SBU Lewis E. Schollian College of Education and Social Sciences

Holiday Season Ahead

2009-11-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

As the calendar turns to November, we enter into a time of holidays galore. But I suppose the purpose of this blog is to remind everyone, L e t ' s s l o w d o w n.
There is enough stress and pressure throughout this time of year, we don't need to compound it all by speeding things up. And speaking of speeding things up, Christmas songs on various radio stations???? Give me a break. I am all for the birth of Christ's celebration, but in its due time. We have veterans to thank and respect, we have Pilgrims to remember and relive their tradition, we have to recall the "date which will live in infamy," and we even have "National Regifting Day" (Dec. 18, for those who really wanted to know). So, let's don't rush to get to Christmas, because if we do, we may not be going slow enough to really enjoy it and really think about its true meaning. Happy Holidays to come.

Integration Night

2009-10-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Behavioral Sciences Club hosted an "Integration of Faith and Discipline" night with Christine Saladino, Richard Brewer, and myself. It was a great night of presentation and dialogue about how each of us have grown in the manner by which we integrate psychology, sociology, and social work into our Christian worldview.
I think I can summarize a few things for those who were not there.
1. There is no one way that integration is or can be done. It is highly personalized. It is led by the Holy Spirit and built around our experiences. The Bible, of course, still guides our principles and precepts, but we still grapple with where does our field of study fit?
2. It requires patience and practice. It does not come overnight. It makes us struggle, not just intellectually, but also emotionally, because the beliefs we hold to are very core to each of us.
3. It is exciting as much as it is exasperating. We love what we learn in our respective fields. We love insight, we love striving with others in this endeavor, and we love our growth in our maturity. But, boy, does require work. It requires that we read, listen and learn from others, and it requires that keep on doing it. In all likelihood, no real closure in this lifetime.
So, next time we do something like this, we would like to see more of you there. But in the meantime, try some integration on your own. You'll be glad you did!

Student Professional Memberships

2009-10-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

One of the things that students in the Behavioral Sciences should consider is belonging to a professional organization as a student member. Whether one is going on to graduate school or not, the sheer amount of information and the benefits received from joining such a group is invaluable. Psychology students can look to the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Counseling Association (ACA), or even the American Association of Christian Counselors. Sociology students can join the American Sociological Association (ASA) and those bent more towards the social work area can think about joining the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) or the National Association of Christian Social Workers (NACSW). And our Criminal Justice majors may want to consider the American Criminal Justice Association (ACJA-Lambda Alpha Epsilon).
Usually, for a very nominal membership fee as a student member, you would gain access to many helpful tools to assist you in career development. Information about how to get into the field and everything from graduate school preparation to up-to-date issues can be found. Additionally, you may have various newsletters, journals, or databases that you can access, which would increase your overall exposure to the discipline.
Therefore, I would encourage each of you to speak with your advisor or your professor about such memberships and see which one is right for you. Take a serious look at your professional development even now as a student and it could open a whole new perspective for you.

Classroom behavior strategies class to be held October 27, 2009

2009-10-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

Barbara Riedesel, Behavior Specialist from the Bolivar Exceptional Pupil Cooperative, will be teaching a Classroom Behavior Strategies class on Thursday, October 29, 2009 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Gott Education Building, Rooms 240 and 250 on the SBU Bolivar campus.

Classroom management and behavior/discipline strategies are often challenges for beginning teachers. This seminar will address strategies to help the beginning teacher determine appropriate tactics for their classroom.

The initial certificate (IPC) is valid for four years. During the valid dates of this classification, a teacher is required to participate in a beginning teacher assistance program. This seminar will help qualify the participant to advance to the next level of certification.

The cost for the seminar is $15.00 which includes a meal and drink The deadline to sign up is October 23, 2009. No late registrations will be allowed. The seminar is limited o the first 50 participants.

Registration forms MUST be accompanied by check or purchase order and may be faxed or mailed. For more information, please call (417) 328-1717.

