I had the honor of hooding the two most recent Ph.D. students to come out of the Anger and Traffic Psychology Lab last Friday: Dr. Caitlin Clark and Dr. Daniel Deason. Caitlin is completing a postdoc fellowship in trauma/anxiety disorders at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, and Daniel is a Staff Psychologist at the Counseling Center at the University of Mississippi.

I also had the pleasure of hooding Dr. Dave Gavel, a Ph.D. student of Dr. Jon Mandracchia, a former Southern Miss faculty member who is now at Missouri Western State University.

It was great to see all three of them again. Something tells me their graduation will prove to be more memorable than it might have otherwise been due to the chaos caused by 6 inches of snow in South Mississippi!

Congratulations, graduates!

Tags: alumni

Daniel Deason is a lab alumnus who defended his dissertation in 2016. He is nearing the completion of his predoctoral internship at the Counseling Center at the University of Memphis. Daniel just let us know that he has accepted a position as a Staff Psychologist at the Counseling Center at the University of Mississippi.

We are currently working on a paper based on Daniel’s master’s thesis that examines the contribution of social anxiety to the Five Factor Model (Costa & McCrae, 1992) of personality in understanding relational aggression in college students.

Congratulations to Daniel on the new job!

Tags: jobs, alumni, relational aggression, five factor model, anxiety

We just learned that David Boudreaux, an alumnus of the Anger and Traffic Psychology Lab who successfully defended his dissertation in August, has accepted a position as a staff psychologist in the outpatient mental health clinic at the James A. Haley Veteran's Hospital in Tampa, FL, where he is completing his predoctoral internship.

David is almost finished preparing a manuscript based on his dissertation, which should soon be ready to submit for publication. He plans to take the EPPP exam for licensure this summer.

Congratulations to David on the job!

Tags: internship, alumni, jobs

Congratulations to Dr. Emily Prather, an alumna of the Anger and Traffic Psychology Lab, who graduated with her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi last week. I last saw Emily when she took a break from her predoctoral internship at Wellspan Behavioral Health in York, PA, to successfully defend her dissertation in April. Emily's dissertation focused on the role of anger, impulsivity, and emotion regulation in binge eating. After completing her internship last summer, she started a post doc position at Wellspan. She is now studying for the EPPP exam for licensure as a psychologist and beginning the job search process where she is interested in both clinical work and teaching.

It is fairly common for current doctoral students to have a hard time imagining that there will be a day when they reach the end of their graduate training. I certainly remember feeling that way. But like Emily just showed us, it really does happen. The classes, examinations, and dissertation writing do not last forever.

It was great to see Emily again for commencement and meet her family. Congratulations to Emily on the completion of her doctorate! Please stay in touch and let us know what is next for you.

Tags: anger expression, emotion regulation, postdoc, alumni

Dr. Ryan Martin, an alumnus of the Anger and Traffic Psychology Lab and Chair of the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, writes a blog focused on the science of anger and violence called All the Rage. Dr. Martin recently posted an interview he did with David Boudreaux, an advanced doctoral student working in the lab. In the interview, David describes his interest in anger and how it fits into his career plan.

David will soon propose his dissertation, a validation study of the Attitudes Toward Anger Management Scale (ATAMS; Boudreaux, Dahlen, Madson, & Bullock-Yowell, 2014). David developed the ATAMS in his master's thesis, and his dissertation should be an important step in continuing its development.

Tags: anger management, alumni

Michelle Augustin and Greg Futral both graduated with their doctorates in Counseling Psychology this month. They were valuable members of the lab, and their contributions will be missed even as we wish them the best moving ahead with their careers.

Michelle's dissertation, "A Psychometric Investigation of the Young Adult Social Behavior Scale (YASB)," was a confirmatory factor analysis and validation of a self-report measure of relational aggression suitable for college students. Greg's dissertation, "Increasing Readiness to Change Anger: A Motivational Group Intervention," involved a treatment study in which a brief motivational enhancement group was compared with a no-treatment control.

Tags: relational aggression, motivation, alumni

Dr. Ryan Martin, a previous doctoral student of mine who is now a Professor of Psychology and an Associate Dean for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, has put together a new blog. Titled All the Rage, Dr. Martin's blog deals with the science of anger. He plans to use it as a vehicle for disseminating information to the public about the scientific study of anger.

Misinformation about anger is so widespread that I think this could be a great resource for anyone interesting in learning more about it.

Tags: alumni