Emil's Epilogue - March 2010
Gustie Psych News & Events
Events and Conferences
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2010 Minnesota Undergraduate Psychology Conference
- Saturday - April 24, 2010
- Macalester College, St. Paul
- MUPC is an annual conference that promotes undergraduate research by providing a forum for students throughout the upper Midwest to present oral and poster presentations about their research. The conference is open to all, and attendance is free.
- Dr. John Bargh, Professor of Psychology at Yale University, will deliver this year’s keynote address: Unconscious behavioral guidance systems: The automaticity of everyday life.
- Students/faculty may register at http://www.macalester.edu/mupc Students may also submit their presentations at this site. Please note that the deadline for submissions is Friday, April 2, at noon.
Midwestern Psychological Association Meeting
- April 29 – May 1, 2010
- Palmer House Hotel, Chicago, IL
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Creative Inquiry - Gustavus
- Abstracts due: Friday, March 19
- Event: Friday, April 30, 2010
- http://gustavus.edu/kendallcenter/undergraduate-research/creative-inquiry.php
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MidBrains
- Saturday - May 1, 2010
- St. Olaf College, Northfield
- MidBrains 2010, the annual meeting dedicated to the undergraduate neuroscience researchers of the midwest! Registration and abstract submission is now open.
http://www.macalester.edu/midbrainconference/
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Honors Day - Gustavus
- Saturday - May 1, 2010
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Spring Psychology Symposium - Gustavus
- Friday - May 14, 2010
Spotlight on senior psychology honors major - Cathryn Nelson '2010
My January interim experience in the Mayo healthcare system gave me an abundance of new experiences. Whether doing research, attending a lecture, talking to people, or just walking the hallways, I saw new sights, heard new knowledge, and really grew 
as a person. I was able to reflect on my career desires and get some ideas of what the future may hold for me.
Part of my experience was attending Grand Round Lectures. These lectures, which were on topics ranging from assisted suicide to a newly researched speech disorder to a case study about a brain-damaged patient to Mayo’s take on the new healthcare reform, sparked my interest in many topics that I would not have otherwise heard about. On top of just teaching me about medical phenomena I had never experienced, it also taught me the importance of and the love for continued education. It is so great that these professionals get to continue learning even after they are out of school. I hope that my future career will allow me the opportunity to keep my brain busy with new learning experiences.
Entering data into a database was another of my tasks. While this wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, I was lucky to have other experiences that made this interesting. I talked with a psychometrist and took some of the tests that they gave to patients. I also researched about different psychometric tests in a textbook. These two experiences allowed me to understand the data that I was entering and really get a view of the patient’s mental health and ability level as I entered the numbers. I got to watch the therapist type up messages to her patients in telerehabilitation sessions so when I entered data about those subjects I understood the atypical therapy they were receiving. I learned from this that while I have the ability to make boring tasks interesting, I do not want to work on a computer with data entry for my future.
On occasion I would listen to Dr. Thomas Bergquist dictate notes from his previous patient appointments. He would look through all the medical records and notes he had written about patients and find the correct things to record in the correct order. He would sometimes stop, have me read some case notes, and quiz me on what could possibly be wrong with the patient. It was a neat way to learn that taught me to think outside the box and infer diagnoses and trends by the details I knew of their test results. I definitely could tell that I understood patient cases better as the month went on, making me realize that although schooling helps, it will be the hands-on work experiences that will allow me to become better at whatever I do in the future. continued...
Spotlight on an alum - Heather Meyers '05
Greetings, GAC psychology students, faculty, and staff,
It is such a pleasure to write for Emil’s!!
It seems like just yesterday when I was sitting across from my advisor, Dr. Marie Walker, in her office, pondering what to do with my life. As an eighteen-year-old freshman, and not unlike many if not most of my cohort, I had no clue what I should “major in” or into which profession I should stake claim. After experiencing General Psychology as a sophomore, however, I decided to set up camp in the Psych Department in SSC and without regret I never looked back! I was absolutely enthralled with the discipline of psychology. To me, psychology is life, and life is psychology; the two are forever entangled in a beautiful relationship, notwithstanding culture, race, ethnicity, sex or gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. Mainly, I felt attracted to psychology because the discipline entails appealing attributes such as: critical 
thinking, intense and engaging dialogue, research, reading and writing, theory, and problem solving. I particularly enjoyed reading journal articles in Social Psychology with Dr. Walker and engaging in critical dialogue about theories such as the looking glass self and group think; collaborating with two colleagues to develop a hypothesis and design an experiment for Research Methods; and learning about the brain and physiological reasons for our behavior in Brain and Behavior.
