News Archive

Psychology Turns 50 but Stays Forever Young

November 2010

During Homecoming Weekend 2010 (Friday September 17 until Monday September 20), the Department of Psychology welcomed alumni, former faculty, University representatives and guests in a celebration of 50 years of psychology at Bishop's. Started in 1960 by Dr. David D. Smith (whose family was represented at the celebration), the department has grown to 7 full-time faculty and over 200 majors and honours students. On the Friday morning, in conjunction with the 10 after 10 programme, Drs. Cindy Finn and Jennifer Jones gave presentations to current students about their careers. In the afternoon, alumni, administration and undergraduates enjoyed hearing 7 psychology graduates speak about My Occupation, My Journey and My Bishop's Experience. This was followed by informal mixing and refreshments. On Saturday morning, Dr. Andrea Drumheller escorted alumni around the campus, enriching their experiences with historical details from former Principal Dr. Christopher Nicholl's "Bishop's University, 1843-1970". Many watched the Homecoming football game (in which Bishop's triumphed), and in the evening everyone gathered for a reception and dinner at the Old Lennoxville Golf Club. Alumni came from near and far [Lennoxville, other parts of Québec and Canada, U.S.A (Vermont, Florida), Greece] and represented every decade since 1960. Eighty two of us enjoyed a fine meal, with speeches from Michael Goldbloom (Principal) on the university today, Leo Standing on the results of our psychology alumni survey and Stuart McKelvie on the history of the department. Everyone seemed younger as they exchanged memories from their back pages in Bishop's psychology. Emotions ran high as love stories were told, old friendships were renewed and new friendships were forged. The weekend wrapped up on Monday 20th with a lecture entitled "The History of Psychology: A Perspective from Greece" by alumna Dr. Despina Davou from the University of Athens. The Organizing Committee (Claude Charpentier, Andrea Drumheller and Stuart McKelvie) and the department of psychology were delighted to host alumni and friends and we thank everyone who attended the celebration or who sent greetings.

Stuart J. McKelvie

Dr. Bacon to Co-Chair the ACFAS 2011 Scientific Committee

September 2010

The Association Francophone pour le Savoir (ACFAS) is the largest multidisciplinary French conference in the world. From May 9-13 2011, about 5000 scientists will converge on Bishop’s University and the University of Sherbrooke to take part in its 79th edition. Dr. Benoit-Antoine Bacon from Bishop’s and Dr. Denis Lebel from the University of Sherbrooke are co-chairing the large multidisciplinary Scientific Committee that has the task of evaluating all submissions (colloquia, talks and posters) and of elaborating the scientific program of the conference. For more information about the ACFAS conference, please go to: http://www.acfas2011sherbrooke.ca

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Grant for Psychology Professors

August 2010

Claude Charpentier, Dale Stout and Benoit-Antoine Bacon from the Psychology Department, in collaboration with Estelle Chamoux (Principal Investigator; Biology), Steve Harvey (Business) and 4 professors from the University of Sherbrooke, have received 100 000$ from the CIHR to study access to health care in English in the Eastern Townships. Over the next year, the researchers and their students will collect data from both the French and English populations, as well as from health care professionals, to provide a clear portrait of the current situation. Results emerging from this study will likely help health institutions and their governing bodies to better target their actions towards the linguistic minorities and lead to positive measures for all residents of the Eastern Townships. This first-ever CIHR grant at Bishop's will allow the researchers to develop methods that could be used to study the health of linguistic minorities elsewhere in the country and around the world. Click on this link to get the full story: http://www.ubishops.ca/news/news2010/CIHR.html

International recognition for Dr. Sirois’ latest paper

July 2010

The latest issue of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine dedicates the entirety of its editorial to praising the work of Dr. Sirois (and colleagues Carla Bann and Edith Walsh). They refer to their contribution Provider Support in Complementary and Alternative Medicine:Exploring the Role of Patient Empowerment as a "thought-provoking submission" and as "a very important paper" whose statistical results are "unassailable". You can read the editorial at:

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2010.0309 and you can also contact either Dr. Sirois or the Department of Psychology for the original article.

50 years of Psychology at Bishop’s!

July 2010

In 1960, Bishop’s University hired Dr. David D. Smith to establish and develop a Department of Psychology. He arrived with degrees and teaching experience from Sir George Williams University, the University of Minnesota and McGill University, and with expertise in both theoretical and applied psychology. Under his leadership, the department grew and became one of the flagships of the University. At present we boast 7 full-time faculty members and almost 200 full-time students, making Psychology the largest department at Bishop’s. To celebrate its half-century, the Department has planned special events during the 2010 Homecoming Weekend (September 16 to 19). All of our graduates are warmly invited. For more information, please go to Psychology Reunion Registration.

Dr. Sirois to Take Part of a National Institute of Health (NIH) “Think Thank”

July 2010

Dr. Fuschia M. Sirois has been invited to be part of a "Think Tank" on research priorities for studying the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institute of Health of the USA (Bethesda, Maryland). The feedback from this meeting, which will be held on 23 September 2010, will inform the next National Health survey that will be administered to the population of the USA. Dr. Sirois is the only Canadian that has been invited to contribute.

