Swift Thinking: Spring 2006
- Registration Information
- Psych Nite Announcement
- News from the Undergraduate Psychology Association (UPA)
- Summer Study in Psychology
- The Hunt Award for Undergraduate Research
- Graduate School Information
- Juniors : Time To Petition to Graduate
- Seniors : Complete Our Senior Survey
- Seniors : Graduation Reception
- Incoming Faculty
- Lab Notes
- Awards and Accolades
Tables showing our anticipated undergraduate course offerings for Fall 2006 and a still-tentative Academic Year 2006-2007 course plan can be found online. Please check the registrar's website for updates to these schedules. Descriptions of psychology courses are available through the registrar's webpages and on the bulletin board outside Swift 107.
Preregistering for Fall Courses
The psychology department will be offering preregistration through CAESAR for most of our courses the week prior to regular registration. To see which courses are available for preregistration, look at the “prereg” column in our Fall 2006 course schedule. All students listed as psychology or cognitive science majors or minors in the registrar’s computerized system should be able to preregister through CAESAR for these courses.
Preregistration times are announced by the Registrar’s Office. You can preregister for at most two courses.
Most courses not available for preregistration are those for which students need department or instructor consent in order to enroll. Details are given in this newsletter and in our Fall 2006 course schedule.
Psychology courses are very popular, and they often close during registration. What should you do if a course you want to take has closed? That depends on which course it is. This article and our Fall 2006 course schedule describe the procedures for our different courses.
You can add 110, 201, 204, 212, 218, 228, 303, or 337 during the registration period by checking CAESAR directly and seeing if an opening is available. No wait lists will be kept for these courses, and no permission numbers will be needed. Just go ahead and add the course on your own. (All of these courses, with the exception of 110, are available for preregistration by psychology and cognitive science majors and minors.)
For most 300-level courses – 312-1, 326, 335, 351, 358, 384, 385 -- we will be using the "electronic wait list" function on CAESAR. If you try to add a course that is full, CAESAR will tell you that there are no openings and will ask if you would like to be on the wait list. As students drop the course, we will check the electronic wait list and send permission numbers to students who can now enroll.
205, 397, 398, and 399 will continue to require department permission throughout the registration period. See the sections below on Registering for Psych 205 and on Other Courses Requiring Department Permission for additional information on these courses.
All psychology courses will require department permission during the add period (the first week of fall classes). Course professors will prepare lists of students whom they have agreed to add to their courses, and these students will then receive permission numbers.
Registering for Psych 205-Research Methods
You will need a permission number in order to register for Psych 205-Research Methods in Psychology. Psychology and cognitive science majors and minors interested in this course should go to the department office, Swift 102, the week prior to registration to get permission numbers. You should be able to use your permission number to sign up for the course during preregistration or during your regular registration time. Remember that Psych 201-Statistical Methods in Psychology is a prerequisite for Psych 205.
WHEN TO GET YOUR PSYCH 205 PERMISSION NUMBER
Juniors & Seniors: Tuesday, May 9 1:00 - 4:00
Sophomores: Wednesday, May 10 9:00 - noon
Freshmen: Wednesday, May 10 1:00 - 4:00
If you are unable to go to the office at your scheduled time, then go as soon after that as you can.
Other Courses Requiring Department or Instructor Permission
One great way to learn more about psychological research is to become actively involved in research activities through Psych 399-Independent Study or the two-quarter Psych 397-Advanced Supervised Research. This is especially valuable for students considering graduate study in psychology, and it can be an educational and enjoyable experience for others as well. To enroll in Psych 397 or Psych 399, you should get an application in the department office, fill it out, and have it signed by the professor with whom you will be working. Then, take the signed application to the department office to get a permission number for the course; permission numbers will be available beginning Tuesday, May 9. Remember that Psych 205-Research Methods in Psychology is a prerequisite for Psych 397. For more information on 397 and 399 -- including the differences between them, how they count towards requirements, and tips on finding a research adviser -- see our webpage on doing research for course credit.
Students who will be taking Psych 398-Senior Honors Seminar next year will also need permission numbers. These will be available in the department office beginning Tuesday, May 9, for everyone on the list of students selected to participate in our honors program next year.
Special Courses For Fall Quarter
Psych 314 – Special Topics In Psychology – TITLE and DETAILS TBA
Psych 351-- Advanced Statistics & Experimental Design
Professor Rick Zinbarg will teach Advanced Statistics & Experimental Design. This course counts toward the upper-level research requirement for psychology majors. The prerequisites for this course are Psych 205 and 2 200-level math courses. If you have not met the prerequisites, please contact Prof. Rick Zinbarg ( zinbarg@northwestern.edu ) for permission to enroll. For more information, see the course description.
