Psychology Faculty

T. Lee Bakner - Professor of Psychology

Pioneer 118
503-883-2578
lbakner@linfield.edu

Education:

• B.A., 1987, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Psychology, Summa cum laude
• M.A. 1990, Kent State University, Experimental Psychology; Specialty Area, Biopsychology
• Ph.D. 1992, Kent State University, Experimental Psychology; Specialty Area, Biopsychology

Academic Interests:

My interests are in the area broadly defined as Biopsychology (sometimes called Behavioral Neuroscience, Psychobiology, and Physiological Psychology), and the study of brain-behavior relationships. I explore questions related to brain and behavioral systems implicated in psychoactive drug use and abuse.

Publications

Logan, R., Olson, M.E., & Bakner, L. (2009). Cocaine suppresses social facilitation of operant responding in Sprague-Dawley Rats. Poster presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.

Buck, H.M., Bakner, L., & Zerizef, C.L. (2008). One compartment versus two: Training variables that attenuate cocaine-induced CPP in rats. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Bakner, L., & Morgan, S.J. (2007). Tolerance to the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist, WIN 55,212-2, in Sprague-Dawley rats. Poster presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA.

Young, E., & Bakner, L. (2006). Attenuation of cocaine-induced conditioned place preferences by alcohol: An interaction of appetitive and aversive drug properties. Poster presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, Baltimore, MD.

Fidler, T.L., Bakner, L., & Cunningham, C.L. (2004). Conditioned place aversion induced by intragastric administration of ethanol in rats. Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior, 77, 731-743.

Eugene R Gilden - Professor

Pioneer 107
1-503-883-2209
egilden@linfield.edu

Education:

• B.A., 1973, University of California at Los Angeles
• M.A., 1978, California State University, Los Angeles
• Ph.D., 1981, University of Houston
• Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 1982, Oregon Health Sciences University

Academic Interests:

Professor Gilden's areas of interest include social and health psychology. He is interested in working with students in stress research, and in research about the influence of social settings on everyday behavior.

Jennifer Ruh Linder - Associate Professor

Pioneer 114
503-883-2441
jlinder@linfield.edu

Education:

• B.A., 1993, University of New Hampshire
• M.A., 2000, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
• Ph.D., 2002, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota. Major: Child Psychology; Minor: Interpersonal Relationships Research

Academic Interests:

My specialty is developmental psychology and close relationships across the lifespan, including parent-child relationships, friendships, romantic relationships, aggression, and media effects. I am especially interested in topics related to children and adolescents.

Some of my specific research interests include:
observational research methods for studying relationships, aggression and conflict in friendships and romantic relationships, and the effects of media on child development (including television, videogames, and the internet).

Publications

Linder, J. R., & Werner, N. E. (In press). Relationally aggressive media exposure and children's normative beliefs: Does parental mediation matter? Family Relations.

Coyne, S. M., Linder, J. R., Nelson, D. A. & Gentile, D. A. (In press). "Frenemies, fraitors, and mean-em-aitors": Priming effects of viewing physical and relational aggression in the media on women. Aggressive Behavior.

Linder, J. R., & Lyle, K. (2011). A content analysis of indirect, verbal, and physical aggression in television programs popular among school-aged girls. American Journal of Media Psychology, 4, 24-42.

Linder, J. R., Werner, N. E., & Lyle, K. (2010). Automatic and controlled social information processing and relational aggression in young adults. Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 778-783.

Linder, J. R., & Gentile, D. A. (2009). Is the television rating system valid? Indirect, verbal and physical aggression in programs viewed by fifth grade girls and associations with behavior, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30, 286-297.

Nelson, A., & Linder, J. R. (2008). The role of life events, coping style, and college adjustment in predicting relational aggression in first-year college students. Modern Psychological Studies, 13(2),32-49.

Linder, J. R., & Collins, W. A. (2005). Parent and peer predictors of verbal aggression, physical aggression, and conflict management in romantic relationships in late adolescence and young adulthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 19, 252-262.

Gentile, D. A., Lynch, P. J., Linder, J. R., & Walsh, D. A. (2004). The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 5-22.

Linder, J. R., Crick, N. R., & Collins, W. A. (2002). Relational aggression and victimization in young adult's romantic relationships: Associations with perceptions of parent, peer, and romantic relationship quality. Social Development, 11, 69-86.

