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Alida Westman, Ph.D.
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Ph.D. Cornell University
M.S. Washington State University
B.S. Washington State University
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502 Mark Jefferson | Ypsilanti, MI 48197
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734.487.0098
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awestman@emich.edu
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| Biography:
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I spent the first 12 years of my life in The Hague, Holland, Europe. With WWII and its after-effects so abundant, I wondered why people saw the world so differently. Why did one see a problem and another a challenge? How can people be so inhumane against other people? Further, traumatized people show the effects non-verbally when they can't verbalize what they've experienced. I learned to look for sites eliciting reactions and to research them to find out what happened. As a result my life was set by the age of four or so toward perception and research.
My teenage years I spent in the Pacific Northwest, in Pullman, Washington, home of Washington State University. It was surrounded by pristine wilderness and only 8 miles from the Idaho panhandle. We frequently camped and traded news for a leg of elk with some of the squatters. I was very hesitant to leave this haven. So I stayed as long as I could and got both my bachelors and masters at Washington State University.
Cornell University is in the finger lakes of up-state New York. It's a beautiful area. In fact the film industry started here and then moved to Hollywood where the winters are gentler. Cornell assumed motivated students, so there were no required courses, only the demand that one learn. I did, and in 1971 I earned my Ph.D. degree. As I defended my thesis, I met a visiting graduate student from the University of Michigan. We were engaged a week later and married soon after. After 26 years of marriage, our son and I lost him.
I had accepted a job as Research Associate at the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis, Missouri. It was interesting work, but a commuting marriage is unpleasant. Thus I went job hunting again and ended up at Eastern. I've been here longer than anywhere else in my life. I've seen my students become teachers and the teachers of my son. I now have children of my own students in classes. I very thoroughly enjoy my life here. |
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| Research Interests: |
| I do research on perceptual and cognitive development, early memories, concepts of self and death, religion, and cross-modal perceptual sequences.
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| Teaching Interests:
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| I teach courses which deal with people's perception and comprehension of the world and how these facets develop.
I teach Sensation-Perception (Psy 357) and history of ideas people have had about people (History & Systems, Psy 453), and the role of religion in people's lives (Psychology of Religion, Psy 225). On occasion I teach Cognitive Processes either at the undergraduate or graduate level. Similarly, I teach perception at the graduate level, as needed.
With respect to development, I teach Child Psychology (Psy 321) regularly. On occasion I teach undergraduate or graduate adolescence. And, occasionally, I guest lecture in Death & Dying (Psy 551).
When there was space in my course load for statistics, I taught it. I hope at some point to return to teaching it. |
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