Psych 358 – Advanced Seminar in Cognition or Neuroscience: Causation and Cognition
Professor Lance Rips will teach the Advanced Seminar in Cognition or Neuroscience. The prerequisites for this course are Psych 205. Students who lack the prerequisites should contact Professor Rips at rips@northwestern.edu for permission to enroll. This course can count toward both the Column B (cognition/neuroscience) and upper-level research requirements for psychology majors. For more information, see the course description.
Psych 358 – Advanced Seminar in Cognition or Neuroscience: Social Affective Neuroscience
Professor Joan Chaio will teach the Advanced Seminar in Cognition or Neuroscience. The prerequisites for this course are Psych 205. This course can count toward both the Column B (cognition/neuroscience) and upper-level research requirements for psychology majors.
Psych 358 – Advanced Seminar in Cognition or Neuroscience: Visual Attention and Memory
Professor Steve Franconeri will teach the Advanced Seminar in Cognition or Neuroscience. The prerequisites for this course are Psych 205. This course can count toward both the Column B (cognition/neuroscience) and upper-level research requirements for psychology majors.
Psych 358– Advanced Seminar in Cognition or Neuroscience: Psychology of Music
Professor David Smith will teach the Advanced Seminar in Cognition or Neuroscience. The prerequisites for this course are Psych 205. This course can count toward both the Column B (cognition/neuroscience) and upper-level research requirements for psychology majors. For more information, see the course description.
What: A poster session of research by psychology students
When: Tuesday, May 18, 2006, from 4:15-6:00 pm
Where: TBA
Come hear this year's senior seminar students talk about their research in our department – and enjoy the refreshments too. Talking with these students is not only a good way to learn about what they’ve done, but also a great way to learn more about the opportunities for student research in psychology. Here’s a list of seminar students and their projects:
Amaya, Meredith
PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE IN TWO-DIGIT SUBTRACTION: COMPARING CONCRETE AND ABSTRACT
Anderson, Jodi
AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE OF RACE IN PUBLIC OPINION OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENTAL POLICIES
Ha, Michelle
THE EFFECT OF PERCEPTUAL VERSUS CONCEPTUAL PRONOUN PHRASES ON SELF-AWARENESS DURING VIGILANCE TASKS: AN INVESTIGATION OF ATTENTION AS A FUNCTION OF SPATIOTEMPORAL FOCUSING
Haller, Moira
THE IMPACT OF CHRONIC AND EPISODIC STRESS ON PERSONALITY TRAITS
Harmon, Kalysta
THE INFLUENCE OF SYMBOLIC KNOWLEDGE ON FREE PLAY
Hess, Brianne
PARENTAL COUPLE CONFLICT AS A CORRELATE OF CHILD TEMPERAMENT TRAITS
Joo, Grace
PROTECTED VALUES AND THE EVALUATION OF MORAL ARGUMENTS
Liebert, Melissa
A PUBLIC-DOMAIN ASSESSMENT OF MUSIC PREFERENCE AS A FUNCTION OF PERSONALITY AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
Mason, Ashley
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF AGREEABLENESS AND DOMINANCE ON ATTRACTIVENESS TO POTENTIAL ROMANTIC PARTNERS IN A SPEED-DATING EVENT
Medrano, Gustavo
MARITAL CONFLICT'S SOCIAL EFFECTS ON CHILDREN BY GENDER
Novis, Sarah
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUAL ATTENTION ABILITIES AND PERSONALITY
Rosner, Jennifer
BRIDGE OR BARRIER? JUDAISM'S ROLE IN THE ACCULTURATION PROCESS OF RUSSIAN JEWS IN THE UNITED STATES
Rushkewicz, Katie
THE EFFECTS OF MOTIVATIONAL STATES AND PERSPECTIVE TAKING ON AUTOMATIC AND CONTROLLED PREJUDICE TOWARD ARABS
Schwimmer, Stacey
PERFECTIONISM AND ITS EFFECT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL SAMPLE
Scissors, Lauren
TO FORGIVE OR NOT TO FORGIVE: DESTINY BELIEFS, ATTACHMENT ANXIETY, AND FORGIVENESS
Shah, Nirav H.
