Research and Scholarship

The Psy.D. program at Wheaton College follows a practitioner-scholar model. Students are trained not only as practitioners, but also as productive scholars who are good consumers of research and capable of contributing to scholarship in the field. Faculty members have been recruited, in part, because of their promise as scholars. As a consequence, opportunities for productive research and scholarship are available in the Psy.D. program.  Some of the areas of research focus are listed below.

Dr. Trey Buchanan:
Dr. Buchanan coordinates the department's Child Development Lab and is currently conducting research on the assessment of social reciprocity and communication in children with autistic spectrum disorder. Dr. Buchanan would be happy to meet with any undergraduate and graduate students who might be interested in working with him and the Child Development Lab.

Dr. Richard Butman:
Dr. Buchanan coordinates the department's Child Development Lab and is currently conducting research on the assessment of social reciprocity and communication in children with autistic spectrum disorder. Dr. Buchanan would be happy to meet with any undergraduate and graduate students who might be interested in working with him and the Child Development Lab.

Dr. Sally Schwer Canning:
Dr. Canning directs the Urban Partnership Initiative (UPI), an arm of the Center of Church Psychology Collaboration. The mission of the UPI is to support educational and health-care objectives of faith-based community organizations serving poor urban neighborhoods.

This year Dr. Canning will work with a group of students on the early stages of an evaluation of the effects of faith-based aspects of education on educational outcomes at the Circle Rock Preparatory School (CRPS), a private Christian elementary school on Chicago's poor west side. This evaluation is funded through CRPS's grant from the Gates Foundation. Dr. Canning welcomes student involvement in all aspects of this project.

Dr. Helen DeVries:
Dr. DeVries' area of research focuses on understanding how the normative transitions of midlife (such as launching children, retirement) and non-normative events (such as illness, disability) impact individual development. In addition, she is collaborating with Outreach Community Center and Counseling Center to expand services to older adults. The following projects are active at this time:

1. Adaptation to the "empty nest." The focus of this research is to better understand the normative transitions of mid and late life families as they adapt to the launching of children and the impact on individuals and family relationships. Specifically, the research had focused on how marital and parental relationships change and adapt during the empty nest transition. Several projects are currently underway, including an on-going, longitudinal study of parents through the launching of their children through this transition, and an exploration of parent/child relationship change during the launching phase. Students who are interested in studying adult development, mid & late marital or parent/child relationships, or learning qualitative research methods are welcome.

2. Improving quality of life and ability of older adults to "age in place." This research is carried out in collaboration with Outreach Community Center's Older Adults Program. Projects include development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions for this population, oversight of a data base used to track and evaluate program goals and assess client needs, development and evaluation of training materials for community "gatekeepers" (apartment managers, Friendly Visiting Volunteers) to prepare them to work with this population. Students interested in community psychology, consultation, geropsychology, or neuropsychology may be interested in working with this project.

Dr. Kelly Flanagan:
Dr. Flanagan’s research interests generally combine developmental and clinical perspectives to better understand the reciprocal influences between children’s peer relationships and their individual functioning, with a particular interest in negative peer group experiences (e.g., victimization, rejection), the interpersonal dynamics that are involved, and the influence of the developmental context of adolescence. A current research project in the Peer Lab involves assessment of middle school students’ experiences of peer victimization and the role of interpersonal forgiveness and spiritual well-being in their psychological adjustment. Research will provide substantial opportunity for student involvement in conceptualization of research questions, data collection and analysis, community outreach, and writing both for conference presentations and publications.

Dr. Robert Gregory:
Dr. Gregory's interests include three broad areas: psychological assessment, program evaluation, and meta-analysis studies.

In regard to psychological assessment, he has worked on several projects that involve the reliability and validity of common tests and screening instruments. Examples of projects include the evaluation of a screening test for mild brain injury, assessment of a mental status test, and evaluation of the Millon adolescent personality inventory.

In regard to program evaluation, some recent projects he has supervised include: multi-method evaluation of a church-based lay counseling program, questionnaire study of a retreat program for pastors with burn-out, and, broad needs assessment of a suburban fire department dealing with job dissatisfaction. If you have access to a program in need of review, Dr. Gregory would be delighted to work with you.

