A new professor in the Psychology department, Joseph Weaver is from Mansfield, OH. Weaver received his undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University. He would then go on to Case Western Reserve University; in his four years there, Weaver garnered his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in psychology by 2013. Outside of being a professor, Weaver enjoys computer programming, graphical design, and the general act of making things. The DePauw was lucky enough to interview him. Our conversation with Weaver is as follows:
The DePauw (TDP): Tell us about your involvement with psychology, both as a career and an academic discipline?
Joseph Weaver (JW): I’m an experimental psychologist, which is more on the research side, relative to a clinical pyschologist. I’m interested in emotions and cognition, and how they interlap. I look at it through several layers of analysis.
Here at DePauw I’m teaching Physiological Psychology, Sensation of Perception, and Introductory Psychology.
In my research for emotions, I’m really interested in how the nervous system gets the body ready to respond to certain demands in the environment, and also how we interpret that activity when we think about our emotions. And I’m interested in how cognitive can allow us to regulate our emotions, so overriding that prepotent physiological response.
TDP: Can you give us some insight into your methodology as a professor?
JW: My approach is to really help students see the fully interconnected nature of everything we talk about in psychology, but also how that is central to all the other disciplines. I really like to push students to think about things in a broader perspective, to take a moment and step back and say, “What are the broader implications of this? How does this affect my everyday life?”
TDP: How are you liking campus so far?
JW: It’s great. I’ve taught in liberal arts institutions before, and I really love the engagement of the students and the cross-disciplinary interaction. The students are pretty motivated to understand the material, and the sense of community feels great too. I really haven’t had a lot of time to spend around the area with students, but the time I do spend here has been great.
One thing I really like about DePauw is the heavy emphasis on teaching, which means do whatever you can to get the students engaged. In Physio, we actually got to dissect some sheep brains, which was a lot of fun and students seemed to better appreciate the brain that was in their hand than the other one that was in their head maybe for a little bit. Hands-on stuff like that is always great, and just the on-going discussions are things that I look forward to every lecture.
TDP: What are you most looking forward to in your time at DePauw?
JW: I’ve always loved to see the evolution of thought in students as the semester progresses: asking some interesting questions at the beginning of the semester, giving some responses, and revisiting those questions towards the end of the semester. To see how students change their approach those questions is something I look forward to in every class.