Homecoming

2009-10-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

Homecoming is coming! I am looking forward to seeing some alumni and some current students in and around the SBU campus on the weekend of October 10th. Please take advantage of this time to meet our esteemed faculty, the newer ones and the ones who have been here a while. Many times, I never know who I will meet and it is a surprise. It is nice to catch up on everyone's lives and stories. So, come and share. Safe travels and blessings to all.

What-if Overload

2009-09-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

While trying what to make my first posting about, I considered many things but kept coming back to the same topic. In my first aid class we are currently going over CPR. I generally go into this topic with the knowledge that actually having to do CPR on a real person is a frightening thought for most students. Perhaps because the students are so worried about actually helping someone, they tend to ask lots of questions. Some questions are for clarification or further instruction on how to perform the skill, but others seem to be derived from the worry. Questions about situations that probably those of us who don't work in ERs will ever encounter. I try to tell my students that the what-ifs are not the focus, and if they know the basic skills they can handle almost any situation. This, however, is not the answer they're looking for and often provides little satisfaction. In these cases, I try my best to answer their questions and emphasize using good judgment and common sense.

This idea of worry about the what-ifs has me thinking about our lives in general though. How often do we worry about an event that's in the future? Or a situation that is in the past? Studies have found that what we tend to worry about things that will never happen, the what-ifs. For some of us, myself included, we have a hard time refraining from worry. One of the bad things about worry is that it is a vicious circle. If we try to eliminate worry from our lives, we worry that we aren't worried. If we focus on our worries, then we are missing out on all God has planned for our lives. I suppose there is not easy fix for worrying, but by using good judgment and following what you've been taught, you'll know what to do in those what-if situations.

GRE Anyone?

2009-09-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome back. Sorry I have been away from the blog. But here is the latest scoop from the Department of Behavioral Sciences. Psi Chi and SCJS (Sociology and Criminal Justice Society) is sponsoring the Fall GRE Prep Sessions. So, for those of you who have aspirations for graduate school and the GRE is required, then this is for you. For $7.00, you can attend all 5 sessions: Overview; Practice Testing; Essay Writing and Statistics; Vocabulary Building; and Math Review. Materials will also be provided. This has been done before and reports are that this type of study is well worth the time and effort. So, make room on your schedules for September 24, 25, 26, and October 2 and 3 for this event. You have until September 19th to register, so hurry.

Not our Tim Wood, a case of mistaken identity

2009-03-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

“There are two modes of establishing our reputation: to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the former, because it will invariably be accompanied by the latter.”

-- Charles Caleb Colton, Anglican clergyman (1780-1832)

Reputation and trust are precious and precarious things. They are built over a lifetime, and yet they can be squandered (or stolen) in an instant. This has been one of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the past few days as I have dealt with a rather unusual case of identity theft.

Hopefully, none of you are going to encounter my cyberspace imposter or his/her work firsthand. But just in case, I wanted to take a moment to explain what has happened, set the record straight, and reassure everyone that I haven’t completely lost my mind!

This situation first came to my attention back in December. Just before the beginning of Christmas break, I began to receive “fan mail” (for lack of a better term) on my university e-mail account. These people kept raving about this online political essay I had supposedly written and published, and that was now being circulated via forwarded emails. Some called me courageous. Others hailed me as a visionary. A few suggested that I was predestined to play a pivotal role in the apocalyptic events foretold in the Book of Revelation. (I’m not kidding...) Now over the past eleven years I have published a book and several articles in academic journals, and I have to admit I never even attracted one groupie. So with my curiosity very much piqued, I began searching the internet for the mysterious article.

I suppose it was inevitable that I was not going to like what I found. There, prominently displayed on a rather politically extreme website, was an essay that likened President Barack Obama to . . . Adolph Hitler. Underneath the title was the inscription “by Tim Wood.” Uh-oh.

