’s lab was a
natural choice. Prior to his PhD training, Jeff studied addiction and stress hormone
receptors at the Salk Institute in San Diego. In addition to the study of Huntington’s
disease, Jeff is interested in neuroscience outreach and undergraduate mentoring.

Brennan Gilbert

Dr. Brennan Gilbert is a new adjunct faculty in the graduate counseling
program. He earned his MS and PsyD from Pacific University and
completed his pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training in college
counseling centers at SUNY StonyBrook and Reed College respectively.
Prior to graduate school he spent several formative years living and
traveling abroad and working in Wilderness Therapy. Most recently, he
worked full-time at the WWU Counseling Center, providing direct therapy
services to students, training and supervision to graduate students, and
community engagement around male student mental health and suicide
prevention. His past research has been on mindfulness and depression,
and his dissertation explored Buddhist pre-meditation practices to
facilitate mindfulness development. More recently, his research interests
have been on contemporary masculinity and theories of identity development. Brennan maintains a private
practice in Bellingham, and his ongoing academic passions are contemporary psychoanalytic theory, Buddhist
and Daoist philosophy and practices, and developmental theory. For fun, he enjoys bike riding, being in
nature, and cats.

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News and Honors from the Staff

Andrea Swanson

For the past 5 years, Andrea Swanson has been an Animal Technician for the
Behavioral Neuroscience Program. She has been responsible for the central lab
animal facility. The animals and facility for which she is responsible supports
both education and research. In the past year, Andrea received two awards
related to her work and research. She is a member of the Washington Branch of
the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (WBAALAS) which is
dedicated to promoting responsible laboratory animal science. WBAALAS
provides education and support for members of the research community. AALAS
is an association of professionals that advances responsible laboratory animal
care and use to benefit people and animals. Andrea was awarded the Ron Orta
Washington Branch Member of the Year Award (WBAALAS), named to honor our
friend and colleague who passed in 2007, Ron Orta (see the photo of Andrea
with her award). The Award is presented to an individual who has actively
participated in the Washington Branch and encourages participation by others in
activities which promote Washington Branch AALAS and laboratory animal science in general. Andrea was also
awarded the Kent Scientific Corporation -Young Investigator Travel Award ($1,500) to attend and present a
paper at the 2015 National AALAS meeting in Phoenix, AZ.

News from Student Clubs

Neuroscience Research Drive Students (NeRDS)

During the 2014-2015 academic year, NeRDS (Neuroscience Research
Driven Students) remained very active both on- and off-campus. On
campus, the NeRDS participated in AS club fairs, Compass-2-Campus,
Western’s Fall Open House, Back2Bellingham, and the first annual
GEMS (Girls in Engineering Mathematics and Science) Fair.
Additionally, they held monthly general meetings, and journal club
presentations as well as fundraisers to send students to the annual
Society for Neuroscience conference continued throughout the
academic year. They remained a presence in the community with
outreach at local elementary schools, in addition to attending
Neuroscience on Tap each quarter. The NeRDS finished the year with a bake sale during the screening of “Do
You Really Want to Know?” at the Pickford Film Center.

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Alumni Comings and Goings

Cade Mansfield (BA, 2007; MS, 2009) completed his PhD at the University of Utah. He accepted a tenure-track
faculty position at the University of Wisconsin, Superior.
Melissa Teehee (MS, 2007) completed her juris doctorate in May 2012 and her PhD in clinical psychology,
policy, and law in August 2015, both from the University of Arizona. She accepted a tenure-track position in
the Department of Psychology at Utah State University in Logan, UT.
Derek Caperton (MS, 2014) is now in a counseling psychology PhD program at the University of Utah. Derek is
conducting research under the mentorship of Zac Imel, investigating therapeutic change and the therapeutic
alliance, with special focus on advancing methods.
Dusti Jones (BA, 2012; MS, 2015) is a first year PhD student in the Biobehavioral Health program at
Pennsylvania State University. Biobehavioral Health is an interdisciplinary department that focuses on global
health from societies to cells. Dusti is interested in the effects of positive affect on the immune system, and is
examining the effects of positive affect on inflammation, along with her advisor Dr. Jennifer Graham-Engeland.
Dr. Graham-England primarily examines how biomarkers of inflammation interact with stress to predict pain.
Dusti was awarded the Ford Endowment Award from Pennsylvania State University for outstanding previous
academic record.
Cheri Wells (MS, 1996), LPC, is a Psychotherapist in Flagstaff, Arizona. She began a successful private practice in
March, 2015. Since graduating from Western, she has worked primarily in American Indian behavioral health.
Her experience includes working as prevention counselor on the Navajo nation in Tuba City Unified School
District at the public elementary and junior high schools. She was the Tribal Liaison for Northern Arizona
Regional Behavioral Health Authority, working to increase access to behavioral health services for Medicaid
eligible American Indians in northern Arizona. Most recently, she was the Director of Behavioral Health
Services at Native Americans for Community Action, Inc. in Flagstaff. Cheri is also a master trainer for
LivingWorks Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). Visit her website at www.cheriwells.com.

Stay in Contact!

Please let us know about your “comings and goings” in the next year so that we can include them in the next
Department of Psychology Newsletter. We are always interested in the paths that your lives have taken after
you graduated from Western Washington University and we believe that your classmates will also be
interested. We encourage you to send a brief summary of no more than 125 words at any time during the next
year. Your news items can be sent to Dr. David Sattler ([email protected]) or Dr. Cristina Sampaio
([email protected]).

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The Department of Psychology and Electronic Media

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the activities in the Department of Psychology,
follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wwupsychology or
on our Departmental website at http://www.wwu.edu/psychology/. In
addition, you can follow the activities of the Psychology Club at
https://www.facebook.com/WWUPsychologyClub and the NeRDS
(Neuroscience Research Driven Students) at
https://www.facebook.com/WWUNeRDS

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