Wednesday, February 7, 2007 
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room:  Psy 155

Trait Displaced Aggression: Harming the Innocent, 
Negative Physical Health Outcomes, and Functional Neuroanatomy

Presenter:    
Thomas Denson, MA
CSULB Psychology Lecturer and MA-Research Program Graduate
USC PhD Candidate

Summary:
Previous research on aggressive personality has focused on direct aggression
(e.g., retaliation toward the provoking agent).  Evidence will be presented that
there are individual differences in displaced aggression as well.  Trait displaced
aggression refers to stable individual differences in the tendency to aggress against
undeserving targets in response to prior provocation (Denson, Pedersen, & Miller,
2006).  There are three dimensions to the construct: an affective dimension
(angry rumination), a cognitive dimension (revenge planning), and a behavioral
dimension (general tendency to engage in displaced aggression).  When provoked,
individuals high in trait displaced aggression do not deal immediately and directly
with the provocateur.  Rather, they are inhibited, and tend to ruminate and dedicate
much cognitive effort to planning revenge in the aftermath of the provocation (Denson
et al., 2006).  Those high in trait displaced aggression often harm those closest to them. 
 Specifically, trait displaced aggression significantly predicted indirect indicators of
real-world displaced aggression (i.e., self-reported domestic abuse and road rage)
as well as laboratory displaced aggression in two experiments over and above
individual differences in direct aggression.  Individuals high in trait displaced aggression
also report increased physical symptoms, decreased social support, and increased
anxiety and depression.  An additional fMRI experiment revealed that displaced
aggressors and direct aggressors display distinct patterns of brain activity following
a provocation.  Specifically, following provocation, displaced aggressors evidenced
increased neural activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (a region associated with the
self-awareness of one’s negative mood), whereas direct aggressors demonstrated
increased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate (an area associated with social and
physical pain) as well as the posterior cingulate and hippocampus (regions associated
with memory).  Implications for aggression research will be discussed.

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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room: TBA

* * * CANCELLED * * *

Presenter:
Scott Roesch, PhD
Psychology, San Diego State Univ
CSULB, BA and MA

Summary:

The current meta-analysis assessed the efficacy of coping strategies on psychological
and physical adjustment in children with cancer (n=1230).  Coping strategies were
operationalized in accordance with two coping taxonomies; the first is based on the
general orientation of the child's coping attempts (approach or avoidance), and the
second is based upon coping efforts to regulate the stressor and/or feelings of distress
attributed to it (problem-focused and emotion-focused).  Approach, avoidance, and
emotion-focused coping were unrelated to overall adjustment.  A small-to-medium
but negative association was found between problem-focused coping and adjustment,
indicating more use of the strategies that compose this dimension are associated with
poorer adjustment.  However, homogeneity analyses also indicated significant variation
for all of these effect sizes.  Follow-up moderator analyses found coping-adjustment
relations were both dependent upon time since diagnosis and the particular stressor the
child was dealing with during treatment.

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Wednesday, March 7, 2007
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room: 155

Psychotherapy with Ethnic Minority Youth:
Assumptions, Evidence, Progress

Presenter:  
Stanley Huey, PhD
Psychology, USC

Summary: 
Psychotherapy research with children has flourished in recent years, with
many treatments validated for youth with diverse mental health problems.  
Yet many question whether mainstream treatments are appropriate for youth
who are not of European descent.  Using data from an ongoing meta-analysis,
this talk will address three primary questions.  First, does psychotherapy work
for minority youth?  Second, do treatments work equally well for minority and
non-minority youth?  Third, do treatment adaptations improved treatment
efficacy for minority youth?  Limitations and recommendations for clinical practice
and future research will also be discussed.

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Wednesday, March 21
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room: 155

Presenter:    
Christine Dunkel Schetter, PhD
Psychology, UCLA

Summary:
Emerging findings from prospective studies of pregnant women indicate that stress
is a risk factor for preterm delivery.  Preterm delivery is a major contributor to low
birth weight and related adverse maternal and developmental outcomes in the infant.  
Adverse outcomes of pregnancy are significantly higher in African American women
and in some subsets of Latina women independent of socioeconomic status.  Our
program of research documents the role of stress in pregnancy among low income
and ethnic minority women, and suggests that there may be different variants of stress
that pose risk for different ethnic groups.   This presentation will summarize findings
from two decades of biopsychosocial research including recent work on racism and
discrimination and links to birth outcomes.    

 

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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room:  155

How Ethnicity, Language and Acculturation Affects Test Scores
in a Psychiatric Sample

Presenter:
Johnny Wen, PhD
Lecturer, CSULB Psychology
UCLA Harbor Medical Center

Summary:
Dr. Wen is a neuropsychologist and a part-time lecturer at CSULB.  He was formerly
a post doctoral fellow at Harbor-UCLA and will discuss collaborative work he was
involved in on ethnicity, language and acculturation variables that may affect test scores
in a psychiatric sample.

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room:  155

Racialized Stress Processes: Implications for Working Women’s
Mental Health

Presenter:
Lauren Rauscher, PhD
CSULB Human Development

Summary:
Research shows that employment enhances women’s well-being, although many
women (especially women of color) work under conditions that should be detrimental
to their mental health.  Additionally, many Black and Mexican American women
work in the “worst” jobs, characterized by intense emotional and physical labor,
little authority, and extremely low pay; yet, in some community studies they report
higher levels of positive well-being than their more advantaged White counterparts. 

In an attempt to make sense of these paradoxes, I use a mixed-methods approach
to explore racial variation in women’s mental health in the context of the work that
they do.  Specifically, I integrate data from the National Survey of Families and
Households and in-depth interviews with twenty two high-school teachers to
identify patterns of positive and negative mental health among Black, White, and
Mexican American women and to explore how specific work configurations
contribute to racial differences and similarities in their well-being. 

In this presentation, I will focus on the in-depth interview data that illuminate
racialized processes of inequality and privilege in the lives of professional/managerial
women that have implications for their emotional health.  These narratives illustrate
how Black, White, and Mexican American teachers experience their school contexts
and cultures in qualitatively different ways, helping us better understand the additional
stressors women of color face, the impact they have on their well-being, and the
short-term coping tactics and long-term survival strategies women employ to safeguard
their well-being.

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Maps and directions to CSULB and Psychology Dept

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Previous CSULB Psychology Colloquium: