Privitera, Gregory

Assistant Professor, Psychology

Office phone: (716) 375-2488
E-mail: gprivite@sbu.edu 

De La Roche 100 E

• PSYC 101. An Introduction to Psychology 
• PSYC 201-202. Psychological Research: Methods and Statistics I and II 
• PSYC 420. Special Studies in Psychology: Psychology of Eating
• Health Psychology

• Ph.D., The State University of New York at Buffalo (2006)
• M.A., The State University of New York at Buffalo (2004)
• B.A., The State University of New York at Buffalo (2002) 

• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Learning and Cognition

Authored Books 

• Privitera, G. J. (in development). Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences (1st ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Privitera, G. J. (2012). Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (1st ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN: 978-1-4129-6931-4. (736 pages)
• Privitera, G. J. (2012). Student Study Guide With IBM SPSS® Statistics Workbook for Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN: 978-1-4522-0334-8. (504 pages)
• Privitera, G. J. (2008). The Psychological Dieter: It’s Not All About The Calories. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. ISBN: 978-0-7618-3966-8. (118 pages)

 

Ancillary Publications for Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (Privitera, 2012) 

I am the author of the following ancillary publications. The PowerPoint® slides for all chapters were co-authored by Stacy L. Bender from Michigan State University.

• Instructor Test Bank in Diploma® (1,080 test bank questions)
• PowerPoint® Slides for all 18 chapters
• Instructor’s Manual with Chapter Exercises (online)
• IBM SPSS® Grading Templates (online)
• Answer Key to SPSS Exercises (online) 

 

Publications in Refereed Journals 

• Privitera, G. J., & Creary, H. E. (in press). Proximity and visibility of fruits and vegetables influences intake in a kitchen setting among college students. Environment & Behavior.
• Privitera, G. J., Mulcahey, C. P., & Orlowski, C. M. (2012). Human sensory preconditioning in a flavor preference paradigm. Appetite, 59(2), 414-418. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2012.06.005.
• Privitera, G. J., & Freeman, C. S. (2012). Validity and reliability of an estimated daily intake scale for fat. Global Journal of Health Science, 4(2), 36-41. doi:10.5539/gjhs.v4n2p36.
• Privitera, G. J., Cooper, K. C., & Cosco, A. R. (2012). The influence of eating rate on satiety and intake among participants exhibiting high dietary restraint. Food & Nutrition Research, 56:10202. doi: 10.3402/fnr.v56i0.10202.
• Privitera, G. J. & Wallace, M. (2011). An assessment of liking for sugars using the estimated daily intake scale. Appetite, 56(1), 713-718. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2011.02.008.
• Privitera, G. J., Zavala, A. R., Sanabria, F., & Sotak, K. L. (2011). High fat diet intake during pre and periadolescence impairs learning of a conditioned place preference in adulthood. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 7:21. doi:10.1186/1744-9081-7-21.
• Capaldi, E. D. & Privitera, G. J. (2008a). Decreasing dislike for sour and bitter in children and adults. Appetite, 50(1), 139-145. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2007.06.008.
• Capaldi, E. D. & Privitera, G. J. (2008b). Potentiation of taste and extract stimuli in conditioned flavor preference learning. Learning & Behavior, 36(1), 62-66. doi:10.3758/LB.36.1.62.
• Capaldi, E. D. & Privitera, G. J. (2007). Flavor-nutrient learning independent of flavor-taste learning with college students. Appetite, 49(3), 712-715. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2007.08.001.
• Privitera, G. J. & Capaldi, E. D. (2006). The basic tastants in aversion conditioning: Evidence for sensory preconditioning and not potentiation. Learning & Behavior, 34(4), 355-360. doi:10.3758/LB.34.4.355.
• Capaldi, E. D., Owens, J. Q, & Privitera, G. J. (2006). Isocaloric meal and snack foods differentially affect eating behavior. Appetite, 46(2), 117-123. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2005.10.008.
• Capaldi, E. D., Hunter, M. J., & Privitera, G. J. (2004). Odor of taste stimuli in conditioned “taste” aversion learning. Behavioral Neuroscience, 118(6), 1400-1408. doi:10.1037/0735-7044.118.6.1400.

I want my students to view psychological science not as a set of isolated facts to be memorized but as a process of decision and thinking that has relevance to their own lives. In my teaching, I build activities into the course that specifically encourage students to explore the broader implications of what they learn and to help them incorporate new information into a larger cognitive framework. In my courses, students have the opportunities to cooperate with, teach, and learn from their peers; to explore course topics outside the classroom; to respond to what they have heard in a lecture; and to draw connections between course material and their own experience. These active learning strategies are used with more traditional homework or laboratory assignments to assess problem-solving and critical thinking skills that are important for all students. In addition, they engage multiple student learning styles, relate course materials to topics of interest, and make learning fun and interactive for students.

 
I have often found that putting science into a larger context can also help students develop an appreciation of the scientific method as a remarkably successful direction for discovery, understanding, and consensus-building. For example, my students read popular science and magazine articles and discuss them in class. These exercises familiarize them with recent scientific advancements, and demonstrate how applicable such concepts are. This also helps encourage discussion and debate about controversial scientific and popular issues. In addition, I also allow students to experience science in a collaborative setting and to become “experts” in a particular area of interest. I do this by assigning team projects for researching course-related topics of their choice and having the groups present their findings to the class. I encourage students to use these projects to explore the intersections between science and other domains such as methodology, behavior, ethics, manipulation, and general topics in psychology. Such activities lead to greater student enthusiasm and engagement in discussion, than does the simple question-and-answer review formats.

 
Providing students with scientific thinking has implications beyond the psychology classroom: whether or not they become research scientists, students can use these lessons throughout their careers. In all, I feel that effectively communicating with my students requires this student-centered teaching philosophy by making the classroom “interesting” to the student, and fostering respect, caring, trust, and understanding among students and faculty. I have found that incorporating student awareness, active learning strategies, and more traditional assessment tools in the classroom has created an effective atmosphere for student learning, which would otherwise be difficult to establish. Whether students are preparing to go into industry, or to higher education, they should feel confident and prepared for this next step. I believe that a student-centered teaching philosophy will be most effective in serving the needs of a diverse student population by meeting the academic goals of each individual student.

 
My commitment to individual student success inside and outside of the classroom requires personalized guidance. Personalized guidance is more than just giving students attention; it’s empowering students with direction. I have found that students will often seek the guidance of faculty for which they have grown to trust and respect. I believe that we as faculty should be prepared to take an active role in offering students guidance. We should be open to responding and/or offering references to students with concerns outside the scope of coursework. In this way, I make every effort to embrace students motivated to build direction from education. Providing students with the personal guidance and direction necessary to facilitate academic and professional success in and out of the classroom is my vision of a student-centered teaching philosophy.

Experimental Research Aims

My general research interests are in the field of behavioral health and to understand how to enhance liking for healthier foods. My primary research interests are to test hypotheses that can answer the following two broad research questions:

1. How do humans learn to prefer the foods and drinks in their diets and what strategies can be used to enhance liking for healthier foods?
2. What factors control food intake? Factors of interest include those that are appetitive (e.g., buying and preparing food), physiological (e.g., hunger and fullness), and psychological (e.g., cognitive satiety and associative learning).

I am married with two children and raise my family in the St. Bonaventure area. I am a member of The American Legion; I volunteer my time at The St. Bonaventure Warming House; and I am a member of the board of trustees at Southern Tier Catholic School where my children attend school and at Archbishop Walsh Academy.