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Psychology

Kendrick Brown

Prejudice

Brown's research focuses on skin-tone bias and issues of racial prejudice in the U.S. and Western Europe. He teaches courses related to the expressions and experiences of racial prejudice, the influence of skin tone bias on African Americans and intergroup contact as a means of producing positive racial attitudes. His publications include "Mental Health: The Importance of race, Ethnicity and Culture" and "Skin Tone and Racial Identity Among African Americans."

Roxane Gudeman

Developmental Psychology/Gender Psychology

Gudeman is a developmental psychologist specializing in first language acquisition and social uses of language. She has studied cultural psychology, developmental psychology and the psychology of gender and pluralism. Her research ranges from the investigation of language use of a feminist economics Internet discussion group to child development issues such as language development and the pre-school child's acquisiton on novel verbs. She is currently assessing faculty experience with diversity in the classroom.

Lynda LaBounty

Drug Addiction/Human Behavior

LaBounty chairs the Psychology Department. Her research focuses on learning and behavior pharmacology with an emphasis on the drugs of addiction. She teaches courses in behavior modification and drugs and society.

R. Brooke Lea

Reasoning and Text Processing/Language

Lea's research focuses on human cognition, with an emphasis on higher mental processes such as reasoning and text processing. He teaches courses in cognition and the psychology of language as well as experimentation and statistics.

Joan Ostrove

Personality Psychology/Social Structure

Ostrove specializes in the relationship between social structure (social class and gender), psychological experience, physical health and women's midlife personality development. Specifically, she is interested in connectons between social class background nd adult psychological experience as well as connections between social class and health, and women's personality development during midlife. She teaches courses on personality and health psychology.

Jack Rossmann

Psychological Measurement/Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Rossmann teaches courses in psychological measurement, industrial-organizational psychology, and aging and adult develop-ment. He is currently researching the relationship between parenting style and development outcomes. In addition, Rossmann has consulted with private organizations on leadership development for middle- and upper-level managers. He can discuss hiring trends, retaining and motivating employees and other labor force issues.

Jaine Strauss

Eating Disorders/Women and Mental Health

Strauss, a clinincal psychologist, is an expert on gender and mental health. Her research focuses on body image, eating disorders, mood and conceptions of self. Her study on the effect watching diet TV commercials has on dieters was published nationally. She also recently wrote an article on the effects of the stimulant Ritalin on children with attention deficit disorder and oppositionality disorder for the American Psychological Association's Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Strauss is interested in feminst approaches to clinical psychology.

Eric Wiertelak

Behavioral and Physiological Research/Pain Research

Wiertelak directs Macalester's Neuroscience Studies Program. He specializes in behavioral neuroscience and conducts research on pain modulation. He recently received a grant from a division of the National Institutes of Health for a five-year study on ways to help control pain. He teaches courses in behavioral neuroscience, psychopharmacology and principles of learning and behavior.