Waters, A.J., Parrott, W.G., Mogg, K., Bradley, B.P., Fuller, M.C., & Wertz, J.M. (2007). Processing bias for terror-related stimuli and September 11th-related distress in college students. Psychological Reports, 101, 787-795.
Joan Wertz
Associate Dean of Student Success, Professor and Chair of Psychology
Biography
By the time I was a sophomore in college, I knew I wanted to be a psychology professor at a small liberal arts college. I had considered medicine and biomedical engineering as careers, but I found that I loved my elective psychology courses, and I just kept taking more of them. I’ve always been drawn to the biological side of psychology, largely because of my undergraduate adviser and mentor and his passion for understanding how the brain works and influences our behavior.
Interests
My primary research interest has always been drug use and abuse. In graduate school, I studied emotional and cognitive changes during craving experiences in smokers and drinkers, and I still like to do research in this area. I’m interested in trying to understand how anticipation of future drug use opportunity contributes to craving, and how it actually changes how we process information. Other research interests include risk factors for drug use, and more general issues related to physical and psychological health.
Education
B.S. – Allegheny (Pa.) College, 1991
Ph.D. – University of Pittsburgh, 2002
Courses Taught
PSYC101: Introduction to Psychology
PSYC201: Research Methods I: Statistics
PSYC202: Research Methods II: Design and Synthesis
PSYC239: Health Psychology
PSYC318: Biopsychology
PSYC415: Readings in Psychology
PSYC420: Research Seminar
PSYC290: Cross-cultural Psychology Practicum
INTG101: Introduction to Liberal Arts
Selected Work
Wertz, J.M., & Sayette, M.A. (2001). A review of the effects of perceived drug use opportunity on self-reported urge. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 9, 3-13.
Wertz, J.M. & Sayette, M.A. (2001). Effects of smoking opportunity on attentional bias in smokers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 15, 268-271.
Sayette, M.A., Martin, C.S., Perrott, M.A., & Wertz, J.M. (2001). Parental alcoholism and the effects of alcohol on semantic priming. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 9, 409-417.
Sayette, M.A., Martin, C.S., Wertz, J.M., Shiffman, S., & Perrott, M.A. (2001). A multidimensional analysis of cue-elicited craving in heavy smokers and tobacco chippers. Addiction, 96, 1419-1432.
Sayette, M.A., Martin, C.S., Hull, J.G., Wertz, J.M., & Perrott, M.A. (2003). Effects of nicotine deprivation on craving response covariation in smokers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 110-118.
Sayette, M.A., Martin, C.S , Wertz, J.M., Perrott, M.A. & Peters, A.R. (2005). The effects of alcohol on cigarette craving in heavy smokers and tobacco chippers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 19, 263-270.