More about our degrees

I am engaged in both basic (theoretical research that adds to our understanding of human behavior) and applied (practical research intended to address a problem) research.

My basic research is in the area of social cognition. In general, my research concerns people’s perceptions and how those perceptions affect their views of themselves and their experiences. Frequently my questions concern social justice issues. For example, I've studied the roles of gender and power in person perception and jurors’ use of their nullification power.

My applied research is in the areas of health and education. In the area of health, I study our perceptions of the risks involved with drug use and with unprotected sexual contact and attitudes toward care of the dying. For example, do people perceive tobacco to be riskier than marijuana? In education, I study methods for effective teaching and learning. For example, do skills learned in one class transfer to another? Does inverting the classroom improve education?

There are two current applied projects with opportunities for student involvement.

• Attitudes toward Care of the Dying: With our aging population comes an increased need for clinicians who can capably and comfortably provide care for those at the end of life (EOL). In fact, both the AACN and APA expect would-be practitioners to be competent with EOL issues. Given that our curriculums don’t have space for Death and Dying courses, might we be able to affect attitudes with a single class session? A pre-/post-test with Nursing students showed improved attitudes. Do these attitudes hold through to their graduation? Does offering a class session on EOL improve Growth and Development students’ attitudes?
• Identity Change in Engineering Students: Identity is an important determinant of students' persistence in and commitment to their fields. Seattle University's Mechanical Engineering Department is changing its program and curriculum to better connect students to industry. Do these changes lead to stronger engineering identities?

Duties: Tasks include literature gathering and review, data collection and data analysis, problem development and pilot testing.

Requirements: Ideally students should have completed the Statistics and Research Methods sequence; however, students in process will be considered. The commitment is 3-6 hours per week for two (or more) quarters. Students may participate via the Psychology Practicum Program (1-2 credits) or may volunteer.

Benefits: Students will be guided through the tasks and mentored by me. Students who perform well can expect an endorsement/recommendation from me. There may be opportunities for presentation and/or publication.

The Outsider Lab

In this lab we explore topics relevant to the histories of psychology and psychiatry. A generally underappreciated specialty, historians of psychology serve important intellectual and even ethical functions for the discipline as a whole (Richards, 2010). In endorsing both, I believe it is particularly important to focus on topics and questions either underrepresented in the literature, or involving participants and/or perspectives falling outside the dominant historical canon. Hence, the laboratory title speaks to both the status and focus of our work!

Currently, we are exploring the historical and contemporary relevance of phrenology. As a late 18th century pseudoscience, the theories of mind (e.g., materiality, localization of mental functions and corresponding brain anatomy) consolidated and advocated by Franz Josef Gall represent an important, if also highly problematic, step in the emergence of neuroscience and scientific psychology. Many of these contributions have been adequately explored in the literature, and are currently enjoying some degree of “rediscovery” by historians of neuroscience. As a 19th century pseudo-professional practice, however, phrenology’s role in American society has yet to be fully appreciated. Occupying a position not dissimilar to psychoanalysis in the first two-thirds of the 20th century, practical phrenology played an important and almost ubiquitous role in shaping concepts of identity and action for 19th century Americans. Particularly noteworthy is how its ideas and practices so effectively crossed gender, socioeconomic, geographic, and racial boundaries. 

We are exploring the impact of practical phrenology in two ongoing projects:

• Practical phrenology as a pathway to professional identities for women and people of color (with special interest in Pacific Northwest).
• Practical phrenology’s role in the emergence of 20th century psychotherapy.

Project Duties: Conducting literature searches and reviews; archival research (electronic and physical archives); presentation development.

Participation Requirements: Open to graduate and advanced undergraduate students. For undergraduate participants: completion of PSYC 3700 (students in process will be considered) and HIST 1200, 1210, or 2310. For graduate participants: demonstrated equivalent background.

Participation Commitment: Three to six hours per week for two (or more) quarters. Undergraduate students may participate through the Psychology Practicum Program (PSYC 4950; 1-2 credits) or may volunteer. Graduate students may volunteer.

Participation Process: Interested students (UG & Grad) should email Dr. Lilleleht to schedule an information interview. In advance of our meeting, students are requested to provide two faculty references (contact information; please inform your references about the project). Undergraduate students interested in participating through the Practicum Program will also need to schedule a meeting with the Psychology Practicum Director.

I am involved in disaster response work and preparation, both locally and internationally that focuses on mental health resilience and recovery following both large and small-scale disasters and critical incidents.

My basic research is in the area of recovery from disaster and trauma, as well as the various coping mechanisms used in the recovery process cross culturally, including substance use, faith, and other aspects of resilience. 

My applied research is in the areas of sustainable training for survivors of large and small-scale critical incidents. What helps people in the recovery process following a major (social or personal) event? How does faith influence personal resilience and the way people cope? How do external coping mechanisms such as substance abuse, influence resilience?

