Personal Recollections

Dr. Laraine Glidden

Dr. Glidden recalled the draw to St. Mary's being the location and the small liberal arts orientation. Since she completed her undergraduate degree at a liberal arts institution, she was more comfortable and agreed with the type of education. Dr. Glidden and her husband had been searching for work in a common area. They moved around a couple times in the beginning of her career, but once she received the job at St. Mary's she settled down and has been here ever since. She recalled an interview at a school in Ohio where an older man underestimated her and assumed that in a few years she would end up dropping out and having kids anyways. He didn't care about the work she had done or the work she was planning to do, all he was focused on was that she was a female. She also recalled how understanding the students were, especially when she had to take care of her kids. There was a time when she received a call from her daughters day care that her daughter was sick. She quickly left a note on the board saying "Will be 20 minutes late, DO NOT LEAVE" and brought her daughter to class. However, once she got back to class, within 20 minutes of being there, her daughter began throwing up and she had the class take a 5 minute break. Her students were understanding and stayed while she took care of her daughter.

An interesting fact Dr. Glidden brought up was that it was common that a Professor at the time didn't have a PhD, a large amount only had a masters degree. It wasn't until 1983 that a PhD was required for professors at St. Mary's College of Maryland. She also recalled that in the 70's the majority of Psychology degrees were awarded to men, but now they are awarded to majority women. However, surprisingly enough there was still an even amount of female and male professors in the psychology program while Dr. Glidden was there in the 70's and 80's. There were 2 males and 2 females, which made for a small psychology program. She recalled that since there were only 4 psychology professors when she got there, they all had to be versatile enough to teach anything that they were asked to. She enjoyed this challenge, but preferred to take time to focus on one specific subject and master it.

Throughout her career, Dr. Glidden went on sabbatical three separate times. The first was in London which is where her interest in Adoption began. She worked in a family research institute with a child psychiatrist whose focus was on children who had medical problems and were adopted. This research was so important, she ended up publishing a book on it and continued researching it for the next 25 years. She continued her research during her second sabbatical at University of California, Berkeley and then her third at University of Georgetown.

Dr. Roy Hopkins

Dr. Hopkins spent close to 30 years working at St. Mary's. There were often times where he thought of leaving this college, but what made thinking about leaving hard were the friends he made working here and who enjoyed very much. Dr. Hopkins is very found of the friendships that were built within his department and through other departments. Hopkins recalls working and developing friends with many co-workers of other departments, who are still close today, like english, arts, economic, education studies, ethics and language. Hopkins believed that the departments were given the ability to dive into different teaching topics and departments which allowed him to co-teach ethics with Michael Tabor in philosophy; literature of adolescents the psychology of becoming with Andrea Hammer in the English department. And even a Seminar on the Future, which Hopkins enjoyed very much because he and his students would read current trends of psychology and predict how they might evolve into the future, even though they were often very wrong. His friendships with many different people led him to be involved promoting program designs which aimed at getting people to cross paths, interact and develop friends with those they do not typically interact with. In doing so, he was on a committee that helped design the campus center, coffee shop, and the dinning hall.

For most of Dr. Hopkins career at St. Mary's, the research facilities for developmental and social psychology labs, were so abysmal. So Hopkins spent most of his focus on writing textbooks, instead of conducting research. Hopkins recalls how strenuous it was writing the first edition of his Intro to Psychology textbook and teaching at the same time.

During summer of Dr. Hopkin's first sabbatical in 1986, he and his close friend Ludy T. Benjamin, another well known psychologist, went to Europe and taught courses on history of psychology and literature, as an adjunct professor. Together they taught in Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Geneva, and London. The Berlin wall was still up at the time, and Hopkins still remembers how scary it was to get heavily searched, just to enter East Germany. In East Germany, they were able to go to Leipzig and visit the first psychology laboratory. When he came back to the States, he spent the rest of the year in Long Island in SouthHampton mostly finishing up the first edition of his Intro to Psychology textbook, which he co-authored with Ludy Benjamin.

Dr. David Finkelman

Upon first glance, Dr. Finkelman found St. Mary's College of Maryland to be very attractive. It was a beautiful campus. He saw people who seemed to be engaging and interesting. The appealing nature of the campus is what drew him in, but what made him stay was the welcoming atmosphere. The faculty rarely got into disagreements and when disagreements did arise, they were able to settle them peacefully. Faculty members put students first when solving problems, thinking about how to benefit the students the most. There were no "warring camps" within the St. Mary's faculty (Finkelman, 2018). Each member of the faculty worked with each other in a supportive manner. The only drawback to St. Mary's was it's remote location. Dr. Finkelman would prefer to be in the city, as he grew up in New York, completed his undergrad in Buffalo, lived in Chicago, and then completed his graduate school in Minneapolis. Moving to St. Mary's was somewhat of a culture shock.

