Psychology is the scientific study of behavior, cognition and emotion. The Santa Clara psychology department believesactions, thoughts and feelings are best understood as the result of psychological, neurological, developmental, social and cultural influences. The composition of the faculty reflects this broad approach, with members who specialize in clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, health psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, learning, neuropsychology, and social psychology.

The psychology department places a strong emphasis on empirical methods of inquiry. All faculty members have active research programs, and we encourage undergraduates to get involved. Each year a large number of our majors present papers at professional conferences, and many students co-author articles in professional journals. Permanent laboratories maintained by the department include a health psychology lab, an animal lab, and a sleep lab.

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Submissions from 2016

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Nurturing Compassion Development Among College Students: A Longitudinal Study, Thomas G. Plante and Katherine Halman

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Psychometric Properties of the Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale, Thomas G. Plante and Jesus Mejia

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Effect of a single free food presentation on extinction responding in a multiple schedule, Adam J. Reiss and Matthew C. Bell

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Sources of bias in peoples’ social-comparative estimates of food consumption, Aaron M. Scherer, Kathryn Bruchmann, Paul D. Windschitl, Jason P. Rose, Andrew R. Smith, Bryan Koestner, Linda Snetselaar, and Jerry Suls

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Sex-Specific Effects of Stress on Oxytocin Neurons Correspond With Responses to Intranasal Oxytocin, Michael Q. Steinman, Natalia Duque-Wilckens, Gian D. Greenberg, Rebecca Hao, Katharine L. Campi, Sarah A. Laredo, Abigail Laman-Marang, Claire E. Manning, Ian E. Doig, Eduardo M. Lopez, Keenan Walch, Karen L. Bales, and Brian C. Trainor

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Couple Therapy, K. R. Stephenson, Kieran T. Sullivan, and A. Christensen

Introduction to The Oxford Handbook of Relationship Science and Couple Interventions, Kieran T. Sullivan and Erika E. Lawrence

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Relationship science and interventions: Where we are and where we are going, Kieran T. Sullivan and Erika E. Lawrence

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Hemispheric involvement in the processing of Chinese idioms: An fMRI study, Jie Yang, Ping Le, Xiaoping Fang, Hua Shu, Youyi Liu, and Lang Chen

Submissions from 2015

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Failure of online quizzing to improve performance in introductory psychology courses, Matthew C. Bell, Patricia M. Simone, and Lisa C. Whitfield

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A Model of Emergent Category-specific Activation in the Posterior Fusiform Gyrus of Sighted and Congenitally Blind Populations, Lang Chen and Timothy T. Rogers

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Relationship education and marital satisfaction in newlywed couples: A propensity score analysis., Rebecca J. Cobb and Kieran T. Sullivan

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Culture Shapes Whether the Pursuit of Happiness PredictsHigher or Lower Well-Being, Brett Q. Ford, Julia O. Dmitrieva, Daniel Heller, Yulia Chentsova-Dutton, Igor Grossmann, Maya Tamir, Yukiko Uchida, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Victoria A. Floerke, Meike Uhrig, Tatiana Bokhan, and Iris B. Mauss

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Effects of social defeat on dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area in male and female California mice, Gian D. Greenberg, Michael Q. Steinman, Ian E. Doig, Rebecca Hao, and Brian C. Trainor

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Four lessons learned from treatingCatholic priest sex offenders, Thomas G. Plante

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Six principles to consider when working with Roman Catholic clients, Thomas G. Plante

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Compassion development in higher education, Roxanne Rashedi, Thomas G. Plante, and Erin S. Callister

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Physical aggression, compromised social support, and 10-year marital outcomes: Testing a relational spillover model, Kieran T. Sullivan, Lauri A. Pasch, Erika E. Lawrence, and Thomas N. Bradbury

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Remediation of Childhood Math Anxiety and Associated Neural Circuits through Cognitive Tutoring, Kaustubh Supekar, Teresa Iuculano, Lang Chen, and Vinod Menon

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Psychological well-being of Roman Catholic and Episcopal clergy applicants, Shannon Nicole Thomas and Thomas G. Plante

Submissions from 2014

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Conditioned Reinforcement, Matthew C. Bell and Margaret A. McDevitt

