Position
Academic Background
Sample Courses   
Teaching Philosophy
Research & Interests   
Notable Academic Appointments & Awards
Publication Highlights   
Selected Scholarly Presentations

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• Professor Emeritus of Psychology
• Retired in 2008 after 41 years of teaching at Providence College

Academic Background        

• Brown University - Ph.D., 1967
• Brown University - Sc. M., 1965
• Brown University - A.B., 1962

• Child Psychology
• Experimental Child Psychology
• Learning
• Theories of Learning
• Introduction to Psychology

Teaching Philosophy

My involvement with authentic teaching, learning, and assessment activities leads me to advocate teaching and learning techniques that result in products that are relevant to important elements of students' lives. This relevance to one's personal situation can provide enhanced motivation, underscore the significance of the principles involved, and facilitate learning. Recognition of the applicability of scientific principles of psychology to everyday life then encourages their continued use after students leave the more sheltered environment of the classroom before and after graduation.

Research & Interests

Research in which I currently engage falls into two different areas with two separate foci.

Student involvement has been the focus of my continuing interest in child behavior, particularly in the areas of learned helplessness and suggestibility in children's memories. Learned helplessness often occurs when children's performance is attributed to presumably fixed traits that cannot be changed, resulting in avoidance of challenge reduced enthusiasm. My students have looked at ways in which parental attitudes contribute to the phenomenon. Regarding suggestibility in children's memories, my students have explored a number of factors that contribute to children's acceptance of false information about their personal experience.

My own scholarly work of late involves pedagogy and outcome assessment in psychology education. I have participated in American Psychological Association initiatives setting guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major and generating outcome assessments to measure these outcomes.

Notable Academic Appointments and Awards

• APA Board of Educational Affairs Task Force on Strengthening the Teaching and Learning of  Undergraduate Psychological Sciences, 2005-present
• Selection Committee for G. Stanley Hall and Harry Kirk Wolfe Lecturers, 2004 & 2005
• Northeast Conference for Teachers of Psychology, Chair 2003, 2004, 2005
• Rhode Island Teachers of Psychology, Co-Founder, Conference Chair, 2001-2004
• National Forum on Psychology Partnerships, James Madison University, June, 1999

Publication Highlights

• Kaye, H., Cox, J., Bosack, T.N., & Anderson, K. (1965).  Primary and secondary punishment of toe sucking in the infant rhesus monkey.  Psychonomic Science, 2, 73 74.
• Lipsitt, L.P., Kaye, H., & Bosack, T.N. (1966).  Enhancement of neonatal sucking through reinforcement.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 4, 163 168.
• Engen, T., & Bosack, T.N. (1969).  Facilitation in olfactory detection in neonates.  Journal of  Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 68, 320 326.
• Bosack, T.N. (1973).  Effects of fluid delivery on the sucking  response of the human newborn.   Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 15, 77 85.
• Bosack, T.N. (2002). The roots and evolution of child psychology: An interview with Lewis P. Lipsitt. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 255-259.
• Halonen, J.S., Bosack, T.N., Clay, S., McCarthy, M. and Collaborators. (2003). A rubric for learning, teaching, and assessing scientific inquiry in psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 30, 196-208.
• Bosack, T.N., McCarthy, M., Halonen, J.S., & Clay, S. (2003). Developing scientific reasoning  in psychology using authentic assessment strategies. In D.S. Dunn, C. Mehrotra, & J.S. Halonen (Eds.). Measuring Up: Educational Assessment Challenges and Practices for Psychology, (pp. 141-169). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

• Bosack, T.N. (1991, August) Creating productive environments for students and faculty at undergraduate colleges.  Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.
• Condon, C.P. Ragozzine, M.L., & Bosack, T.N. (2000, March).  Adult assistance may producechildren's learned helplessness.  Poster presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Baltimore, MD.
• Bosack, T.N. (2002, June). An active exercise teaching parenting styles, observational methods, and cross-cultural influences, Poster presented at the Ninth Annual APS/STP Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, New Orleans, LA.
• Bosack, T.N., McCarthy, M., & Clay, S. (2002, September). A rubric for learning, teaching, and assessing scientific inquiry in psychology. Paper presented at Measuring Up: Best Practices in Assessment in Psychology Education, Atlanta, GA.
• Bosack, T.N. (2005, March). Assessment challenges and practices at a small, private college. In F.Craig (Chair), Assessment of undergraduate psychology curriculum: The practices & experiences of three psychology departments. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, MA.

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