VISUAL ATTENTION TRAINING USING NEUROFEEDBACK
Skalina, Lauren
PSYCHOTHERAPY NARRATIVES AND THE GOOD LIFE: THEMES RELATED TO HAPPINESS AND MATURITY
Settipani, Cara
COMMUNICATION IN INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEWS
Szanyi, Jason
DEONTOLOGY VS. CONSEQUENTIALISM: EXPOSING THE FALSE DICHOTOMY IN MORAL REASONING RESEARCH
Thompson, Laura
PERCEPTIONS OF RELATIONSHIP STATUS: ANALYZING THE VERBAL AND NONVERBAL CUES ASSOCIATED WITH ROMANTIC PARTNERS
NEWS FROM THE UNDERGRADUATE PSYCHOLOGY ASSOCIATION (UPA)
by Jennifer Rosner, UPA President
Spring quarter ’06 is off to a terrific start for the Undergraduate Psychology Association. Just recently, we held elections for the 2006-2007 Executive Board. Because our events this year attracted many new members and more people wanting to play a direct role in the planning and implementation of events, the new board is now composed of seven members, in addition to our adviser, Dr. Joan Linsenmeier. The new members and their respective positions are:
Michelle Rheinschmidt -- President
Debbie Kim -- Vice President
Liana Rizzi -- Treasurer
Christina Katsos -- Secretary
Stacy Grossman -- Academic Chair
Marianne Abouyared -- Social Chair
Dara Wathanapaisal -- Webmaster
We are excited to leave the organization in such good hands! On the same night as the election, Tracie Thomas, a counselor from Career Services, gave a presentation about choosing a career and the various careers for which a psychology major is useful preparation. We hope the presentation provided students with the tools to choose a non-academic career path, and we thank Tracie for conveying this very helpful information.
Both the new and old executive boards are going to meet soon to discuss options for our second event of the quarter. We have not decided whether to host an academic, social, or community service event, but due to the interest of many students in becoming a research assistant at some point in their undergraduate career, we expect that this second event will most likely be a symposium in which professors in need of research assistance will present their current research to the organization’s members. In the coming weeks we will also be choosing a recipient for the UPA Distinguished Teaching Award. We encourage every psychology and cognitive science major and minor to nominate his or her favorite professor. Please send these nominations, along with a brief paragraph regarding why you are nominating your favorite professor, to me at j-rosner@northwestern.edu.
Remember: the UPA is here for YOU so give us your input! Sign up for the listserv to receive announcements and to participate in discussions, events and programming. Email Vice President Cara Settipani at c-settipani@northwestern.edu to get connected. Visit the UPA website for other updates and helpful psychology information. If you have any questions as you sign up for courses for the fall, we are here to help you. Feel free to e-mail any of the board members at any time!
The (Outgoing) UPA Board
Jennifer Rosner, President
Cara Settipani, Vice President
Lauren Kaplan, Treasurer
Melissa Liebert, Secretary
Several psychology courses will be offered at Northwestern during the summer session. These include some courses taught during the regular academic year and some summer-only sections of Psych 314-Special Topics in Psychology. To learn more about NU Summer Session courses, pick up a summer session catalog at 405 Church Street or see the summer session website.
Taking Summer Courses at Another School
If you plan to take psychology courses at another school this summer and want to count them toward your NU degree, then you must have prior permission from the Weinberg Office of Undergraduate Studies and Advising (OUSA) and from our department. Take your course descriptions to the OUSA at 1922 Sheridan Road, pick up the relevant forms, and then see either Prof. Linsenmeier or Prof. Broaders to talk about getting psychology department approval. You can schedule an appointment to see either of them with Ginger Gilmore in Swift 102. Information on Weinberg College guidelines for courses taken away from Northwestern, as well as a copy of the petition form are also available online.
The Hunt Award for Undergraduate Research
Each year the Psychology Department chooses a student to receive the William A. Hunt Award. Dr. Hunt was a distinguished clinical psychologist and a past chair of our department. The award goes to the student judged to have written the best research paper in psychology. It includes a small cash prize and a mention in the Commencement program.
All students writing senior honors theses in psychology are considered for this award. Students who have completed a research paper as part of a 397 or 399 can apply as well; give a copy of your paper and a letter of support from the faculty member who supervised your research to Joan Linsenmeier by Wedneseday, May 17th.
If you're thinking of doing graduate work in psychology, the department has several resources you may find helpful. One resource is the department webpage on graduate study in psychology. Florence Sales in the department office can lend you books on programs around the country--what they’re like, how to choose which ones to apply to, and so on. These include The Insider's Guide to Graduate Programs in Clinical and Counseling Psychology and two books from the American Psychological Association (APA), Graduate Study in Psychology and Getting In. In addition, our faculty members and our own graduate students can provide you with lots of useful information about choosing a field of specialization, about applying to graduate school, and about what life as a graduate student is like.
