Christina Salnaitis, Ph.D.
Tiffany Chenneville, Ph.D.

V. Mark Durand, Ph.D.

Robert Fowler, Ph.D.

Vikki T. Gaskin-Butler, M.Div., Ph.D.

Jordan Litman, Ph.D.

James P. McHale, Ph.D.

Michiko Otsuki Clutter, Ph.D.
Mark Pezzo, Ph.D.

Christina Salnaitis, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Educational Psychology, University of Northern Colorado

Research Areas: Executive function; anxiety

Dr. Salnaitis’ research focuses on the effects of stress and anxiety on executive functioning on those undergoing a major life transition, such as first year students entering college.  How does the stress response affect the development of the frontal lobe, an area considered to subserve executive functioning?  Executive functioning is involved in goal-directed behavior, and the frontal lobe continues to develop well into the 20’s, leaving the possibility that stress, anxiety, and depression during the college transition could alter the developmental course of executive functioning. 

Representative Publications

Salnaitis, C. L., Baker, C. A., Holland, J., Welsh, M. C. (2011). Differentiating Tower of Hanoi performance: Interactive effects of psychopathic tendencies, impulsive response styles, and modality. Applied Neuropsychology, 18, 37-46.

*Adams, C. L., & Umbaugh, R. (January, 2009). Reaching undecided students through a first-year experience program. E-Source for College Transitions, 6, 7-8.

Dien, J., Franklin, M. S., Michelson, C. A., Lemen, L. C., Adams, C. L., Kiehl, K. A. (2008). fMRI characterization of the language formulation area. Brain Research, 1229, 179-192.

*Dr. Salnaitis has previously published under the name of Adams.

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Tiffany Chenneville, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., School Psychology, University of South Florida

Research Areas: Pediatric HIV; Law, policy, & ethics; Issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth

Dr. Chenneville's primary program of research is in the area of pediatric HIV, specifically with regard to the legal, ethical, and policy decisions related to this disease. She currently is studying medical decisional capacity among youth with HIV and the extent to which decisional capacity is correlated with treatment outcomes. Dr. Chenneville also is interested in the confidentiality versus duty to protect dilemma facing mental health professionals who treat clients with HIV. Finally, Dr. Chenneville is interested in issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth and is involved with research investigating the educational and other outcomes associated with high school gay-straight alliances.

Representative publications:

Chenneville, T., Sibille, K., Lujan-Zilberman, J., Rodriguez, C., Brown, M., & Emmanuel, P.  (2010). Medical decisional capacity among children with HIV: Results from a pilot study. AIDS Care, 1306-0451.  

Chenneville, T., Sibille, K., & Bendell-Estroff, D. (2010). Decisional Capacity among Minors with HIV:  A Model for Balancing Autonomy Rights with the Need for Protection. Ethics and Behavior, 20 (2), 83-94.

Chenneville, T. (2008). HIV, confidentiality, and duty to protect: A decision making model. In D. N.  Bersoff (Ed.), Ethical conflicts in psychology (4th Edition) (pp. 203-206), Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Chenneville, T. (2008). Results from an empirical study of school principals’ decisions about disclosure of HIV status. Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention & Education for Adolescents & Children, 8 (2), 9-30.

Chenneville, T. (2008).  Best practices in responding to pediatric HIV in the school setting.  In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds), Best practices in school psychology (5th edition) (pp. 1389-1402). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

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V. Mark Durand, Ph.D.
Professor

Ph.D., Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Research Areas: Autism and related disorders, Severe behavior problems in children, sleep disorders

Major themes in Dr. Durand's research include developing models for understanding challenging behaviors in people with autism spectrum disorders as well as developing new treatments. Dr. Durand has published 10 books including abnormal psychology textbooks that have been used at more than 1,000 universities world-wide.

Representative Publications:

Barlow, D.H., & Durand, V.M. (2012).  Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach (6th ed.).  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Durand, V.M. (2011) Optimistic parenting: Hope and help for you and your challenging child. Paul H. Brookes: Baltimore, MD.

Durand, V.M. (2011). Disorders of development. In D.H. Barlow, (Ed.), Oxford handbook of clinical psychology (pp., 551-573). New York: Oxford University Press.

