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Black adults experience more pronounced mental health challenges than white adults in response to stresses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study released by researchers from Georgia Tech and North Carolina State University. The study also found that younger white adults were less adversely affected by stress related to COVID-19 than older white adults. Ann Pearman was a senior research scientist in the School of Psychology when the study was conducted, and is the corresponding author. Graduate student MacKenzie Hughes and research assistant Clara Coblenz, both of the Hertzog Adult Cognition Lab, also contributed to the research. (The study was also covered in this roundup of recent Covid-19 stories in MSN news.)
Pandemic Stress Affects Black Adults More Than Their White PeersWinter is coming, and if you tend to feel sluggish or sad during those dark, dreary days of the season, it could be Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) to blame. The symptoms mimic those of regular depression. Shorter days and a lack of sunlight can cause a dramatic dip in serotonin, the body's natural mood stabilizer. Paul Verhaeghen, professor in the School of Psychology, suggests light therapy by using a light box or lamp with 2,500-10,000 lux. Using it one hour a day, preferably first thing in the morning, simulates natural sunlight and can increase energy.
Seasonal Slump? Six Strategies for Beating the Winter BluesFeeling sluggish and sad during dark, dreary winter days? Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) could be to blame. Symptoms of SAD mirror those of regular depression: social withdrawal, changes in appetite and weight, low energy, and difficulty sleeping. Why? Shorter days and a lack of sunlight cause a dramatic dip in serotonin, the body’s natural mood stabilizer. For those days when you’re stuck indoors, Paul Verhaeghen, professor in the School of Psychology, recommends the next best thing: a light box or lamp with 2,500 to 10,000 lux. Use it for up to one hour per day — preferably first thing in the morning — to simulate natural sunlight and increase energy.
Six strategies for beating the winter bluesKeaton Fletcher, an assistant professor in the School of Psychology, was invited to participate in the inaugural Workplace Mental Health and Wellness Summit, sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management. Much of the agenda concerned the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on worker mental health, with Fletcher joining other Industrial-Organizational Psychology researchers on what makes some workplaces healthier than others. Video from his presentation and discussion can be found here. Fletcher's research focuses on how leaders can improve the efficacy and well-being of their subordinates.
Workplace Mental Health and Wellness SummitThirty early career researchers — including Kimberly French, assistant professor in the School of Psychology — have been chosen for the 2022 Early Career Fellowship Program from the Work + Family Research Network. Fellowship recipients share a common interest in identifying connections and consequences of work and family arrangements, as well as working together to advance mutual career interests and goals. As a group, this year’s ECFs share a passion for examining the experiences of groups traditionally left out of work-family research, including low-wage workers, precarious workers, women of color, immigrants, and workers in the Global South.
The WFRN Welcomes 2022 Early Career Fellowship RecipientsGeorgia Tech President Angel Cabrera (MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95), and alumna Valerie Montgomery Rice (Chem 83), Morehouse School of Medicine president and CEO, are named to Georgia Trend Magazine's 2022 “Top 100 Most Influential Georgians” list. From Georgia Trend: "Last year, Cabrera and Georgia Tech celebrated historic growth on many levels, including recruitment of its most diverse class, graduation of the largest class ever, record-breaking endowment totals and a University of Georgia study that concluded Georgia Tech is the largest contributor to the state economy among all public universities."
Georgia Trend Magazine's 100 Most Influential GeorgiansIn the early 1980s, Atlanta’s zoo was known as one of the country’s worst — a depressing and woefully managed city-owned-and-operated mess. Animals died or disappeared, when they weren't confined to cages with little to no shade and with no access to open-air environments. Terry Maple — then a Georgia Tech primatologist, now a member of the School of Psychology's emeritus faculty — was the one who called it "a national disgrace." Maple was appointed executive director after an investigation, and is given credit for turning around the zoo's fortunes. Maple rallied investments and donations. Now named Zoo Atlanta, the facility has grown in size, diversity of animals, and is one of Atlanta’s biggest draws.
Remember when... the Atlanta zoo was a "national disgrace?"American workers are anxious, and navigating the ongoing uncertainty around management’s return-to-office expectations is only making things worse. As more Americans establish a hybrid work routine, many are struggling to understand employer expectations in this new working world order. What relics from our past work lives remain? And what is thrown out in the rebooting process? It’s confusing — and at times anxiety-inducing. Adding to the uncertainty is the argument some CEOs keep making that workers absolutely need to be in the office to recapture the same level of productivity as before the pandemic. “That’s just not true,” says Kimberly French, assistant professor in the School of Psychology.
Why so anxious? Return-to-office uncertainties are stressing us all out, but experts say there’s a simple fixNew research in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and other fields is published every day, but the gap between what is known and the capacity to act on that knowledge has never been larger. Scholars and non-scholars alike face the problem of how to organize knowledge and to integrate new observations with what is already known. Ontologies — formal, explicit specifications of the meaning of the concepts and entities that scientists study — provide a way to address this and other challenges, and thus to accelerate progress in behavioral research and its application. A new consensus study on the matter from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, includes contributions from NAS member Randall Engle, professor in the School of Psychology and principal investigator of Georgia Tech's Attention and Working Memory Lab.
Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of KnowledgeRandall (Randy) W. Engle has received the 2022 Psychonomic Society Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award, which recognizes “those who have made significant contributions to the field of cognitive psychology, and who have demonstrated sustained leadership and service to the discipline.” Engle is a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Psychology who leads the Institute’s Attention & Working Memory Lab. He is joined in receiving this year’s honor by Jeremy M. Wolfe of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Randall W. Engle Receives Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award
