Dr. Mike Chmielewski was recently promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and Dr. Alicia Meuret  was promoted to Full Professor.

Congratulations to both faculty members on their achievements!

Graduate student, Chelsey Werchan has received a Dissertation Fellowship for 2018-2019 from SMU’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

Congratulations Chelsey!

Division 50 of the American Psychological Association, the Society of Addiction Psychology, featured Dr. Priscilla Lui as an Early Career Psychologist in their Spring 2018 newsletter.

Click Here to see the spotlight on Dr. Lui.

Psychology graduate students Chelsea Carson and Margaret Sala both won Poster Awards at SMU Research Day 2018.

Chelsea Carson presented on Correlates of Empathic Accuracy Among Couples in which a Partner has a Severe Mental Illness, and her co-authors were Grace Boyers and Lorelei Simpson Rowe (faculty mentor).

Margaret Sala presented on Mindfulness and Health Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis and her co-authors were Catherine Rochefort, Priscilla Lui, and Austin S. Baldwin (faculty mentor).

Congratulations Chelsea and Margaret!

The Society for Health Psychology (APA Div. 38) recently awarded Margaret Sala an award for her dissertation research testing a mindfulness-based exercise intervention.

Congratulations, Margaret!

Minor in Neuroscience- Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system, incorporating the perspectives of several fields of study. Students will explore the relationship between the brain, the rest of the body, and the environment with respect to affect, behavior, and cognition. The disciplines of biology, psychology, and philosophy are particularly pertinent to this interdisciplinary minor. This interdisciplinary minor is well suited to Biological Sciences, Health & Society, and Psychology majors, pre-health-professions students or those interested in a career in neuroscience.

Minor in Cognitive Science- An interdisciplinary minor focused on the study of the mind and the nature of cognition and intelligence, from the perspectives of psychology and philosophy, and potentially (depending upon which courses students elect to take) other disciplines including computer science, neuroscience, linguistics, or mathematics.  Topics include the nature of cognition, consciousness, perception, memory, emotion, language acquisition, reasoning, decision-making and behavior, using tools from neuroscience, computer modelling, neural networks, artificial intelligence, and formal logic.

Dr. Alicia Meuret was awarded a Rotunda Outstanding Teaching (ROPA) Award by the 2018 Rotunda Yearbook staff.

Congratulations Dr. Meuret!

Effective as of March 22, 2018, the SMU Psychology Department has adopted an open science practices policy. The faculty voted unanimously in favor of it.

The policy reads:

The faculty in the psychology department subscribe to the core values of our discipline, including research transparency, open sharing, and reproducibility. We also strive to use and to instruct our students in the best research practices. In order to manifest those values and the best practices in our work, the department encourages all faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates, whenever possible, to engage in what is known as open science practices and employ an online platform such the Open Science Framework (osf.io) or ClinicalTrials.gov.

Specifically, at a minimum, the department recommends that all investigators preregister their studies on an online platform prior to beginning their investigations. The preregistration consists of uploading a document that describes the planned study’s research design, hypotheses, research materials, and statistical analyses. Beyond preregistration, investigators should consider data sharing as well as other benefits of the platforms, such as uploading and sharing preprints.

The department recognizes that it may not always be feasible to preregister all aspects of a study and/or openly share the data. Consequently, investigators are encouraged to engage in open science practices insofar as it is feasible, including preregistering, sharing data, and making analysis scripts available.

This policy is voluntary but it reflects current best practices in our discipline and thus it is highly recommended. Departmental members will not be monitored for adherence nor will there be any department-imposed consequences if investigators do not follow this policy. However, adopting the policy will be viewed very favorably by the chair and faculty members’ efforts to adhere to the policy will be recognized in their annual reviews.

March 8 is the Mustangs Give Back fund raising day. Please help our students!

Research 101: Mini-grants for undergraduates

Congratulations to our three clinical graduate students, Rose Ashraf, Grace Boyers, and Nicole Vu, who all were matched with their first choice of internships!  Great going!