Scott Bates

Biography

I am a social psychologist by training and a generalist by heart--I have served on 53 thesis and dissertation committees and chaired eight myself. I earned a BS in Psychology from Whitman College, an MS in Psychology from Western Washington University and a PhD in Social Psychology from Colorado State University. During my career, I have conducted externally-funded research in three areas: higher education teaching and learning, environmental psychology, and problem behavior prevention. Projects in higher education teaching and learning focus on understanding college-student learning and optimizing college-level teaching. Projects in problem behavior prevention focus on needs assessment, monitoring, and methodological strategies for optimizing data collection. Projects in environmental psychology focus on the assessment of the non-nutritive benefits of having and/or tending plants in isolated environments, such as those found in space travel. As I said, I am a generalist. While I have taught many undergraduate courses, including General Psychology (PSY 1010), Scientific Thinking & Methods in Psychology (PSY 3500), and Orientation to Psychology as a Major and Career (PSY 2010), I have also taught Social Psychology (PSY6510) and University Teaching Apprenticeship (PSY6930) at the graduate level. I am fortunate to co-author of a textbook, Methods in Behavioral Research (McGraw-Hill; 12e, 2015), with Chris Cozby. In 2019, I was selected to serve as the Department Head for the Utah State Department of Psychology. Prior to that, I also served as an Associate Vice President and Associate Dean in the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, where I directed USU's undergraduate and graduate research program.