Please forward this message to students seeking admission to a doctoral
training program in psychology.
The Ph.D. Program in Life-Span Developmental Psychology at West
Virginia University anticipates admitting four students to begin
graduate work in Fall 2009. Highlights of the life-span developmental
program and a list of faculty and their current research projects appear
below. Additional information can be found on our website:
http//www.wvu.edu/~psychology/.
PROGRAM. WVU's Psychology Department received the "Innovation in
Graduate Education Award" from the American Psychological Association in
2005. The award recognizes the junior-colleague model used to train
graduate students in research, teaching, and service. We view graduate
training as modeling and instruction in a variety of professional skills
and roles, only some of which are acquired in the classroom. As junior
colleagues, students and faculty collaborate in research, rather than
students serving as research assistants assigned to individual faculty
members. Students develop individualized plans of study. Contact among
faculty and students outside the classroom is frequent and casual. WVU
has an illustrious history in life-span development as one of the first
programs in this field. Our program continues to provide in-depth
training to the next generation of life-span developmental
psychologists. Graduates are highly successful in obtaining employment
and find positions in academia, government, research institutions,
foundations, and applied settings.
RESEARCH TRAINING. Initially, faculty members provide a high degree of
structure and guidance that is tailored to the students' entry-level
research design and data analysis skills. By the end of training,
students have developed a research specialty and can successfully design
and execute all stages of a research project (e.g., data collection,
analysis, dissemination of findings). Students attend professional
conferences and present their research to regional, national, and
international audiences. Students also regularly publish their work in
scholarly journals and books. The department and college provide funds
to support student research and travel to conferences.
TEACHING TRAINING. Graduate students receive structured, supervised,
hands-on teaching experience. All students become proficient in a
variety of teaching technologies and methods. For those students whose
career plans emphasize college teaching, a college teaching
specialization is available.
FUNDING. All students receive 4 years of financial support via research
or teaching assistantships (3 years if entering with a Master's
degree), plus a tuition waiver.
THE LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING. The $57 million award-winning Life Sciences
Building houses state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities. Each
graduate student has an office and a computer with internet access and
the latest software (e.g., SPSS, Word). Graduate students conduct
research in faculty members' laboratories, and in off-campus locations
(e.g., schools, senior centers).
A COMMITMENT TO STUDYING THE LIFESPAN. West Virginia University is
recognized as the birthplace of life-span psychology. Graduate students
specialize in life-span processes (e.g., cognitive or social
development) and/or in an age period (infancy, childhood, adolescence,
adulthood, aging).
WVU & MORGANTOWN. WVU has an enrollment of over 26,000 students and is
a Carnegie Research Extensive University. WVU has highly successful Big
East sports teams, intramural sports, plays, concerts, lectures,
symphony, a $34 million Student Recreation Center, and other leisure
activities.
APPLICATION DUE DATE: December 15, 2008.
FACULTY RESEARCH INFORMATION & CONTACT INFORMATION
Katherine Karraker, Ph.D. (Email: Katherine.Karraker@mail.wvu.edu).
Dr. Karraker's research interests are in the general area of infant
social relationships. She and her students are currently studying
several aspects of the parenting of infants, as well as infant
temperament and adults' perceptions of infants. The effects of infant
night waking on parents has been one topic of their recent research.
They have been interested both in how parenting practices encourage or
discourage infant night waking and in how infant night waking can
produce depressive symptoms and other problems in parents because of the
sleep deprivation the parents experience. The lab group has also focused
on individual differences in infants, with a particular interest in
temperament. For example, a recent study has examined the developmental
course of infants who demonstrate a slow-to-warm-up temperament in
infancy. Dr. Karraker and her students also are interested in the
factors that influence adults' perceptions of infants. They are studying
the impact of infant prematurity, gender, and names on adults'
perceptions. Finally, they are also interested in parents' knowledge
about infant development in general and parents' knowledge about and
expectations for their own infant's behavior and development.
Amy Gentzler, Ph.D. (Email: Amy.Gentzler@mail.wvu.edu).
