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.
