By Kathy Johnson
A'dia Mathies has been an outstanding guard for the University of Kentucky women's basketball team, even being named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year by Associated Press this year.
Mathies, a junior, went "One on One" with College of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Kornbluh, talking about the experience of being an athlete and a student majoring in psychology.
To view the "One on One" video interview, click here.
By Colleen Glenn, Sarah Geegan
This past fall, the Department of Psychology launched the Psychology Honors Program as a way to give students "the best of both worlds" — state-of-the-art research opportunities that large universities offer, as well as a feeling of community that smaller classes provide. So far, the program has demonstrated success.
Robert Lorch, chair of the Department of Psychology, and other faculty members in the department developed the Psychology Honors Program to provide incoming freshmen with smaller class sizes, more research opportunities and a built-in
By Erin Holaday Ziegler, Sarah Geegan
From the halls of Congress to the streets of downtown Lexington, America might not agree much, but the majority of its citizens can see the disparity in the economic fortunes of rich, poor and middle class American families.
The myriad reasons behind economic inequality range from the decline of unions to the decline of the progressive income tax, but the outcome is undeniable: those at the very top of the income ladder have emerged as the biggest winners in a huge transformation of the American economy.
As an interdisciplinary body striving to improve policy and government performance through the production and distribution of world-class scholarship, The University of Kentucky’s Quantitative Initiative for Policy and Social Research (QIPSR) wants to join the
By Kathy Johnson
Jonathan Golding, University of Kentucky psychology professor who was recently named Kentucky Professor of the Year, was the guest on Saturday's "UK at the Half," which aired during the UK vs. Tennessee-Chattanooga game that was broadcast on radio.
"UK at the Half" airs during halftime of each UK football and basketball game broadcast on radio and is hosted by Carl Nathe of UK Public Relations and Marketing.
To hear the "UK at the Half" interview, click here. To view a transcript of the "UK at the Half" interview, click
By Erin Holaday Ziegler
A University of Kentucky psychology Professor gives columnist John Tierney a healthy helping of Thanksgiving gratitude with his recent study on the sentiment and its effects on aggressive behavior featured in today's New York Times.
Grateful people aren't just kinder people, according to UK College of Arts & Sciences psychology Professor Nathan DeWall. They are also less aggressive.
Tierney discusses DeWall's "A Grateful Heart is a Nonviolent Heart: Cross-Sectional, Experience Sampling, Longitudinal, and
By Erin Holaday Ziegler
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named University of Kentucky psychology Professor Jonathan Golding of the College of Arts & Sciences the 2011 Kentucky Professor of the Year.
Golding was selected from nearly 300 top professors in the United States.
"Jonathan Golding is one of the professors that alumni remember when they think about their college days," said psychology department Chair Richard Milich. "They remember that they learned a lot in his class, but they remember him because of his passion and because he took the time to get to know them."
Golding has involved
By Erin Holaday Ziegler
The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences will host a trailblazing American diplomat next week to continue the college's Year of China initiative.
Former U.S. Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch will speak on “Leadership and Education in a Globalizing World: China’s Challenge” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in Room 118 of the White Hall Classroom Building on UK's campus.
Bloch’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the "Passport to China: Global Issues & Local Understanding" course taught by UK sociology Professor Keiko Tanaka.
Ambassador Bloch, the first Asian-American ambassador in American history, has had a broad career in U.S. government service. She is currently president of the U.S.-China Education Trust, a nonprofit
Close, intimate relationships are an essential part of human existence. And obviously, when a partner cheats, it isn't exactly going to brighten your day. New research by Nathan DeWall and colleagues explored the role of attachment style in cheating behavior and attitudes. Read the full article.
By Erin Holaday Ziegler
Grateful people aren't just kinder people, according to UK College of Arts & Sciences psychology Professor Nathan DeWall. They are also less aggressive.
DeWall proves his point with five studies on gratitude as a trait and as a fleeting mood, discovering that giving thanks lowers daily aggression, hurt feelings and overall sensitivity.
"If you count your blessings, you're more likely to empathize with other people," said the researcher who is more well-known for studying factors that increased aggression. "More empathic people are less aggressive."
Gratitude motivates people to express sensitivity and concern for others and stimulates pro-social behavior, according to DeWall. Although gratitude
by Colleen Glenn
Congratulations are in order for Ramesh Bhatt, who has recently won a three-year National Science Foundation grant worth $432,751. Bhatt, a professor of Psychology at the University of Kentucky, will use the support to expand his research on the development of social functioning in infancy.
“Bodies provide a lot of information that facilitates social functioning in adults,” Bhatt says. “However, not much research has addressed the development of knowledge about bodies. The proposed research will let us examine questions such as whether babies know how bodies are organized in terms of the relative proportions of various parts.”
For example, Bhatt will analyze how infants from 3 to 9 months of age react to systematic changes to body and face images, documenting which aspects of bodies and faces infants scan. The results will help Bhatt
By Erin Holaday Ziegler
The emotional suffering and clinical treatment associated with infertility is wide-ranging and ever-changing.