In regard to meta-analysis, the emphasis is upon practical use of already published research findings. The meta-analytic researcher does not conduct original research, rather, he or she identifies existing research in a discrete area, and synthesizes it in a precise statistical manner. Durlak (1995) defines meta-analysis as follows:

Meta-analysis is a method used to review or survey research literature. It differs from other reviewing strategies in its focus on the statistical integration and analysis of research findings.

For example, Dr. Gregory recently published a meta-analysis of 29 outcome studies of specifically cognitive forms of bibliotherapy (e.g., reading The New Mood Therapy by David Burns), confirming that reading well designed self-help books can be a powerful form of intervention. If your dissertation might involve meta-analysis, Dr. Gregory would be happy to explore this methodology with you.

Dr. T. Mark Harwood:
Dr. Harwood has research interests in the following areas: 1) Empirically-based models of patient-treatment matching, 2) Psychotherapy process and outcome, 3) Substance abuse treatment and prevalence (including the abuse of pharmacological substances among the elderly, 4) Depression and co-morbidity, 5) Psychotherapy training, 6) The Therapeutic alliance, 7) Minority access to mental health treatment, and 8) Predictors of attrition from substance abuse treatment. At present, Dr. Harwood is first author (with co-author, Luciano L'Abate), on a book to be published by Springer, that involves a critical analysis of the self-help movement in psychotherapy. Additionally, Dr. Harwood is preparing a manuscript for publication that represents the outcome of a study on geriatric substance abuse in an ethnically diverse sample.

Dr. Michael Mangis:
Dr. Mangis' research interests include integration of psychology and theology, applications of contemplative Christian spirituality, Spiritual Formation, psychoanalytic psychology, rural psychology, and gender studies.

Dr. Derek McNeil:
Primary areas of research interest include marital therapy, men's issues, and corporate forgiveness. Dr. McNeil heads up the Culture and Ethnic Studies Initiate (CESI) which is currently full.

Dr. Cynthia Neal Kimball:
Dr. Neal Kimball's interests are in the areas of gender, ethnicity, attachment relationships, "voice," high risk families, and issues of welfare reforms. Her research includes:

1) the developmental, clinical, theoretical and theological perspective and the relationship between attachment relationships to parents and attachment relationships to God;

2) why women in higher education are less likely to progress professionally, in publications, tenure, promotion, administration, editorial boards, etc. Essentially, the missing voices of women in these positions and the implications. She is also writing a chapter for a book dealing with biblical equality, Gender Complementarity without Hierarchy. Her contribution has to do with nature/nurture and ultimately what difference does difference make?

Dr. Raymond E. Phinney Jr.:
Dr. Phinney’s research interest includes visual and attentive processes in normal humans and in special populations (such as those with ADD, dyslexia, or brain damage). He is also currently planning projects to develop tests of visual or attentive function for earlier detection of deficits such as ADD and dyslexia, as well as developing programs to rehabilitate such deficits. Dr. Phinney would be happy to meet with any graduate or undergraduate student who might be interest in visual processing (especially steroscopic depth or motion) or attention, or in how studying such processes can improve our understanding of, detection of, or rehabilitation of such deficits as ADD or dyslexia. In addition, any students who are generally interested in human perception, visual illusions, computer graphics programming, animation, or analysis of functional imaging data (making brain models etc.) may benefit from exposure to his research program.

Dr. William Struthers:
Dr. Struthers' research interests include the expression of proto-oncogenes and protein production in the cingulate cortex and basal ganglia after placement into novel environments. He is currently investigating the neurocircuitry and pharmacology of arousal systems in the rodent. His theoretical interests include the biological basis of consciousness.

Dr. John T. Vessey:
Dr. Vessey's interests and expertise are in the areas of statistics, experimental design, psychometrics, and program evaluation. Joining the faculty in 2001, Dr. Vessey previously was Asst. Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Division of Epidemiology. He has done research and program evaluation in sexual abstinence programs and promoting smoking cessation programs. He is also interested in decision-making models.

Dr. Terri Watson:
Dr. Watson is currently seeking student involvement in a qualitative, cross cultural research project with couples involving exploration of the impact of experiences of disappointment and disillusionment in marriage on satisfaction and growth. She is also involved with ongoing research projects on gender issues and integration, clinical supervision, and faith-praxis integration. Interested individuals can contact her directly for information on opportunities for student involvement.

Dr. Natalia Yangarber-Hicks:
Dr. Yangarber-Hicks’ research interests include psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Jewish influences in psychology, and psychology of the Holocaust.