Dr. Bernard E. Whitley, Jr.

Office: North Quad 123
Phone: (765) 285-1696
Email: bwhitley@bsu.edu

Degrees:

BS--Loyola University of Chicago, 1969

PhD--University of Pittsburgh, 1983

Biographical Sketch:

I grew up in a working-class Irish neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, and got my B.S. in psychology at Loyola University there. I spent the six years after graduation as an Army intelligence officer, with tours of duty in Viet Nam and Germany. While in Germany, I received my M.S. in Education from the University of Southern California in a program in which they sent faculty members to military bases overseas. Deciding that an active duty military career was not for me and influenced by a psychologist I met in Germany, I applied to graduate schools in psychology. I enrolled in the Social-Personality Psychology program at the University of Pittsburgh, receiving my Ph.D. in 1983 with a graduate minor in organizational behavior. For the year prior to and the year after graduation, I worked on a hypertension research project at Western Psychiatric Institute in Pittsburgh, accepting a faculty position at Ball State in 1984. I have been here ever since. For details of my academic career, see my curriculum vitae.

Hobbies:

golf; reading mysteries, science fiction, and history

What courses do you teach on a regular basis?

Undergraduate Research Methods
Social Psychology
Industrial Psychology
Graduate Research Methods
Tests and Measurement
Organization Development
Systematic Psychology

How would you describe your philosophy of teaching?

I feel that learning requires active participation on the student's part: study the course materials, think about them, look for connections among them and between them and what they learn in other courses, seek additional information on their own (e.g., elsewhere in the textbook, in the library), and ask questions. Learning is hard work; to borrow a phrase from athletics, "No pain, no gain."

What would you like students to know about you as a teacher?

Everyone has a different approach to teaching; everyone also has a different way of learning. My teaching style will match the learning style of some students, but not that of others; mismatch will lead to the perception that the course is more difficult than would otherwise be the case. Because there is no one optimal teaching style, we have to live with the fact that there will be occasional mismatches in teaching and learning styles.

Why would you recommend psychology as an area of study?

Two reasons. First, people are fascinating: studying why people do what they do presents an absorbing intellectual challenge. Second, the study of psychology helps students develop analytical, research, and problem-solving skills than generalize to all aspects of life.

What are your research interests?

* academic dishonesty

* attitudes toward homosexuality

List a few of your publications which are representative of your recent work.

Whitley, B. E., Jr. (2002). Principles of research in behavioral science (2nd ed.). New York:McGraw-Hill.

Whitley, B. E., Jr., & Keith-Spiegel, P. (2002). Academic dishonesty: An Educator's Guide. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Wiederman, M. W., & Whitley, B. E., Jr. (Eds.) (2002). Handbook for conducting research on human sexuality. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Whitley, B. E., Jr. (1999). Right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 126-134.

Whitley, B. E., Jr. (1998). Factors associated with cheating among college students: A review. Research in Higher Education, 39, 235-274.

See also abstracts of recent publications and convention papers and complete list of publications and papers in my vita.

What research are you currently working on?

Academic dishonesty: I'm conducting research on factors that influence students' reactions to others' cheating, the relationship of cheating to other forms of minor deviance, and students' affective reactions to having cheated.

Attitudes toward homosexuality: I'm currently looking at the roles of authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in heterosexuals' attitudes toward homosexuality.

Available for intercampus mentoring?

I am willing to answer questions about research, but would not be able to serve on committees.

Return to Faculty Directory

Go to Department of Psychological Science Home Page

Last Modified: 25 July 2002