Lori Bica, Ph.D.
Contact Information
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
124 Garfield Avenue
Eau Claire, WI 54701
Fridays 12:00-1:00pm
and by appointment
Biography
I majored in psychology as an undergraduate student and received a B.A. from Michigan State University. I earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from The Ohio State University and joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2000. My area of specialization, developmental psychology, focuses on change across the lifespan in physical, cognitive, and social/emotional terms.
Teaching and Research Interests
I teach Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 100), Human Development (PSYC 230), and Psychology of Women (PSYC/REGSS 336). I’m delighted to have my fall semester sections of Introduction to Psychology included in UW-Eau Claire’s First Year Experience program. My connection to the Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department (REGSS) is the Psychology of Women course –– a class shared by Psychology and REGSS that serves as an elective for the LGBTQ Studies certificate.
I enjoy working with a diverse team of undergraduate student research collaborators. Most students on the team chose to work with me on projects that span multiple years. I view these long-term, highly individualized learning experiences as extremely important components of both my scholarship and teaching.
As a faculty research mentor, my goal is to advance students’ understanding of the fundamentals of research design: conducting a literature search; forming hypotheses; submitting IRB proposals; collecting, entering, and analyzing data; conforming to APA-style, and preparing results for conference presentation and/or publication. In addition to recruiting student researchers for projects in my own areas of expertise, I work with many students on research projects rooted in their interests. For example, students in my Psychology of Women course write a research proposal. As the semester ends, I invite them all to follow up on their proposals as collaborative research projects with me, aiming at presenting their findings at professional conferences.