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Samuel Attoh’s legacy continues with new Diversity and Inclusion Award

The Department of Psychology and a top Sociology graduate student were honored with the first Samuel Attoh award

Teacher, mentor, researcher

Psychology professor Noni Gaylord-Harden, PhD, is all three—and the recipient of this year’s Ignatius Loyola Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Psychology professors receive funding to study STEM learning in museums

Two Loyola professors recently received funding for a study that could uncover new ways to engage children in science and math fields. The National Science Foundation awarded $739,522 to Dr. Catherine Haden and Dr. Perla Gamez, professors in the Department of Psychology, to support their research project, “Advancing Early STEM Learning Opportunities through Tinkering and Reflection.”

Professor’s work helps children, their families live with spina bifida

Research

Loyola psychology professor Grayson Holmbeck has been studying children with spina bifida for more than 20 years. His research has been published in numerous academic journals and has helped shaped the way mental health professionals care for these children and their families.

Think Critically

Guided by a commitment to discovering, communicating and applying knowledge for the benefit of humanity, the Department of Psychology is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in psychological research, teaching, and service to students, the university and wider communities.

Professors receive grant to combat youth exposure to violence

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recently awarded psychology professor Maryse Richards and her research team a million dollar grant to fund a study that could change the lives of Chicago area youth.

Loyola psychology expert to present new book

Loyola University Chicago’s James Garbarino, PhD, will give two lectures inspired by his latest book, Listening to Killers: Lessons Learned from My 20 Years As a Psychological Expert Witness in Murder Cases, which was released this month.

Psychology professor and students research bilingual education

Perla Gamez and her students could be shaping the future of bilingual education. The assistant psychology professor and several graduate and undergraduate students are working on research that seeks to improve the way teachers approach classroom instruction for English language learners.

Research from the ground up

It was the culmination of a year of work when seniors Natalia Hajnas, Jacob Marshall, Elizabeth Esparza, and associate professor of clinical psychology Amy Bohnert, PhD, traveled to Honduras to conduct research about mental health.

Dr. Morrison wins Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence, Dr. Silton named Master Teacher

Congratulations to Dr. Bob Morrison, winner of the Edwin T. and Vivijeanne F. Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence, and to Dr. Becky Silton, finalist for the Sujack Award, who has been named a Master Teacher in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Ottati awarded grant to study intellectual humility

Dr. Victor Ottati has been awarded a $234,740 grant from the Fuller Theological Seminary, in concert with the John Templeton Foundation, to study the malleability of intellectual humility.

At Camp Independence, researchers help people with spina bifida thrive

The camp, which is hosted by the YMCA and features typical summer-camp activities, also includes a short, daily program developed by the Chicago Healthy Adolescent Transition Study Lab, or CHATS Lab, run by Dr. Grayson Holmbeck.

Loyola Psychology Professor Leads $1.5M NSF-Funded Project to Advance Early Engineering Learning

Catherine Haden, professor in the Department of Psychology at Loyola University Chicago has received a $1.5 million NSF grant to co-design early engineering learning programs for Latinx children and their families. Partnering with the Chicago Children’s Museum and Palenque LSNA, the project will integrate oral storytelling to create culturally responsive STEM programs in community and museum settings.

Dr. Bohnert Named Faculty Athletic Representative

Dr. Amy Bohnert, Professor of Psychology, was named the Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) in the Summer of 2024. The FAR is a liaison between University Faculty and the Department of Athletics. In this role, Dr. Bohnert will also serve on the national level as a representative for the institution in conference and NCAA affairs.

Applied Social Psychology Graduate Program Turns 50

The Applied Social Psychology Graduate Program turned 50 years old this year, and with support from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Psychology Department, the Graduate School, and Alumni Relations, we held a 50th Anniversary event at Avli on the Park (a beautiful venue). Attendees included two of the original faculty members (Len Bickman & John Edwards), and students ranging from 50 years ago to the present. It was a great walk down memory lane and a chance for many students and faculty to reconnect and reminisce. Click the headline to read a description of the early days of the program by John Edwards.

Dr. Zoe Smith Wins CHADD Young Scientist Research Award

CHADD is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2023 Young Scientist Research Awards: Zoe R. Smith, PhD, and Jess N. Smith, MS. Chosen from an extremely competitive pool of talented applicants by renowned experts in the field, these young researchers are helping to advance our knowledge of ADHD. The awards are currently supported by individual donations. Winners will receive their awards at the 2023 Annual International Conference on ADHD in Baltimore, Maryland, November 30–December 2, 2023.

