Dr. Brenda J. (Byers) Zies

Visiting Assistant Professor, Experimental Psychology
Email: bzies@uark.edu

Ph.D., Psychology, University of Arkansas, 1996
M.A., Psychology, University of Arkansas, 1992
M.S., Interdisciplinary Degree (Psychology, Sociology, and Education), East Texas State University, 1989
B.S., Psychology with a minor in Sociology, East Texas State University, 1988

Although my research interests typically involve the area of social, and in particular social cognitive factors that affect learning, I am especially interested in studies that integrate social and learning theories at an application level.  In addition, I am interested in the study of the forgiveness process and its impact on the psychological and physical well-being of those who forgive, which I first examined with the help of the students in my lab while I was teaching at Arkansas State University.  Nevertheless, I have always focused on my teaching and concentrated the majority of my efforts in that area.  I enjoy teaching and have often stated that I would teach for free, if I could afford to do so.  In spite of the demands required for preparation and the time-consuming aspects of grading involved in the particular courses I teach, teaching for me seems more like “play” than like “work”.  Even after all these years, I marvel that I am paid to do something that provides such intrinsic pleasure.

Although I have taught an array of experimental courses over the years, my all-time favorite course remains the Theories of Learning course, which I have taught at the undergraduate and graduate level.  Recently, I have had the joy of teaching History and Systems, a class that allows me to combine my love for psychology, history, and philosophy.  In addition, I have taught General Psychology, Honor’s General, Cognitive, Motivation, Childhood and Adolescence, and Social, among others.  Nevertheless, my second favorite course is the one I have taught most often: Research Methods.  Given that I have taught this course at universities that have had great diversity in the caliber of students, I have used a variety of approaches to teaching the course and constantly seek ways to make the course one that enhances the learning process, while simultaneously allowing students to have fun as they seek to understand the procedural aspects of research, which is the basis for all we do in the field of psychology. 

I was the first person in my family to earn a college degree.  I started college for the first time as a single mother and went 12 straight years and earned four degrees.  I taught my first college courses while a graduate student at the University of Arkansas in the Department of Psychology.  At first, I completely resisted the idea of teaching college students, as I initially intended to seek a career that allowed me to study ways to enhance encoding and retrieval of information in the museum field.  Although, I have been the education director of a museum system, worked as a researcher collecting and analyzing data for Arkansas State Parks, have owned my own consulting firm, and have been the program director (as well as the interim director for a short time) of a behaviorally-oriented learning center, nothing I have ever done gives me as much life satisfaction as does teaching at the university level.   After receiving my Ph.D., I taught at Arkansas State in Jonesboro and at Texas A&M in College Station, before returning to Fayetteville.  I have now been teaching at the University of Arkansas since the spring semester, 2005.