OKLAHOMA CITY — The student-led National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) group at Oklahoma City University will host a presentation titled “In Our Own Voice” at 6 p.m. Thursday in recognition of mental health awareness week. The event is free to the public and will be held in the Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center at the corner of Florida Avenue and N.W. 25th Street.
The interactive presentation includes video, discussion and personal testimony from individuals living with mental illness. It is intended to help people understand how those with mental illness cope with the reality of their illness while trying to live productive lives. The presentation covers the darker days of living with mental illness, acceptance and coping, treatment and future hopes and dreams.
Melissa Hakman, faculty advisor for OCU’s NAMI chapter, said the presentation will highlight the importance of helping people with mental illness.
“These problems aren’t very well understood by many people in society, yet they play a significant role in several aspects of our lives,” Reese said. “Even though the problems are real and have a large impact, the subject seems to be avoided as being outside the comfort zones of public discussion. We hope this event will shed some light on the issues.”
The Oklahoma NAMI chapter and the OCU Psychology Department are helping organize the event. For more information call Hakman at (405) 208-5397 or e-mail her at mhakman@okcu.edu.
Oklahoma City University will host a video presentation called “In Our Own Voice” at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow (Oct. 6) in recognition of Mental Illness Awareness Week.
The presentation will take place in the Kerr McGee Auditorium in Meinders School of Business and consists of a screening of the award-winning documentary explaining different types of mental illnesses and the public’s perceptions of them. A question-and-answer period will follow. The event is free to the public and refreshments will be provided.
The presentation is sponsored by the OCU Psychology Department, the university’s Psi Chi club and the Oklahoma Chapter of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
For information about the OCU event contact Dr. Wayne McGuire, coordinator for NAMI, at (405) 818-9401 or Dr. Melissa Hakman at OCU, advisor for Psi Chi, at (405) 208-5397.
A pair of Oklahoma City University students won first place in an undergraduate research paper competition for their study of “Who Goes First Does Matter, Unless No One Goes First.”
Psychology senior Amy Simpson and junior Stacie Abla showed that a standard measure of personal space was influenced by subtle distinctions in which member of a pair approached the other or whether they approached each other simultaneously. They competed at the Southwestern Psychological Association meeting in Kansas City.
Dennis Jowaisas, Ph.D., chair of the OCU Psychology Department, mentored the research project.
“The award was indicative of the quality of the programs at Oklahoma City University and of the psychology department in particular,” Jowaisas said. “Amy and Stacie join a long line of research award winners from the psychology department.”
Dennis Jowaisas, chair of the psychology department, is quoted in The Oklahoman’s lead story on December 4th entitled “Is film pointing kids in the right direction?” by Religion Editor Carla Hinton. Jowaisas discusses the controversy surrounding “The Golden Compass” film.
Psychology majors Selena Baxter, a junior from Oklahoma City, and Sylvia Kline, a senior from McLoud, OK, will be representing Oklahoma City University at the Southwestern Psychological Association Conference held April 5 – 7th, 2007 in Forth Worth, Texas. They studied the perceived competence for masculine issues, feminine issues, and likelihood of election of political candidates based on the hypothetical candidate’s sex, gender stereotypes, and child status. Baxter and Kline discovered that a candidate’s gender stereotype and child status influenced college students rating of competency on feminine issues. Similar to past research, feminine candidates were perceived as more competent on feminine issues and that candidates with children were perceived as more competent on feminine issues.
Ms. Baxter is a double major in Psychology and Political Science and plans on attending graduate school while Ms. Kline has applied to Law School. Dr. Amy Cataldi supervised their research project as part of the class requirement for Research Methods and Analysis. She noted the relevance of the research to politics in general and to the potential candidates in the 2008 presidential election in particular.
Kelly Williams, junior psychology major and Honors student, has won a Homeland Security Scholarship. The award will pay her undergraduate tuition, and a monthly stipend during this time. She will also spend the summer, expenses paid, doing supervised research on HS projects at the Sandia research facility in New Mexico, her first choice of possible assignments. Ms. Williams can also reapply for the scholarship for up to three years of graduate school.
Ms. Williams' success depended in part on her early involvement in research projects in addition to her outstanding academic record. She has presented papers at local, state and regional conferences, and won second place in last year's undergraduate poster presentation at the Oklahoma Psychological Society's annual conference.
Williams is currently conducting a new research project on the criteria people use to select partners in relationships. Dr. Dennis Jowaisas is her faculty mentor for this study. Dr. Jowaisas says that "Our program fosters and supports involvement in research because it is so important in scholarship and graduate school decisions. Kelly has a talent for research that is rare in undergraduates and the Homeland Security scholarship is one result of her training and talent. We are very proud of her."
