UNF - COAS: Psychology

Science Cafe: Social Justice and Positive Youth Development: Toward Equitable, Antiracist Practices and Policies, presented by Dr. Emilie Smith, Professor in Human Development and Family Studies and the College of Social Science Distinguished Senior Scholar at Michigan State University
Science Cafe: Developing a Community Wellness Program Targeting Physical and Mental Health During Covid, presented by Dr. Dawn Witherspoon, Assistant Professor in the UNF Department of Psychology
Science Cafe: A Class War is Better than a Culture War: Polarization and Conflict in American Politics, featuring Dr. David Jaffee, Professor, UNF Sociology Department
Science Cafe: Human Conflict: Black and White, featuring Dr. Peter Kranz, Professor, College of Education Department of Counseling at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Krantz taught at UNF from 1972 to 1977. He created an extremely unique course called Human Conflict: Black and White that received national media attention. This course was taught during a time when Jacksonville was in the throes of integration and upheaval. Dr. Kranz's research has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered.

Science Cafe: Understanding Avian Social Organization: How individuals and social structure contribute to avian societies, featuring Dr. Greg Kohn, UNF Psychology Department. Like mammals, birds form complex groups with long term, often lifetime, relationships. However, our understanding of the social and developmental processes shaping the emergence of avian social structure are not well known. Many vertebrates inhabit dynamic and loosely structured groups where group size and social composition continually fluctuates. The ability to sustain nonrandom interaction preferences across such changes is important for maintaining social organization over time. Despite this, we know little about the development of individual social preferences that ultimately give rise to a group’s social organization. Dr. Kohn will present a series of studies that highlight how the development of stable female social interaction networks in Brown-headed Cowbirds, Gouldian Finches, Roseate Spoonbills and Budgerigars shapes the organization of flocks, and often predicts individual reproductive outcomes. These findings highlight how within-group interactions define the complex structure of avian societies and can select for individual behavioral traits.