Psychological Sciences

Dr. Jonali Baruah

Dr. Baruah is a social psychologist whose research is in the fields of group dynamics and organizational behavior. She examines the social and cognitive processes underlying creativity and productivity in groups and individuals. Her current research focus is on understanding the effects of cultural and functional diversity, emotion, and interaction modalities on creativity and innovation in virtual as well as face-to-face teams. Her lab develops intervention strategies for creating supportive team environment. Additionally, she conducts workshop on managing diversity and enhancing collaborative innovation in teams.

Representative publications:

  • Paulus, P. B., Baruah, J.,& Kenworthy, J. B. (in press) Brainstorming: How to get the best ideas out of the “group brain” for organizational creativity. In R. Reiter-Palmon and S. Hunter (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Creativity, 2E, Vol. 1: Individual and group level influences. Elsevier.
  • Baruah, J., Paulus, P. B. & Kohn, N. (2021). The effect of the sequence of creative processes on the quality of the ideas: The benefit of a simultaneous focus on originality and feasibility. Journal of Creative Behavior. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.500
  • Baruah, J., & Paulus, P. B. (2019). Collaborative creativity and innovation in education. In Creativity Under Duress in Education? (pp. 155-177). Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90272-2_9

Dr. Jamie Borchardt

Dr. Borchardt’s research is in the realm of social problems and addictive behaviors. In addition, she works with the community on projects related to substance abuse, education, and prevention, and she involves students in both the research and the volunteer portion of this work. On the teaching side of things, she loves to incorporate service learning and impactful experiences into the classroom experience. Research in this area consists of working with students in a transformative learning environment, including the classroom, community, and abroad.

Representative publications:

  • Borchardt, J. & Casilio, D. (2021). Addictive behaviors: An analysis of support type among college students International Journal of Modern Education Studies 5(1), 168-181 DOI: 10.51383/ijonmes.2021.59
  • Borchardt, J. (2021). Bridging education and service learning through palliative care. Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education, 13(2), 56-68. https://discovery.indstate.edu/jcehe/index.php/joce/index
  • Borchardt, J. (2018). College Behavior and Characteristics Associated with Alcohol and Energy Drinks. Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education, 62(2), 13+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A555076924/HRCAu=txshracd2494&sid=googleScholar&xid=98561c91

Dr. Kyle Eichas

Dr. Eichas uses outreach research to build community-supported interventions for empowering young people. Outreach research aims at meeting local needs in real-world community settings. It is a collaborative, grassroots approach to generating knowledge that blurs the distinctions between science and practice. In his work, he collaborates with partners in schools and other local youth-serving organizations, as well as with many undergraduate students. They develop and refine relational intervention strategies for supporting the positive identity development of adolescents and emerging adults during the transition to adulthood.

Representative publications:

  • Eichas, K., Montgomery, M. J., Meca, A., Garcia, A. J., & Garcia, A. (2021). Engaging marginalized youth in positive development: The Changing Lives Program. In R. Dimitrova & N. Wiium (Eds.), Handbook of positive youth development: Advancing research, policy and practice in global contexts (pp. 431-446). New York, NY: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70262-5_29
  • Eichas, K., Montgomery, M. J., Meca, A., & Kurtines, W. M. (2017). Empowering marginalized youth: A self-transformative intervention for promoting positive youth development. Child Development, 88, 1115-1124. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12866
  • Eichas, K., Meca, A., Montgomery, M. J., & Kurtines, W. M. (2015). Identity and positive youth development: Advances in developmental intervention science. In K. McLean & M. Syed (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of identity development (pp. 337-354). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199936564.013.020

Dr. Tom Faulkenberry

Dr. Faulkenberry’s research is in the fields of mathematical psychology and Bayesian statistics. Mathematical psychology is primarily concerned with using the tools of mathematics to understand human behavior. In his current work, he builds models of response times in behavioral tasks, especially those involving number comparison and mental arithmetic. Bayesian statistics is a type of statistical inference which uses the tools of probability theory to compare competing models of human behavior. In this work, he develops methods to make Bayesian statistics more accessible, helping other researchers to more easily apply Bayesian statistics to their own work.

Representative publications:

  • Faulkenberry, T. J. (2022). Psychological Statistics: The Basics. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003181828
  • Faulkenberry, T. J. (2021). The Pearson Bayes factor: An analytic formula for computing evidential value from minimal summary statistics. Biometrical Letters, 58(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.2478/bile-2021-0001
  • Faulkenberry, T. J., Ly, A., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2020). Bayesian inference in numerical cognition: A tutorial using JASP. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 6(2), 231-259. https://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v6i2.288

Dr. Trina Geye

Dr. Geye’s research is primarily in the fields of applied and educational psychology. In applied psychology, the results of basic psychological research are applied to real world problems. Currently, she is partnering with a rare disease community in a Community Based Participatory Research project in which the community guides the goals of the research. Her work in educational psychology, much like applied psychology, uses evidence-based practices to improve educational outcomes. She is working with Career Services at Tarleton to develop a way to assess students’ perception of the marketable skills they gain during their college career.

Representative publications:

  • Geye, T., Oyler, H., Silva, K., Geis, L., Hoon, G., & Robertson, S. (2022, April 8). Joining gown and town: Community-based participatory research with rare disease community [Conference session]. Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Baton Rouge, LA.
  • Geye, T. (2021). Growing our own gems: Teaching of psychology track in a master’s program. Southwestern Psychologist Newsletter, 14(3), 5.
  • Robertson, S. & Geye, T. (2020). Supporting clients as they transition to college. Texas Psychologist, 16-18.

Dr. Heather Labansat

Dr. Labansat received a PhD from Texas Christian University in Experimental Psychology, with an emphasis in Cognition and Social Cognition. She is interested in studying how people learn to relate to self and others. For the last few years, her research lab (based in Fort Worth) has been conducting research examining self-compassion, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), and perspective-taking, under the umbrella of social cognition and human development. Her students have presented posters, presentations, and symposiums at APA, SWPA, and several other regional and local conferences.

Representative Publications:

  • Hough, T. M., Labansat, H. A., Moore, T. F., Wallace, R., Higgins, K. Control Yourself! Examining the dimensions of eudaimonic psychological well-being as related to locus of control using structural equation modeling. Advanced Journal of Social Science, 8(1), 245-255.

Dr. Stephanie Robertson

Dr. Robertson is an Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences and the founder and director of the Tarleton Center for Child Well-being. She is an active researcher investigating the relationship between mental health diagnoses, personality characteristics, giftedness, and work/educational accessibility. Her current research emphasis is on the intersection of school/work and characteristics of autism. She is also passionate about serving Tarleton students and the community through training and practice. She established the Tarleton Center for Child Well-being as a multidisciplinary behavioral health training clinic, providing internship and clinical research opportunities for graduate students in psychology, counseling, and social work.

Representative publications:

  • Robertson, S., & Robertson, T. (2021). Remember you: Mental health in a life dedicated to choral music. Choral Journal,62(3), 8-16.
  • Gomez, K. & Robertson, S. (2022) The role of empathy in bias towards mental illness among prospective law enforcement officers. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, DOI: 10.1080/10511253.2022.2034905
  • Glover, H., Robertson, S., & Geye, T. (2021). Investigating the Relationship Between Disability Status and Grit. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research,26(2), 130-138. doi:10.24839/2325-7342.JN26.2.130.