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PSYCHOLOGY OF PANDEMICS AND CRISES ��������������������������
Professor Teaches About Ever-Expanding Field of Psychology, And How Pandemics Affect Us
By Morgan Goodwill, '19 Photography by Zach Thomas, '00
The field of psychology has evolved significantly over the years. Tracy Litzinger, Assistant Professor of Psychology and a 1991 Flagler College alumna, says this is why it’s so important to expose students to the many different avenues like human factors and industrial/ organizational psychology. Litzinger, who has a Ph.D. from EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University, studies human factors, which looks at improving products, equipment and environments to better complement human behavior. Her doctoral research was on process inefficiencies in trauma centers that threatened the delivery of critical care. As the world continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, she will teach a course on “The Science of Crises” next spring. Flagler College Magazine sat down with her recently to talk about the diverse field of psychology and her upcoming course on pandemics.
Q: You are getting ready to teach a class next year on pandemics. Can you tell me a little bit about it, and why you chose that course?
A: Introduction to Psychology has always been a general [education] course offering for years. It’s a broad exposure to the science of psychology and all the areas that we impact people’s lives. Then you also draw from those classes to pull students, so they potentially major in psychology. Now these new entering freshpersons won’t be taking it. So, how do we create courses that make them want to major in our disciplines? The course that I proposed, [Science of Crises: Pandemics], will look at research, social sciences and lessons learned related not just to the most recent pandemic, COVID-19, but to past ones as well.
Q: How are you going to bring these real-world experiences into the classroom?
A: First, we always drive to create courses that address real-time, real-world problems. We aren’t stuck in a vacuum and pretend like
these things aren’t happening outside of the campus walls. A pandemic class sounds great. I was also seeing courses being developed within colleges and universities addressing some of the pandemic issues. From the biology of what a virus is and the science to the technology, I was wanting to introduce a class that was specific to social scientific inquiry. I was like hey, I’ll do a class on pandemics and bring all the research and tools that’s out there." It’s endless and constantly changing.
Q: Are you pulling outside speakers into the course?
The Evolving Field of Psychology
A few non-traditional fields of psychology that are growing in popularity:
Human Factors
Forensic
Industrial/ Organizational
Eating Disorders
Child Development
Social Psychology
A: I’m going to have to bring in folks that are out there working in the trenches, the front lines. My hope is to maybe bring someone in from emergency management. Think about this as a crisis class. Let’s dissect this. Bring in people from public health, our Natural Sciences department. Right in the beginning of the pandemic I listened to a webinar presented by the Human Factors Ergonomics Society. These are folks in my field talking about how to keep health care workers in the hospitals safe and protected and in addition to that, patient safety. I just remember listening to that webinar right in the beginning, when we were first recognizing being in a pandemic, and just admiring my field really coming to the forefront to address safety issues and the quality of the process.
Q: How will this course bring in thoughts outside of COVID-19?
A: This course will be bringing in the history of pandemics. So, even though this world is changing so much and the research is trying to keep up, we also have a history to look back on and lessons learned. Not only do we have the Black Plague and the Spanish Flu, which are what some people are comparing us to now, but you also have the AIDS crisis that we’re still learning from. Even though we may not have all of the answers, we can reflect and see how we can go about future issues. I think looking back, if you can understand what happened in the past, that can help us in the future on how we can get closer and closer to getting it right.
Q: How do you see public spaces, or how we view them, changing due to the pandemic?
A: Here we’ve been in a pandemic and have been isolated. In coffee shops, I’m more likely to sit outside or next to the door to feel more comfortable. So, our social lives and the places we eat – being so ingrained in our daily lives and society – we’ve been stripped of that the last two years. Our outside spaces have become really important. We’re lucky here in Florida because we can still go outside, but in northern areas we don’t have those luxuries. What do we do when you don’t have a place that’s safe? That leads to a dramatic decline in mental health and that’s our next pandemic. We’re dealing with higher rates of suicide of young adults. Isolation, high anxiety, depression – this pandemic has made it worse. If we can’t have our outside spaces, what do we do?
Q: Why is this an important topic for students?
A: Here they’re being presented with an issue that has impacted all of us. For these students, part of their high school career has been part of a pandemic. So, we’ve all been impacted by it – and this can go for any sort of issue. These are issues that impact society in varying
Source: American Psychological Association
Focuses on developing and improving products, equipment and even environments to improve efficiency and better complement human behavior.
Often works with law enforcement in a wide range of roles from criminal profiling to establishing mental stability, whether it’s in counseling or presenting evidence in court.
Looks at productivity and employee behavior in the workplace with an eye on everything from job training to HR.
Seeks to better understand and help treat these complex illnesses that affect a growing number of Americans.
The study of brain development through research into the behavior, learning and growth of children.
Focuses on all aspects of relationships, and in particular, how psychology can be used to improve these interactions.
degrees. Some people may be more impacted by them than others. At the end of the day the field of psychology has an opportunity to make a difference by being on the frontlines of the issues. Psychology may not solve all the problems, but we can at least make a dent.
Student Interest in Psychology Rises in Popularity at Flagler
By Morgan Goodwill, ʻ19
The psychology major at Flagler has become one of the College's largest programs as the field continues to grow in popularity with students. Part of that rise, according to Assistant Professor of Psychology Tracy Litzinger is how the field continues to expand beyond traditional psychology.
At Flagler, students can pursue careers in a wide variety of settings including medical and health clinics, schools and universities, and even fields like law, urban planning, criminology and industrial psychology.
“At the end of the day the field of psychology and social sciences has an opportunity to make a real difference,” Litzinger said. “Psychology influences our everyday lives, and you may not realize it, but it’s all around us. … Even things that you eat, I think about the research that’s being done on whether certain foods are good for you. It impacts our daily life like how much sleep you should get or how to avoid dementia. All of these topics, psychology has a stake in.”
With increases in anxieties, depression and mental illness, and often hitting close to home and schools for today’s students, the field continues to grow.
“Our numbers grow every year,” Litzinger said. “At Flagler it has always been one of the most popular majors and just behavioral sciences in general, like criminology. A number of students tell me that not only do they recognize how mental illness is so predominant among their friends, class mates, and schools, but that they themselves have benefited from counseling and therapy. I think that’s some of the reason why the major continues to grow.”
Litzinger said it makes it all the more important to better train tomorrow’s professionals for the field, whether it’s more traditional psychology or the many new offshoots. That is also why they try to make the major so rigorous and demanding.