Durand, V.M. (in press). Functional communication training to reduce challenging behavior. To appear in P. Prelock and R. McCauley (Eds.), Treatment of autism spectrum disorders: Evidence-based intervention strategies for communication & social interaction. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

Durand, V. M., & Wang, M. (in press). Clinical trials. In J. C. Thomas & M. Hersen (Eds.), Understanding research in clinical and counseling psychology. New York: Routledge.

Durand, V.M. & Barlow, D.H. (2010). Essentials of abnormal psychology (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Durand, V.M. (2008). When children don't sleep well: Interventions for pediatric sleep disorders, Therapist guide. New York: Oxford University Press.

Durand, V.M. & Hieneman, M. (2008). Helping parents with challenging children: Positive family intervention, Facilitator’s guide. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Robert Fowler, Ph.D.
Professor

Ph.D., Psychology, University of Tennessee

Research Areas: Statistical methodology, magnitude of experimental effects, meta-analysis.

The development of an operational definition of scientific significance using Cohen's benchmarks of standardized effect size. An examination of the empirical literature in applied psychology to measure compliance over time with APA Publication Manual recommendations for the reporting of effect sizes. A comparison of the accuracy of various methods used to calculate appropriate confidence limits on correlation ratio parameters.

Representative Publications:

Fowler, R.L., & Odgaard, E.C. (2009). Confidence intervals for correlation ratios in fixed-effects ANOVA and fixed-score regression: Accuracy versus simplicity in choosing a reporting method. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Odgaard, E.C., & Fowler, R.L. (2008). The reporting of appropriate effect sizes and their confidence intervals in four psychology journals from 1995 to 2007. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Fowler, R.L., Hilliard, V.D., Brett, J.W., & McLaughlin, K.V. (2003, March). Using confidence limits on correlation ratios for detecting scientific significance. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.

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Vikki T. Gaskin-Butler, M.Div., Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Clinical & Health Psychology, University of Florida
M.Div., Emory University

Research Areas:  Spiritual, Mental, and Physical Well-being of African Americans, Women, and Clergy

Dr. Gaskin-Butler's current research examines the effectiveness of spiritual formation as a vehicle for sexual ethics training for clergy.  She also maintains interests in the academic success of disenfranchised Americans as it is impacted by biopsychosocial factors.

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Jordan Litman, Ph.D.
Visiting Researcher

Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, University of South Florida

Research Areas: Research Areas: Social-Personality, Motivation and Emotion, Metacognition, Gossip, Coping with stress

Dr. Litman’s research focuses on the nature and assessment of curiosity, and how individual differences in curiosity and metamemory contribute to the motivation of knowledge-seeking behavior. He is also interested in how these phenomena interact with seeking information to cope with stress.

Representative Publications:
Litman, J. A., & Lunsford, G. D. (in press). Frequency of use and impact of coping strategies
assessed by the COPE inventory and their relationships to post-event health and well-being. Journal of Health Psychology.

Litman, J.A. (2008). Interest and deprivation dimensions of epistemic curiosity. Personality
and Individual Differences, 44, 1585–1595.

Litman, J.A. & Pezzo, M.V. (2007). Dimensionality of interpersonal curiosity. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1448–1459.

Litman, J.A. & Silvia, P. J. (2006). The latent structure of trait curiosity: Evidence for interest and deprivation curiosity dimensions. Journal of Personality Assessment, 86, 318-328.

Litman, J.A., Hutchins, T.L., & Russon, R.K. (2005). Epistemic curiosity, feeling-of-knowing, and exploratory behaviour. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 559-582.

Litman, J.A. & Pezzo, M.V. (2005). Individual differences in attitudes towards gossip. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 963-180.

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James P. McHale, Ph.D.
Professor
Department Chair

Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of California, Berkeley

Research Areas: Family Theory and Research

Dr. McHale's research program examines the role of coparenting and family group dynamics in families of infant, toddler, and preschool-aged children. He also maintains active interests in infant mental health, community psychology, family diversity, and primary prevention.

To visit the Family Study Center homepage, click on this link: www.stpt.usf.edu/fsc

Representative publications:

McHale, J. & Lindahl, K. (forthcoming, 2011). Coparenting: Theory, research, and clinical applications. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.

Baker, J., McHale, J., Strozier, A. & Cecil, D. (2010). The nature of mother-grandmother coparenting alliances in families with incarcerated mothers: A pilot study. Family Process, 49, 165-184.

