Wednesday, September 6, 2006 
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room:  Faculty Development Center
            5th Floor
            CSULB Library

Ethnic Minority Research: What Is It, Why It's Difficult, and How Can We Improve It?

Presenter:    
Stanley Sue, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Asian American Studies
Department of Psychology
University of California

Summary:
This talk (1) defines ethnic minority research and distinguishes it from cross-cultural research;
(2) discusses problems in conducting the research, such as sampling small populations, findings
adequate measures, and dealing with controversies; and (3) offers suggestions for improving the
quality and quantity of ethnic minority research. The importance of the research is stressed not
only for understanding ethnic minority groups but also for psychological science.

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room: Psy 153

Presenter:
Christopher Warren, Ph.D.
Psychology, CSULB

Summary:
This talk will highlight the various roles that affect plays into the research in the field of
industrial/organizational psychology. An in depth discussion will be given to the area
of stakeholder management in organizations and the resulting affective reactions to workers.
Specifically, the talk will focus on one study where hypothesized relationships between
perceptions of support and affectively-based criteria were tested in a sample of teachers,
illustrating the importance of balance in the support for multiple stakeholders, such that
when the support for teachers exceeded or fell short of the support for students,
indicating imbalance, negative job-specific affect increased. 

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Wednesday, October 4, 2006
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room: Psy 153

Motivated Moral Reasoning

Presenter:  
Peter Ditto, Ph.D.
Psychology, UC Irvine

Summary: 
An extensive body of research in social psychology has demonstrated that
people's judgments and decisions can be biased by their desire to reach a
particular conclusion.  In this talk, this approach will be extended to the
study of moral reasoning and describe a series of studies showing that people
shift their moral principles to rationalize desired judgments.  Many of the
studies compare the moral judgments of political liberals and conservatives
and thus have implications for understanding the partisan polarization that
characterizes contemporary American politics.

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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room: Psy 153

Presenter:    
Veronica Benet-Martinez, Ph.D.
Psychology, UC Riverside

Summary:
In this talk three different lines of research will be reviewed, examining the meaning
and impact of individual variations in the way bicultural individuals organize their two
cultural identities, a construct that we call Bicultural Identity Integration (BII).
While biculturals high on BII describe their two cultural identities as ‘compatible’
(fluid and complementary), biculturals low on BII experience them as largely
‘oppositional’ (i.e., conflicting and disparate). Results from different (Asian and
Hispanic) bicultural samples varying in age, generational status, geographical enclave,
and ethnicity, reveal that BII includes two independent components: Perceptions of
distance (vs. overlap) and perceptions of conflict (vs. harmony) between one’s two
cultural identities or orientations. This work also suggests that cultural distance and
conflict have unique links to different socio-demographic, acculturation, and personality
variables, and lead to different adjustment outcomes. 
 

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Wednesday, November 1, 2006
3:30 - 4:30 pm
Room: Psy 153

Joachim Reimann, Ph.D. (SDSU’s Salaam Component PI) and
Dolores Rodríguez-Reimann, Ph.D. (SDSU Salaam Component Co-Investigator)

Project Salaam: Assessing Mental Health Needs in
Middle Eastern and East African Communities

Summary:
Middle Eastern and East African groups in the US face multiple stressors.
Yet despite calls to meet the mental health needs of these communities,
they remain underserved and poorly understood.  This colloquium will present
results from Project Salaam, a joint effort by San Diego State University’s
Center for Behavioral & Community Health Studies and the Islamic Center
of San Diego.  Project Salaam used a mix of qualitative and quantitative
methods to conduct a mental health needs assessment among San Diego’s
Middle Eastern and East African communities.  It identified relationships
between psychological symptoms and history of trauma, acculturation stresses,
and socio-demographics.  It further assessed personal coping, attitudes
toward mental health services, and general health care preferences.  In part,
results showed that 37% of survey respondents described encountering
harassment or discrimination in the US.  In addition, 56% of immigrants
recounted being persecuted in their home country.  Seventeen percent of
these described being tortured.  Similar patterns were noted among focus
group participants and key stakeholders.  The colloquium will describe
psychological problems associated with such adverse events, and who
tends to be most at risk.  Coping efforts and service needs will also be
discussed.  Finally, community development and treatment strategies
will be reviewed.

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*** SPECIAL DAY ***
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Talk begins at 3:30, reception to follow
Room:  Beach Theatre   
            University Student Union

Functional Family Therapy: a Multi-Culturally Sensitive
and Evidence- Based Therapy with High Risk Youth

Presenter:
James F. Alexander, PhD
Distinguished CSULB Psychology Alumnus
Psychology, University of Utah

Summary:
Despite numerous reviews and reports (U. S. Surgeon General's,
Centers for Disease Control, Center for the Study and Prevention of
Violence, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention),
most high risk youth still receive cost-ineffective interventions with
poor outcomes. This presentation will discuss the movement towards
providing more effective intervention, and identify the major elements
of one of the few nationally and internationally recognized evidence
based approaches to treating these youth. The major phases, principles,
and treatment issues with this approach (Functional Family Therapy:
FFT) will be presented with short video segments.

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Maps and directions to CSULB and Psychology Dept

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Previous CSULB Psychology Colloquium: