Accomplishments: Department of Psychology

Stephen Benning (Psychology) was elected treasurer of the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy (SSSP). SSSP is the international society devoted to research on the personality disorder of psychopathy, which represents a tremendous financial and interpersonal cost to the world at large. He remains the society's historian and was its…
Shane Kraus (Psychology) and Texas Tech colleagues recently published a paper, "Further Understanding the Correlations Between Sexting and Mental Health: Considerations for Sex and Sexual Identity," in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 
Patricia Heisser Metoyer, Ph.D., (Psychology, African American and African Diaspora and Interdisciplinary Studies) was invited by Sage Publications to review the seminal text African American Psychology: From Africa to America, Fourth Edition, a comprehensive coverage of African American psychology by Faye Z. Belgrave and Kevin W. Allison. The…
Nathan C. Higgins, Alexandra N. Scurry, Fang Jiang, David F. Little, Claude Alain, Mounya Elhilali, and Joel S. Snyder published a paper titled, "Adaptation in the sensory cortex drives bistable switching during auditory stream segregation," in Neuroscience of Consciousness. Dr. Higgins and Dr. Little were post-doctoral fellows at UNLV, and…
Patricia A. Heisser-Metoyer, Ph.D., (Psychology; Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies; African America and African Diaspora program), was selected to participate in The White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans events in 2023. The initiative was created to strengthen…
Renato (Rainier) M. Liboro (Psychology) recently published a book chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Queer and Trans Music Therapy (Psychology series) titled, "Epistemic Privilege and Epistemic Responsibility: Responding to an Inherent Call to Address the Needs of Queer and Trans Folx in Music Therapy." From the perspective of standpoint theory,…
Rakshitha Mohankumar and Brenna Renn (both Psychology) published an op-ed piece, "Boosting the Mental/Behavioral Health Infrastructure to Prevent Elder Suicide," for Generations Today, a bimonthly digital publication of the American Society on Aging. They highlight pervasive ageism and lack of training as barriers to better suicide prevention in…
Amanda Mraz and Brenna Renn (both Psychology) published an article titled, "Perspectives of Nonspecialists Delivering a Brief Depression Treatment in the United States: A Qualitative Investigation," in the journal BMC Psychiatry. Their coauthor Grace Woodard is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Miami. Renn''s…
Brenna Renn (Psychology) has been elected to the executive board of the American Psychological Association's Society of Clinical Geropsychology. The society's mission is to advance the field of professional clinical geropsychology through the scientific study of mental health of older adults, delivery of culturally sensitive …
Kara Christensen (Psychology) published a new article, "Elevated insomnia symptom severity in university students: The role of sexual orientation and internalizing symptoms," in Journal of American College Health with colleagues Ilana Seager Van Dyk from Massey University (NZ) and Ellen Klaver from University of Alberta (CAN),
Yen-Ling Chen, Repairer Etuk, and Shane Kraus (all Psychology) and colleagues published two papers over the winter break.  The first paper, "Differences within: Hypersexuality, Sensation Seeking and Pornography Viewing Behaviors in a Sample of Heterosexual, Gay, Bisexual, and Uncertain Men," was published in Sexual Health &…
Jessica Habashy, Stephen D. Benning, Brenna N. Renn (all Psychology), Elizabeth M. Lawrence (Sociology), and Shane W. Kraus (Psychology) and colleagues recently published a paper, "Psychometric properties of the eating disorder examination questionnaire: Factor analysis and measurement invariance by race/ethnicity and gender," in Eating…