Hello, and welcome to the fall 2024 section of PSYCH 5521 (Advanced Social Psychology).

As we begin the semester, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Kym Bennett and I am a Professor in the Department of Psychology here at UMKC; my pronouns are she/her. This is my 17th year as a professor here at UMKC. I serve as the Director of the Undergraduate Psychology Program. My teaching responsibilities include this class, a writing intensive (WI) class on stress and health, and an undergraduate class in social psychology. I completed my Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2002. My research focuses on social cognition and recovery from chronic illness. In particular, I'm very interested in how causal attributions affect recovery following a cardiovascular event. You can read about my research by visiting our Social Cognition & Health Research Team website.

When I'm not working, I enjoy spending time with my family. I am married and have two daughters: Sophia is 13 years old and in 8th grade. Bianca is 9 years old and in 4th grade. In my spare time, I enjoy hanging out with my kids and playing video games (our favorites on the Switch are Animal Crossing, Story of Seasons, and Mario Kart), reading books, watching movies, walking with our dog (Theo), and watching sports (my favorite is football and I'm a life-long [suffering] Miami Dolphins fan!). I've also started learning Chinese (Mandarin). Bianca is in a Chinese-Immersion program at her elementary school. With the switch to online learning for my kids during the 2020-2021 school year, I found myself learning Chinese right alongside Bianca. It's been fun to learn with her, but she has already vastly surpassed me in language skills. She regularly helps me with characters and pronunciation!

Here are a few recent pictures of my family:

That's a little about who I am. I look forward to getting to know each of you over the next 16 weeks!

As the instructor of the course, please contact me (insert email address) if you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the material or course expectations and requirements. As outlined in the course syllabus, I will do my best to respond to emails within 24 hours during the work week (Monday through Friday); however, I check my email infrequently over the weekend. If I receive an email during the weekend, I will respond as soon as I can on Monday.

My office hours will be via Zoom on Wednesdays from 11:00 am till 12:00 pm. I'm also available for office hours at other times during the week by appointment. I am also happy to schedule phone appointments if that works better for you. The insert Zoom room link is within the Modules section of our Canvas site.

I look forward to working with you throughout this semester, and please don’t hesitate to contact me should any questions arise!

Next, please check out the Syllabus page and the Modules page.