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 2024

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A clinical trial of the Examen and mindfulness within a secular substance use disorder treatment program, Christopher M. Buenrostro and Thomas G. Plante

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Atypical pattern separation memory and its association with restricted interests and repetitive behaviors in autistic children, Lang Chen, Jin Liu, Julia Boram Kang, Miriam Rosenberg-Lee, Daniel A. Abrams, and Vinod Menon

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Spirituality in Clinical Practice: Integrating Who We Are With What We Do, Lorraine Mangione and Thomas G. Plante

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Preliminary Efficacy of a Digital Intervention for Adolescent Depression: Randomized Controlled Trial, Emily Peake, Ian Miller, Jessica Flannery, Lang Chen, Jessica Lake, and Aarthi Padmanabhan

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Religious and Spiritual Communities Must Adapt or Die: Surviving and Thriving during Challenging Contemporary Times, Thomas G. Plante

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Long-term abacus training gains in children are predicted by medial temporal lobe anatomy and circuitry, Ye Xie, Hyesang Chang, Yi Zhang, Chunjie Wang, Yuan Zhang, Lang Chen, Fengji Geng, Yixuan Ku, Vinod Menon, and Feiyan Chen

Submissions from 2023

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The Effects of Centering Prayer on Well-Being in a Sample of Undergraduate Students: A Pilot Study, Alejandro Eros and Thomas G. Plante

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Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD): Ethical Considerations for Psychologists, Gerald P. Koocher, G. Andrew H. Benjamin, Jonathan Bolton, and Thomas G. Plante

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Limited Neural Capacity and Hyper-Excitability Affect Quantity Processing: A Computational Account, Lanni Krossa, Tannaz Azimi, Julia Lieberman, and Lang Chen

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Atypical cognitive training-induced learning and brain plasticity and their relation to insistence on sameness in children with autism, Jin Liu, Hyesang Chang, Daniel A. Abrams, Julia Boram Kang, Lang Chen, Miriam Rosenberg-Lee, and Vinod Menon

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Replicable Patterns of Memory Impairments in Children With Autism and Their Links to Hyperconnected Brain Circuits, Jin Liu, Lang Chen, Hyesang Chang, Jeremy Rudoler, Ahmad Belal Al-Zughoul, Julia Boram Kang, Daniel A. Abrams, and Vinod Menon

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Ethical Considerations in Working with Roman Catholic Seminarians and Men and Women in Religious Formation, Thomas G. Plante

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What Is Catholic Psychotherapy and How Should It Move Forward?, Thomas G. Plante

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Use of the MMPI-3 with Catholic and Episcopal Seminary and Religious Life Applicants, Thomas G. Plante and Elena Peng

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Human interaction with the divine, the sacred, and the deceased: topics that warrant increased attention by psychologists, Thomas G. Plante, Gary E. Schwartz, Julie J. Exline, Crystal L. Park, Raymond F. Paloutzian, Rüdiger J. Seitz, and Hans-Ferdinand Angel

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Potential Benefits of the Jesuit Examen for Psychological Health and Well Being: A Pilot Study, Carolina Rader and Thomas G. Plante

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Shifting students toward testing: impact of instruction and context on self-regulated learning, Patricia M. Simone, Lisa C. Whitfield, Matthew C. Bell, Pooja Kher, and Taylor Tamashiro

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A psychometric analysis of the Relationship Attribution Measure–Online Behavior, Kieran T. Sullivan, Aine F. Sullivan, and Thomas N. Bradbury

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Dysfunctions associated with the intraparietal sulcus and a distributed network in individuals with math learning difficulties: An ALE meta-analysis, Jonathan Tablante, Lani Krossa, Tannaz Azimi, and Lang Chen

Submissions from 2022

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COVID-19 information overload: Intolerance of uncertainty moderates the relationship between frequency of internet searching and fear of COVID-19, Lindsay Baerg and Kathryn Bruchmann

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Moral Foundations Predict Perceptions of Moral Permissibility of COVID-19 Public Health Guideline Violations in United States University Students, Kathryn Bruchmann and Liya LaPierre

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One size does not fit all: Implicit theories of body weight and body mass index interact to predict body image disturbances, Kathryn Bruchmann, Chan L. Thai, and Brianna Wingard

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Foundational Number Sense Training Gains Are Predicted by Hippocampal–Parietal Circuits, Hyesang Chang, Lang Chen, Yuan Zhang, Ye Xie, Carlo de los Angeles, Emma Adair, Gaston Zanitti, Demian Wassermann, Miriam Rosenberg-Lee, and Vinod Menon