Will Beischel Awarded SPECTRUM Award

Will Beischel was awarded the Spectrum Award for "outstanding scholarship focused on the psychology of LGBTQ+/Queer experiences" from the Association for Women in Psychology. Their manuscript is entitled Gender Pleasure and Minoritized Gender/Sexu/Ual Experiences.

Dr. Zoe Smith Discusses Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome on Refocused Podcast

Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome is not an officially recognized diagnosis in the DSM-5. It’s currently what’s called a clinical construct - a term used in psychology to define a group of behaviors. Researchers, including today’s guest Dr. Zoe Smith, have been working for years to get the construct recognized and there is still so much we don’t know about CDS. Without an official diagnosis, it can be hard for providers to identify the signs and symptoms of CDS and Dr. Z is joining us to share what we do know about this relatively unknown comorbid condition.

Fred Bryant Savors Joy on NPR's Hidden Brain

Fred Bryant, Professor of Psychology, joined National Public Radio's Hidden Brain podcast to discuss joy, the science of savoring, and how to make the most of the good things in our lives.

Danieli Mercado Ramos Selected as Part of the 2023 SRCD Horowitz Early Career Scholar Program

The Towards 2044: Horowitz Early Career Scholar Program will provide educational and professional development for scholars from underrepresented groups, giving them a launching point for a career in the field of child development with the guidance and mentorship from more advanced scholars. The selected scholars and mentors will pair up and participate in a series of monthly seminars and one-on-one meetings through December 2023. These experiences will enable the rising scholars to gain valuable exposure to the field and allow them to network not only with their mentors, but also with other scholars and professionals. The program is led by the Advisory Committee chaired by Dr. Michael Cunningham (Tulane University) and includes Dr. Mayra Bámaca (University of California, Merced) and Dr. Charissa Cheah (University of Maryland, Baltimore County).

Jenny Phan Receives President's Medallion

LEADERSHIP. SCHOLARSHIP. SERVICE. Those three words are etched onto the President’s Medallion that Loyola awards annually to its most outstanding students, one from each of its 14 colleges, institutes, and schools. They are words that neatly summarize all that the University represents. And they also sum up the 2022–23 President’s Medallion recipients—students who excel not only in the classroom but also in the world and are dedicated to helping those around them. Award applicants must meet the following qualifications: Be a currently enrolled student expected to graduate in the 2022−23 academic year. Exemplify a combination of outstanding scholarship, leadership, and service. Rank academically in the upper 25 percent of their class. Be a person of integrity and good reputation. Manifest leadership in serving others through involvement in student organizations or volunteering in community settings.

Loyola Psychology Professor Awarded Grant for Mental Health Outreach

Dr. Zoe Smith, an assistant professor of psychology, was awarded a $250,000 grant to address mental health concerns among marginalized Chicago teens.

Misgendering Persists After Pronoun Correction

Misgendering (incorrectly labeling an individual’s gender) is a common experience for transgender people associated with psychological distress. In a laboratory experiment, we explored how observers perceived the gender of an applicant who addressed misgendering during an interview. Our data suggests that misgendering often persists after hearing a pronoun correction, and that this is the case when observers focus on stereotypical gender features (here, a person’s voice) rather than the pronoun correction. Differences in misgendering by voice-type also suggest that stereotypically masculine (versus feminine) features are weighted more heavily when determining gender.

We Stand in Solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities

Committed to racial justice for all people, the Department of Psychology stands in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in the U.S. who have faced rising discrimination and violence since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a history of discriminatory actions towards AAPI individuals. Both the recent exponential increase in discrimination and the history of AAPI communities in the U.S. has tragically been overlooked. Notably, this history is intertwined with the histories of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of color, who are all harmed by white supremacist ideology.

Lauren Hindt Awarded 2020-2021 President's Medallion

Lauren Hindt is committed to the well-being of families in difficult circumstances. Her work in Loyola’s Promoting Adjustment in Children through Evaluation (PACE) lab was the first of its kind, studying the negative effects on children who are placed in emergency shelters before foster care, and her other work focuses on the impact of parental incarceration and foster care on children and families.

Dr. Zoe Smith wins CAMH Trainee Award

Congratulations to Post-Doc Zoe Smith of the C.H.A.T.S lab for winning the Association for Child & Adolescent Mental Health Trainee Award. Dr. Smith’s research focuses on academic motivation for youth with ADHD and impairment related to the construct of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT). Her work has shown that SCT is associated with depression, sleep, and academic difficulties above and beyond ADHD symptoms.

Dr. Amy Bohnert Featured on WBEZ Chicago

Dr. Amy Bohnert, a Psychology professor at Loyola University Chicago, spoke with WBEZ 91.5 Chicago to discuss Ways To Handle Your Stress During The Pandemic.

