The Psychology program at ISU encourages a spirit of active inquiry and critical thinking, life-long learning and development and social responsibility. The curriculum is based on the premise that any student of psychology, regardless of program goals, should be well-informed about basic principles of behavior. The undergraduate degree in psychology prepares students for graduate studies in psychology and related fields as well as employment in a variety of settings including health services, research, government and business.

The Department of Psychology offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. Our graduate programs include a Master's (M.A./M.S.) in General Psychology and a Doctoral program (Psy.D.) in Clinical Psychology.

We also have a Psychology Clinic that provides services to students and members of the Terre Haute community.

Mission statement:

The Department of Psychology assists students to achieve their personal and professional potential through training in scientific methods and discipline-specific knowledge, promoting a spirit of active inquiry and critical thought, and fostering a sense of social responsibility.

Job Opportunities:

Psychology Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Ted Maldonado

Ted Maldonado, PhD, graduated from Texas A&M University’s Psychology program in 2021 and joined ISU’s Psychology Department that fall as a faculty member. Ted focused his graduate training in understanding the role the cerebellum plays in cognition in both young and older adults in Dr. Jessica Bernard’s Lifespan Cognitive & Motor Neuroimaging Lab at Texas A&M University. There he focused on developing multi-modal approaches to explore his research programs, primarily focusing on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), meta-analytic techniques, behavioral analyses, and neuroimaging analyses. Because of his interest in older adults, he also became interested in Terror Management Theory, exploring the mechanisms that relate to death anxiety across the lifespan. At ISU, Ted is excited to continue this line of research, engaging undergraduate and graduate students in these projects. Ted has recently been awarded grant funding through ISU to help support research that will focus on the role the cerebellum plays in cognitive processing in older adults, and whether tDCS might be used as a remediation technique to help compensate for cognitive decline in advanced age. He is excited to engage both the ISU and the broader Terre Haute community with this research. When not on campus, Ted likes to travel the world, watch soccer, play golf, and spend time with his wife and new baby Heidi.

Psychology Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Carina Iati

Dr. Iati completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from ISU in 2013 where she worked with Dr. Bolinskey on the initial launch of the Mental Health Development Lab. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at University of Massachusetts Medical School/ Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital before pursuing further training in psychosocial rehabilitation at Emory University School of Medicine, where she began to develop a specialty in serving young adults. Dr. Iati went on to an affiliation with Harvard Medical School working in the Boston-based PREP (Prevention and Recovery in Early Psychosis) Program, a coordinated specialty care service offering individual, group, family, multifamily and consultation services for young people experiencing psychosis. She also led program development efforts to improve group programming and milieu interventions. Building on her work with early psychosis, she co-authored a book, The Psychosis Response Guide: How to Help Young People in Psychiatric Crisis, a text aimed at offering concrete guidance for non-mental health professionals to support young people with psychosis spectrum experiences. Presently, Dr. Iati works for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health at Tewksbury Hospital, a secure psychiatric facility serving adults who are civilly or criminally committed. Dr. Iati continues to specialize in serving young adults and leads a multidisciplinary team in group programming designed to provide developmentally sensitive interventions for young people (ages 19-30) served within the traditional adult state hospital system. Dr. Iati also continues to provide individual therapy services, with emphasis on serving individuals with psychosis spectrum and dissociative experiences, complex trauma, chronic suicidality, and non-suicidal self-injury. In her work, she uses creative and active interventions, infusing exercise, movement and play into therapeutic services. She is certified as a personal trainer by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and has completed training in Somatic Experiencing and Trauma Center-Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) and uses these skills to provide body-based and interoceptive interventions to the individuals she serves. She also provides risk assessment and mitigation consultation focused on suicide, violence, fire setting and substance use risk behaviors. Additionally, she is a certified trainer in The Mandt System, a trauma-informed system of verbal de-escalation and physical skills aimed at reducing the need for restraint and seclusion.

Psychology Graduate Student Spotlight: Abigail Frosina

Abigail Frosina is in her second year of ISU’s Clinical PsyD Program. She is from Long Island, New York and chose ISU’s doctoral program because of its emphasis on correctional psychology, the small cohort size, and because many of the faculty associated with the program are practicing psychologists. She also wanted to experience living in a different part of the country. Abigail plans to pursue a career working in the federal prison system where she can provide mental health services to an adult incarcerated population. She is particularly interested in psychopathology associated with criminality, such as serious mental illness, personality disorders, and severe and persistent mood disorders. Abigail is engaged with several faculty members on research projects, including examining campus police officers’ attitudes about mental health and their empathy toward those with mental health problems, the role of self-reported trauma history in the relationship between schizotypy and dissociation, and MMPI-2-RF correlates of childhood trauma in college students. She has presented her research at several conferences. She hopes to pursue additional research related to sexual offenders and pedophilia as well as correctional officers’ attitudes and empathy related to mental health. Finally, Abigail is currently enjoying the opportunity to teach PSY 101, where she is further developing her communication and interpersonal skills.

Psychology Undergraduate Student Spotlight: Abby Anderson

Abby Anderson is a junior psychology major from Rome City, Indiana. Abby has a minor in counseling and plans to pursue a career in the mental health field. She loves learning about mental health disorders and social behavior and says that she has always been interested in why people do the things they do. Abby is currently working in Dr. O’Laughlin’s ADHD lab, where the focus is on the evaluation of children who may have ADHD or other behavioral disorders. Abby recommends that psychology students get involved in research with a faculty member if possible. Abby chose ISU because of the manageable campus size and also because ISU offers a master’s program in clinical mental health counseling, which is the field that most excites her. Abby says that her favorite part of being a psychology major is all the people she has met and become friends with within the major.