I was not pleased. However, even though my parents always told me I was special, a quick internet search will reveal that I am not, in fact, the world’s only Tim Wood. So I ignored it. Until recently, that is, when the forwarded version of this article had mutated into a form which included the rather unambiguous phrase “Professor of History and Political Science, Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, MO.” The writer of this message also helpfully appended my office phone number and e-mail address.

I would be lying if I said I was not upset. Even above and beyond the fact that the comparison is utterly ridiculous (anyone who believes that truly has no understanding of the depths of evil plumbed by the Nazi regime), it was now personal. Who has the right to speak for me like that? How dare they hide behind my name! What if my colleagues -- or my friends and family – read this and believed it??? And it still surprises me how much we all (and I include myself in this) take at face value off the internet. In history, scholars are trained to always analyze their sources. Always, in the back of their minds, historians must be aware that the historical documents they are working with may contain errors, lies, omissions, and distortions. Their sources may even turn out to be wholesale forgeries.

To navigate those potential pitfalls, historians check facts and look for other documents that conform (or contradict) the information found in our source. We seek to identify the author and understand his or her motives for writing. We try to understand the larger historical and cultural context surrounding a document. By doing our homework, we’re better able to judge when something or someone deserves to be “taken at their word.”

This episode has taught me that these skills have an important place even outside this history classroom. All of us know how much dishonesty there is in the world around us, yet how quickly we forget that just before we hit the “forward” button. For me, this has been a warning against being intellectually lazy and has reminded me of the importance of verifying information before passing it on to others. (Along the way, I’ve also learned that websites such as www.snopes.com and www.truthorfiction.com are excellent tools for investigating online hoaxes.)

At any rate, I’m now in the process of cleaning this mess up, and am optimistic that it will soon be straightened out. And if any of you encounter any online rantings and ravings that claim to be by me, don’t necessarily believe it. Things are not always what they seem.

Timothy L. Wood, Ph.D.

The Psychology of New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

When the New Year rolls around, many of us think in terms of making a New Year's Resolution for ourselves. The only problem for many of us, is that by the time the next Christmas comes that resolution is far distant memory. But the short of it is this: we all need goals. Goals helps us to formulate a plan or strategy to help us accomplish a desire we may have. Too many times, we simply focus on the "desire" we would like to accomplish this next year, without the plan to help us succeed.
So, keep these 5 things in mind when working on those New Year's Resolutions.
1. Keep things simple. Perhaps work on only one thing at a time. Break things down into smaller, and more workable steps.
2. State your "desire" in behavioral terms. It is not enough to say, "I want to get closer to God this year." The question is how, and you can do that by reading your Bible more often, or keeping a daily devotional.
3. Make it something you can count. Minutes you have walked. Chapters of the Bible you have read. Times you went to the gym to workout this week.
4. Write it down. Putting your plan into words is also very helpful. It is like a "contract" with yourself and contracts can be very motivational.
5. And plan to reward yourself at various points of accomplishment along the way. Giving yourself a pat on the back, using something material that you will buy if you complete certain tasks. It is the "ol' carrot in front of the donkey, pulling the cart" routine. At some point, we have to let the donkey get the carrot, or perhaps, he'll never pull for us again.
If you have any questions about some plans for your life, please drop us a note at the Behavioral Sciences department.

