Post-Grant Reports

Title

Sabbatical Leave Report

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

3-21-2017

Disciplines

Cognition and Perception | Curriculum and Instruction | Disability and Equity in Education | Experimental Analysis of Behavior | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Gender and Sexuality | Health Psychology | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Psychology | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | Social Psychology

Abstract

Owing to a range of unforeseen circumstances my sabbatical plans shifted in several ways: 1) I took only the fall semester vs. the entire year owing to my colleague’s schedule shifting so that she was no longer available to collaborate on the Gender Sexual Romantic Minorities (GSRMs) study); 2) at the request of another colleague to assist his recent Ph.D. student with secondary analyses and manuscript preparation, I took on a new project that evaluates the training programs that prepare psychologists for prescriptive authority (RxP); 3) owing to the need to teach a second section of PSYC 381 (Introduction to Abnormal Psychology) last spring, I bumped up my plan to conduct (vs. plan) my scholarship of learning (SoTL) project examining attitudes toward the transgender (TG) experience and gender dysphoria.

Despite the fact that my sabbatical experience only loosely conformed to my plans, much was accomplished during the fall semester. With regard to teaching, I was able to accomplish more than I had envisioned. First, we are on schedule to deliver a Jan‐term 2018 travel course examining risk and resilience in Pacific Islander cultures. Second, I was able to plan and execute my first SoTL project during the spring and fall semesters. The project examines whether humanizing strategies (including contact with first-­hand accounts and perspective taking), which we found reduced transprejudice and stigma in an experimental setting relative to a diagnostic/education intervention, when used as a part of a homework assignment in the classroom setting will lead to similar reductions in negative attitudes toward the TG community. Replicating results from our prior experimental study, I found that those assigned to the education condition reported significantly higher mean levels of transphobia at post‐test in comparison to pre‐test averages. These results suggest the importance of moving away from a DSM‐centered approach in teaching about TG issues. The evaluated homework assignment provides a starting point for others who may want to research specific mechanisms of attitude change and/or adapt the assignment to fit their teaching needs. I will be presenting our working at the pre-conference Teaching Institute at the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in Boston this May. I will be writing up the study for publication this spring and summer. With regard to research, although the projects are different than proposed I made significant gains on two projects: First, we will be presenting the results of a recent project looking at whether the act of taking an unlimited number of “selfies” leads to more state self‐objectification than either being limited in the number of photos taken (by self or other) at APS in May. Second, the manuscript comparing prescriptive authority (RxP) training programs to other prescribers’ training programs is nearing completion and will be submitted for publication this spring. Community‐based work relating to LGBTQ issues was, unfortunately, put on hold owing to the fact that I had one semester (vs. an entire year).

Comments

This research was conducted as part of a sabbatical leave in 2016.

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