Michelle Horhota
 |
Assistant Professor Aging and Social Psychology
|
I was raised in St. Catharines, Ontario, a small city near Niagara Falls in Southern Ontario. After whiling away my adolescent years in my high school chemistry lab, I went to the University of Toronto to study forensic chemistry. I quickly came to the realization that I enjoyed studying people more than molecules and switched majors to psychology. In Toronto, I became interested in understanding how social processes differ between individuals of different ages. I worked at the Hospital for Sick Children with Dr. Susan Goldberg studying infant attachment. Specifically we were interested in how mothers conveyed emotional information to their babies, and how the patterns of emotions differed across attachment styles. At the same time, I worked with Dr. Alison Chasteen studying how older adults’ memory performance differed based on their motivation and how social situations can influence memory performance. I decided to focus my studies on the latter half of the life-span and headed south in search of warm weather and retirees. I completed both my Masters and Doctoral degrees in Cognitive Aging at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. For my Masters I studied how people’s personal beliefs impact the social judgments they make about other people. In my dissertation, I examined interpersonal communication and impression formation in young, middle-aged and older adults. My current research continues along these lines and you can read more about it
here . I have been at Furman since 2008.
Back to top
Course Offerings:
FYS 1160 Captivating the Public Eye: Media & Human Behavior
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Fall 2013
Description: Everyday we are bombarded by images from the media around us: billboards, television, films, music, books, the internet. How do we process the information that we see? Do these images affect the perceptions we have of ourselves, others in our society and the world around us? Psychological principles related to social, developmental and cognitive processes through reading empirical articles and other source materials. The application of these psychological principles to understanding contemporary forms of media and the impact that media has on our everyday lives.
General Psychology - PSY 111
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Fall 2013
Description: Comprehensive introduction to psychology as a behavioral science through a survey of historical, empirical, and theoretical perspectives of psychological research. Topics may include biological bases of behavior, development, learning, personality, cognition, perception, motivation, behavior disorders, and social psychology.
Psychology of Aging - PSY 213
Prerequisites: Psychology 111
Offered: Every semester
Description: Developmental changes associated with typical aging including changes in memory functioning, personality, speed of behavior, and socio-emotional processing. Selected topics related to atypical aging, such as Alzheimer's disease and living to be a centenarian may also be addressed.
Current Topics in Aging: Research & Practice Seminar
Prerequisites:
Research Methods (PSY 202), Adulthood & Aging (PSY 213)
Description: This seminar requires students to read and discuss primary literature on current issues in the study of Adulthood and Aging. Topics may include memory, everyday problem solving, communication, caregiving, social networks and lifestyle. Group and independent research involving on-site observations and working directly with seniors will be required.
Offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2013
If you are currently enrolled in one of these classes, please log in to see the course webpage here: http://courses.furman.edu/
Back to top