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.
Submissions from 2016
The third voice: Do enhanced e-books enhance the benefits of shared story reading with preschoolers?, Katie Ciffone, Andrew Weaver, and Kirsten Read
Gene Targeting Studies of Hyperexcitability and Affective States of Alcohol Withdrawal in Rodents, Gian D. Greenberg and John C. Crabbe
Nest building is a novel method for indexing severity of alcohol withdrawal in mice, Gian D. Greenberg, L. C. Huang, S. E. Spence, J. P. Schlumbohm, P. Metten, A. R. Ozburn, and John C. Crabbe
Effects of acute alcohol withdrawal on nest building in mice selectively bred for alcohol withdrawal severity, Gian D. Greenberg, Tamara J. Phillips, and John C. Crabbe
Sex Differences in the Social Behavior Network and Mesolimbic Dopamine System, Gian D. Greenberg and Brian C. Trainor
Beyond Mindfulness: Expanding Integration of Spirituality and Religion into Psychotherapy, Thomas G. Plante
Compassion, Thomas G. Plante
Principles of incorporating spirituality into professional clinical practice, Thomas G. Plante
Nurturing Compassion Development Among College Students: A Longitudinal Study, Thomas G. Plante and Katherine Halman
Psychometric Properties of the Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale, Thomas G. Plante and Jesus Mejia
Effect of a single free food presentation on extinction responding in a multiple schedule, Adam J. Reiss and Matthew C. Bell
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
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
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
Relationship science and interventions: Where we are and where we are going, Kieran T. Sullivan and Erika E. Lawrence
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
Failure of online quizzing to improve performance in introductory psychology courses, Matthew C. Bell, Patricia M. Simone, and Lisa C. Whitfield
A Model of Emergent Category-specific Activation in the Posterior Fusiform Gyrus of Sighted and Congenitally Blind Populations, Lang Chen and Timothy T. Rogers
Relationship education and marital satisfaction in newlywed couples: A propensity score analysis., Rebecca J. Cobb and Kieran T. Sullivan
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
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
Four lessons learned from treatingCatholic priest sex offenders, Thomas G. Plante
Six principles to consider when working with Roman Catholic clients, Thomas G. Plante
Compassion development in higher education, Roxanne Rashedi, Thomas G. Plante, and Erin S. Callister
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
Remediation of Childhood Math Anxiety and Associated Neural Circuits through Cognitive Tutoring, Kaustubh Supekar, Teresa Iuculano, Lang Chen, and Vinod Menon
Psychological well-being of Roman Catholic and Episcopal clergy applicants, Shannon Nicole Thomas and Thomas G. Plante
Submissions from 2014
Conditioned Reinforcement, Matthew C. Bell and Margaret A. McDevitt
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
Revisiting domain-general accounts of category specificity in mind and brain, Lang Chen and Timothy T. Rogers
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
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
Focusing on the negative: Cultural differences in expressions of sympathy, Birgit Koopmann-Holm and Jeanne L. Tsai
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
Employ spiritual practices ethically, Thomas G. Plante
Four steps to improve religious/spiritual competence in professional psychology, Thomas G. Plante
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
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
Clues cue the smooze: rhyme, pausing, and prediction help children learn new words from storybooks, Kirsten Read
The Seuss boost: Rhyme helps children retain words from shared storybook reading, Kirsten Read, Megan Macauley, and Erin Furay
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
The problem is my partner: Treating couples when one partner wants the other to change, Kieran T. Sullivan and Joanne Davila
The religious shaping of feeling: Implications of Affect Valuation Theory, Jeanne L. Tsai, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Masako Miyazaki, and Cameron Ochs
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
Within-session spacing improves delayed recall in children, Jessica R. Zigterman, Matthew C. Bell, and Patricia M. Simone
Submissions from 2013
Long-term memory, sleep, and the spacing effect, Matthew C. Bell, Nader Kawadri, Patricia M. Simone, and Melody Wiseheart