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Cognitive training enhances growth mindset in children through plasticity of cortico-striatal circuits, Lang Chen, Hyesang Chang, Jeremy Rudoler, Eydis Arnardottir, Yuan Zhang, Carlo de los Angeles, and Vinod Menon

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Five spiritually based tools for clinical practice during challenging, stressful, and apocalyptic times, Thomas G. Plante

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Principles for Managing Burnout among Catholic Church Professionals, Thomas G. Plante

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Religion has a public relations problem: Integrating evidence-based thinking into clinical practice, Thomas G. Plante

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Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale (SCBCS), Thomas G. Plante

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The role of religion in sexual orientation change efforts and gender identity change efforts, Thomas G. Plante

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The Impact of COVID-19 on Families’ Home Literacy Practices with Young Children, Kirsten Read, Grace Gaffney, Ashley Chen, and Amina Imran

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Children’s Lexical Anticipation When Listening to Rhymes, Kirsten Read, Lily Padula, Julia Piacentini, and Vivian Vo

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Rhyme over time: Vocabulary learning through daily reading aloud at home with children, Kirsten Read, Alena Rogojina, and Olivia Hauer-Richard

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Verbal Labels Affect Holistic and Analytic Thinking Styles in Native English Speakers, Meg Richter, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, and Lang Chen

Submissions from 2021

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Social Comparison Information Influences Intentions to Reduce Single-Use Plastic Water Bottle Consumption, Kathryn Bruchmann, Sarah M. Chue, Keelin Dillon, Jaime K. Lucas, Kayla Neumann, and Charlotte Parque

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Construal level moderates a local dominance effect of appearance comparisons in undergraduate women, Kathryn Bruchmann, Maggie L. Osa, Kahana Wong, and Lindsay Baerg

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Linear and nonlinear profiles of weak behavioral and neural differentiation between numerical operations in children with math learning difficulties, Lang Chen, Teresa Iuculano, Percy Mistry, Jonathan Nicholas, Yuan Zhang, and Vinod Menon

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The role of civility and cultural humility in navigating controversial areas in psychology, Edward B. Davis, Thomas G. Plante, Melissa J. Grey, Christina Lee Kim, Darren Freeman-Coppadge, Tyler G. Lefevor, Jeffrey A. Paulez, Sulaimon Giwa, Jon Lasser, Stephen P. Stratton, Erin Deneke, and Kevin J. Glowiak

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Category-specific activations depend on imaging mode, task demand, and stimuli modality: An ALE meta-analysis, Kimberly D. Derderian, Xiaojue Zhou, and Lang Chen

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Improving reverse correlation analysis of faces: Diagnostics of order effects, runs, rater agreement, and image pairs, Michael J. Kevane and Birgit Koopmann-Holm

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What constitutes a compassionate response? The important role of culture., Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Kathryn Bruchmann, Magdalena Fuchs, and Megan Pearson

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What constitutes a compassionate response? The important role of culture, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Kathryn Bruchmann, M. Fuchs, and M. Pearson

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Four positive lessons learned during the 2020–2021 COVID-19 global pandemic: Implications for spirituality in clinical practice, Thomas G. Plante

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The integration of Roman Catholic traditions and evidence-based psychological services, Thomas G. Plante

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Using the Examen, a Jesuit Prayer, in Spiritually Integrated and Secular Psychotherapy, Thomas G. Plante

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I Feel Less Blue When I Read With You: The Effect of Reading Aloud With a Child on Adult Readers’ Affect, Sara Rabinowitz, Christina Pavlov, Brianna Mireku, Katrina Ying, Jiaqi Zhang, and Kirsten Read

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¿Read Conmigo?: The Effect of Code-switching Storybooks on Dual-Language Learners’ Retention of New Vocabulary, Kirsten Read, Paloma D. Contreras, Bianca Rodriguez, and Jessica Jara

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Tres formas: Reading aloud with three types of Spanish and English dual-language learning preschoolers, Kirsten Read, Paloma Contreras, and Hector Martinez

Submissions from 2020

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Where for what: A meta-analysis for the category-specific activations for living/nonliving concepts in the past two decades, Kimberly D. Derderian, Xiaojue Zhou, and Lang Chen

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Neural correlates of cognitive variability in childhood autism and relation to heterogeneity in decision-making dynamics, Teresa Iuculano, Aarthi Padmanabhan, Lang Chen, Jonathan Nicholas, Samantha G. Mitsven, Carlo de los Angeles, and Vinod Menon

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Seeing the Whole Picture? Avoided Negative Affect and Processing of Others’ Suffering, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Kathryn Bartel, Maryam Bin Meshar, and Huiru Evangeline Yang