Article archive / December 1, 2009
Originally published: . Volume 1, No. 4. Source pages: 6, 7.
To talk with her, you might not realize that Dr. Dena Matzenbacher is the head of the innovative, thriving psychology department at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. Approachable and down-to-earth, Dr. Matzenbacher heads up the Psychology Department and while she told me that she decided on her career in a very “plain way,” choosing her direction in high school, then only making one slight shift from clinical to academics, it is quickly apparent that she brings a spark of fun and inspiration to her duties at McNeese.
In the multi-tasking, growing department that Dena leads, undergraduates are prepared to enter the workforce in a wide variety of settings. The Master’s degree offers concentrations in Addiction Treatment, Applied Behavior Analysis, Counseling Psychology, and General/Experimental Psychology. Dena explained that all the students master the basics then develop a specialization with the help of their advisor, and finish with either an internship or a thesis, leading to work in human services agencies, practice or to a doctoral program. Dena’s team currently assists 241 undergraduates and 66 graduate students along their careers.
Keys to this innovative department are the training and service programs available at MSU, including the Kay Dore’ Counseling Clinic. Developed in 2001 with grants from the Dore’ family, the clinic is the in-house training center for the department as well as a community service agency. “We train our graduate students in the clinic,” Dena said, “and also provide low cost services to the community, under the supervision of our faculty.” The mission of the Center is to provide affordable counseling services for those of low income, no medical insurance, the unemployed and others in need.
Housed in the Clinic is the McNeese Autism Program, which is dedicated to improving the lives of young children with autism and other developmental disorders, following the scientist-practitioner training model and relying on Applied Behavior Analysis. MSU’s program also includes the Project for the Treatment of Problem Gambling, as well as their Crisis Intervention Team, a collaborative effort between Dena’s department and many other groups, including the Lake Charles Police Department and Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office. The Crisis Intervention Team is under the direction of Dr. Cam Melville, and provides training for law enforcement personnel in areas related to mental illness.
Even with all this to coordinate, Dena is the faculty advisor for Psi Chi. As a long time member of Southwestern Psychological Association, she regularly takes a group of her students to present posters at the annual convention in the spring. “It is a strong research push for the department,” she said. “All the Psi Chi students travel together to the conference and present their research.”
Dr. Matzenbacher obtained her undergraduate and Master’s degrees from Stephen F. Austin and her doctorate in experimental psychology (with an emphasis in child development) from Texas Christian University. A sampling of her publications and presentations include her regular contribution to Training Resources, “Readings in Developmental Psychology,” research into gambling treatment, mentoring and self- esteem in childhood, gender differences in leisure activities in childhood, college students’ perceptions of textbook and course material, and the effects of exposure to toxic chemicals on psychological functioning.
An interest of Dr. Matzenbacher is her work in the use of film for teaching and therapy. She has written a companion text, The Blockbuster Approach: A Guide to Teaching Introductory Psychology with Video, published by Allyn & Bacon, as a resource for psychology professors. She has also presented “Psychology in the Movies,” at the Lamar University Education Research Conference, and presented at Training Resources’ Summer Symposium.
Each summer, she teaches a class called “Psychology in the Movies,” a senior level undergraduate class. “As a three-week mini term,” she says, “you can actually watch a movie in class each day.” Some days she’ll show a whole movie, other days, clips of two or three. “I do it by themes,” she noted. “One week I’ll show movies illustrating themes of mental illnesses. Then I’ll do developmental psych topics movie clips with family dynamics, parenting, and then another week I might do social psych with everything from prejudice to discrimination to aggression to prosocial behavior and group behavior.”
Dena teaches Intro, all the Developmental courses (Child Psychology, Lifespan Development, and Adolescence), and Abnormal Psychology. “Even in my regular classes, Psych 101, I use movies,” she said. “They watch two entire movies in abnormal psych. For example I use Mr. Jones for bipolar disorder and I use A Beautiful Mind for schizophrenia. They watch the movie in it’s entirety and then write an essay where they identify what symptoms were portrayed, what symptoms were not portrayed, what was the first sign in the movie that the person had a mental illness. Something to make them think.”
“Dr. Brannon and I have also gotten into the idea of ‘Myth Busting.’ Because students come in with preconceived ideas, as you can imagine. So one of the questions I ask them to answer is ‘What in this movie is realistic and what in this movie is not realistic?’ A lot of times there is a Hollywood ending. Sometimes the story is true but you get to the end and the person doesn’t need medication anymore and they’re magically cured because they fell in love.”
Dr. Matzenbacher is married, and has a precious, five-year old son, Andrew, whose favorite movie is Disney/Pixar’s Cars. No one has to guess if he has fun learning.
McNeese faculty: L to R: Drs. Cam Melville; Charles Robertson; Jan Disney; Carl Bartling; Linda Brannon; Dena Matzenbacher; and Denise Arellano.
Dena and son Andrew at home.
Some of Dr. Matzenbacher’s Ideas for Teaching, Therapy
Schizophrenia: Benny & Joon ‘93, A Beautiful Mind ‘01
Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Boy Who Could Fly ’86, Rain Man ’88
Mood Disorders: Garden State ’04, Mr. Jones ’93
Addictions: Clean & Sober ‘88
Abuse: The Burning Bed ’85, Fried Green Tomatoes ’91
Disabilities: Mask ’85, David’s Mother ’94, I am Sam ’01
Family Dynamics, Marriage: Ordinary People ’80 Kramer vs Kramer ’79, War of the Roses ’89
Prejudice and Discrimination: Crash ’04, Gran Torino ’88
Courage & Determination: Freedom Writers ’07, Seabiscuit ’03
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