McHale, J. (2010). La sfida della cogenitorialita. Milan, Italy: Rafaello Cortina Editore.

McHale, J. & Fivaz-Depeursinge, E. (2010). Principles of effective coparenting and its assessment in infancy and early childhood. In S. Tyano, M. Keren, H. Herrman & J. Cox (Eds.), Parenting and mental health: A bridge between infant and adult psychiatry. London: John Wiley & Sons (pp 383-397).

Strozier, A., Armstrong, M., Skuza, S., Cecil, D. & McHale, J. (2010, in press). Coparenting in kinship families with an incarcerated mother: A qualitative study. Families in Society.

McHale, J.P., Fivaz-Depeursinge, E., Dickstein, S., Robertson, J., & Daley, M. (2008). New evidence for the social embeddedness of infants' early triangular capacities. Family Process, 47, 445-463.

McHale, J. (2007). Charting the bumpy road of coparenthood. Washington, D.C.: Zero to Three Press.

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Research Areas: Child and adolescent health with a focus on pediatric asthma and health risk behaviors

Dr. Otsuki Clutter’s primary research interests focus on identifying factors that promote or hinder adherence to preventive asthma therapy and asthma outcomes among youths, and translating this knowledge to develop and evaluate intervention strategies in the community settings. Another line of her research examines psychosocial predictors of health risk behaviors such as smoking, heavy drinking, and delinquency among adolescents and young adults.  Attention to the roles of culture/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and development is central to her research.

Representative Publications:

Chao, R.K., & Otsuki-Clutter, M. (in press). Racial and ethnic differences: Socio-cultural and contextual explanations. Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Otsuki, M., Eakin, M. N., Rand, C. S., & Riekert, K.A. (2010). A prospective relationship between caregiver depressive symptoms and asthma morbidity among inner-city African American children. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 35(7), 758-767. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsp091

Otsuki, M., Eakin, M. N., Rand, C. S., Butz, A. M., Hsu, V. D., Zuckerman, I. H., Ogborn, J., Bilderback, A., & Riekert, K. A. (2009). Medication adherence feedback to improve asthma outcomes among inner-city children: A randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics, 124(6), 1513-1521. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2961

Otsuki, M. (2009). Social connectedness and smoking behaviors among Asian American college students: An electronic diary study. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 11(4), 418-426. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntp028

Otsuki, M., Tinsley, B. J., & Chao, R. K., & Unger, J. (2008). An ecological perspective on smoking among Asian American college students: The roles of social smoking and smoking motives. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 22(4), 514-523. doi: 10.1037/a0012964

Otsuki, M., Clerisme-Beaty, E., Riekert, K. A., & Rand, C. S. (2008). Measuring adherence with medication regimens in clinical care and research. In S. Shumaker, J. K. Ockene, & K. Riekert (Eds.), The handbook of health behavior change, 3rd edition (pp.309-326). New York, NY: Springer.

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Mark Pezzo, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, Ohio University

Research Area: Social Psychology

Dr. Pezzo's research focuses on judgmental biases. He examines the interface between motivational and cognitive processes (i.e., self-presentation vs sensemaking)in a number of areas, including hindsight bias, planning fallacy, numerosity judgments, perceptions of offensiveness, and the spread of rumors. His most recent work has been moving toward more applied settings, including medical judgments. 

Link to Dr. Pezzo's homepage here.

Representative Publications:

Pezzo, M.V., & Beckstead, J. (2006).   A multi-level analysis of rumor transmission:  Effects of anxiety and belief in two field experiments. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28, 91-100.

Pezzo, M.V., & Pezzo, S.P.  (2006). Physician evaluation following medical errors:  Does having a computer decision aid help or hurt in hindsight?  Medical Decision Making, 26, 48-56. 

Pezzo, S.P., Pezzo, M.V., & Stone, E.R.  (2006).   The social implications of planning:  How public predictions bias future plans.   Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 221-227.

Litman, J.L., & Pezzo, M.V. (2005).   Individual differences in attitudes toward gossip. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 963-980.

Pezzo, M. V.  (2003).  Surprise, Defense, or Making Sense:  What removes the hindsight bias?  Memory, 11, 421-441.

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