By Crystal Smith

Anna-Marie Spinos teaches Social and Personality Psychology here at Gustavus.  She will be teaching Industrial/Organizational Paychology and Statistics and Research Methods next semester.  She is originally from St. Louis, Missouri where she received her undergraduate degree from St. Louis University.   She completed the graduate program in Applied Social Psychology at Loyola University .  After Graduate school she spent some time doing program evaluation at an alcohol and drug treatment facility where she would research the effectiveness of the treatment program.  Before she came to Gustavus, Instructor Spinos taught at Loyola University , Northwestern, and North Central College , all in Chicago . 

In her free time, she enjoys parenting her two year old son, and watching television.  Her favorite shows are Gilmore Girls, Lost, and Desperate Housewives.  Her favorite movie is the old version of BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, not the remade version with Keira Knightley.  She also loves to go antique shopping and eat out at Thai restaurants.  

Instructor Spinos has had much experience teaching in many institutions.  Compared with other institutions she describes Gustavus students as being more engaged and motivated.  She enjoys the small size of the Psychology Department because it gives the faculty a better opportunity to get to know the students and have them in two or more classes.  Her advice to Psychology majors is to get involved with research, especially if you are interested in attending a Graduate program.  She also recommends that students consider Graduate programs other than clinical.  Some of the students the she graduated with at Loyola found themselves in professions of program evaluation, public opinion research, and advertising.   There are many opportunities for Psychology majors other than clinical that should not be overlooked.  You can find Instructor Spinos’ office in SSC 6.  Her office hours are Wednesday from 3:30 to 5:00 and Thursday from 3:00 - 4:30 .  (Also, in case anyone was wondering, she is married to Professor David Rudek--also in the psych department)

By Jo Ellison

Tom Breitenbucher is a visiting professor here at Gustavus teaching abnormal psychology. Dr. Tom is from the St. Paul area and commutes to GAC to teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, which he obtained at the University of Montana, Missoula. He completed the four-year graduate degree with a one-year internship at Hennepin County Medical Center. He stayed at HCMC for another two years in a fellowship program where he finished his dissertation. Once he passed the licensing exam he joined a private practice. His small private clinic stays away from the busy complexities of managed industrial health care, and keeps his colleagues and him from burning out. He greatly enjoys the control he gets to have over his time and personal life as a result of being in a private practice. The only drawback he says is “ that we are not becoming rich as trolls.”

Dr. Tom did not always know he was going to be a clinical psychologist. He started out at the University of Minnesota with a double major in philosophy and humanities. However, as graduation neared he felt less sure of his direction. After graduating he did many different things including bartending, cooking, and wandering. He ended up in Montana and managed to get himself in to the clinical psychology and creative writing programs there. He says that clinical psychology is a field to be entered out of passion for the work, because of its difficult nature. It is no longer as high-paying nor as high in prestige as it once was. However, he says if given the choice to choose again, he would still pick clinical because of the great amount of hands-on challenge involved, “and sometimes, you even get to pull a human life back from the abyss. Not a bad way to spend one’s working days.”

When he is not teaching at Gustavus or working at his clinic, Dr. Tom enjoys hiking, kayaking, reading, and writing.  He also loves spending time with his wife and 11-year-old daughter who he describes as a “wonderful combination of St. Francis and Harpo Marx.

Dr. Tom says he is enjoying the friendly nature of Gustavus and greatly enjoys the service ethic he sees in the students on campus. He is slightly worried about the lack of speaking up in class. He wishes his students would speak, discuss, and challenge more in class. He is greatly enjoying his opportunity to teach at Gustavus. If you ever want to chat about class or anything else under the sun his office hours are 1:00-1:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He also has informal office hours in the caf from 4:30 to 5:15 on Thursdays.

By Chris Rozek

Patricia Costello is one of the new professors this year in the psychology department. Before coming to Gustavus, she taught at Bradley University. Dr. Costello obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of St. Thomas with majors in Psychology and Biology. After that, she attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota where she earned her PhD in Neuroscience.

Dr. Costello teaches cognitive psychology and stats and methods II this semester.  Her main research interests have to do with the brain: visual perception, attention, and exercise and brain issues.  She has done neuroimaging using PET and fMRI.  

Some interesting studies she’s done include:

- Hans O. Richter, Patricia Costello, Scott R. Sponheim, Joel T. Lee, Jose V.
Pardo. (2004). Functional neuroanatomy of the human near/far response to blur
cues: eye-lens accommodation/vergence to point targets varying in depth.
European Journal of Neuroscience, 20 (10): 2722-2724.

- Elke Stephan, Jos V. Pardo, Patricia L. Faris, Boyd K. Hartman, Suck W.
Kim, Emil H. Ivanov, Randy S. Daughters, Patricia A. Costello and Robert L.
Goodale. (2003). Functional neuroimaging of gastric distention. Journal of
Gastrointestinal Surgery, 7(6):740-749.

- Pardo, J.V., Sponheim, S., Costello, P., Lee, J., Han, Y, and Richter, H.
(1999). Functional neuroanatomy of the human near/far response to blur cues:
Fixation to point targets at different viewing distances. In Franzen, P.,
Stark, L, and Richter, H. (Eds.), Accommodation Vergence Mechanisms in the
Visual System. Berlin, Birkhauser Verlag.

- Pardo, J.V., Wood, T.D., Costello, P.A., Pardo, P.J. and Lee, J.T. (1997).
PET study of the localization and laterality of lingual somatosensory
processing in humans. Neuroscience Letters, 234, 23-26

Besides psychology, Dr. Costello has some exciting outside interests.  She enjoys running and training for triathlons (the athletic event of swimming, cycling, and then running).  You may see her running around town or on paths on any given day!  Also, she has two pet dogs that she loves named Chloe and Bella.  They may even be seen around the psychology offices from time to time!

Dr. Costello grew up in Minnesota and is happy to be back in state.  She enjoys the smaller, close-knit community at Gustavus where the students seem connected and involved.  Her office hours are on Mondays 1:30-4:15 and Thursdays 2:30-4:30 or by appointment, and she would love to have more students stop by to talk about classes, psychology, or anything at all!

February 2004

May 2004

October 2004

November 2004

February 2005

April 2005

May 2005

October 2005