Research at the University of Iowa

Many of the social and educational sciences are relative newcomers to the academic scene. Some were not recognized as disciplines until the second half of the 19th Century.  Research at the UI accelerated the maturation of these fields and provided early intellectual credibility to the social and educational sciences —leaving a persistent legacy of excellence.   

Already in 1872 UI had opened the country’s first college-level department of education and in 1895 Iowa opened a psychology lab — only the seventh such endeavor in the U.S.  By 1917 Iowa began formally addressing the delivery of social services through the Child Welfare Research Station.   

In 1925 E.F. Lindquist joined the College of Education as a research assistant; in 1929 Wendell Johnson enrolled as a grad student in Psychology.  In 1936 Kenneth Spence became chairman of Psychology, replacing the eminent founding chairman and later Graduate Dean, Carl Seashore.  

Lindquist went on to create the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the American College Testing (ACT) Program.  His pioneering work in the automated scoring of standardized tests gave rise to the Measurement Research Corporation whose successor is now a local branch of the international firm, Pearson.  The headquarters of ACT remain in Iowa City.  Together, Pearson and the ACT Corporation employ some 4000 Iowans.  

After receiving his social science Ph.D., Johnson applied his knowledge of clinical psychology to curing stuttering and other speech impediments.  Himself a former stutterer, Johnson largely created Iowa’s now internationally-recognized program in Speech Pathology and Audiology—a hybrid of the social and medical sciences, made possible by the interplay between these two traditional strengths at Iowa.   

The UI has acknowledged the tradition of research excellence of faculty members such as Seashore, Spence, Lindquist, and Johnson by naming facilities after each.  This tradition of excellence continues on an even broader scale today.  Social Science research is conducted in departments including anthropology, sociology, political science, social work, economics, and psychology.  Related work thrives in the College of Education, while principles of the social sciences inform research on health care delivery in the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health.  

Here are a few examples of current UI research in the social sciences and education.  

Medicine for the Mind and Body—The Department of Psychology   Associate Professor Susan Lutgendorf studies psychoneuroimmunology and biobehavioral medicine.  These lengthy, compound terms highlight the ways in which her work seeks to illuminate the complex relationships among the mind and basic biological functions—thinking, feeling, and illness. She studies, for example, the relationships among social support, immune function, and tumor growth in ovarian cancer patients.  She also studies the potential benefits of a complementary and alternative medicine treatment called “healing touch” on breast cancer patients during their radiation and chemotherapy.  The rigor of Lutgendorf’s work has earned her research group sustained funding from the National Cancer Institute as well as more specialized sponsors.    

Working to Ameliorate Violence—Research in the Department of Sociology   UI sociologist Rob Baller thinks about violence.  In particular, his work evaluates the proposition that violence begets violence.  In one current study he examines longitudinal records to ascertain if teen suicides in some ways become “contagious,” and so lead to more suicides.  He concludes that a single exposure to suicide likely does not “infect” a teen but that three or more exposures increase the chance that a teen might take his/her own life.  In another study Baller asks if a local history of violence correlates with the incidence of contemporary violence in the same locale.  He relates the incidence of lynchings in the American South between 1882 and 1930 to local homicide rates between 1986 and 1995. Baller notes that most of the earlier lynchings were perpetrated by whites against African Americans and that a contextually small number of more contemporary homicides were similarly perpetrated.  Baller does observe a meaningful correlation between the incidence of past and present violent killings, however.  He concludes his reported findings by quoting William McFeeling: “Historians know that the past can never be erased and that the ugliest human actions cast the longest shadows.”    

Making the Grade—Research in the College Education   UI’s College of Education ranks 15th nationally among similar Ph.D. granting colleges at public universities.  Excellence is around every corner in the College’s home, The Lindquist Center.  The willingness to adapt and adopt technology in pedagogy and pedagogical research has been a constant in the College for nearly 80 years and is a theme that runs through a range of current initiatives in test development, giftedness, counselor training, and adult education.  

Emblematic of the College’s interest in educational technologies is the ePortfolio ™.  This is a virtual file cabinet, developed under a collegiate initiative, that allows teachers and “pre-teachers” alike to maintain, sort, change, and share digital teaching materials.  The ePortfolio ™ gives graduating students a boost in their job searches since they can provide a ready, comprehensive picture of their experience to date.  Professional educators and graduate students use ePortfolio ™ to share materials with colleagues, to document (and report on) their curricula, and to just plain help keep things straight.    

FOAs—Freqently Offered Answers—Rankings of Relevant UI Programs and Departments: