Colloquia Abstracts
Fall 2008

Why Character Matters: Lessons from the Values in Action (VIA) Project

Dr. Park, a 2000 graduate of the School Psychology Program at the University of South Carolina, is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Behavior Science Program at the University of Rhode Island and a nationally certified school psychologist (NCSP). She did her graduate work in Korea as well as in the USA and has a background in clinical and school psychology.

What is good character? How can it be measured? Why does it matter in important domains of life? And how might it be developed? In recent years, there has been a deliberate effort to answer these questions scientifically. The Values in Action (VIA) Project approaches good character as multidimensional, comprised of a family of widely-valued positive traits. Dr. Park will describe the background of the VIA Project, the assessment strategies she has devised, and major research findings to date. She will also discuss the practical implications of her work.

Connecting the Dots: Development of Visual Integration

The ability to determine which features are parts of the same object or pattern is a fundamental visual skill, which requires integration of spatial information across multiple locations. To date, very little is known about the appearance and maturation of visual integration. Before the 1990s, maturation of any visual skill was thought to occur relatively early in development – by 2 years of age – however, more recent evidence suggest that visual maturation is protracted and that some visual skills mature around adolescence. Dr. Palomares' research is primarily focused on how young children perceive and process information in the visual world, and how these skills develop across maturation. Using converging approaches, she will present evidence that integration of information across separate locations appears and matures late in typical development, and is susceptible to damage in individuals with Williams Syndrome, a developmental disorder. These data further suggest that the span of integration increases with age in correspondence to the development of cortical areas outside of primary visual cortex.

Mechanisms of Perception, Cognition, and Language

What can contemporary brain imaging tell us about mechanisms of perception, cognition, and interaction between language and cognition? The talk reviews mathematically motivated mechanisms of the brain processes, which are closely related to psychological and cognitive understanding. It turns out that mathematical motivations suggest specific aspects of the brain mechanisms, which can be tested in MRI, EEG and ERP experiments.

Investigating Unexamined Questions of Gender in Relationship Aggression: Intimate Partner Violence…And Violent Women? Men Preventing Violence Against Women?

Studies of intimate partner violence consistently find that as many women self-report perpetrating physical aggression against partners as do men. Some studies find a higher prevalence of physical aggression committed by women. Are women just as violent as men in their intimate relationships? Or, is women's violence fundamentally different from men's violence? In this lecture, I will present evidence that women's motives for using violence, the context for their use of violence, and the types and patterns of violence used are often very different from men. I will then move from examining etiological questions of intimate partner violence, to how to prevent violence. The prevention of violence against women has traditionally been "women's work". Yet, meaningful reductions in the numbers of women who are victimized will not be achieved without men’s involvement in efforts to end violence. Recently, efforts to involve college men in efforts to end violence against women have been taking place on college campuses. College men are an important group to target, as the college years are a high-risk time for young people to experience sexual assault and dating violence. Up to 25% of women may be sexually assaulted during college, and approximately one-third of female and male college students have experienced physical aggression from dating partners. While most students neither participate in nor condone violence, many respond passively to a campus culture that may tacitly support violence, as evidenced by violent media images, jokes trivializing violence against women, and sexual harassment. As a result, the few men who are perpetrators of violence may not be challenged by their peers in this behavior. I will describe an intervention being conducted at USC to engage men as visible and active change agents in the prevention of violence against women.

Investigating Relationships between Social Environments & Adaptive Functioning

Dr. Kloos will present his program of research focused on the systematic study of the relationship between environmental factors, adaptive functioning, and the health of individuals. With particular interest in social environments of housing and neighborhoods, the presentation will cover the relevance of social ecology theory in guiding the development or research instruments and research questions. He will present research from several studies focused on the functioning of persons with serious mental illness who live in community apartments. He will present supporting evidence for the utility of this research paradigm for other populations: a study of the functioning of persons displaced by Hurricane Katrina and a study of the neighborhood experiences of recent Latino immigrants to the South Carolina.

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