Creighton University Psychology Department

07/30/2026

Psychological Science Department Professor, Dr. Amy Badura-Brack, explores the concept of moral injury through the lens of the recent movie adaptation of The Odyssey.

Christopher Nolan turns Homer’s legendary warrior into a case study of moral injury, a condition that often appears in war veterans who struggle to forgive themselves.

05/21/2026

Congratulations to the senior class of 2026! The Psychological Science Department honored this year's class with an Open House event where families and students mingled with the department faculty and celebrated their impending graduation.

05/05/2026

The Psychological Science Department welcomed new members to the Psi Chi Honors Society with an induction ceremony hosted at Spaghetti Works. Psi Chi has a rich history of recognizing students who excel in the classroom and apply their studies in their daily lives. Congratulations to these students for being selected as new members!

05/05/2026

Congratulations to the 2026 Psychological Science Department Senior Award Winners!

The Leo R. Kennedy Award for the Outstanding Senior Psychology Major: Jakob Schmit

The Department of Psychological Science Award for Outstanding Scholarship: Saige Christen, Emily Krebs, Addison LeGrand, Davin Rucker, Liz Mark, Matt Kielian, Maria Christoffersen

The Louis E. Gardner Award for Outstanding Service: Saige Christen and Maria Christoffersen

Pictured: Emily Krebs, Maria Christoffersen, Jakob Schmit, Addison LeGrand, Matt Kielian, and Saige Christen.

03/16/2026

Creighton University Psychological Science Department students Marilou Kilian and Maria Christoffersen presented research as members of Dr. Jill Brown's lab at the 53rd annual Society for Cross Cultural Psychology Conference in Antigua, Guatemala.

Marilou Kilian, a senior majoring in Psychological Science and Political Science was awarded the Judith L. Gibbons Award for Research on Culture and Gender for her research entitled The Aftermath of Conflict: Understanding Variation in Gender-Based Violence Reduction Across Nations which was co-authored with Dr. Erika Moreno, a faculty member in the Department of Political Science. This award is given to graduate students (though in this case, an undergraduate student) for the best presentation researching gender and culture.

Maria Christoffersen presented her research, The Hidden Art of Giving: A Multiple Case Study of Sharing in Namibia, Southern Africa co-authored by Dr. Jill Brown and Dr. Ndumba Kamwanyah. Maria was invited to present her research at the UCLA graduate seminar in Mixed Methods research, hosted by Dr. Patricia Greenfield in May 2026.

Pictured: Jill Brown, Ted Bartholomew (Creighton alumni), Robert Hitchcock, Maria Christoffersen, and Marilou Kilian.

07/31/2025

Congratulations to Dr. Fairchild's poster team consisting of Addison LeGrand, Jaelyn Bentzinger, Katie Pfeiffer, and Davin Rucker for winning the Best Poster Award at the INGRoup Conference in the Netherlands.

They were awarded 1st place out of 56 total posters and were the only group to consist of undergraduate students!

The poster was entitled Information Sharing in Distributed Teams: The Impact of Psychological Safety, Collective Efficacy, and Emergent Leadership. Additional student authors on the poster include Surya Yuvaraj, Will Osborne, and Joseph Hertzel.

07/10/2025

Creighton researcher and collaborators uncover how visual focus can boost running performance

04/16/2025

Congratulations to senior psychology major Ariana Elsden for winning the Best Undergraduate Social Sciences Poster Presentation Award during the 2025 University Research Week! The award was given for her research poster presentation titled "Do Judgments of Learning Improve Learning of Foreign Language Vocabulary?"

04/01/2025

Ware-Johnk Lecture in Psychological Science

When: Thursday, April 3rd, 5-6pm
Where: Harper Auditorium

The department of psychological science is hosting it's 5th annual Ware-Johnk Lecture in Psychological Science. This year's speaker is Daniel Krauss, JD, PhD, Crown Professor of Psychology and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College who will present a lecture entitled "Crime Control Theater: What does the Public Think and Can Their Attitudes Be Changed."

Krauss will discuss the psychology of why laws such as Amber Alerts, Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Laws, 3-Strike Laws, and Safe Haven Laws remain popular despite the evidence showing these laws to be ineffective at their stated goals. The lecture will explore what the public thinks about these laws, and Krauss will discuss research that examines psychology-based interventions targeted to change the public's attitudes toward these laws.

02/04/2025