Dr. Stuart McKelvie receives the William and Nancy Turner Award for Teaching

June 2010

This award is annually given at convocation to a member of Faculty who has made an extraordinary contribution to the education of Bishop's students through teaching. Dr. McKelvie, who has been teaching at Bishop's since 1972, was receiving this honor for the second time. Psychology student Michelle Gibbon, who presented the award, said: "Whether he's running the track at the Sports Plex, or lecturing on psychometrics in the classroom, it's hard not to get inspired by Stuart McKelvie. Yes, he can make you believe, if only for an hour and fifteen minutes, that test-retest reliability is the coolest thing in the world! Bacause that's what he does – he inspires."

Alicia Rubel obtains a prestigious SSHRC scholarship

May 2010

Three Bishop's students were awarded a SSHRC graduate scholarship this year, including Psychology Honours student Alicia Rubel. She will be taking her scholarship to Brock University. Congratulations Alley!

Health Psychologist Fuschia M. Sirois joins the Department of Psychology and will be applying for a Canada Research Chair in Psychological Health and Wellbeing

April 2010

It is with great pleasure that the Department of Psychology announces that Dr. Sirois will be joining us from July 1, 2010. Dr. Sirois’s internationally recognized research in Health Psychology spreads over three interconnected themes: (1) The importance of self-regulation in health and well-being; (2) The factors and processes involved in adjusting to chronic health conditions and (3) motivations for using complementary and alternative medicine. Her research is funded, among other sources, by SSHRC. Dr. Sirois is also a talented teacher of, among other topics, Health Psychology, Personality and Motivation. She has been selected to apply for the available Tier II Canada Research Chair in Psychological Health and Wellbeing (submission deadline in November 2010). The coming of Dr. Sirois reinforces both the research and the applied side of our program and constitutes a first step towards the development of a graduate program in Psychology at Bishop’s.

Honours students to present the results of their Honours theses

April 2010

It’s that time of year again and the Honours students are frantically analyzing results, writing up discussions and preparing slides! Come hear them talk about their exciting research projects on relationships, pain, metaphors, anxiety etc. on Friday April 16th at 9:30 in Hamilton-302.

Practicum students to speak about their experience in the field

April 2010

Every year, practicum students get to work in a variety of applied settings like clinics, schools, rehab centers etc. Come hear them describe this very intense experience on Tuesday April 6th at 19:00 in Cleghorn Room.

Marie-Christine Desrosiers is awarded a prestigious NSERC scholarship

March 2010

Two Bishop’s students obtained an NSERC graduate scholarship this year and one of them is Psychology/Neuroscience student Marie-Christine Desrosiers. Marie-Christine is still unsure where she will be taking the NSERC but is seriously considering the Neuropsychology program at the University of Montreal.

Philippe Setlakwe-Blouin, Marie-Christine Desrosiers and Tracy Clouthier win prizes in research week poster competition

March 2010

It was a near sweep for Psychology at the poster competition. Philippe-Blouin was awarded the 1st prize for social science or humanities research for his work entitled “On the relationship between postformal thought, irony and metaphor appreciation, and creativity”. Marie-Christine took 1st prize in the natural science competition (given by NSERC) for her work entitled “First versus second language emotionality and pain modulation”. Andrew Gibson from the Biology Department took second prize and Tracy Clouthier took third prize.

Tracy Clouthier and Marie-Christine Desrosiers present their Honours work at the Societe Quebecoise de Recherche en Psychologie

March 2010

This year, the SRRP conference was held in Montreal on March 19-21. Tracy and Marie-Christine where among the few undergraduates that had the chance to present alongside graduate students and faculty from all the Universities in Quebec. Congratulations to both, who are now officially published authors of scientific knowledge.

Drs. Claude Charpentier and Dale Stout speak at research week

March 2010

Are the English population of the Eastern Townships well served in terms of Health services? Dale and Claude say no and demonstrate lack of availability, accessibility and acceptability in English language health services in the area. March 22nd at 11:30 in Cleghorn Room.

Seven Psychology posters (out of 22 total) at the 5th annual Research week

March 2010

As usual the Psychology Department is a very active player in Bishop’s annual Research Week. Come see Chris Philip, Christine Heuvelink, Philippe Setlakwe-Blouin, Tracy Clouthier, Chris Ross, Marie-Christine Desrosiers and Willow Burns present their Honours results as posters on March 24th from 11:30 in the lobby of Centennial Theatre.

Dr. Laura Mitchell speaks on music and pain

January 2010

Can listening to music make pain easier to bear? In a series of cleverly designed experiment, Dr. Laura Mitchell (Glasgow Caledonian University and McGill University) demonstrates that this is the case. Her prescription for chronic pain: “take two aspirins and the Moonlight Sonata.” January 27th at 1:30 in Cleghorn Room.