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Psychology Department Website
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Psychology at Pomona is taught as a natural science. Students develop understanding of theories and empirical findings in psychological science and become critical consumers and producers of knowledge of human behavior. To accomplish these goals, the course of study focuses on understanding the methods, ethics, and cultural context of research in psychology, through coursework and associated laboratory and internship experiences. All seniors plan and carry out an empirical thesis with close supervision by a faculty member.
Our students have opportunities to participate in research with faculty members and to present posters and papers at national conferences or in scholarly journals.
We prepare students for success in many professions, including law, business, medicine, journalism, social work, education, and clinical and academic psychology. About 50% of our graduates go on to earn a higher degree. According to National Science Foundation statistics, the Psychology Department at Pomona is the number one college/university in the country whose students go on to earn PhD’s in psychology.
Professor Burke investigates the cognitive and neural processes involved in language and how they are affected by aging during adulthood. Her current research focuses on language production failures such as the tip of the tongue experience and on the effect of emotion on memory and language.
Suzanne Thompson has a National Science Foundation research grant to study how people respond to messages about personal threats and risk. Her research group has completed a number of studies focusing on risks such as identity theft, West Nile virus, terrorism, and skin cancer. Several articles addressing reactions to these threats have been published.
Ray Buriel studies the psychosocial acculturation and adaptation of immigrants from Latin America. His current work focuses on “language brokers”—children who serve as interpreters for their immigrant parents.
William Banks is conducting research on the neuroscience of volition (“free will”) and is
editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal, Consciousness and Cognition, and also
editor-in-chief of the Elsevier Encyclopedia of Consciousness.
Sharon Goto is a cross cultural and organizational psychologist. She uses multi-methodological approaches including electrophysiological, self report, and behavioral measures to study cultural values, how cultural values change across time, and how cultural values influence intergroup relations, especially in Asian American populations.
Eric Hurley is a cultural psychologist who studies the interaction of culture with cognition and behavior, especially as these play out in educational contexts. His research focuses on such relationships among peoples of the African Diaspora. He holds a joint appointment in the intercollegiate department of Black Studies.
Patricia Smiley is a developmental psychologist who is interested in children’s learning of their first language, especially as it relates to questions of self-development. She is also working on the origins of individual differences in achievement motivation in young children.
Richard Lewis, is a social cognitive neuroscientist, and is interested in social and cultural influences on neural mechanisms of processing information. Current work focuses on cultural influences of the self and how it affects the way that we process our environment and social interaction. Additionally, he is interested in neural, physiological, hormonal, and psychological mechanisms involved in the stress response.
Professor Weekes interests include relations among stress, biological sex, steroid hormones, and neuropsychological functioning. Her current work combines behavioral and endocrinological assaying with electrophysiological measures of neurologically intact subjects.
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Psychology Department Website
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