Marshall, N. L., Garcia-Coll, C., Marx, F., McCartney, K., Keefe, N., & Ruh, J. (1997). After-school time and children's behavioral adjustment. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 43, 497-514.

McCartney, K., Scarr, S., Rocheleau, A., Phillips, D., Abbott-Shim, M., Eisenberg, M., Keefe, N., Rosenthal, S., & Ruh, J. (1997). Teacher-child interaction and child-care auspices as predictors of social outcomes in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 43, 426-450.

Kay Livesay - Associate Professor

Pioneer 105
503-883-2708
klivesa@linfield.edu

Education:

• B.S., 1992, University of California, Los Angeles
• M.A., 1996, University of California, Riverside
• Ph.D., 1998, University of California, Riverside. Major: Psychology with emphasis in Cognitive Psychology

Academic Interests:

My primary areas of research involve language processing (lexical and sentential) and computational modeling of meaning representation. Presently, I am pursuing research in high-dimensional space modeling of meaning representation, determining the effects discourse constraints on sentence comprehension and examining factors that contribute to individual differences in verbal ability. I have an active research program with a team of undergraduate students. We (my undergraduates and I) recently presented new findings at WPA in Irvine. If you are interested in being a member of the team please contact me.

Publications

Livesay, K. & Burgess, C. (2003). Mediated Priming in the Cerebral Hemispheres, Brain & Cognition, 53, 283-286.

Burgess, C & Livesay, K. (1998). The effect of corpus size in predicting reaction time in a basic word recognition task: Moving on from Kucera and Francis. Behavior Research Methods, Instrument Computers, 30, 272-277.

Livesay, K, & Burgess, C. (1998). Mediated priming in high-dimensional semantic space: No effect of direct semantic relationships or co-occurrence. Brain & Cognition, 37, 102-105.

Burgess, C., Livesay, K. & Lund, K. (1998). Explorations in context space: Words, sentences, discourse. Discourse Processes, 25, 211-257.

Mary Lee R Nitschke - Professor of Humanities/Social Sciences Chair

Loveridge Hall 25
503-413-7914
mnitschk@linfield.edu

Education:

• B.A., 1966, Wichita State University
• M.A., 1971, Michigan State University
• Ph.D., 1978, Michigan State University

Academic Interests:

The lifelong focus of Dr. Nitschke is on behavioral observation of other species and is the foundation of her identity. She was exhilarated to discover this passion could be grounded in the study of Animal Behavior and Psychology as she became educated in the systematic foundation of science. Dr. Nitschke continues to seek a better understanding of the most effective ways to communicate with other species as well as educate her own.

Mary Lee is a Professor of Psychology at Linfield College. She teaches courses in Lifespan Developmental Psychology, Research Methods in Health Sciences, Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality: A Developmental View, The Psychology of Animal-Assisted Therapy, and Health Psychology.

She is currently chairing the Humanities Social Science Department and is a member of the Health Sciences Department. She practices as an ABS (Animal Behavior Society) Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist. She directs the OTIS (Owner Trained Individualized Service) dog program with Animal School Behavior Services, consults nationally on training programs, pet product development, research in animal behavior and litigation involving human and other animal interactions. She continues an active career contributing to professional, scientific, and membership societies in various capacities. She holds invited professional-level memberships in the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, American Psychological Society, Animal Behavior Society, Interdisciplinary Forum of Applied Animal Behavior, New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society and Animals and Society Institute. She is currently chairing the Behavior Practice Committee in the Animal Behavior Society.

Her current research activities involve service animal medical detection sensory behaviors, selection and training of service and assistance animal teams, systematic observations of New Guinea Singing Dog behavior in a domestic environment and differential gender expressions in popular music written by women.

Publications

Hetts, S., Williams, N., Estep, D. Q., Nitschke, M. L., & Reid, P. (2002). Letter to the editor regarding "How do we obtain and disseminate accurate information" by Karen Overall. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications & Research, 2(3), 77-79.

