Gordon Allport (1897-1967) by Sue Schulzetenberg
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PPsycholsychologyogy DepartDepartmentment NewslNewslettetterer Issue 5, May 2004 Price: An ever-coveted ticket to graduation! If you have anything you'd Spring Fever: Blame it on the Weather! like to share with the readers of the Commentary by Susan Schulzetenberg Newsletter, “You can’t change the weather,” they think that I have spring fever. The MSN Encarta contact the always say. With spring in full effect, the reason Encyclopedia defines it as “feelings aroused by for the weather’s unchangeable behavior shines springtime: a feeling of restlessness, yearning, lust, Psychology through. The weather simply refuses to or sometimes laziness, believed to be brought on by Department cooperate, even when it’s being nice! the coming of spring.” Come to think of it, I think Take a fresh, April spring day. most of the psychology department and the rest of Student Worker, Ahhh….the fresh flowers, the green grass, the campus, for that matter, have it too. bright sunlight, and the abundance of spring A professor just walked into the Psychology Editor Gina activities. With such happy sights I’m ready to Department Office to pick up the papers he printed leap from my desk, skip out the door, and join from a student that isn’t going to be in class again. Pustovar, some friends for a game of Frisbee. Well, almost Yes, there were quite a few missing from my class leap from my desk, if it weren’t for, well, of course, today too, says another professor. We all know Staff Writers Julie work. Not that I’m complaining; I love my job. where they, the absent students, go. They seek their It’s just that I’m assigned to write an article on habitat in the grassy areas of campus, tossing their Sanem, Amanda Spring Fever today, and the weather refuses to footballs or hacky sacks; they run up and down the Macht, Sue work well with me. sidewalks with their walkmans and running shoes, I mean how can a person sit in a tiny and they avoid going back inside at all costs. Schulzetenberg, or office with no windows, staring at a computer, Now the department coordinator is coming Amy Nordstrand when the sun tempts with its beautiful rays? I into the office. I ask her for advice for how to write fidget; I reorganize my papers; I check my e-mail this article, since it is going absolutely nowhere. for the third time in the last hour. Nope, no focus, Maybe you could make a window, she suggests. or Department only excessive energy and a constant need for Hang up curtains and blinds, and it would almost Coordinator Mary movement. seem like you have a window. I stare at the One more errand and a peek from the unforgiving ivory walls and see a huge hole in the Lonergan hallway window, and I can begin. Loads of lower middle of the wall. Someone once told me that runners, bikers, walkers. Oh, they’re merry and a student worker started digging that hole. He was having a great old time; everyone is smiling; trying to get to the sunlight on the other side of the they’re just happy to be outdoors. How wall. I don’t blame him. wonderful! The coordinator and I talk about the Alright, now it’s back to work. I stare at gestation period of rats. I don’t know why. the blank screen. Its pale white mock paper stares Apparently the fever has struck her too. After a few back at me. The other people in the building minutes, she says its time for her to get back to work. share my tension. Students pass by into the I agree as I type a few more words. psychology office, forcing themselves back Concentrate, I tell myself. Ttry to find a indoors with their papers, research, and projects point to my article. I think I’m ready to dig through that they know should have received a little more the wall and capture some light myself. I read in an attention. article by Ron Seely (2004) that some people from P S Oh well. I can do this. Look, I have a Massachusetts found a direct correlation between few paragraphs already. Just a few more to go. serotonin and light. They studied 600 adults at a But, oh, wouldn’t it be nice to be outdoors! I state health-care provider (Spring, cont'd on p.6) Y C 1 Psychology In The News How is psychology affecting our world? Insane or not? The use of the Ira Glass interview psychologist and marital researcher John Gottman. Gottman has conducted research with married insanity defense couples for over a decade and provides insight on the characteristics of successful heterosexual and homosexual By Julie Sanem relationships. The show also goes on to discuss the marriage Luke Helder, a former college student accused of planting pipe debate in more detail. Tune in for an interesting perspective bombs in a “smiley face” pattern across the Midwest was on this controversy! declared