Faculty/Staff Directory
Dr. Paul R. Gladden
4784712459
Department Chair and Professor of Psychology
Credentials: Ph.D.
| Office Hours: | Macon Campus--TEB 357. I'm available, by appointment, Monday through Friday from 8am until 5pm. |
| Locations: (Campus & Office) | |
| Website: | https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul-Gladden?ev=hdr_xprf |
| Biography: | I grew up in Virginia, about an hour south of Washington D.C. I enjoy playing tennis and, more recently, pickleball. I've been inducted into my high school's athletics hall of fame for tennis and I played one year at Campbell University (NC) before transferring to the University of Virginia, where I majored in Psychology (minor in Biology). I've been fortunate to work with exceptional research mentors during my undergraduate and graduate years and I owe a great deal to their mentorship. As an undergraduate, I became deeply interested in the biological foundations of behavior. I briefly worked as a research assistant in a neuroscience lab that studied neuroplasticity in the development of the ferret visual system using electron microscopy, I took a Psychobiology Lab course where students performed brain surgery on rats, and I completed a distinguished majors thesis on evolved sex differences in jealousy. After graduating, I worked at a psychiatric hospital for about 3 months, which confirmed what I already pretty much knew-- that clinical work with psychological disorders wasn’t for me. I went to graduate school at the University of Arizona (U of A), where I earned both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology, with an emphasis in Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology, with graduate minors in (1) Research Methods and Program Evaluation and (2) Cognitive Science. I taught a variety of courses as a graduate student (U of A) and adjunct instructor (U of A, South), including Personality, Cognitive Psyc, Evolutionary Psyc, and Human Sexuality. This is my 15th year teaching at MGA and 9th year as Department Chair of Psychology, Sociology, and Criminal Justice. |
| Teaching and Research Interests: | I have a wide variety of research interests. I’m an Evolutionary Personality Psychologist interested in universal human nature, sex differences and sexual selection, and individual differences in evolved life history strategies, aggression, and moral psychology. I'm also interested in the philosophical/inter-theoretical consilience (Wilson, 1999) (and the inconsistency) among various scientific fields, including between radical behaviorism and evolutionary perspectives through selectionist (rather than 'instructionist') concepts and processes. I'm also working on developing a theoretically principled taxonomy of situations- organized around different classes of evolved adaptive problems- to try to account for why currently identified broad personality traits are poor predictors of behavior across situations. By developing an evolutionarily-informed taxonomy of situations, it could change how we conceptualize personality 'traits'. Theoretically, a single latent (situationalized) adaptive trait could, under such circumstances, predict the occurrence of behaviors that, on the surface, appear dissimilar or even unique. I enjoy teaching a variety of courses including Research Methods, Statistics, Evolutionary Psychology, and Biopsychology. I'm passionate about teaching students to begin thinking carefully about empirical claims and with a scientific attitude and to question their own thinking/assumptions. I aim to always encourage students to balance openness to new ideas with rational and scientific skepticism when considering any testable or potentially testable claim. Carl Sagan said it better than I can: "“At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes - an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. The collective enterprise of creative thinking and skeptical thinking, working together, keeps the field on track. Those two seemingly contradictory attitudes are, though, in some tension.” ~Carl Sagan (1995), The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark |
| Courses: | I have taught the following courses at MGA: PSYC 1101- Intro. To General Psychology PSYC 3001- Statistics for Behavioral Sciences PSYC 3002- Research Methods PSYC 3277- Personality PSYC 3401--Biopsychology PSYC 3421- Motivation and Emotion PSYC 3601--Cognitive Psychology PSYC 4001--Experimental Psychology PSYC 4401--Evolutionary Psychology PSYC/BIOL 4411--Animal Behavior PSYC 4100- Senior Capstone in Psychological Science Lately, I mostly teach PSYC 3001, 3401, and 4401. |
| Education: (All institutions attended and degrees or credentials earned) | Ph.D. Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson. (Emphasis in Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology and minors in research methods/program evaluation and cognitive science.) M.A. Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson B.A. Psychology (minor in Biology), University of Virginia, Charlottesville Campbell University, Buies Creek, NC (attended 2000-2001). |