As far as major changes to the psychology program, Dr. Finkelman identifies advancements in the field of clinical psychology. The DSM has had many variations and with new variations, psychologists and psychiatrists had to frequently update their tools and ways in which they approached clinical psychology. Dr. Finkelman, however, is not clear on, "How much the DSMs represent actual progress or improvement as opposed to change... Not all change is progress... And not all change is good. And while [he] think[s] there have certainly been some benefits of succeeding editions of the DSMs, there have been also plenty of criticisms" (Finkelman, 2018). Between then and now, there have also been an increase use of medications to treat psychological problems or disorders. Dr. Finkelman acknowledges the mixed blessing of advancements in medication as well; as some may benefit from certain medications, others may not. It is relevant to question the abusing medication and misdiagnosing individuals. There have also been advancements in tools that we use to help treat patients, such as the MRI machine.

During 1981, psychology in law was a very popular topic. Unfortunately, St. Mary's does not offer a psychology of law course, but at the time Dr. Finkelman was working at the school, he had the opportunity to teach the course. When asked about why the psychology in law class is no longer offered at St. Mary's, Dr. Finkelman responded by saying that an outside review team suggested that the school was so small the psychology program should focus on more traditional aspects of psychology.

Introduction to psychology was a very popular class when Dr. Finkelman worked at the college, and generally still is today. When Dr. Finkelman taught the course, however, he taught two sections, both of which had roughly 50 students. He remarks hows striking it was how two similarly taught classes could give off a completely different atmosphere. According to Dr. Finkelman, this might have been due to how enthusiastic or engaged the students were. Dr. Finkelman really enjoyed when students were interested in the subject matter. History can sometimes be somewhat of a boring subject to learn but he found that many of his students were interested in history and systems of psychology. On one of Dr. Finkelman's professor evaluations, he received a comment from a student referring to his history and systems of psychology course that said, 'This class wasn't half as bad as I expected it to be.' This was a very humorous comment to receive, one that stayed with Dr. Finkelman after the semester had ended.

While at St. Mary's, Dr. Finkelman reminisced about his research with Dr. Platt. He and Dr. Platt published many studies together, however, one study that Dr. Finkelman brought up was not published. In this study, Dr. Finkelman and Dr. Platt were interested in false memories. During the mid 1990s, the phenomenon of false memories was a very popular topic in psychology. This is the idea that, according to Dr. Finkelman, recovering memories that had not actually happened. Dr. Finkelman and Dr. Platt's research was based off of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, who developed the idea to implant memories of events that allegedly happened in childhood. The person did not truly experience the events, but Dr.Loftus was able to fabricate the memory, making the subject believe that the events truly did happen to them. They were recovering false memories. Dr. Finkelman and Dr. Platt designed an experiment with children. The researchers got into contact with the children's parents, researched an event that did not happen to them, and then attempted to implant a false memory, similar to how Loftus did in her experiments. Dr. Finkelman and Dr. Platt's study determined that it was very difficult to plant false memories in the children. Dr. Finkelman found this to be somewhat reassuring, "Because if it was that easy to make somebody think that something had happened in their past, you'd be a little worried" (Finkelman, 2018).

Dr. Finkelman spent a collective 6 years as the department chair of psychology while working at St. Mary's. He doesn't consider himself as having the "administrative temperament," but he found it enjoyable, as the people he worked with were supportive and flexible. He found many aspects of the job challenging, like scheduling or settling disputes, but he was willing to take on the challenge.

There have always been more females than males in the psychology department. When Dr. Finkelman was working at the college, there were generally more females than males attending the college. One reason this could be is that St. Mary's used to be an all-women's institute.

Dr. Wes Jordan

Dr. Jordan came to St. Mary's in 1982. He was excited and encouraged by the promise of developing laboratories. He was especially fond of the opportunity to work with undergraduates in research. At the time, the research mainly revolved around rat studies. Dr. Jordan was interested in how brains store memories and how rats are able to use those memories in order to learn things.

Dr. Jordan commented on the advancement of research by various faculty members within the psychology department. Before Dr. Jordan came to St. Mary's, he won The National Institutes of Health Individual Research Service Award. This award was for Dr. Jordan's research with aplysia, or sea slugs, at the University of Oregon. Dr. Joran worked along side Dr. Lickey in investigating how the brains of aplysia control their biological rhythms. He mentioned that it was much easier to shift from working with sea slugs to working with rats when he came to St. Mary's. As for other colleagues, Dr. Jordan mentioned that Dr. Glidden was very well known in her field. He stated that she became prominent in understanding how children with disabilities went through the adoption process and how families adjust in these situations. He stated that Dr. Bailey has gotten a decent amount of recognition for her work. He also mentioned that Dr. Libby Williams is a fellow in the APA. These comments display the breadth and expansion of research within the psychology department at St. Mary's.

