News and Events
Marietta College Psychology Jeopardy! Team Wins Tri-State Conference
April 9, 2008 -- A group of Marietta College psychology majors recently attended the annual Tri-state psychology conference held at Marshall University in Huntington WV. Professor Mark Sibicky accompanied the students as the faculty advisor.
Four students presented their undergraduate research in the conference poster session.
- Abby Hess presented a poster entitled, “A Child’s Perception of Supervised Visitation,” which was advised by Dr. Mary Barnas.
- Adam Hintz presented a poster entitled, “Cutting Tall Poppies: Punishing High Achievers Who Cheat,” which was advised by Dr. Mark Sibicky.
- Kim Page presented a poster entitled, “The Effects of Various Noises on the Ability to Perform a Cognitive Task,” which was co-authored by Philip Lemaster, Emily Siders, and Britanny Saunier, and advised by Dr. Jennifer McCabe.
- Allison Paytosh and Philip Lemaster presented a poster entitled, “The Stigma of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Survey of Parents’ Perceptions,” which was advised by Dr. Mark Sibicky.
While at the conference, the Marietta College Psychology Jeopardy! team took part in the annual Tri-State Psychology Jeopardy! Tournament. Teams of psychology students from seven colleges and universities had their knowledge of psychology tested in a format similar to the Jeopardy! television show.
The competition was intense through each round of competition, but eventually Marietta College psychology students battled their way into the Final Jeopardy! round where they found themselves facing teams from Frostburg State and West Virginia University. In the end, the Marietta College students beat out West Virginia University by one point to claim the Tri-State Psychology Jeopardy! Championship.
The Tri-State Psychology Trophy will have Marietta College’s name engraved on it and will remain with the Psychology Department for the next year.
Dr. Mark Sibicky publishes in 'The Common Review'
February 8, 2008 -- Marietta College's Dr. Mark Sibicky, professor of psychology, recently published an article in The Common Review: Magazine of the Great Books Foundation (winter, 2008), titled “Gaming the Person.”
Sibicky's article is a review of the latest book by the social psychologist Philip Zimbardo, titled The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how good people turn evil (Random House).
According to Sibicky's article, Zimbardo gives a personal account of his 1971 Stanford University Prison Experiment, in which normal college students were assigned to play the role of prison guards or prisoners in a mock jail set up in the basement of the psychology building. In a now infamous experiment, Zimbardo was forced to end the study early when student guards began to torture the student prisoners. In his new book, Zimbardo documents the similarities between his experiment and the torture and abuse that happed to Iraq prisoners by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib.
Sibicky comments about the book by writing, "Despite some weaknesses, the Lucifer Effect offers readers a compelling personal narrative that documents the striking parallels between the Stanford Prison Experiment and Abu Ghraib. Zimbardo has made an impassioned argument that the public should use social research to understand why ordinary people commit acts of evil."
In discussing his article, Sibicky notes that writing it helped him revise his J-term course on the psychology of good and evil, a course he recently taught with his psychology department colleague Dr. Ryan May. Sibicky recalls that his students sometimes want to dismiss the abuse at Abu Ghraib as the result of a few “bad apples.”
Sibicky argues, "I truly believe that social scientists now know a great deal about the social forces that can lead good people to do commit evil deeds, but the problem for all of us is to find ways to apply this knowledge to social situations and prevent evil from happening."
Ryan May Selected as McCoy Professor
Dr. Ryan May is the most recent psychology professor to be named a McCoy Professor.
Dr. Mark Sibicky was honored in 1996.
Dr. Mary Barnas was honored in 2005.
November 27, 2007 -- A talented artist and a clinical psychologist are the newest members of the Marietta College faculty to be honored as McCoy Professors.
Jolene Powell, assistant professor in the art department, and Dr. Ryan May, associate professor in the psychology department, were selected as this year's McCoy Professors. Both joined the faculty full time in 2002.
“It is an honor to be recognized by my peers by being named as a McCoy Professor,” May said. “To receive this honor at an institution that has so many quality faculty members who are dedicated to teaching is particularly meaningful.”
John G. '35 and Jeanne McCoy established the four-year recognition plus stipend in 1993 as part of the McCoy Endowment for Teaching Excellence. After peers nominated May and Powell, their portfolios and two classes reviewed by five nationally recognized teachers working outside of the Marietta College community. Including May and Powell, there have been 25 McCoy Professors named since the award was created.
“Faculty are internally motivated to teach well because they enjoy what they do and they want to do a good job,” said Marietta's Provost, Dr. Rita Smith Kipp. “Having said that, I think (the McCoy Professorship) is important in that it is a public expression that Marietta College values quality teaching.”
Powell said being recognized as a McCoy Professor is a reflection of the quality of the art department. “The McCoy will showcase and bring attention to the fine arts as a creative and intellectual discipline,” Powell said.
Both Powell and May knew as students they eventually wanted to teach in a small liberal arts college. May received tenure in 2007. He received his doctorate and Master's degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Memphis and his undergraduate degree from Anderson University.