An Encounter at SBU

2008-12-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

During a recent discussion with the parents of a prospective student, I was asked about the qualities that make Southwest Baptist University distinctively different. While, this inquiry is not unlike many other encounters I have had with visiting families and their future scholars, I was confident that my response was probably going to be one of the determining factors in their decision making analysis. The certainty I felt regarding my answer was the result of a short but intense encounter where I felt the presence and pleasure of God. As I recall my response to those questions today, I am flushed with the knowledge that God has a unique role for me at this university.
So, what makes Southwest Baptist University distinctively different? Many private universities claim to present a Biblical worldview. Southwest Baptist University fulfills that claim and additionally offers to its students the opportunity to establish a relationship with the faculty and staff that is based upon the love of Jesus Christ. This university has truly created a community that is “Christ-centered,” “caring,” and unabashedly “academic.” Having spent nearly fifteen years of my nearly twenty years in higher education at public universities, I bring a perspective that is framed by a lack of freedom in spiritual matters. At this university, I have found a committed group of Christians who are engaged in the spiritual lives of the students they encounter. On this day, I was pleased to have been able to communicate this special quality to the family in my office.
But more than that, this university has taken a leadership role in preparing students to become “servant leaders” once they venture off-campus. I am proud to be associated with an institution of higher education that prepares its students to be global ambassadors in this regard. I challenged the family I was talking to that day to identify another university that provided both the scope and depth of opportunities to impact this country and the world as ministers of the good-news gospel of Jesus Christ. Because I have been travelling to Siberia for the last four years with our students I am acutely aware of how Southwest Baptist University fulfills this mission goal. Ultimately I discovered that my pride in this university is based on equal parts of the final product we help produce at graduation and about glorifying God as we prepare our students for life. At the conclusion of our discussion that day, I privately thanked God for the opportunity to respond to such direct questions about my employer. I am certain that the encounter that day was as much about me identifying my role at this university as helping a family decide where to send their daughter to college.

Light Please

2008-12-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year. All the Christmas songs, themes, symbols, and shows. Oh, the shows. I grew up watching them all: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon version); Rudolph; Frosty; and Charlie Brown. I got to where I had some parts memorized. Who can forget, "It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes, or bags!" Or when the elf and Rudolph are going to off and be "Independent, together." (Go figure that one out).

But the classic scene I remember the most is the one where Linus, in answering Charlie Brown's question "Does anyone know what Christmas is about?" He simply steps forward and says, "Lights please" and begins the Luke narrative about the birth of Jesus. That was how I memorized scripture early on.

That simple story, that perfect narrative, enlightens us all, as to what Christmas is about. And while it may have been set on a school stage, the Christmas story sets the stage for the True Light, who came to redeem us all. So instead of saying "lights please," I think what we need this year, more than any other, is to say, "Light. Please."

It Costs What?!!

2008-12-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

Just recently it was reported that if one were to "buy" all the gifts mentioned in the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," that it would cost $86,609 (AP story). Say what? That's almost a house for most people. That's almost the cost of an education at SBU (over four years). And, of course, the cost of those "12 days" gifts will keep going up. Well, I think, in this day and age of materialism and the way the economy is going, I am going to go a different route with gifts this year.
Fancy Christmas Card $4.50
Christmas candy for kids $12.00
Stocking Stuffers $15.00
Something for the wife $55.00
TOTAL $86.50 (Less than .1% of the cost for the 12 days)
But celebrating the Birth of Jesus, with my wife and my kids
PRICELESS.

Santa Claus was a Psych major

2008-11-11T09:10:00.000-08:00

I have uncovered a transcript, whereby we now know that Santa Claus had a major in Psychology.
General Psychology (Develop understanding of who people are and what they want)
Abnormal Psychology (To figure out who's been "naughty 'n nice")
Child Development (No explanation needed)
Social Psychology (Social influence on consumer behavior)
Statistics (Analysis of productivity of the elves and their job satisfaction)
Psychology of Personality (Knowledge of the perfect gift for each person)
Behavior Modification (Rewards do influence behavior; and to keep the reindeer in line)
Psychological Testing (Objective method of matching the right elf to the right job)
Physiological Psychology (Brain body connection for all the meals and goodies at Christmas time)
Being Human and Addicted (Study of the powerful behaviors related to shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving; OR beginning the shopping list back in February for the next Christmas; OR leaving up the outdoor lights until May; OR watching all the Christmas videos, over and over; OR dealing with withdrawal after the season is over; OR ... well you get the picture)
Way to go Santa!

