My name is Fionnuala (Fin-noo-la) Butler and I am a Psychology Instructor at Cuesta College. I teach a variety of courses including Introductory Psychology, Social Psychology, Personality and Adjustment, Abnormal Psychology, and Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences.

I have a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, where my specialization was Social and Personality Psychology. My dissertation was on the behavioral consequences of experiencing a social rejection. You may notice that my Canvas photo is of a person throwing a ball (labeled with the Greek letter psi). This is a still picture from a common manipulation of social rejection, Cyberball. In experiments, participants that are assigned to the rejection condition are told that they are to play a ball tossing game with others via the Internet. At first, everything is fun as you throw your ball to the little avatars and they throw it back. After three throws, the avatars exclude you, and your little avatar hand reaches and grasps at a ball that never again comes your way. Imagine how you would feel being a participant in that experiment.

Isn't Psychology great?