Posted on Friday, November 7, 2008
Dr. Mandy Medvin, Westminster College professor of psychology and director of Westminster's Preschool Lab, will speak on "Models of Social Exclusion and Aggression: Implications for Developmental Research" at Faires Faculty Forum Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 11:40 a.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater in the McKelvey Campus Center.
"The talk discusses models of social exclusion and links to aggressive behavior," Medvin said. "For example, we found that college students who are prone to interpret social situations as rejecting show higher levels of social aggression (exclusion, rumors, gossip) and poorer coping strategies in social situations."
Medvin's research comes from her sabbatical work during spring 2008, some of which was submitted as a paper to the Society for Research in Child Development and some of which is on-going.
Westminster students who assisted Medvin in her research are 2008 graduates Beth Porter and Rebecca Rihs; junior psychology major Arienne Cauchie, a daughter of Timothy and Jeanne Cauchie of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Mount Lebanon High School; junior psychology major Miranda Gruber, a daughter of Ellen Gruber of Erie and a graduate of McDowell High School; and senior psychology major Rebecca Slifkin, a daughter of Eric and Susan Slifkin of Cranberry Township and a graduate of Seneca Valley High School.
Medvin also collaborated with Dr. Charisse Nixon, assistant professor at Penn State Erie-The Behrend College and director of research and evaluation with the Ophelia Project, an organization that does school intervention for the prevention of social aggression.
Medvin, who holds the Gibson-Drinko Distinguished Chair of Psychology, has been with Westminster since 1992. She earned an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
Faculty Forum was established in 1990 by Dr. Barbara Faires, Westminster professor of mathematics, during her term as Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Faculty members from all disciplines volunteer to present lectures on their current research, artistic productions, and/or scholarship of teaching and learning. Each forum presents new ideas with innovative lecture techniques.
Contact Medvin at (724) 946-7360 or e-mail medvinm@westminster.edu for more information.
