Personal Philosophy
- I am constructivist. Constructivism guides my thinking, my research, and my teaching. Constructivism postulates that truth is relative, constructed through social interactions and influenced by the context. Therefore, constructivism considers that each perspective in critical to a deeper and more complete understanding of any issue. Culture is the mechanism through which all philosophies are understood and all events are interpreted. One cannot extricate oneself from the culture but one can understand it (and themselves) on deeper and deeper levels by truly listening to all the voices, especially those whose voices have been silenced through oppression, within a culture. Attempts at understanding anything are limited by the fact that not all perspectives can be known, as they are filtered through our own lenses. The task of living is learning to truly notice by reducing the density of one’s lenses.
Special Interests
- Health Psychology
- Health Disparities and Cross Cultural Health Care
- Prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease
- Internet-based health prevention interventions
- Constructivist therapies
Research Agenda
- I am deeply disturbed by the health disparities among minorities in America. I am equally fascinated with the idea of cross-cultural ways to communicate about health issues. My research is a humble attempt to discover ways to construct interventions that focuses on how information is delivered and processed. It is also my contention that in order to close the disparity between minority and majority populations in such diseases as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, it is essential to find ways to improve health practices in a cost-effective manner. Therefore, my research targets minority and underserved populations, with the hope that I can find ways to construct individualized messages to individuals consonant with the beliefs and cognitive processing common to the culture. My research is always applied and participatory, and conducted deep within the communities that are being studied.
Specifically, in one study, mammography utilization was increased among low-income African American women through a video that was designed to increase cognitive processing that leads to a preference-based, stable decision to follow through. Focus groups within the community were held to identify beliefs and create the intervention. Women who saw the intervention video, did process the information using central route processing and, indeed, did obtain more mammograms within the 12 months of the study. Another study placed computers in low-income neighborhoods and trained participants to utilized a Telemedicine program to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease. Participants reduced blood pressure and cholesterol, increased steps walked and exercise capacity.
Most recently, my work has focused on the creation of an intervention that integrates the cultural adaptive ability of narrative therapy and the efficacy of motivational interviewing (MiStory). In face-to-face counseling, two studies resulted in non-adherent patients reaching a clinically significant compliance rate (one was chemotherapy with cancer patients; the other with heart transplant patients). All studies were conducted on low-income African Americans. The latest initiative is to computerize this intervention to use e-counseling to increase smoking cessation
Recent Publications
- Homko, C. J., Santamore, W. P., Zamore, L., Shirk, G., Gaughan, J., Cross, R., Kashem, A., Petersen, S., & Bove, A. A. (2008). Cardiovascular disease knowledge and risk perception among underserved individuals at increased risk of CVD. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 23(4).
- Petersen, S. & Goldstein, D. E. (2008, in press). Community-Based Health Promotion. In Volume One: Changes and Challenges for Counseling in the 21st Century. Encyclopedia of Counseling, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Navsaria, N. & Petersen, S. (2006, in press). Finding a voice in Shakti: A therapeutic approach for Hindu Indian women. Women & Therapy.
- Rexrode, K. R.,Petersen, S., O’Toole, S. (in press). The Ways of Coping Questionnaire: Reliability Generalization Study. Testing and Measurements.
- Petersen, S. & Gonzalez, P. (2005). The effectiveness of MI-Story, narrative motivationalinterviewing intervention to improve adherence to treatment among low income African American cancer patients. Psycho-oncology, 14, (S99-100).
- Petersen, S., Soucar, B., Sherman-Slate, E., & Luna, L (2005). A Critical Discourse Analysis of Racial Differences in Cancer Themes in the Popular Press. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 9(4), 201-229 .
- Petersen, S., Dettinger, S., Propst, O., & Bull, C. (2005). Narrative Therapy to Prevent
Illness-Related Stress Disorder. Journal of Counseling and Development, 83(1),
41-47.
- Petersen, S., Schwartz, R. C., Sherman-Slate, E., Frost, H., & Gogal, J. L., & Damjanov, N. (2003). The Role of Depression and Anxiety in the Medical Decision Making of Cancer Patients. Psychological Reports, 93, 323-334.
- Tucker, C.M., Petersen, S., Herman, K. C., Fennell, R.S., Bowling, B., & Pedersen, T., & Vosnik, J. R. (2002). Self-regulation predictors of medication non-adherence among ethnically different pediatric patients with renal transplants. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 26(8), 455-462.
- Petersen, S., Heesacker, M., & Schwartz, R.C. (2001). Physical Illness: Social construction or biological imperative. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 18(4) winter.
- Petersen, S., Heesacker, M., & Marsh, R. DeW. (2001). Medical decision making and coping among cancer patients. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48(2), 239-244.
- Petersen, S. & Benishek, L. (2001). Social construction of illness: Addressing the impact of illness on women in therapy. Journal of Women and Therapy , 23(1), 75-100.
