Social Sciences

News about UB’s social sciences programs, including anthropology, psychology and social work. (see all topics)

  • Pelham Selected as Education Research Mentor
    5/26/04
    William E. Pelham, Jr., Ph.D., of Amherst, professor of psychology, pediatrics and psychiatry, and director of the Center for Children and Families at the University at Buffalo, has been selected to be a mentor for a new postdoctoral fellowship training program aimed at boosting research on the application of psychological science to education.
  • GIS Assessment Tool Will Help Foresters Target Where and When to Implement Wildfire Prevention Efforts
    5/14/04
    As parts of the Western and Southwestern United States prepare for wildfire season, which experts predict again will be severe, researchers at the University at Buffalo and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are developing a new software tool to use geographic information systems (GIS) to help forest managers optimize efforts to prevent wildfires.
  • Conference to Focus on Fabrication of Public Opinion in an Era of Concentrated Media Ownership
    4/15/04
    "Networks, art and collaboration," a conference that will look at the many means of dissent devised by media artists, theorists, activists and critics, and consider their long-term goals in the face of global media consolidation will be held April 24 and 25 at the University at Buffalo.
  • Family Treatment Emphasizing Communication, Skill-Building May Reduce Chances of At-Risk Children Becoming Substance Abusers
    4/12/04
    Preliminary results of a comprehensive program to prevent children from using alcohol or other drugs shows that a family-treatment approach emphasizing communication and skill-building may be effective in reducing the risk of children becoming substance abusers, according to researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work.
  • Paleontologists Use Computer to "Morph" Deformed Fossils Back to Their Original Shapes
    4/6/04
    It's bad enough that fossils, buried deep in layers of rock for thousands or millions of years, may be damaged or missing pieces, but what really challenges paleontologists, according to University at Buffalo researchers, is the amount of deformation that most fossils exhibit. That's why a UB researcher and her colleagues are working on a computational method to morph fossils back to their original shapes by calculating and excising the deformation.
  • Computer-Assisted Cognitive Rehabilitation Improves Substance-Abuse Treatment Response
    3/25/04
    "Brain exercises" originally developed for the rehabilitation of head-injury patients improve the cognitive functioning of individuals in substance-abuse treatment and their commitment to the treatment program, according to research conducted at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA).
  • Experience Is More Effective than Classroom Learning in Changing Age Bias in Dental Students, UB Study Finds
    3/13/04
    Results of a program conducted at the University at Buffalo designed to dispel age bias among dental students has confirmed a universal truth: Experience is a more powerful teacher than words.
  • Bar Characteristics, Women's Behavior in Bars Tied to Their Risk for Bar-Related Aggression
    3/1/04
    Environmental characteristics of bars, as well as women's behavior in bars, influence their risk for bar-related aggression, according to a study conducted by researchers in the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions.
  • Fear of "Friday the 13th" Most Likely Originated from Jesus' Last Supper and Crucifixion, Says UB Anthropologist
    2/9/04
    "Friday the 13th's" association with bad luck is one of countless examples of humankind's universal predisposition for magical thinking -- the belief that thoughts, words or actions will produce an outcome that defies normal laws of cause and effect, says Phillips Stevens, Jr., associate professor of anthropology at the University at Buffalo
  • No More Perry Mason: TV Crime Shows Arrest Civil Liberties, "People Want Vengeance," Says New Book by UB Media Critic
    2/4/04
    In TV's portrayal of law and justice, civil liberties have become public enemy No. 1, according to a new book by a nationally known media critic at the University at Buffalo. "Law and Justice as Seen on TV" (New York University Press), examines the social and political impact of TV law and crime shows over the past 50 years -- from depictions of saintly public defenders to modern portrayals of tough-on-crime, heroic prosecutors.