Psychology

Inaugural class of distinguished alumni

Washington State University Global Campus inducted the first five members of its Society of Distinguished Alumni, all of whom earned degrees in the College of Arts & Sciences. “Over the past 30 years, WSU Global Campus has been a part of the educational and career journeys for many accomplished and influential people,” said Dave Cillay, […]

New Regents Professor

In recognition of her innovative and influential work in clinical neuropsychology, Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe has earned promotion to Regents Professor, the highest faculty rank at WSU. Her real-world work is having a profound impact on the assessment and care of older adults suffering from cognitive impairment. The interventions she has developed support and extend these individuals’ […]

Stats students partner with camp for kids

Each semester, students in Janet Peters’s “Statistics in Psychology” course partner with a regional nonprofit to analyze data and turn it into usable information. “When I started doing service learning in my classes, the first question I asked was ‘How do I help students understand the power of the skills they are learning?” said Peters. […]

Cannabis use and entrepreneurial creativity

New venture ideation is critical to the entrepreneurial process. To generate creative ideas, some entrepreneurs turn to cannabis, proposing its benefits. A new study by WSU psychology and business professors found cognitive, motivational, and experiential factors jointly shape creativity in new venture ideation. And while cannabis-using entrepreneurs in the study generated new business ideas that […]

Cannabis use blunts stress reactivity in female rats

Female rats that inhaled vaporized cannabis daily for a month developed a blunted physiological response to stress, according to a new study by WSU researchers. In contrast, male rats that were provided access to the same potency of cannabis over the same 30-day window did not experience any physiological changes in

Context, not screen time, better predictor of well-being

In one of the first wide-scale surveys of social media engagement and well-being in college student-athletes, WSU researchers found why and when, rather than how much, has a greater influence on an individual’s mental health. “A user’s perception of their social media use and the importance it has in their daily life is particularly telling,” […]

Artist combines dance, psychology in documentaries

Through her recent collaboration with EcoArts on the Palouse, psychology graduate student Hannah Levy created “Staying with the Pause,” a dance documentary which touches on the struggles many people face during the pandemic. “For a documentary dance, the main purpose is highlighting the story more than anything,” said Levy. This form of storytelling allows her […]

Cougs who serve

The world-wide reach of WSU’s Global Campus has given rise to a unique community of students who are actively serving in the United States military. The convenience and flexibility of asynchronous learning is an ideal option for active duty soldiers and sailors who live and work in locations around the globe. “Earning my degree was […]

More economic worries mean less caution about COVID‑19

Workers experiencing job and financial insecurity are less likely to follow the CDC’s guidelines for COVID-19, such as physical distancing, limiting trips from home and washing hands, according to a study led by WSU Vancouver psychology professor Tahira Probst. “We all have a finite set of resources at our disposal, whether it’s money, time or […]

Cannabis reduces OCD symptoms in the short term

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, report that the severity of their symptoms was reduced by about half within four hours of smoking cannabis, according to a Washington State University study. “The results overall indicate that cannabis may have some beneficial short-term but not really long-term effects on obsessive-compulsive disorder,” said Carrie Cuttler, WSU assistant […]