By the time my career as a GAC student was coming to an end, I recognized that critical thinking, dialogue, researching, reading and writing, and theory, satiated my intellectual curiosities. Yet, I also longed to make a positive, direct impact on people’s lives, to be involved in social change, policy, advocacy, and social justice. And that is where law school entered the picture. I decided to enter law school and become a lawyer because I thought lawyering would be an excellent way to satisfy my desire to be challenged intellectually and my longing to make a difference.
I enrolled at Hamline University School of Law in 2006. While, not unlike many of my classmates, I often felt overwhelmed and challenged in law school to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, I never ceased appreciating the intellectual rigor of the program. I enjoyed the challenge of reading and analyzing cases, debating multiple sides of an argument in class and on paper, researching case law and statutes, and arguing for a client in an appellate brief for Legal Research and Writing. Further, (continued...)
Department News - Dr. Kristie Campana
Have you had the opportunity to meet Dr. Kristie Campana? She is a Gustie psych alum '03 and currently teaching PSY 100 at Gustavus as a visiting professor during the Spr 2010 semester.
During my time at Gustavus, I really enjoyed psychology in general – understanding how people think, how they make decisions, and so on. As I entered my final year at Gustavus, I realized that working in a clinical setting was not the right fit for me. I started reading about Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and as I learned more about it, I was really excited about the kind of work I could do with a degree in that area. I entered the University of Minnesota’s doctorate program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology right after graduating from Gustavus. I was really amazed by the breadth of topics available in I/O Psychology—using principles from psychology, I/O psychologists can select, motivate, and train employees. While I was in graduate school, I worked with an external consulting firm in Minneapolis known as MDA Leadership Consulting. In this position, I worked with clients to help them solve problems such as selecting managers, writing job descriptions, and implementing training evaluations. I also worked for a short time at Target Corporate, where I helped select managers and conducted research looking at how best to predict employee performance. I graduated from UMN in 2009, and went to work as a professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. I teach a number of undergraduate courses (such as research methods and personality psychology) and I work with I/O Masters students. I am also teaching Psy 100 this semester at Gustavus. I love getting to talk with students about the great things you can do with psychology in your everyday life!
I/O is not a well-known field within psychology, so sometimes it is hard to find good information on the topic. I/O is a good fit for you if you enjoy solving practical problems, and want to help people outside of a clinical-type setting. I/O jobs often have a lot of variety; you may work with different companies, and get to split your time between doing research and talking with clients. I/O also typically pays well—even with just a Masters degree, I/O psychologists can earn $50-60,000 in their first position. If you are interested in learning more about I/O psychology, you can look at the official website: www.siop.org. If you have questions (about I/O, or about going to graduate school in general) you are welcome to contact me via email: Kristie.campana@gmail.com
Dr. Marie Walker along with her colleagues Chris Johnson, Director of Center for Vocational Reflection and Paul Schadewald of Macalester College, gave a presentation on "Voices From Holden Village: Young Adult Development in a Mentoring Community" at the Institute on College Student Values in Tallahassee, Florida on February 5, 2010.
Date change for the Kendall Lecture Series Speaker - Mahzarin Banaji
- A reminder... The Psychology Department will host Mahzarin R. Banaji as the 2010 John Kendall Lecture Series Presenter during the week of October 14/15, 2010.
Mahzarin R. Banaji was Director of Undergraduate Studies at Yale for many years, and is currently Head Tutor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, as well as by several private foundations. [Information taken from the website below.] Please refer to http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~banaji/bio/index.htm for more on Banaji's professional background and research interests.
Psi Chi Activities
Psi Chi members scheduled a February field trip to the Saint Peter Regional Treatment Center Museum. A spring induction of new members is planned to take place in May with more information to follow.
Miscellaneous Randomness
- Did you know that Dr. Marie Walker who earned her
B.A. in Psychology, University of
Western Ontario, London, Canada; an M.A. Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; and a PhD Social Psychology, University of Western Ontario, likes chocolate? Did you know that she also likes winning Canadian Olympic Hockey teams? - (Not that she'd ever mention it...) - Did you know that the students who work in the psychology department are extraordinarily bright, a lot of fun and incredibly talented?
- Did you know that the first student who reads this note and replies to lsande@gustavus.edu can claim a $5.00 certificate redeemable at the St. Peter Dairy Queen?
Calvin and Hobbes
Why is this newsletter named Emil's Epilogue?
Planning on asking faculty for a reference letter?
Prepare by providing them with the information they will need: http://www.gustavus.edu/academics/psych/referenceletternf4.htm