incompetent to stand trial by a federal judge. In After a nationwide manhunt in May 2002, Helder was caught for placing 16 pipe bombs and anti-government letters in The mystery of Audrey Seiler mailboxes in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas. Four letter carriers and two residents were injured in Iowa ad By Amy Nordstrand Illinois. When arrested, Helder told police that he was trying to draw a smiley face across the United States with his bombs. On the morning of Saturday, March 27, surveillance cameras Helder will return to the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, showed 20-year-old Audrey Seiler leaving her apartment. The Minnesota where he will undergo further psychological next day, Audrey was reported missing, sending friends, evaluation. If found to not be a significant risk, Helder can family and police on a frantic search for the missing girl. After then be released. days of searching, Audrey was discovered alive in a remote area in the city of Madison, Wisconsin. Her discovery was Deanna Laney of New Chapel Hill, Texas was found to meet followed by an extensive investigation that only uncovered the standard for legal insanity in the death of her children, but more unanswered questions, leading investigators to believe prosecutors want a jury to decide. Laney claims that she this “abduction” to be a hoax. Audrey herself later confirmed received multiple signs from God telling her to kill her 3 sons. this suspicion; the abduction was a hoax. Her youngest son came to her with a rock and later squeezed a What would cause Audrey to deliberately stage her own frog, and Laney took those as signs from God that she should abduction, causing tremendous torment and grief to her loved either stab, stone or strangle her children. She claims, “I was ones? Why would she lie to investigators about being telling [God] no, and each time it was getting worse and abducted, and what were her motives? These are all ques- worse, the way that it would have to be done. I thought it was tions that have been running through many minds since this the Lord saying to me, ‘You’re just going to have to step out case surfaced. in faith. This is faith. You can’t see why. You just got to.”’ It is Many answers could be provided in response to these now up to a jury to decide whether or not Laney knew right questions, as many people are currently attempting to do. It is from wrong. possible to suspect mental problems as an answer to these questions. Audrey may have been depressed and was looking for a drastic way to receive attention. But it is also possible that she had a mental disorder called Munchausen’s A psychologist's view on the Syndrome. In reference to the patients of this disease, Professor Aubrey Immelman states, “These patients are not Marriage Debate being deliberately malicious…their primary motivation, By Amanda Macht difficult though that may be to fathom, is to assume a “sick” As we all know, marriage is a hot topic right now. For a or “patient” role — or, in this case, the role of crime victim.” It refreshing view of this issue, visit the website for This is possible that we have the answer to these questions right in American Life (the popular National Public Radio Show) at front of our faces. However, we may never learn the answers http://www.thislife.org/ . Click and listen using RealAudio to to the mystery of Audrey Seiler. the show entitled “The Sanctity of Marriage” which first aired on March 26th, 2004. You may be most interested to hear host 2 and research presentations to get ideas and to realize how Spotlight on Faculty: exciting research can be. Talk to faculty members to help develop your ideas. If you have questions visit http:// Steve Stelzner, Ph.D. www.csbsju.edu/undergraduateresearch/ to obtain resources. CSB/SJU Director of Undergraduate Research And stay tuned for more information about NCUR and Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Days 2005! One of our fine psychology faculty members, Dr. Steve Stelzner, has served for the past three years as the CSB/ SJU Director of Undergraduate Research. In this capacity, he oversees the yearly budget, allocates travel and scholarship/ Coordinator's Corner creativity grants, coordinates Celebrating Scholarship and By Department Coordinator Mary Lonergan Creativity Days and the CSB/SJU participants in the National Hello Psych Majors! Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR). He receives assistance in these endeavors from Mary Tamm, the under- It’s hard to believe that second semester is almost over (as is graduate research office coordinator, and from a newly this academic year)! There’s just a week of finals and then developed advisory board, which also includes psychology you can all relax this summer.