If you're interested in clinical psychology, be sure to take a look at So You're Considering Graduate Study in Clinical Psychology.
Juniors: Time To Petition to Graduate
Spring quarter is the usual time to file your Application for a Bachelor’s Degree. You need to file an application for each major you plan to complete, as well as a Minor Application if you plan to graduate with a minor. This is important for making sure that you haven’t overlooked or misunderstood any graduation requirements--and that you and the degree auditors in the Registrar’s Office agree on how your courses fit department, college, and university rules. It’s also a good opportunity to think about how you’d like to spend your final year as an undergraduate student.
Forms should be submitted to the Registrar’s Office a full year before you plan to graduate, If you expect to graduate next June with a major or minor in psychology, then this quarter is the time to do your petition. Get a copy of the appropriate form at the Registrar’s Office or in our department office, or download it from the Registrar’s webpage. You should fill the form out and then discuss it with either your psychology faculty adviser or Prof. Linsenmeier or Prof. Broaders. After it’s signed, you turn it in to the Registrar’s Office. To schedule an appointment with Prof. Joan Linsenmeier or Prof. Sara Broaders, contact Ginger Gilmore in Swift 102
Be sure to look carefully at the feedback you get from the Registrar's office after you file this form.
Seniors: Complete Our Senior Survey
Please take the time to complete a short survey. We’re asking about your plans for the future and about some of the experiences you’ve had in our department. This will help us to stay in touch and will guide our thinking about strengths and weaknesses of our undergraduate program. We also need to provide information on our graduates as part of Northwestern’s re-accreditation process. So, please complete the survey and send us your responses. Thank you!
The psychology department will honor all students graduating with a major in psychology at a reception on the day of commencement, June 16, 2006. The reception will take place from 2:00-4:00 P.M. in the lobby of Swift Hall. All of our graduating seniors and their families are invited to attend and to celebrate with us.
This Fall, three new faculty members will be joining the psychology department. More detailed information about them will be provided in the next edition of Swift Thinking, but since they are listed as teaching courses next year, here’s a bit of information about each of them.
Joan Chiao will be joining the faculty in June, as a member of the Brain, Behavior, & Cognition program. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University this year. Professor Chiao is a pioneer in the new field of cultural neuroscience. She is interested in understanding how cultural and biological forces shape human social interaction. In particular, she studies how humans across different ages, races, and cultures process social information using both behavioral and brain-imaging methods. One topic of special interest is the ways that race and culture influence emotional, social and cognitive processes. Another specific interest is on the psychological and biological bases of social relations, such as dominance hierarchies and affiliation. An overarching goal of her work is to conduct basic psychological and neuroscience research that may inform public policy and population health issues.
Steve Franconeri will be joining the faculty in June, as a member of the Cognitive Psychology program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2004 and has been a postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia. Professor Franconeri studies visual cognition, with a particular focus on processes of attention and visual selection. Which stimuli capture our attention? How do they do that? These processes guiding visual attention are fundamental to all of our interactions with the environment. He is also interested in the nature of visual memories.
David Rapp will be joining the faculty in September. He received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York and was previously an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. He will be a professor in both the Cognitive Psychology program in the Department of Psychology and in the School of Education and Social Policy. Professor Rapp studies fundamental processes of comprehension and learning. He investigates how we use our network of background knowledge to comprehend new information, as well as how we use newly comprehended material to update our existing knowledge base. Broadly speaking, he is interested in understanding the psychological dynamics of reading and in developing new educational technologies to enhance learning.
Professor Sid Horton
Are you interested in language use and how people communicate? The Cognition and Communication Lab is looking for motivated undergraduate students to work as research assistants on projects related to both spoken and written discourse in young adults and also the elderly. Opportunities are available both during the summer and for next fall. Interested students should contact Professor Horton at whorton@northwestern.edu .
Congratulations to the many psychology majors and minors who have won awards, presented papers at conferences, or been involved in other special activities this year. Listed below are some of the students in our department who have received recognition for their achievements this year.
Joel Voss was chosen to participate inthe National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Division of Intramural Research Programs Pre-doctoral Research Festival with an oral presentation on his research.
Trixie Lipki is the recipient of the Win Hill Award for Best Paper in Research Methods, awarded by the Department of Psychology.
Four students will receive Underwood Fellowships for research this summer from the Department of Psychology:
- Rebecca Newland
- Maya Ragavan
- Richard Yao
- Eric Yeh
Three students will receive Undergraduate Research Grants Council funding for research this summer:
