Department of Psychology

 New Lab Photo Coming!

The Psych Assessment Lab 2019-2020 (short bios are below). Fittingly, our COVID-19 Lab Zoom Meeting Photo! Top row from left to right: Ruam P. F. A. Pimentel, Joni Mihura, Kirsten Buckingham; Bottom row from left to right: Emily O’Gorman, Greg Meyer, Larson Sholander. On internship (not pictured): Ben Berry, Manali Roy.

 

The Psych Assessment Lab 2015-2016 (short bios are below) From left to right: Manali Roy, Joni Mihura, Benjamin Berry, Greg Meyer, and Andrea Kiss

The Psych Assessment Lab 2012-2014 (short bios are below) From left to right: Joni Mihura, Sean Walsh, David Marino, Rob Graceffo, Dan Charek, Josh Eblin, Joe Reed, Wilson Hsiao, Greg Meyer, and Andrea Kiss

The Psych Assessment Lab 2011-2012 (short bios are below) From left to right: Andrea Kiss, Melissa Falb, Rob Graceffo, Josh Eblin, Joni Mihura, Wilson Hsiao, Greg Meyer, Dan Charek, David Marino, and Sean Walsh

The Psych Assessment Lab 2010-2011 (short bios are below) From left to right: Rob Graceffo, Dan Charek, Josh Eblin, Sandra Horn, Elisa Delvecchio (visiting scholar, Italy), Joni Mihura, Melissa Falb, Greg Meyer, and Wilson Hsiao

 The Psych Assessment Lab 2009-2010 (short bios are below) From left to right: Ricardo Primi (visiting scholar, Brazil), Natasha Kalaida, Sandra Horn, Nicolae Dumitrascu, Fabiano Miguel (visiting scholar, Brazil), Elizabeth Koonce, Greg Meyer, Josh Eblin, Wilson Hsiao, Joni Mihura, and Lucas Carvalho (visiting scholar, Brazil)

 PSYCH ASSESSMENT LAB CO-LEADERS: DRS. MEYER AND MIHURA

Gregory J. Meyer, PhD. My professional interests are broadly focused on assessment, encompassing personality and neuropsychological assessment. For a long time I have been interested in understanding how different assessment methods (e.g., self-ratings, behavioral tasks) provide convergent and discrepant information about a person. As part of this I have studied and written a fair amount about the Rorschach Inkblot Method - on its own and in relation to other instruments like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. At the present time I am very interested in advancing the understanding of how personality, affect, and cognitive processes shape and guide perceptions. In terms of clinical practice, I am interested in how diverse methods can be used together to produce a more complete understanding of the person being evaluated. My research also has focused on summarizing knowledge in assessment through meta-analytic reviews (e.g., understanding how the validity evidence for psychological assessment procedures compares to medical assessment procedures). I teach graduate courses on statistics, psychometrics, and cognitive assessment. For eleven years I was the Editor of the Journal of Personality Assessment (2002-2013) and I have won several awards for research in personality assessment.

 

Joni L. Mihura, PhD, ABAP. My predominant research interests are personality assessment, R-PAS, and assessing psychosis. One major goal is the development of a short-form version of R-PAS (the Thought and Perception Assessment System; TPAS). I am particularly interested in understanding the many ways (methods) we know each other and ourselves ("multimethod assessment"). I especially love the challenge of applying methods of systematic review and meta-analysis to the psychological assessment literature. In 2013, I published an extensive meta-analytic review of the Rorschach validity literature in the top scientific review journal in psychology (Psychological Bulletin) that resulted in the main Rorschach critics lifting their recommendation for a moratorium on the use of the Rorschach in clinical and forensic practice. I am a co-developer of a new Rorschach system that addresses the problems with Exner’s Rorschach Comprehensive System – the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS; Meyer, Viglione, Mihura, Erard, & Erdberg, 2011)--for which I have also co-edited a R-PAS casebook to aid in R-PAS interpretation. I currently have a book on Rorschach validity in progress with Dr. Meyer as a co-author. Information about R-PAS and access to related articles is available at www.r-pas.org. **Note that I am not currently accepting mentees into our training program, and focusing on the development of TPAS.

Current Lab Members 

(Updates coming soon...)

 

Liz O'Donoghue (Primary Mentor: Meyer). I am a first-year graduate student in Drs. Meyer and Mihura’s lab.  In 2012, I graduated with a BA in Psychology from SUNY Purchase in New York, where I lived prior to moving to Toledo.  After graduating, I began working as a nursing staff on an adolescent unit in an acute inpatient psychiatric hospital.  On this unit, I worked with severely ill patients presenting with psychosis, suicidality, homicidality, self-injurious behaviors, and personality disorder.  Following this, I took the role of senior research lab coordinator in that hospital’s psychological testing department.  There, I gained a strong interest in multimethod assessment of cognition, intellectual ability, personality, and psychopathology.  Specifically, I am interested in psychometrics, the development and reliability of various psychological tests, and the decision-making process of determining which tests to use for individualized but comprehensive neuropsychological assessment.  In my spare time, I love to watch documentaries and hang out with my cat, Hank the Tank.

 

Ruam P. F. A. Pimentel (Primary Mentor: Meyer). I'm a third-year graduate student in the experimental program with an advisor from the clinical program. Recently, I've studied and nourished an interest in personality, neuroscience, psychometrics, and artificial intelligence. In my free time, I’m a musician, and I love to learn new hobbies. I received my bachelor's degree from Universidade Luterana do Brasil (ULBRA) in the state of Tocantins in Brazil. Since my undergraduate training, I've been involved with scientific research. As an undergrad, I participated in research labs working on cognitive and emotional processes (attention, memory, and affect), mental health, and the elderly population. I did my master's at Universidade São Francisco (USF) in one of the highest-rated departments in psychological assessment in Brazil. In my master's program, I researched the implication of self-perception in the relationship between two different methods of assessments, using scores derived from the Rorschach task and self-report. Finally, right now, I'm very curious about how different kinds of psychological measures could provide information about oneself (multimethod) and how someone’s different mental states could generate different perceptions of the world. 

 

Emily O’Gorman (Primary Mentor: Meyer) - I am currently a fourth-year graduate student in UT’s Clinical Psychology program (minor: quantitative psychology). I earned my B.S. in Psychology from William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, and my M.S. in Experimental Psychology from Villanova University. Broadly, my research interests include personality development and assessment of transdiagnostic factors and processes underlying psychopathology. I am currently involved in two lines of research, one focusing on dimensional assessment of psychotic thought processes and the other on self and interpersonal dysfunction as a factor underlying etiology and course of psychopathology. My dissertation project uses longitudinal data to examine developmental cascades from early childhood attachment organization to adolescent personality functioning, taking into account genetic influences, psychological characteristics, and social and environmental factors. Clinically, I enjoy working with children, adolescents, and young adults using process-based approaches with an inclination towards acceptance-based behavioral therapies. When I am not working, I enjoy playing tennis, hiking, and horseback riding.

 

 Larson Sholander (Primary Mentor: Meyer). I received my BA from Michigan State University, and I recently graduated with my MA in counseling psychology from Moody Theological Seminary and Graduate School. I am currently on internship at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. My research interests include studying personality assessments and personality disorders. Specifically, my current research is focused on using the Rorschach to assess grandiosity and narcissism. Clinically, I enjoy working with adolescents and adults with a wide range of mental health concerns. Though my background is in CBT, I am looking forward to incorporating a psychodynamic approach to psychotherapy during my time at the University of Toledo. When I am not working, I enjoy running, reading, and discovering new places with my wife.

 

Lab Graduates 

Benjamin Berry, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer) BIO UPDATE UNDERWAY. I recently graduated (Summer 2020) from UT's clinical psychology doctoral program. I received my B.S. from John Carroll University in Cleveland, where my research focused primarily on social cognition and motivated distortions in assessment performance. My clinical interests involve working with adults with a range of presenting problems using psychodynamically-informed therapy. My current research interests include performance-based and implicit assessment methods, and the influence of basic cognitive processes on assessment performance. I am currently examining the frequency of inkblot location use on the Rorschach.

 

Manali Roy, PhD (Primary Mentor: Mihura) BIO UPDATE UNDERWAY. I recently graduated (Summer 2020) from UT's clinical psychology doctoral program.  I earned my B.Sc and M.Sc (Clinical Psychology) from the University of Calcutta (India). In 2015, I received my MA from Adelphi University. Broadly, my research interests comprise personality assessment and personality disorders. For my master's thesis, I had explored the element of emotional dysfunction in individuals with obsessive compulsive personality disorder using the ego depletion paradigm. My professional development project at UT was reviewing the frequency at which "real behavior" has been studied in personality assessment research between 1950-2016. My dissertation was on aggressive images and R-PAS, EMA, and self-report. Clinically, I'm inclined towards working with the adult population with psychodynamic as well as acceptance based interventions. When I am not working, I enjoy writing, drawing, reading, and traveling.

 

Andrea Kiss, PhD (Primary Mentor: Mihura). BIO UPDATE UNDERWAY. I am a graduate of UT's Clinical Psychology program. I received a B.S. from University of Michigan and a M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Eastern Michigan University. FI completed my internship at Hutchings Psychiatric Center in Syracuse New York. There I will be served individuals who suffer from severe mental illness on a forensic inpatient unit as well as provided assessments and treatment for high-risk sexual offenders during their last 24 months in their prison terms. As a member of the Assessment Lab I was involved in investigating the validity of performance-based measures of assessment and the process of test score validation and I participated in creating proficiency materials for assessment tools such as the Rorschach Assessment System. I have worked on a meta-analytic review of the Aggressive Content (AGC) variable on the Rorschach in an attempt to establish this score's validity and its relationship to real world violence. Moderator analyses were conducted to clarify fluctuations in AGC validity effect sizes; for example, we explored whether articles or dissertations, as well as sample type (forensic vs. non-forensic) affected the magnitude of effect sizes. My dissertation was on the Rorschach's ability to distinguish between individuals who suffer from a mental illness and those who attempt to feign a disorder, examining whether the R-PAS Critical Content variables can be used as a marker of malingering, currently being written for publication by current lab members.

 

Dan Charek, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer).  BIO UPDATE UNDERWAY. I am a graduate of UT's Clinical Psychology program. I earned my BA from the University of Akron and my PhD at UT, studying under Dr. Meyer. My research primarily focuses on integrating social, cognitive, and other experimental psychology findings in the area of assessment. For instance, my first project used the ego depletion paradigm to refine scoring of certain Rorschach codes. Ego depletion is an experimental paradigm holding that individuals' cognitive resources are limited and can become depleted with extended cognitive effort. Once depleted, subsequent cognitive performance is impaired. The scores we investigated are intended to capture cognitive lapses committed by respondents and so we expected individuals to commit these lapses at a greater frequency when depleted. I published two articles on this topic. When not at school, I enjoy working out, listening to and finding new music, watching sports, and spending time with the other people in the program.

David Marino, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer). BIO UPDATE UNDERWAY.  I earned my Ph.D. from UT's clinical psychology program in August, 2016 after completing my clinical neuropsychology internship at The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada. I am currently completing the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Massachusetts Mental Health Center/Harvard Medical School Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology, which is a uniquely integrated program within the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology. This fellowship experience provided me the unique opportunity of incorporating R-PAS into my budding neuropsychology practice and to see firsthand how the Rorschach can contribute to a better understanding of individuals with cognitive disabilities. 

During my tenure at the University of Toledo, I worked under the supervision of Dr. Meyer. My dissertation project investigated the Coding Criteria for Potential Rorschach Grandiosity and Narcissism Variables (i.e., Omnipotence, Idealization, Personal Knowledge Justification, Expanded Personal Reference, Elevated Mood States, Narcissistic Devaluation, Narcissistic Deflation, Narcissistic Denial, Exhibitionism, Magic, Reflection) with clinician ratings of grandiosity in an inpatient offender population with severe psychiatric disorders. I played a vital role in helping Dr. Meyer develop a series of R-PAS proficiency training resources that are now available on the R-PAS website and also co-lead an active undergraduate research lab. Finally, I became one of the first people to become proficient in R-PAS Coding and Administration and also served as an official R-PAS Administration Proficiency Reviewer.

Sean Walsh, PhD (Primary Mentor: Mihura).  BIO UPDATE UNDERWAY. I graduated from the Clinical Psychology program at UT. I received my bachelor's degree in psychology from Michigan State University and my master's degree in Clinical Psychology from Madonna University. My clinical interests include working with children and adults who present with a wide range of pathology but I am particularly interested in mood and anxiety disorders. I am also interested in the advancement of psychodynamic theory and practice in general but, more specifically, in difficult clinical populations such as adults with personality and thought disorders. My primary research interest includes psychological assessment and how personality assessment can be best utilized to inform intervention. I am also interested in psychotherapy process and outcome, attachment theory, and the role of the therapeutic relationship in treatment. My thesis project was an updated meta-analysis of the validity literature for the Oral Dependency Language scale (ODL; formerly known as the Rorschach Oral Dependency scale) of the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS). My dissertation was also on the ODL scale. In my spare time I enjoy rooting for the American League Champion Detroit Tigers (Go Tigers!), playing soccer, snowboarding, and playing the guitar.

Sandra Horn, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer).  BIO UPDATE UNDERWAY. I earned my B.A. from Grand Valley State University and my Ph.D. from the University of Toledo. I completed my internship in Albany, NY at the Albany Psychology Internship Consortium, which included rotations at Albany Medical Center, the Samuel S. Stratton VA, and the Capital District Psychiatric Center. After internship I worked at Skidmore College Counseling Center and at an Albany-based non-profit doing disability rights advocacy. I completed a fellowship at Albany Medical Center. My primary clinical interests include short-term dynamic psychotherapy, collaborative personality and cognitive assessment, and treatment of anxiety disorders. My research at UT was primarily focused on examining the validity and interrelationships of a variety of performance measures and Rorschach variables that can be used to understand levels of disturbance in perception, and a person's ability to organize stimulus cues to arrive at an accurate understanding of others and the environment. I am so fortunate to have been in lab with such a wonderful and collaborative group of people, and could not have made it through without them and their terrible, yet plentiful, jokes! In my free time (which I now have – yay!!) I enjoy reading, trying new craft beers with friends, designing furniture and greeting cards, and catching up with friends and family.

Wei-Cheng (Wilson) Hsiao, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer).  I received my Ph.D. from the Clinical Psychology program in August of 2015 after completing my internship at the Colorado State University Health Network. I then completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in University Mental Health (with emphasis in Health Psychology) at the University of South Florida. Currently, I am a staff psychologist and the coordinator for Assessment and Research at the Indiana University-Bloomington, Counseling and Psychological Services (IU-B CAPS). At IU-B CAPS, I participate in the multi-cultural initiatives to reduce the barriers and increase the utilization of mental health services for underserved student body, including international students and Asian American students.  I am also in the training committee as one of the primary supervisors for IU-B CAPS pre-doctoral internship program.  Prior to my Ph.D. training, I have my Bachelor's degree from Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan and my Master's degree from Eastern Michigan University. Although I have physically left the lab, I continue to stay in touch with Dr. Gregory Meyer in collaborating the R-PAS research and translation projects.

Josh Eblin, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer).  I completed my pre-doctoral internship at the Department of State Hospitals – Atascadero, which is a maximum security forensic facility located in Atascadero, California. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Toledo in 2015. I am currently employed at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry (CFP), which is a maximum security forensic facility located in Saline, Michigan. At the CFP, I am working toward certification as a Consulting Forensic Examiner. The focus of my position is on Competency to Stand Trial and Criminal Responsibility evaluations. I also co-facilitate Competency to Stand Trial and NGRI groups on an inpatient treatment unit. My research as a graduate student in the UT Psychological Assessment Lab was primarily focused on the Rorschach assessment of psychosis. For my thesis, archival data were used to develop short-form series of Rorschach cards that utilize those components of the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) that assess for thought disorder and psychosis. The short forms were evaluated further in my dissertation for inclusion in the Thought and Perception Assessment System (TPAS). TPAS and its short-forms are expected to provide reliable and valid indices of psychotic-like problems in thinking and perception.

Rob Graceffo, PhD (Primary Mentor: Mihura).  BIO UPDATE UNDERWAY. I graduated from UT's clinical psych program in the Summer of 2015 after having completed my clinical internship year at HMS/Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, MA. I'm currently completing my post-doctoral work at HMS/Cambridge Health Alliance, in Cambridge Hospital's Program for Psychotherapy (PFP), a 2-year training program specializing in long-term psychotherapy. I came to work with Dr. Mihura and Dr. Meyer in personality assessment after first completing a Masters degree, and recognizing that, for me, psychological practice would always be characterized by an earnest attempt to understand the whole person as opposed to just the symptoms the person carries. My experiences in the assessment lab, both educational and personal, serve as important reminders that the cornerstone of helping people in psychological distress is in knowing and understanding them. My research thus far has centered upon assessment-related topics, including my dissertation, which investigated the relationship between clinician personality and preferred theoretical orientation. Currently, in the PFP, our research examines the psychotherapy change process. As far as future plans, I always want to be involved in some form of clinical work, and I also plan to write in the area of psychotherapy and the change process.

Aaron Upton, PhD (Primary Mentor: Mihura). I am a clinical psychologist, currently employed at the VA Medical Center in Huntington, WV. I am housed in the main hospital and perform a variety of services including intake assessments, emergency room and medical floor consultations, and some varied assessment activities that currently include frequent capacity evaluations. I continue to explore interests in personality assessment as I am able, and I present on these topics frequently as a part of the didactic series for our newly accredited internship program! Now that I am allowed some free time I enjoy taking road trips, spending time with family and friends, and only occasionally participating in work-related activities after hours.

Nicolae Dumitrascu, PhD (Primary Mentor: Mihura). I graduated from the University of Bucharest, Romania before joining the UT clinical psychology doctoral program. I completed by internship at Boston University-Danielsen Institute and am currently the Coordinator for Psychological Testing at the Danielsen Institute, Boston University. My interests encompass psychodynamic theories, the validity and clinical utility of implicit assessment measures (e.g., Rorschach, TAT, drawing techniques), and neuropsychological assessment. For my dissertation I am studying the effects of induced mood on visual information processing, based on the "mood-as-information" model (Schwarz & Clore, 1983) positing that a happy mood leads to a global, flexible, top-down information processing, whereas a sad mood leads to a more analytical, stimulus-dependent, and less flexible processing. This study can contribute to the validity of implicit personality instruments (such as Rorschach) as measures of mood and can also add to the literature on cognitive styles. I feel very lucky being a member of the Psychological Assessment Lab and having around dedicated professors and researchers like Dr. Mihura and Dr. Meyer.

Nick Katko, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer). PhD University of Toledo; B.S. University of Illinois. I graduated from the program in December 2010. At present, I’m employed by the Defense Health Agency as a civilian psychologist at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX. I am a member of a team of providers that operate an intensive outpatient program for service members experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Assessment provides a vital function in service delivery as each client is administered several different clinical outcome measures on a weekly basis via the Behavioral Health Data Platform, a vast digital module; the combination of standardized data collection methods (i.e., self-report) and real-time data aggregation and provider viewing capability enables us to improve care as well as monitor risk and gauge soldier readiness. Reviewing scores and interpreting results with clients often strengthens the therapeutic alliance. While at UT, my dissertation examined the clinical utility of using an integrative model for assessing both implicit and explicit (i.e., self-report) hostility-related constructs to predict cardiovascular disease using the Johns Hopkins Precursors Study (JHPS). The education Assessment Lab members receive through working on various projects cannot easily be replicated. In my free time, I enjoy playing golf, albeit rather badly.

George Bombel, PhD (Primary Mentor: Mihura). I received my Ph.D. from the Clinical Psychology program in August of 2009, after completing my internship at University of Texas Health Science Center, Department of Psychiatry, in San Antonio. Subsequently, I completed my post-doctoral fellowship and psychoanalytic training at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA. Currently, I am a senior psychologist at The Menninger Clinic, and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. While at UT, my research efforts focused on psychometric qualities of Rorschach non-Comprehensive System scales. For my dissertation, I examined the predictive validity of the Ego Impairment Index (EII-2) using the Johns Hopkins Precursors Study (JHPS) long-term prospective cohort - and the project couldn't have been completed without the help of my fellow lab members (a crack team of highly skilled and dedicated Rorschach researchers). I still really miss lab meetings, with all their coding practice, calibration, emotional support, and bawdy humor!

 

Jim Hoelzle, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer). University of Toledo; B.S. University of Illinois. Jim is an Associate Professor at Marquette University. His primary research interests are understanding what constructs are evaluated by neuropsychological and personality instruments. He also has a strong interest in identifying how insufficient effort on neuropsychological measures and exaggerated emotional distress impact clinical outcomes. Jim is the director of the Neuropsychology and Assessment Lab at Marquette. At the undergraduate level he teaches Cognition and Psychological Testing courses. Additionally, at the graduate level he teaches an adult assessment course and supervises an assessment practicum.

Laura Parolin, PhD (Primary Mentor: Meyer). I am an Italian researcher at the University of Milano-Bicocca. I finished my dissertation at the University of Padua, on construct validation of the Rorschach using data from transcripts of initial psychotherapy sessions. In 2005 I spent 3 months at the University of Toledo, working on this validity issue and on a second project on Rorschach reliability. In that period I attended the Assessment Lab where I learned some fundamentals on the Rorschach and on testing. In general, my research interest is in personality assessment. Specifically, "here" in Italy I am still working on the Rorschach test, focusing on constructing the Italian normative sample for the Comprehensive System, as well as for some content scales. Recently, I have started to work on some narrative-based tests, such as the ORT and TAT and Roberts-2. I enjoy reading, watching movies and travelling.

 Erin Farrer, PhD (Primary Mentor: Mihura). I am a 2009 graduate of UT's clinical psychology doctoral program and the Psychological Assessment Lab. I am currently a licensed psychologist working in private practice at Ohio Psychiatry Specialists in Independence, OH. I specialize treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety disorders. I also work with adults who are adjusting to or needing help coping with new or ongoing medical diagnoses. Time-permitting, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, working out, and cheering on my undergrad Alma Mater (Go Blue!!).

  

 

lab Dinners and conference photos

2021 SPA Virtual Convention: Rorschach Psychosis Symposium (short bios are above). Top row from left to right: Dr. Joni L. Mihura, Emily O’Gorman, and Bailey Crittenden; Bottom row from left to right: Kirsten Buckingham and Dr. James H. Kleiger.

Description will be updated soon for the following pictures:

 

At the 2008 Society for Personality Assessment convention in New Orleans. Here's some of the lab at work.... (Sandra, Elizabeth, Aaron, Tanya Ozbey, and Nic)

 

...and at play. (Nic, Nick, Aaron, Elizabeth, Sandra, and Prachi Kene)

 

 

Lookin' good: Some of the lab members who presented at the 2007 SPA convention in Arlington, VA. From left to right: Sandra Horn, Nick Katko, Aaron Upton, and Nicolae Dumitrascu.

 

 

 

Darren Jones (L) and Aaron Upton (R) with their poster at the 2006 SPA convention in San Diego. This was taken after they explained the intricacies of multilevel between- and within-subjects factor analysis to Paul Costa -- and they're still smiling! (sort of)

 

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