Throughout his career as a psychology professor, Dr. Jordan's favorite course to teach was Drugs, Brains and Behavior. This course was originally called Drugs and Society. This course focused on brain mechanisms and how the brain responds to drugs. When the psychology major was first created, this course became one of the ways to satisfy one of the major requirements.

Dr. Jordan noted the development of the original four majors at St. Mary's. He stated that the president in the 60's was President Jackson. President Jackson transitioned the school from a two-year college to a four-year college. He "strongly believed in interdisciplinary work and so he had the college create just four majors". Students majored in one of the four available areas until the academic possibilities expanded in the 80's.

In addition to working in the psychology department, Dr. Jordan also held a position as Dean of Admissions at St. Mary's. He held this position for eleven years. Dr. Jordan commented on his enjoyment and passion for his work as Dean of Admissions. He was able to talk with prospective students about the expectations and finances involved with attending college. Dr. Jordan mentioned his fulfillment in guiding students through the college decision process.

Dr. Jordan included several recollections regarding his life before St. Mary's. One recollection involved his time working for the APA in the 1980's. While there was not an official AP test for psychology at the time, the educational testing service hosted a test of a similar level. Dr. Jordan reviewed and graded the essay portion of the exam. When he first joined, there were only about thirty reviewers. However, as psychology became more popular among students, there was a larger demand for reviewers. By the time Dr. Jordan left this position, there were over one hundred and fifty exam reviewers. In addition to Dr. Jordan, Dr. Lasane and Dr. Hopkins were on this review board for a period of time.

Dr. Jordan also discussed his academic experiences as a student at Dartmouth. He discussed the crucial influence that his Ph.D. mentor provided. His mentor's name was Dr. Leighton. Dr. Jordan and his mentor got along extremely well and went on to conduct research together even after he left Dartmouth. They ended up co-publishing a paper together years later.

Dr. Elizabeth Williams

Dr. Williams fondly recalled the first time she came this campus for an interview. She remembered being struck by the beauty of this campus and the kind and welcoming faculty. After joining the psychology department, she immediately felt welcomed by her colleagues. She has had close relationships with much of the faulty, including Laraine Glidden, Roy Hopkin, Wes Jordan, and David Finkelman. The psychology department infrequently did research together, but they often got together socially and reviewed each other's work. She also had Robin Bates of the English department assigned to her as a mentor.

Dr. Williams is a self-proclaimed nerd and loves teaching. When she began working at St. Mary's she taught courses such as Abnormal Psychology and Personality Psychology, the latter of which is no longer offered. She also a class called Field Experience and Internships, which has since morphed into Service Learning. Her favorite classes to teach are Counseling & Psychotherapy with Lab and Research Methods. She proposed and designed Counseling & Psychotherapy with Lab because it was the only area of psychology that didn't have a research lab course. Other professors have taught the course, but she teaches it the most often.

Dr. Williams is incredibly active and involved, which keeps her busy. However, she acknowledges that there is a such thing as "too busy." Between teaching, researching, working with SMP students, and being a mother, she sometimes feels she has too much on her plate. Her advice to junior faculty is to chose carefully what to involve themselves in, because there is only so much time in a day.

She has also been the Chair of the Psychology Department twice. The first time she was Department Chair, it was only for a year (2006-2007), because afterwards she was asked to serve as the Dean of Core Curriculum. She recalled that the first time was challenging because it typically takes some time to become accustomed to the role. This is the second time she's been Department Chair, a position she's held since 2015. She feels more prepared this time around because she has more experience in administrative positions. She's implemented more mentoring in the psychology department, and meets with the junior faculty once a semester to give them the support they need in moving towards tenure. Dr. Williams has stated that she really enjoys her position as Department Chair.

Dr. Williams is involved in the American Psychological Association and the Society for Psychotherapy Research. Positions she has held in the APA include serving as newsletter editor for Division 17, Counseling Psychology, and president of Division 29, Psychotherapy. She currently serves on the Council of Representatives. She is less involved in the SPR, but attends their conferences.

Dr. Williams also recalled her experiences writing books. She remembered writing Counseling Psychology was a very challenging experience. She planned to write the textbook with Charlie Gelso and Bruce Fretz, but Fretz passed away before they wrote it. As a result, the work for three people was divided among two. However, she said it was a labor of love and she was happy she did it.