Distinguished Faculty Lecture: Melinda A. Novak
Melinda A. Novak, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will deliver the final Distinguished Faculty Lecture of this year’s series.
Novak’s talk, titled “Taking It Out on Yourself: Self-inflicted Injury in Monkeys and Humans,” looks at why some people injure themselves. She says more and more teenagers and young adults are cutting and burning themselves. In an effort to find out why this happens, Novak has been studying the small number of captive rhesus macaque monkeys at the New England Regional Primate Center that spontaneously develop the habit of biting themselves.
Among the questions Novak seeks to answer is what are the patterns and incidence of self-injurious behavior (SIB); what are the underlying causes and the daily triggers; why does a presumably painful activity resist various efforts at treatment; and what might be an effective treatment? Her findings of reinforcing consequences have important implications for the care of animals and the understanding and treatment of the phenomenon in humans.
Novak joined the university in 1973. She was an assistant professor of psychology from 1973-80, associate professor from 1980-89 and professor since 1989. She has been head of the department of psychology since 1995 and served as acting chairwoman from 1989-90 and in 1991.
She was head of the neuroscience and behavior division of the department from 1979-82 and 1992-94, and associate chairwoman of the department from 1983-87. Her research examines the effects of early experience on cognitive and social development in rhesus monkeys. Novak has been a visiting professor in the department of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School’s New England Regional Primate Research Center from 1987-91 and from 1994-present. She has also been a guest researcher at the National Institutes of Health Laboratory of Comparative Ethology since 1988. Novak was the acting co-editor of the American Journal of Primatology (2003-04), associate editor from 1999-03, and a member of the editorial board from 1997-99. She was also a consulting editor of the Journal of Comparative Psychology from 1994-97.
Novak earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology/zoology from the University of Connecticut in 1967 and a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in 1972 and 1973, respectively.
Faculty members in the series receive a Chancellor’s Medal following their lectures. The Chancellor’s Medal is the highest honor bestowed on individuals for exemplary and extraordinary service to the campus. The lecture series is sponsored by the offices of the chancellor and the provost.
The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture.
