Tag Archives: No. 2

NSU Psychology Dept Offers Honors Courses

-L. Jackson, NSU News

Northwestern State University is implementing an Honors Program this semester to give outstanding students the opportunity to enrich their academic experience, study topics in greater depth and improve their leadership skills. Students enrolled in the Honors courses will participate in research and projects in addition to regular coursework, which administrators hope will engage them in their disciplines and get them excited about research.

Dr. Susan Thorson-Barnett and her colleagues in the Department of Psychology worked for over a year to coordinate the Honors components she plans to imple-ment in her Psychology 1010 class this semester that will be tied to a service-learning project.

“The Honors students will follow the same grading scale and take the same tests as the rest of the students, but their coursework will have a research component,” Thorson-Barnett said. “We will meet every two weeks. First, the students will learn about the project, then we will meet at the library to learn to find resources in scholarly journals. Over the course of the semester, the students will write a group research paper and will work in groups of two to create informational posters they will present to the class before Thanksgiving.”

Thorson-Barnett’s project will expose the freshmen Honors students to concepts normally presented to upperclassmen.

“We want them to be able to present the research during next spring’s Research Day and we hope we can continue the project and tie it in with service learning and present at the spring Serving Learning conference,” she said.

See complete story at http://news.nsula.edu/

Dr. Nemeth Elected To World Council For Psychotherapy

Dr. Darlyne Nemeth, Baton Rouge psychologist, has been elected as Co-Secretary for the World Council for Psychotherapy (WCP), headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

Nemeth recently returned from the WCP 2011 World Congress in Sydney, Australia, where she accepted the position for the international group.

“WCP is a multi-disciplinary organization that is focused on alleviating emotional suffering,” she explained. “We are highly trained psychotherapists who do clinical work, research, teaching, administration, or any combination therein. Our president, Dr. Pritz, is also founder of the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna, Austria, which is dedicated to educating psychotherapists.”

Dr. Kelly Ray, Baton Rouge psychologist and 2010 President of Louisiana Psychological Association, serves as a VP for the United States for the WCP. Dr. Judith Kuriansky, a New York psychologist who has been involved closely with Dr. Nemeth’s outreach programs following environmental disasters in Louisiana, is the United Nations delegate for the WCP.

According to the WCP website, one of the goals is to promote psychotherapy on all continents of the world, in accordance with the Strasbourg Declaration on Psychotherapy of 1990. Another goal is to cooperate with national and international organizations in peacekeeping and conflict management measures.

Nemeth said, “WCP is in the process of developing a database to be used for gatekeepers. These individuals will be Certified by WCP to guide the first and second responders to environmental trauma sites so that they can be helpful, rather than in the way, like they were during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They will not do the interventions not will the offer Psychological First Aid. More important, they will facilitate the work of others. We have learned from Katrina…how important this is.”

WCP website is www.wcp.org.

UNO Wins Grant To Study Antisocial Behavior in Girls

From The Psychology Times, Vol. 3, No. 2

The University of New Orleans psychology department won a $275,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study antisocial behavior and stress hormones in adolescent girls. The researchers will try and uncover the reasons why girls are at an increasing risk for antisocial behavior, according to the UNO website.

Fellow psychology professors Drs. Monica Marssee, Paul Frick and Carl Weems will lead the two-year study to examine sex and stress hormones, and aspects of early adversity in girls.

Dr. Birdie Shirtcliff spoke recently on Fox 8 News, saying “What we’re seeing is a really shocking decrease in antisocial behavior in boys. It’s just been plummeting. But in girls, that hasn’t happened… And some of the most violent crimes have been on the increase.”

The news report noted that delinquency in boys is down 63 percent since 1995 but the murder/manslaughter rate in adolescent girls is up 51 percent since that year.

The UNO researchers will investigate 
neurobiological underpinnings, particularly stress hormones, and early adversity, of antisocial behavior in a group of incarcerated adolescent girls, noted the UNO website.