In a current project, Dr. Gentzler is investigating children's
emotional responses to negative and positive events and testing whether
children show memory biases for earlier emotional reactions. Other
projects are mainly in the data analysis or writing stage. With a sample
of children at-risk for depression, her team is studying how
physiological risk (in terms of heart rate or vagal tone) or maternal
responses to children's negative emotions relates to children's
development of emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms.
With college student samples, Dr. Gentzler and her research team have
been examining questions relating to emotions and coping, such as how
specific emotional reactions predict particular patterns of coping,
whether experiencing positive affect amidst a stressful experience is
associated with more adaptive outcomes, and whether responses to
positive events vary by people's attachment style or gender.
Hawley Montgomery-Downs, Ph.D. (Email:
Hawley.Montgomery-Downs@mail.wvu.edu).
The sleep research laboratory is accepting incoming graduate student
team members. In addition to their individual thesis and dissertation
projects, students have the opportunity to work on and receive research
stipends through several ongoing studies: A) Postpartum Sleep
Deprivation and Fragmentation: Effects on Maternal Functioning" (NIH
Grant R21HD053836) explores the effects of sleep deprivation vs.
fragmentation on new mothers. This naturalistic study includes
continuous actigraphy and physiologic outcome measures from postpartum
week 1 through 12. A graduate assistant is assigned to each participant
to whom they make weekly home visits to data collection. All students
have access to data and are encouraged to contribute new ideas for
examining them. B) Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure and Pediatric
Sleep-Disordered Breathing (SDB): explores the relation between exposure
to second hand tobacco smoke and symptoms of SDB among children <6
years. Hair samples are used to objectively examine tobacco exposure. C)
Neonatal Follow-up Sleep Schedule and Symptoms Survey: Children born
prematurely are at increased risk for SDB. However, the developmental
trajectory of snoring and risk symptoms for SDB among these children is
unknown. The purpose of this study is to learn more about sleep
schedules and symptoms among infants who are born prematurely.
Julie Hicks Patrick, Ph.D. (Email: Julie.Patrick@mail.wvu.edu).
Dr. Patrick's research focuses broadly on healthy aging among
middle-aged and older adults. As such, research in her lab examines
cognitive, psychological and physical well-being. Research projects
include examinations of grandparents raising grandchildren, cognitive
interventions at mid-life, and health behaviors, including eating
disorders. Her work has been published in Psychology and Aging, Journal
of Gerontology, and Quality of Life Research. As P.I., Dr. Patrick has
held grants from the National Institute on Aging, National Cancer
Institute, and the American Psychological Association.
JoNell Strough, Ph.D. (Email: JoNell.Strough@mail.wvu.edu).
Dr. Strough conducts research in two areas: collaborative everyday
problem solving and gender development. Current problem-solving projects
include further analysis of data collected as part of the Pairs Everyday
Problem Solving Study (PEPS), funded by the National Institutes on Aging
(see Strough, McFall, Flinn, & Schuller in press--Psychology and Aging).
Current work is aimed at understanding processes that contribute to
effective collaborations among friends. Another project follows up
findings indicating that older adults make decisions that are more
logical than those of younger adults (Strough, Mehta, McFall & Schuller,
2008—Psychological Science). In collaboration with Dr. Patrick's
research team, Dr. Strough's team is examining everyday problem
solving as it applies to custodial grandparenting. In her research on
gender development, Dr. Strough and her students are investigating: a)
causes and consequences of sex segregation across the life span, and b)
how gender-typed behaviors vary according to the social context of
interactions with friends versus romantic partners.
New Faculty Member to begin Fall 2009.
We are currently conducting a national search for a new faculty member
to join the life-span developmental area in the Fall of 2009. The
specialty area of the faculty member is open. Depending on date of
hire, the new faculty member may accept students to begin graduate
training in Fall of 2009.
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JoNell Strough, Ph.D.
Associate Professor & Coordinator, Life-Span Developmental Program
Department of Psychology
53 Campus Drive
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV 26506-6040
http://www.wvu.edu/~psychology/
phone: (304) 293-2001 x31648
fax: (304) 293-6606
email: JoNell.Strough@mail.wvu.edu
Office: 2212 Life Sciences Building
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