There are three current projects with opportunities for student involvement. 

1. Faith and Coping: Qualitative and Quantitative data have been collected with Syrian refugees in Jordan. Next steps include additional library research on contemporary findings related to faith and coping in Muslim populations, and the design of a similar study to be conducted in the future with a population from a differing faith background so that those results can be contrasted with what we have found in with the Syrian refugee population.
2. Resilience predictors across cultures: Library research and study design, as well as grant applications and writing to develop and conduct additional international and local research on the broader topic of resilience and its predictors, focusing on the use of the CD-RISC.
3. Substance Use as a coping mechanism following large-scale disaster or displacement: A preliminary investigation into how substance use is related to recovery processes in the context of other social, cultural and religious norms around the world. This is in the beginning stages of investigation, and student work is likely to include grant proposals and literature review.

Requirements: Ideally students should have completed the Statistics and Research Methods sequence; however, students in process will be considered. 

The commitment is 2-4 hours per week for two (or more) quarters. Students may participate via the Psychology Practicum Program (1-2 credits) or may volunteer.

Benefits: Students will be guided through the tasks and mentored by me. Students who perform well can expect an endorsement/recommendation from me. There may be opportunities for presentation and/or publication.

Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Laboratory

I am engaged in basic research with both human and animal models to increase our understanding of human behavior.

My animal model research explores learning and memory and psychopharmacology, with an emphasis on the consolidation and reconsolidation of emotionally salient events and the effects that drugs of abuse and therapeutic drugs have on the learning process, including the formation, storage and retrieval of memories.

My human research explores the effects of overall well-being on gratitude.

There are two current projects with opportunities for student involvement. 

Odor and Object Recognition Memory: Rats have a natural preference for novelty and readily explore novel odors and objects. Taking advantage of this preference, it is possible to explore the effects of alcohol on memory after learning has occurred. Disruption of memory in this fashion is known as retrograde amnesia and can occur as a result of a single acute alcohol binge. We examine both this phenomenon and the effects of drugs such as caffeine, and non-drug interventions such as exercise, on memory for objects and odors in rodents.

• Duties: Tasks include animal care and maintenance, performing the object and odor recognition tasks in rodents, gathering and reviewing the relevant literature, data collection, and data analysis.
• Requirements: Ideally students should have completed the Statistics and Research Methods sequence; however, students in process will be considered.
• Recruitment and time commitment: Dr. Spinetta prefers to recruit students through his courses who have demonstrated the motivation to gain research experience. The time commitment is flexible and will be determined based on meeting with Dr. Spinetta. Students may participate via the Psychology Practicum Program or may volunteer.

Gratitude and Well-being: Gratitude has been defined as “a sense of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, whether the gift be a tangible benefit from a specific other or a moment of peaceful bliss evoked by natural beauty”. However, the relationships between gratitude and factors related to overall well-being needs to be further explored in the undergraduate population (population of young adults). Importantly, it is possible that even a very brief focus on gratitude, or the act of thinking about gratitude could yield an increase in overall well-being. To educate the whole person, as Seattle University aims to do, my collaborators and I explore ways to enhance gratitude and potentially increase well-being as a result. There are many factors that can affect an individual’s gratitude. We examine the relationships between gratitude, development (ego development and emotional intelligence) and overall well-being (happiness, spirituality, anxiety, and stress).

• Duties: Tasks include gathering and reviewing the relevant literature, data collection, and data analysis.
• Requirements: Ideally students should have completed the Statistics and Research Methods sequence; however, students in process will be considered.
• Recruitment and time commitment: Dr. Spinetta prefers to recruit students through his courses who have demonstrated the motivation to gain research experience. The time commitment is flexible and will be determined based on meeting with Dr. Spinetta. Students may participate via the Psychology Practicum Program or may volunteer.

How well do you really know yourself? Do your friends and family know you better than you do? How does feedback—criticisms, and compliments—from close others and strangers affect how you relate to yourself and others? My research examines how people make sense of themselves and each other, including questions about self-knowledge and other-knowledge of personality and moral character, how we change over time, and the exchange of interpersonal feedback.

Tasks may include: coding/analyzing audio and text data, conducting article searches, reading journal articles, formulating hypotheses, and collecting new data.

Essential Skills: organized, detail-oriented, works independently, takes initiative, communicates promptly.

Required Experience: successful completion of PSYC 1200.

Preferred Experience: successful completion of PSYC 2050 and PSYC 3030.

Commitment: 2 quarters minimum, ~6 hours weekly (this may be flexible).

Benefits: practice conducting research in personality/social psychology, working closely with a professor and other research assistant(s), weekly journal article discussion, option to receive course credit (PSYC 4960).