- Tucker, C. M., Fennell, R. S., Pedersen, T., Herman, K. C., & Petersen, S. (2001). Factors affecting medication non-adherence among ethnically different pediatric renal transplant patients. Pediatric Nephrology,
- Petersen, S., Heesacker, M., Schwartz, R. C., & Marsh, R. DeW. (2000). Medical decision making among cancer patients: A test of theory. Journal of Psychology and Health: An International Journal, 15, 663-675.
- Petersen, S. (2000). A Multi-Cultural Perspective on Women's Identity. Journal of Counseling and Development. 78, 63-71.
Recent Research Grants
- Video Intervention to Increase Mammography Among African-American Women Grant submitted to the NIH: PI - National Cancer Institute - $150,000 – Awarded August, 2003 – August, 2005.
- Patients’ Medical Decision Making as a Mediating Variable in the Prediction of Adherence Among Cancer Patients in Clinical Trials for Oral Doses of Chemotherapy –PI - Grant submitted to Temple University - Junior Faculty Research Award - $28,000 – Awarded July, 2003. This grant provided the pilot data for a grant submitted in October, 2004 to NIH.
- Video intervention to increase mammography among African-American women. Grant funded by Temple University - $5,500. Awarded Dec. 2002. PI and was awarded this grant to obtain pilot data on mammography. Results of this funding for pilot data was a grant awarded to me as sole PI by NIH for the full project.
- A Qualitative Exploration of reasons for non-adherence among African-American cancer patients. Funded $4000 by Temple University Medical School –PI - Awarded 2000
- Smoking Cessation Intervention for African American Males. Submitted to National Cancer Institute, NIH, June, 2008, in review.
- Validation Study for the Immigration Stress Scale (Spanish Version). Awarded July, 2007. Sponsor: Alliant International University
My Philosophy of Teaching
My philosophy of teaching is based on constructivism. Constructivism is relative, organismic, socially derived, contextual, and multi-dimensional. Constructivist thinking is particularly important for training psychologists for several reasons: 1) On the deepest levels of a person’s psyche, counselors must facilitate the growth and well-being of people from diverse cultures, 2) consideration must be given to contextualizing the power differentials involved in the process, 3) to do so necessitates increased cognitive complexity.
“So many things fail to interest us, simply because they don’t find in us
enough surfaces on which to live, and what we have to do is to increase
the number of planes in our mind, so that a much larger number of themes
can find a plane in it at the same time.” (Ortega y Gasset)
A constructivist approach offers a useful foundation for accomplishing the goals of training effective psychologists. Constructivist thinking is relative, emphasizing that there is no one right way. The preponderance of outcome literature has substantiated that the interpersonal relationship between the counselor and the client is the single most effective “ingredient” (Wampold, 2001; Bergin & Garfield, 1992). Each helping relationship is unique and therefore no one particular approach is likely to work. Therefore, the development of the students’ own resources and refinement of judgement is of paramount importance in achieving client goals.
Constructivist thinking is organismic. Growth and learning occur through the awareness of one’s own idiosyncratic constructs that evolve in ever-increasing levels of discrimination, accommodation, and alteration of those constructs. Therefore, students are encouraged self-reflection of their own constructs regarding the issue under study.
Constructivist thinking is socially derived. Ideas are socially constructed and how those ideas are acted upon is the result of attaching meaning to the ideas. Although meanings are uniquely individual, meaning is influenced and expanded through social interaction. Therefore learning is enhanced in a highly interactive class environment (Maturana, 1978). A great deal of time is spent in discussion and students are expected to actively participate.
Constructivist thinking is multi-dimensional. When a person has an experience, he/she searches for similarities in order to establish categories, the more categories and the finer the distinctions between different categories, the greater the cognitive complexity (Polkinghorne, 1995). Studies show that increased cognitive complexity results from adopting a constructivist epistemology and organismic worldview (Botella & Gallifa, 1995). Therefore, experiential exercises are incorporated into every class and students are encouraged to question their own interpretations of that experience. Events and their meanings are circumscribed not only by what they are but also by what they are not (Kelly, 1955). The dialectic is present in almost every situation. However, people are seldom aware of their own dialectic thinking and gravitate to a fixed position thereby selectively attending to a small part of the whole (Langer, 1989;1994). Therefore, multiple perspectives are encouraged to elicit awareness of opposites, refine the discriminations made by the student, question their assumptions, and increase critical thinking.
Constructivist thinking is contextual. The context and the emerging ideas are seamless. It is not possible to isolate an idea from its’ context. Therefore, information is provided to the students accompanied by an examination of the milieu from which that information emerged. Students are asked to compare the original context with the current context to determine whether the information is true and relevant now. When teaching a class, I try to question categorical thinking and the limits of those categories, encourage dialectic thinking, focus on process, meta-communication, and assumptions as well as content, value approximation over precision, promote experience and subsequent questioning of that experience, elicit and validate multiple perspectives. I engage in these activities in order to increase cognitive complexity, the use of critical thought, assertiveness, and empathy.
Personal Interests
- Visual arts
- travel
- entertaining
- skiing
- hiking
- music
- sailing
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