Tanya L. Tompkins - Associate Professor (Chair)

Pioneer 111
503-883-2684
tatompki@linfield.edu

http://www.tanyatompkins.com/

Education:

• B.A., 1994, University of Colorado - Boulder. Phi Beta Kappa, Summa cum laude
• M.A., 1995, University of California, Los Angeles
• Ph.D., 2002, University of California, Los Angeles, Major: Clinical Psychology, Minor: Measurement & Psychometrics
• Clinical Internship, 2000, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital (NPIH)

Academic Interests:

My principle research interests lie in the areas of child clinical psychology and developmental psychopathology. My dissertation examined child functioning, parenting, and disclosure of diagnostic status in families affected by maternal HIV infection. However, my past work and future interests are more broadly characterized by an interest in the interplay between parenting, family stress, coping, and child psychosocial difficulties.

Recently, I have been engaged with students in several new lines of investigation:
1. Families and Adolescents Coping with Stress (FACS) Project: seeks to understand the unique and common pathways through which individual (e.g., coping), family (e.g., parenting, parentification, attachment, communication), and broader contextual (e.g., economic strain, delinquent peer involvement) factors influence youth adaptation to stress and whether exposure to specific types of family stress (divorce, parental job loss) influence these trajectories.
2. Suicide Prevention Project: evaluating a suicide prevention training program in the Yamhill County Schools, as well as Linfield and other neighboring colleges.
3. Friendships in U.S. and Ecuadorian Students (FUSES): Cross-cultural study of depressogenic cognitions and interpersonal processes in college students.
4. Fitness Project: Interdisciplinary project whose overall goal is to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of a fitness club model in the high school setting. My interests lie in exploring associations between psychological functioning and physical activity.

I am very interested in supporting students' independent and/or collaborative research pursuits in these and other areas of clinical psychology. Please visit my personal webpage for more information.

Publications

Tompkins, T. L., Witt, J. , & Abraibesh, N. (2009). Does a gatekeeper suicide prevention program work in a school setting? Evaluating training outcome and moderators of effectiveness. Suicide & Life Threatening Behavior, 39(6), 671-681.

Tompkins, T. L., & Witt, J. (2009). The short-term effectiveness of a suicide prevention gatekeeper training program in a college setting with residence life advisers. Journal of Primary Prevention, 30, 131-149.

Tompkins, T. L. & Wyatt, G. (2008). Child psychosocial adjustment and parenting in families affected by maternal HIV/AIDS. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 17, 823-838.

Tompkins, T. L. (2007). Disclosure of maternal HIV status to children: To tell or not to tell… that is the question. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 16, 773-788.

Tompkins, T. L. (2007). Parentification and maternal HIV infection: Beneficial role or pathological burden? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 16, 108-118.

Tompkins, T. L., Henker, B., Whalen, C. K., Axelrod, J., & Comer, L. K. (1999). Motherhood in the context of HIV infection: Reading between the numbers. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 5(3), 197-208.

Yanna Weisberg - Assistant Professor

Pioneer 107
503-883-2724
yweisber@linfield.edu

Education:

B.S., Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon University B.S., Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Academic Interests:

Generally, I am interested in personality structure, function and development. Specifically, I research personality in the realm of interpersonal relationships. In my dissertation, I investigated how one's sense of one's own personality is shaped by romantic relationship partners and relationships. I am also interested in refining the measurement of personality for interpersonal applications, in order to better investigate the intersection of personality and social behavior.

Publications

Weisberg Y.J., DeYoung, C.G. & Hirsh, J.B. (2011) . Gender differences in personality across the ten aspects of the Big Five. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 178, 1-11.

Birnbaum, G. E., Weisberg, Y. J., & Simpson, J. A. (2011). Desire under attack: Attachment orientations and the effects of relationship threat on sexual motivations. Journal of Social & Personal Relationships, 28, 448-468.

Simpson, J. A., Beckes, L., & Weisberg, Y. J. (2007). Evolutionary accounts of individual differences in adult attachment orientations. In J. V. Wood, A. Tesser, & J. G. Holmes (Eds.), The self and social relationships (pp. 183-206). New York: Psychology Press.

Simpson, J. A., Campbell, L., & Weisberg, Y. J. (2006). Daily perceptions of conflict and support in romantic relationships: The ups and downs of anxiously attached individuals. In M. Mikulincer & G. S. Goodman (Eds.), Dynamics of romantic love: Attachment, caregiving, and sex (pp. 216-239). New York: Guilford.