“Things That Can Get You in Trouble”

2008-11-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

As teachers we realize that good communication is essential to teaching and learning. As we communicate with others we are able to learn new procedures, share strategies that work, and seek suggestions for things that don’t work. Hopefully everyone benefits from this communication venue.

Each semester our department offers a seminar to benefit our first- and second- year graduates. This fall we chose the subject of classroom management, a topic that is of great interest to teachers. Good classroom management is an essential ingredient in effective teaching. It is probably the number one topic of discussion among beginning teachers.

Susan Mize, a former principal, presented on the topic “Things That Can Get You in Trouble.” Ms. Mize shared from the perspective of the principal what every teacher should know about classroom management. Her experience as a principal has given her keen insight into the problems encountered by beginning teachers. The following are suggestions made by Ms. Mize:

• Play and work well with others. You must be a good teacher and a good staff member.
• Dress respectfully and appropriately for your job.
• Get organized and learn to deal with paperwork.
• Plan ahead for class needs so you never have to leave your classroom unattended.
• Involve your students in their own learning.
• Exhibit a positive attitude toward your students and the content.
• Watch your boundaries with students and don’t ever be alone with a student.
• Don’t let students push your buttons and make you angry.
• Teach your students as though their parents were in the room.
• Be teachable.

What are your questions, thoughts, experiences, or suggestions you would like to share by responding to our BLOG?

Mid-West Christian Psychology Conference

2008-11-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

On November 15, the Mid-west Christian Psychology Conference will be held on the campus of the College of the Ozarks. SBU hosted this conference last year and it was a delight to see the students and faculty from nearby universities get together and engage in scholarly discussions and presentations. Students and faculty benefit from this type of conference, as we explore the relationship between psychological concepts and the spiritual side of human beings.
We will look forward to some presentations made by our students, as this gives them a taste of the "real world" that psychologists experience in scholarly activities and professional development.
If you are interested in this event, please contact the Behavioral Sciences office at SBU.

Coming Enrollment

2008-10-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

All students of the Behavioral Sciences Department should be alerted to the fact, next week begins the enrollment process here at SBU. With that in mind, I would like to also let you know that department faculty have sign up sheets in the office and students are to come by and sign up for an appointment with your advisor. Pay attention to the "number of hours completed" requirement when signing up, because that is based on the number of hours you had completed BEFORE this semester. That is, you cannot count the hours in which you are enrolled this fall.

Additionally, the department is known for "specialty" classes in Jan term, so don't overlook those when getting advised. If you have any questions, please contact your advisor or me.

Impressive quote of the day: "Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another." G. K. Chesterton

Welcome to the blog...

2008-10-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the BLOG! Not bog, not fog, not frog, and certainly not hog. But hopefully for everyone, it is the establishment of some DIALOGUE that gives you and me the chance to talk about the happenings of the Behavioral Sciences Department of Southwest Baptist University.

I am Kevin Schriver and I chair this department. We have many things going on because of our fine faculty and the students we have in our majors.

Most recently, we had the opportunity to host a Graduate Records Examination (GRE) Preparation workshop for all students on our campus. This workshop was designed to not only introduce our students to the exam, but really give them an idea about the type of exam it is.

Many graduate schools will use the GRE as either a standard for admission to a graduate program in psychology, counseling, or sociology, or as a way to evaluate the students who are making application to such programs. It can be a scary part of the educational process for many students who are thinking about graduate school.

The workshop was led by a number of well qualified faculty and each assisted the students on everything from writing good essays, to building vocabulary, to reviewing math operations and statistics. We have done this type of thing before and the number of students taking advantage of this workshop is growing. Some of those who attended our workshops last year are in graduate schools all around the U. S.

It is really encouraging to me to see students use such an opportunity to get them focused on what they can do to achieve their goals. I am glad our department can help them reach those goals.

If you have any questions, or thoughts, I’d like to hear them. Blessings to all.