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Sex differences in effects of dopamine D1 receptors on social withdrawal, Katharine L. Campi, Gian D. Greenberg, Amita Kapoor, Toni E. Ziegler, and Brian C. Trainor

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Revisiting domain-general accounts of category specificity in mind and brain, Lang Chen and Timothy T. Rogers

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Fighting in the home cage: Agonistic encounters and effects on neurobiological markers within the social decision-making network of house mice (Mus musculus), Gian D. Greenberg, Chris L. Howerton, and Brian C. Trainor

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Sex differences in stress-induced social withdrawal: role of brain derived neurotrophic factor in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, Gian D. Greenberg, Abigail Laman-Marang, Katharine L. Campi, Heather Voigt, Veronica N. Orr, Leslie Schaal, and Brian C. Trainor

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Focusing on the negative: Cultural differences in expressions of sympathy, Birgit Koopmann-Holm and Jeanne L. Tsai

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The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSORF): A validation study on Iranian Muslim patients undergoing dialysis, Amir H. Pakpour, Thomas G. Plante, Mohsen Saffari, and Bengt Fridlund

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Modeling science and faith integration may be more powerful than words. Reflections on "The study of science in Catholic higher education in the United States: A modern nuisance?", Thomas Plante

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Employ spiritual practices ethically, Thomas G. Plante

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Four steps to improve religious/spiritual competence in professional psychology, Thomas G. Plante

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If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen: A reflection on “Student beliefs, multiculturalism, and client welfare.”, Thomas G. Plante

Vineyard workers need to be healthy, happy, and nurtured to tend God’s vines: Reflections on “The Development of Persons,” 33 years later, Thomas G. Plante

Does faith that does justice education improve compassion?, Thomas G. Plante and E. Callister

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The influence of exercise environment and gender on mood and exertion, Thomas G. Plante, Marily A. Opezzo, L. Aislinn Diaz, Selena Pistoresi, Michael Santos, Jacqueline E. Fahey, Elizabeth Kay, Briana Britton, and Suheel Khan

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Clues cue the smooze: rhyme, pausing, and prediction help children learn new words from storybooks, Kirsten Read

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The Seuss boost: Rhyme helps children retain words from shared storybook reading, Kirsten Read, Megan Macauley, and Erin Furay

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Choosing a physician depends on how you want to feel: The role of ideal affect in health-related decision making, Tamara Sims, Jeanne L. Tsai, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Ewart A.C. Thomas, and Mary K. Goldstein

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The problem is my partner: Treating couples when one partner wants the other to change, Kieran T. Sullivan and Joanne Davila

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The religious shaping of feeling: Implications of Affect Valuation Theory, Jeanne L. Tsai, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Masako Miyazaki, and Cameron Ochs

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Reduced activity-dependent protein levels in a mouse model of the fragile X premutation, Ramona E. von Leden, Lindsey C. Curley, Gian D. Greenberg, Michael R. Hunsaker, Rob Willemsen, and Robert F. Berman

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Within-session spacing improves delayed recall in children, Jessica R. Zigterman, Matthew C. Bell, and Patricia M. Simone

Submissions from 2013

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Long-term memory, sleep, and the spacing effect, Matthew C. Bell, Nader Kawadri, Patricia M. Simone, and Melody Wiseheart

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Conditioned reinforcement in chain schedules when time to reinforcement is held constant, Matthew C. Bell and Ben A. Williams

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Abstract mindsets and social comparison: When global comparisons matter, Kathryn Bruchmann and Abigail T. Evans

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Searching for the limits and explanations of the non-selective superiority bias, Kathryn Bruchmann, Jerry Suls, Seon Lee, Jason P. Rose, Zlatan Krizan, and Paul D. Windschitl

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Roman Catholic gay priests: Internalized homophobia, sexual identity, and psychological well-being, Stephan Kappler, Kristin A. Hancock, and Thomas G. Plante

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The negative feelings that people want to avoid: Cultural differences and consequences for compassion, Birgit Koopmann-Holm

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Buddhist-inspired meditation increases the value of calm, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Jocelyn Sze, Camaron Ochs, and Jeanne L. Tsai

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Effects of changeover delay on response allocation during probe tests, Margaret A. McDevitt and Matthew C. Bell

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A call for life long spiritual and psychological formation of priests, Thomas G. Plante