June 5, 2023
Shawnee State University has announced the 2023 Faculty Awards. As part of this year’s presentation, the recipient of the Faculty Research Award is Dr. Brian Richards. An Associate Professor of Psychology, Dr. Richards has been with the university’s Department of Social Science since 2013.
Dr. Richards routinely involves students in research experiments, particularly in his Experimental Psychology course where every student is assigned to complete a hands-on project. This past year, he mentored students on research presented at the 2023 Midwestern Psychological Association conference in Chicago, Illinois – focused on the effectiveness of art therapy for the treatment of depression – and at the on-campus Celebration of Scholarship academic conference – focused on the influence of color on interpersonal attraction. Dr. Richards also collaborated with fellow SSU faculty member Dr. Kyle Vick and three SSU students to complete research on well-being promoting activities that has been converted into a book completed this year and entitled “Self-Experiments for Expanding Life and Boosting Well-Being”.
“Empirical work abounds in SSU’s Psychology program,” said Dr. Richards on the research work he completes with his students in the classroom.
Dr. Richards received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 2013 from Ohio University. His research on campus allows participation of undergraduate students in investigating the psychology of moral judgments, relationship satisfaction and social media, attraction, social judgement of willpower failures, and many other topics.
The Faculty Research Award which recognizes outstanding research from full-time tenured eligible faculty members, dedicated to research promoting involvement with students, contribution to research within the institution, community, and profession, and support from the campus community.