Professor Maryse Richards on the Impact of Violence on Children's Mental Health

Maryse Richards, a psychology professor at Loyola University Chicago who studies the effects of community violence on adolescents, and Sandro Galea, the dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, join public radio’s The Takeaway to discuss the impact of violence on the mental health of young people.

Psychology Alum Latrice Peoples Interview

2008 Psychology Department Alum and Center for Urban Research and Learning Fellow, Dr. Latrice Peoples, was featured in the recent 2019 Summer CURL Newsletter. Learn more about how Latrice built on her Loyola experiences to build an exciting career focused on helping others.

Associate Professor Stephan Steidl receives the Best Publication Award from the Federation of European Neuroscience Society

Congratulations to Associate Professor Stephan Steidl who received the Best Publication Award from the Federation of European Neuroscience Society for his paper entitled “Optogenetic excitation in the ventral tegmental area of glutamatergic or cholinergic inputs from the laterodorsal tegmental area drives reward". He will be honored at the annual meeting of FENS in Belgrade, Serbia in July and will give an invited lecture.

Confronting Prejudice and Discrimination

Dr. Robyn Mallet’s new book examines research on how and when individuals do and don’t confront prejudice and the consequences of these decisions.

Examining Happiness

How can we promote happiness? Dr. Fred Bryant shares his research on savoring and tips on how to savor life's experiences. In addition, Dr. Becky Silton shares her work on utilizing EEG technology to look at how we can train our brains to process more positive thoughts.

Savoring the Day

Dr. Fred Bryant shares the benefits of overcoming negativity.

Understanding the Republican Morality Gap in Dealing with the Children of Undocumented Immigrants at the Border

Dr. James Garbarino of the Psychology Department offers insight into the current political circumstances happening in the US.

Minding the Gender Gap

Dr. Rebecca Silton chairs the Women in Science Education Committee, which aims to encourage more women to pursue careers in STEM fields

Let's party! Loyola alumna mixes business with pleasure as a CEO

CAS alumna Britt Whitfield's event management business is booming. The Revel Group has been named one of the top 5,000 fastest-growing companies in INC. magazine for the last five years and, most recently, she made Crain’s Chicago Business Top 40 under 40 for 2017.

A Conversation on Police Torture

A panel presentation by police torture survivor Darrell Cannon and attorney G. Flint Taylor on police violence, civil rights, and government misconduct.

Moral Differences Between Pro- and Anti-Vaccine Parents

Parents in the United States who are hesitant about vaccinating their children are strongly concerned with the moral values of purity and liberty, reports a Nature Human Behaviour paper published by professor Jeff Huntsinger and colleagues. The study suggests that information campaigns that incorporate these values, rather than focusing on ideas of fairness or preventing harm, may be more effective in convincing parents to have their children vaccinated. Click below to read a story from The Washington Post covering the paper and for a link to download the original paper in Nature Human Behaviour.

Psychology Graduate Student Dakari Quimby wins 2017-2018 President's Medallion

Clinical psychology graduate student Dakari Quimby received the 2017-2018 Loyola University Chicago President’s Medallion. Dean Regan recommended Dakari for this prestigious award because he exemplifies a combination of scholarship, leadership and service. In addition, he is viewed by many in and outside the university as a person who manifests leadership in community service and organizations. He received the award from President Rooney and Dean Regan at the President's Ball.

A Model Program for Reducing Water Waste on Campuses

As collegians head back to campus this fall it means campus water use will spike, so ISTC has released a video on a model program that dramatically cut water waste with a student-directed behavior change campaign. Loyola University Chicago implemented its “Gallons Saved and Shared” project with the help of a grant from ISTC’s Billion Gallon Challenge. Student interns and volunteers planned and executed fixture upgrades across much of the campus and designed an awareness/behavioral campaign with the expertise of psychology majors. In addition, Robyn Mallett, associate professor of psychology, and her colleagues were able to study the responses to produce scientific insights. A college campus is an ideal setting to build a culture of sustainability that can follow graduates throughout their lives. The experience of “Gallons Saved and Shared” is a model that can be considered to produce conservation results on other campuses, said Aaron N. Durnbaugh, Loyola’s director of sustainability.

The Department of Psychology and a top Sociology graduate student received the new Samuel Attoh Award for diversity and inclusion

Find out how these honorees promote and foster diversity within Loyola's academic community as first time recipients of the Samuel Attoh award.

Researcher, teacher, mentor

Researcher, teacher, mentor

Psychology professor Noni Gaylord-Harden, PhD, is all three—and the recipient of this year’s Ignatius Loyola Award.