“As an undergraduate student at a liberal arts college, I developed an appreciation for a liberal arts education as well as the impact that quality teaching can have on students' lives,” May said. “Therefore, when I went to graduate school to train as a clinical psychologist, it was my goal to have teaching be a primary focus of my career. Although I do some clinical work at Marietta Memorial Hospital, and I find this to be rewarding, I view myself primarily as an educator. I am delighted to be a part of the Marietta College community. The institution is committed to quality teaching, and reinforcing quality teaching with honors such as the McCoy evidence that this commitment is much more than just lip-service.”
Powell received her Master's of Fine Arts from Boston University, her Master's degree from Western Carolina University, and her Bachelor's of Fine Arts from West Virginia Wesleyan College.
“When teaching art, a lot of what we work with is perception.” Powell said. “I always teach my students to really see what's in front of them, as opposed to what they think they see.”
Powell said in beginning drawing and painting it's important for students to draw what they see, not what they think they see.
“There is a metaphor for life here, especially with people,” Powell said. “When you learn to see what is really in front of you, not what you perceive, one may observe a person or situation in a very different light.”
Department Receives Grant from ODMH
July 27, 2007 -- Dr. Ryan May, associate professor and the psychology department internship coordinator, recently learned that once again Marietta has received a two-year grant from the Ohio Department of Mental Health.
“We have received this grant for several consecutive funding cycles—this is the third that I have been involved,” he said. “This is a great opportunity, not readily available to students at small liberal arts colleges. In fact, to the best of my knowledge we are the only small liberal arts institution in Ohio that receives this funding.”
This grant allows a continuation of a current program designed to train Marietta College undergraduate students for the mental health field. Students are involved in a two- semester internship experience. The first semester involves completing the course, "Introduction to clinical psychology," and in the second semester, the students spend six to eight hours a week at a local mental health or related agency.
In past, the program has experienced significant success in retaining program participants in the area. Of the 12 students who completed both semesters of the program during the past two fiscal years, 10 planned to either enter the mental health workforce or pursue graduate training in psychology in the year following graduation.
Ron Rees, executive director of the Washington County Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Board, says "this program has had a significant impact on both the students who move though it and the consumers who are served by those students" in his letter of support for the grant.
A presentation, "Using a State Mental Health Grant to Develop an Undergraduate Internship Program for Underserved Populations," which described the internship program won an award at the 2006 Midwestern Psychological Association meeting.
Students and Faculty Attend Annual Tri-State Psychology Conference
On Friday, April 13, 2007, the Marietta College Psychology faculty and 16 psychology students traveled to Marshall University in Huntington, WV, for the annual Tri-State Psychology Conference.
Students attending the conference were: Rhonda Bartlett, Sally Berry, Lyndley Dmitsak, Ashley Hall, Abby Hess, Christiana Hilditch, Jonah Juarez, Darlene Kuhen, Gina Mykulak, Kim Page, Allison Paytosh, Kayla Reiland, Heather Reineke, Bradley Schockman, Derek Thomas, and Ali Yurasek.
In addition, five poster presentations were authored by Marietta students:
"Attitudes Toward a Defecting Group Leader,"
by Christiana Hilditch, Bradley Schockman, David Borrelli, and Ashley Brown (Faculty sponsor: Dr. Mark Sibicky),
"Ethnicity and Perception of Threat,"
by Ali Yurasek (Faculty sponsor: Dr. Ryan May),
"A Correlational Study on the Relationship Between an Individual's Level of Self-Esteem and Level of Aggression,"
by Derek Thomas (Faculty sponsor: Dr. Jennifer McCabe),
"I Give Up: The Pieces to Frustration,"
by Gina Mykulak and Allison Paytosh
(Faculty advisor: Dr. Jennifer McCabe), and
"Relationship Between Memory Encoding Techniques and Working Memory Ability,"
by Lyndley Dmitsak (Faculty sponsor: Dr. Jennifer McCabe).
At the conclusion of the conference, five Marietta students (Lyndley Dmitsak, Christiana Hilditch, Kim Page, Brad Schockman, and Ali Yurasek) competed as a team in Psychology Jeopardy!, earning second place in the tournament.
Dr. Mark Sibicky publishes article in Teaching of Psychology
Mark Sibicky, McCoy Professor of Psychology, has recently published an article in the journal of Teaching of Psychology. The article, entitled, "The Automatic Sweetheart: An Assignment in a History of Psychology Course," describes an assignment used in Professor Sibicky's History of Psychology course to enhance student retention of material and increase student interest and discussion of the long-standing debate between humanistic and mechanistic perspectives in psychology.
Based on the writings of the philosopher/psychologist William James, the assignment asks students to imagine if they could love "their sweetheart" after finding out that he or she was not a conscious human being but a technologically advanced machine. The article also includes evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of the assignment for student learning, as well as a discussion of how the assignment stimulates student debate and interest in issues relating to human consciousness.
Dr. Jennifer McCabe receives Outstanding Educator Award
On Founders Day 2007, Dr. Jennifer McCabe received the Edward G. Harness Outstanding Educator Award, which honors and rewards Marietta College faculty for a high level of commitment to the education of students in and outside of the classroom. Selection was made through a process of peer nomination and review and included the following criteria:
- Demonstrates excellence in classroom teaching
- Exhibits outside of class focus on student engagement within the discipline
- Prepares students in a variety of ways for lifelong learning in their discipline or profession
- Provides educational leadership for the college through teaching, advising, and interaction with students
