Matthew Ansfield, associate professor of psychology, is proud to be a follower of the football team from Green Bay, an avid fisherman of the muskellunge, and a determined ailurophile — but, beyond Packers, muskies, and cats, he says, “My ultimate passion in life is teaching. I cannot think of a time when I haven’t pursued a career in teaching.”
A member of the Lawrence faculty since 2000, he currently teaches Principles of Psychology, Social Psychology, Health Psychology, Research Methods I and II, and Psychology of Emotion. In 2004 he was selected by Lawrence students to receive the Mrs. H. K. Babcock Award for having made “a positive impact on the campus community.” Today on the campus, he is co-sponsor for the Psychology Student Association and faculty sponsor for SWAPH (Students War Against Poverty and Hunger).
His research explores the nature and function of paradoxical smiling, laughing, and humor during the experience of distressing emotional circumstances, typified by his recent paper, “Smiling when distressed: When a smile is a frown turned upside down,” published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. In his most recent work in collaboration with Joe Alger ’04, Kate Hoyme ’04, and Jessica Whitehead ’05, he tested whether humor with content that matches the source of distress is more effective in creating a positive mood than humor that does not — conclusion: it is. Jessica Whitehead presented data from this and further studies at the 2005 Wisconsin Psychological Association conference and won the prize for Best Undergraduate Poster.
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