In the Middle Eastern world, many of the couples unable to have children suffer a social stigma as well, according to Marcia Inhorn, William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University.
Inhorn, a specialist on Middle Eastern gender and health issues, will present the second lecture of the UK Department of Anthropology's Annual Colloquium Series titled
by Erin Holaday Ziegler
The University of Kentucky's Clinical Psychology program took the number one spot in a national study of productivity rankings, meaning that UK psychology graduate students and professors in the College of Arts & Sciences are generating a host of novel research that is effective and influential as well.
In a recent published study "Leading North American Programs in Clinical Assessment Research: An Assessment of Productivity and Impact" by Texas A&M University psychology professor Leslie C. Morey, UK's Clinical Psychology program ranked No. 1 in h-index.
"We were thrilled to be ranked first," said UK
By Erin Holaday, Colleen Glenn
It’s almost time for class and you’re still in your dorm room. But you’re not going to be late. There’s plenty of time to walk downstairs.
Imagine what residence halls will be like in 2020. That’s what the College of Arts & Sciences did when they created a new living and learning community at Keeneland Hall.
Debuting this fall, A&S Wired houses almost 200 freshmen in a unique interactive space that combines education and residence life.
“As we envisioned what education would be like for students starting college in 2020, we knew advanced technology would be a critical component,” said Adrienne McMahan, assistant dean of
By Divya Menon, Erin Holaday
For proof that reection, exclusion and acceptance are central to our lives, look no farther than the living room, says psychology professor Nathan DeWall in the University of Kentucky's College of Arts & Sciences.
“If you turn on the television set and watch any reality TV program, most of them are about rejection and acceptance,” he said. The reason, according to DeWall, is that acceptance—in romantic relationships, from friends, even from strangers—is absolutely fundamental to humans.
by Erin Holaday Ziegler
Psychological research at the University of Kentucky indicates that feelings of disgust do not usually escalate to aggression in the same way that feelings of anger could.
UK doctoral student Ricky Pond has been interested in the feeling of disgust and its origins from the beginning of his doctoral work in psychology at UK.
With the overwhelming amount of psychological research available on anger and its effects on aggression, Pond decided to test a different negative emotion, one that wouldn't necessarily be associated with hostility.
"I wanted to focus on a negative emotion that leads to less aggression," Pond said. "And my experience with disgust was a good fit."
Pond's study, titled "
by Erin Holady Ziegler
When rising University of Kentucky senior Joseph Mann arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in mid-May, he was ready to make a difference and ready for a challenge. Little did he know that his travel abroad experience would change the course of his life.
"You just need to come here," Mann laughed. "That's what I've told my friends and family. In the face of such adversity, there's hope. South Africans know that they have a bright future. Despite issues with service availability and government incapacity, they have faith."
Mann, a psychology and gender and women's studies major at UK, has a keen interest in human
by Erin Holaday Ziegler
When University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences academic adviser Emily Dailey first contacted psychology senior Suzanna Mitchell about a developmental social neuroscience fellowship at Yale, "it reached out and grabbed me," Mitchell said.
Mitchell, a graduate of Dunbar High School in Lexington, had become interested in child developmental psychology after working at Immanuel Baptist Daycare and as a part-time nanny.
"I am very passionate about working with children, and this opportunity felt right," Mitchell said.
The two-year Yale Fellowship in Developmental Social
by Brad Duncan and Jenny Wells
Celebrating its 13th year, the University of Kentucky College of Education’s Teachers Who Made a Difference program honored its newest group of educators at the 2011 ceremony held Saturday, April 30. More than 140 educators from nine states were recognized for the significant influence they have had in the lives of their students.
"The University of Kentucky College of Education prides itself on preparing great teachers," said Mary Ann Vimont, the college's director of Public Relations and Student, Alumni and Community Affairs. "As part of our mission, we also think it is important to honor those teachers who are making a difference in the lives of their students, here in Kentucky and across the country."
The program got its start
by Erin Holaday Ziegler
A child’s ability to focus on a videogames is not necessarily the type of focus parents should look for when determining attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
In fact, increased focus on a screen as opposed to other activities is actually a characteristic of ADHD, according to pediatrician Perri Klass.
"Is a child’s fascination with the screen a cause or an effect of attention problems — or both? It’s a complicated question that researchers are still struggling to tease out," Klass wrote in a recent New York Times story.
Klass references University of Kentucky psychology professors Elizabeth Lorch
by Erin Holaday Ziegler
From the complexity of Proctor and Gamble's profit-maximizing strategies, to the seeming simplicity of a crepe myrtle's determination of how much root mass to grow, the world makes decisions in a spectacular array of circumstances.
Most academic disciplines at the University of Kentucky address the process of decision making in some way. According to UK biology Professor Philip Crowley, there's a rich mix of similarities and differences in approach among the disciplines that provides great opportunities for cross-fertilization when it comes to studying decision making.
"For example, there are different goals for the decision making process in different fields, such as profit maximization in