| Professional Experience: | 2025-2026 is my 15th year teaching at MGA (Aug. 2011-present) 2026 will be the start of my 9th year as Department Chair. QM- Quality Matters Certificate- Online Course Design (Nov. 2024) Between 2006-2011, I taught the following courses as a graduate student (University of Arizona) and an adjunct instructor (University of Arizona South): Evolutionary Psychology, {Evolutionary} Human Sexuality, Personality Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Research Methods Lab Between 2005-2011, I served as a graduate TA for the following courses: Introductory Psychology (Individuals and Society 101), Research Methods, Statistics, Human Memory Fall 2004: Worked as Psychiatric Technician in Virginia. Peer Review Work: I have served as a peer reviewer for the following scholarly journals: Behavioral and Brain Sciences Personality and Individual Differences Evolution and Human Behavior Evolutionary Psychology Human Ethology Bulletin Australian Journal of Psychology Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (now titled Evolution, Mind, and Behaviour) Journal of Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium Peer J Journal (Life, Biol, Environmental, and Health Sciences) Scientific Reports |
| Publications and Scholarships: (Last 5 Years) | Google Scholar Profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=U2aZB5UAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate Research Gate Profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul-Gladden?ev=hdr_xprf Recent Publications: Jacobs W.J., Gladden P.R. (2020) Selectionist Models: Implications for Behavior. In: Shackelford T., Weekes-Shackelford V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_317-1 Gladden P.R. (2020) Blank Slate, The. In: Shackelford T., Weekes-Shackelford V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343682054_Blank_Slate_The Gladden P.R., Jacobs W.J. (2019) Information Processing and the Interdisciplinary Perspective. In: Shackelford T., Weekes-Shackelford V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1310-1 Gladden, P. R. & Cleator, A. M. (2018). Slow Life History Strategy Predicts Six Moral Foundations. EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium, 9 (Sp. Issue 2), 43-63. https://evostudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Gladden-et-al_Vol9SpIss2.pdf Other selected publications: Figueredo, A.J., Gladden, P.R., Sisco, M.M., Patch, E.A., Jones, D.N. (2015). The Unholy Trinity: The Dark Triad, Sexual Coercion, and Brunswik-Symmetry. Evolutionary Psychology, 13, 435-454. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147470491501300208 Gladden, P.R., Welch, J., Figueredo, A.J. (2009). Moral Intuitions and Religiosity as Spuriously Correlated Life-History Traits. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 7, 167-184. https://akjournals.com/view/journals/1126/7/2/article-p167.xml Gladden, P.R., Sisco, M., Figueredo, A.J. (2008). Sexual Coercion and Life History Strategy, Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 319 -326. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S109051380800041X Figueredo, A.J., Wolf, P.S.A., Gladden, P.R., Olderbak, S.G., Andrzejczak, D.J., & Jacobs, W.J. (2011). Ecological approaches to personality. In Buss, D.M., & Hawley, P.H., (Eds.), The Evolution of Personality and Individual Differences. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/W-Jacobs-2/publication/235762009_Ecological_Approaches_to_Personality/links/5877dfca08ae329d6228321c/Ecological-Approaches-to-Personality.pdf |
| Professional Affiliations: | Present Professional Affiliations: Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) Northeastern Evolutionary Perspectives Society (NEEPS) Heterodox Academy Past Professional Affiliations and Conferences Attended: Evaluation Group for the Analysis of Data (EGAD) (Tucson, Arizona) Southeastern Evolutionary Perspectives Society Association for Psychological Science (APS) European Human Behavior and Evolution Society International Society for Intelligence Research Society for the Teaching of Psychology National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (conference) Behavior Genetics Association (conference) Kids Evolutionary Perspectives Society (conference) Feminist Evolutionary Perspectives Society (conference) |
| Awards and Honors: | Middle Georgia State University, Excellence in Scholarship Award, 2017 Nominated for Graduate Student Teaching Award, University of Arizona/U of A South The National Scholars Honor Society, member, 2007 Phi Eta Sigma Honors Society, University of Virginia Chapter, member, 2001 Coaches Award- Men’s Tennis, Campbell University (Buies Creek, NC), 2000-2001 |
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