Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Webster University

A Wolf
Areas of Interest

Course Information
Fall 2024

    V. Woolf

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    A Guide to Teaching Statistics: Innovations and Best Practices by Michael R. Hulsizer and Linda M. Woolf

    From the Back Cover: A Guide to Teaching Statistics: Innovations and Best Practices, by Michael R. Hulsizer and Linda M. Woolf, is an invaluable guide for both novice and seasoned teachers of statistics. Based on an extensive review of the research in fields such as education, health sciences, mathematics, statistics, psychology, and the social sciences, the book covers a range of statistics education and assessment topics. The book also includes novel classroom exercises, pedagogical tools, and computer applications designed to enhance active learning. Topics include descriptive, inferential, and multivariate statistics as well as the importance of using real data in the classroom, the role of ethics and diversity in statistics, and the effectiveness of online statistical education. The authors also provide extensive coverage of the research concerning statistical literacy, thinking, and reasoning.


    Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights

    We live in a time of unparalleled instances of democide, genocide and ethnocide. In fact, governmental policies have resulted in over 170 million deaths during this century (1900-1987) and this figure excludes war deaths (Rummel, 1995). As Rummel states,"It surpasses the 1987 population of all but six nations in the world". These statistics of course do not include the more recent deaths due to genocide/democide and underestimate the additional toll on human life from physical and psychological scarring.
    While most individuals are aware of the Holocaust (although they often do not realize the extent of the brutality and actual cost in terms of human life), many are not aware of other past genocides/democides or of current genocides/democides. For example, many individuals remain unaware of the Armenian genocide in Turkey, the killing fields of Cambodia, the disappearances in Argentina & Chile, the death squad killings in El Salvador, or Stalin's purges. Many are unaware of recent events that have resulted in genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda/Burundi or the extreme violations of human rights and genocidal policies by the governments of China (including Tibet), Myanmar (Burma), and Indonesia (including the genocide of the East Timorese). This site contains course information, recommended readings, links, aging as a human rights page, and a chronology of the Holocaust.

    Click here for more information: Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights



    2019 APA Poster Presentation: Foundational science concepts: Human rights, social justice, and diversity, Linda M. Woolf & Michael R. Hulsizer

    Woolf, L. M. (2019, August 4). Mass shooting: Shifting blame and shifting focus Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-fight-against-hate/201908/mass-shooting-shifting-blame-and-shifting-focus

    Woolf, L. M. (2018, March 4). Arming teachers: Good or bad idea? Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-fight-against-hate/201803/arming-teachers-good-or-bad-idea

    Woolf, L. M. (2018, February, 15). Mass shootings: What role do guns play? Psychology Today. Retrived from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-fight-against-hate/201802/mass-shootings-what-role-do-guns-play

    Woolf, L. M. (2017, August 21). Mom? Dad? Can I have lunch with a Nazi? Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-fight-against-hate/201708/mom-dad-can-i-have-lunch-nazi

    Woolf, L. M. (2017, August 13). Responding to Hate: Should We Just "Love One Another"? Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-fight-against-hate/201708/responding-hate-should-we-just-love-one-another

    Woolf, L. M. (2016). Teaching psychology: Infusing human rights. Psychology Teacher Network, 26(1).

    Woolf, L. M. (2015, August 4). APA, torture, and context. Psychology Today.

    Woolf, L. M. (2015, August 4). End psychology's role in national security interrogations. Psychology Today.

    Woolf, L. M. (2015, July 13). Torture, APA, and the Hoffman Report: What now?. Psychology Today.

    Woolf, L. M. (2014). Teaching human rights: Teaching LGBTQI rights. International Psychology Bulletin,18 (2-3), 39-43.

    Woolf, L. M. & Hulsizer, M. R. (2011). Peace and war. In R. L. Miller, E. Balcetis, S. R. Burns, D. B. Daniel, B. K. Saville, & W. D. Woody (Eds.), Promoting student engagement (Vol. 2, pp. 225-229).

    Woolf, L. M. (2008). The Holocaust: Lessons not learned. Peace Psychology, 17(2), 1, 16-20.

    APS Observer interview (September 2007): Champions of Psychology: Linda Woolf

    Woolf, L. M. (2007, Sept. 1). A sad day from psychologists: A sadder day for human rights. OpEdNews.com/CounterPunch. Retrieved from http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_linda_m__070901_a_sad_day_for_psycho.htm

    Woolf, L. M. (2006). Petrified Wood and Peace. Peace Psychology, 15(2), 3-4.

    Woolf, L. M. (2006). Marketing peace? Peace Psychology, 15(1), 3-4.

    Woolf, L. M. (2005). Swimming against the tide: Journey of a peace psychology professor. In T. A. Benson, C. Burke, A. Amdstadter, R. Siney, V. Hevern, B. Beins, & B. Buskist (Eds.). The Teaching of Psychology in Autobiography: Perspectives from Exemplary Psychology Teachers (pp. 361-367). Society or the Teaching of Psychology (Div. 2, APA). URL: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/tia2005/index.php.

    Woolf, L. M. (2005). Psychologists, coercive interrogations, and torture. Peace Psychology, 14(2), 1, 28-29.

    Woolf, L. M., & Hulsizer, M. R. (2005). Torture? But this is different! Peace Psychology, 14(2), 3-4.

    Woolf, L. M., & Hulsizer, M. R. (2005). Psychosocial roots of genocide: risk, prevention, and intervention. Journal of Genocide Research, 7, 101-128.

    Woolf, L. M., & Hulsizer, M. R. (2004). Hate groups for dummies: How to build a successful hate group. Humanity and Society, 28, 40-62.

    Woolf, L. M., & Hulsizer, M. R. (2002/2003). Intra- and inter- religious hate and violence: A psychosocial model. Journal of Hate Studies, 2, 5-26.

    Woolf, L. M., & Hulsizer, M. R. (2004). OTRP Curriculum Resource I: Psychology of Peace and Mass violence -- Genocide, Torture, and Human Rights: Informational Resources (2004)

    This 27-page document contains two annotated bibliographies of materials on genocide, torture, and human rights issues written from a psychosocial perspective. The first bibliography includes major journal articles, book chapters, books, and Internet resources on these issues organized by topic. The second bibliography is comprised of reference materials for background information and further study. In addition, there is an annotated list of relevant journals. Available for free download (PDF format)

    Woolf, L. M., & Hulsizer, M. R. (2004). OTRP Curriculum Resource II: Psychology of Peace and Mass Violence -- War, Ethnopolitical Conflict, and Terrorism: Informational Resources (2004)

    This 30-page document contains an annotated bibliography of materials on war, ethnopolitical conflict, terrorism, and peace issues written from a psychosocial perspective. The bibliography includes major journal articles, book chapters, books, and Internet resources on these issues organized by topic. In addition, there is an annotated list of relevant journals. Available for free download (PDF format)

    Woolf, L. M., & Hulsizer, M. R. (2004). OTRP Curriculum Resource III: Psychology of Peace and Mass Violence: Instructional Resources (2004)

    This 33-page document consists of resource materials for developing whole courses and lectures on mass violence and peace. For incorporating specific topics into existing courses, lecture suggestions and selected references are given. For developing and revising whole courses, sample syllabi are provided. In addition, lists of relevant videotapes, Internet sites/listservs, and professional organizations are included. Available for free download (PDF format)

    USHMM (April 6, 1999) Presentation: Survival and Resistance: The Netherlands Under Nazi Occupation


    Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society: Anthropology, Psychology, Social Work, and Sociology

    Women such as Christine Ladd-Franklin, Ruth Fulton Benedict, and Ida B. Wells have traditionally been omitted from the histories of their disciplines. This webpage is designed to re-place women into the history of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and social work. Students, as part of an advanced seminar, examined and wrote about the lives of these women, their intellectual contributions, and the unique impact and special problems that being female had on their careers. This webpage represents the culmination of these students' work.

    Click here for more information: Women's Intellectual Contributions

    NITOP Poster Handout: Psyche was not James McKeen Cattell 's nickname!


    Women and Global Human Rights

    Discussions of human rights often fail to acknowledge the unique concerns of women around the globe particularly as they relate to the subordination of and injustices against women. Yet clearly, women's rights are human rights concerns. Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive violation of human rights in the world today. Discrimination against women and girls is an important basic cause of malnutrition. The very high rates of child malnutrition and low birth weight throughout much of South Asia are linked to such factors as women's poor access to education and their low levels of participation in paid employment, compared with other regions. Women comprise 70% of the world's poor. Eighty percent of the world's refugees are women and children. And as stated by Her Excellency Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Bonded labour and the traffic in women and children have become our modern day versions of slavery." More than 1 million children, mostly girls, are forced into prostitution every year. Students, as part of an advanced seminar, examined and wrote about a variety of women's international human rights concerns. This webpage represents the culmination of these students' work.

    Click here for more information: Women and Global Human Rights


    Recommended Books

    • Human Rights and Wrongs: Slavery, Terror, Genocide (2007) by Helen Fein

    • To order: Amazon Books

    • Review from Amazon.com: Human Rights and Wrongs is a magnificent book: lucid, insightful, nuanced, and encompassing. I know of no other work that deals with all of the major threats to human rights: slavery, terror, and genocide. Moreover, its discussion of the place of democracy in fostering and preserving human rights is original, chastening, yet encouraging. Fein s book will be a classic in social science, standing in the company of Barrington Moore s Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy and Robert Putnam s Making Democracy Work. --Roger W. Smith, College of William and Mary, and past president, International Association of Genocide scholars

    • Collateral Damage: The Psychological Consequences of America's War on Terrorism (2006) edited by Paul Kimmel and Chris Stout

    • To order: Amazon Books

    • Book Description from Amazon.com: Color-coded terrorism "alerts" are issued, then "lifted" with no explanation. False alarms can, like crying wolf, desensitize people to a real need to be on alert. And that psychic numbing is just one effect discussed in this book by fifteen psychologists teamed up for a critical look at the U.S. war on terrorism. These experts are led by the Chairman of the American Psychological Association task force charged with pinpointing the effect of our anti-terrorism efforts on America's mental health. Together, they present the most up-to-date and intriguing picture we have of the fallout on our own people from our own programs. The text spotlights fueled stereotyping of foreigners, increased domestic hate crimes, fear, depression and helplessness, as well as increasing militancy and belligerence, especially among students. Perhaps most disturbing in the "land of the free," our attention is drawn to growing acceptance of restrictions on our personal freedoms, and acceptance of human rights violations. Contributors to this collection aim to give us a reality check, looking at what our national reactions to terrorism have been, how those reactions have affected the psyche of our people and whether this has made us stronger or weaker, and more or less likely to be the target for future attacks.

    • A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (2002) by Samantha Power

    • To order: Amazon Books

    • Book description from Amazon.com: During the three years (1993-1996) Samantha Power spent covering the grisly events in Bosnia and Srebrenica, she became increasingly frustrated with how little the United States was willing to do to counteract the genocide occurring there. After much research, she discovered a pattern: "The United States had never in its history intervened to stop genocide and had in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred," she writes in this impressive book. Debunking the notion that U.S. leaders were unaware of the horrors as they were occurring against Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Iraqi Kurds, Rwandan Tutsis, and Bosnians during the past century, Power discusses how much was known and when, and argues that much human suffering could have been alleviated through a greater effort by the U.S. She does not claim that the U.S. alone could have prevented such horrors, but does make a convincing case that even a modest effort would have had significant impact. Based on declassified information, private papers, and interviews with more than 300 American policymakers, Power makes it clear that a lack of political will was the most significant factor for this failure to intervene. Some courageous U.S. leaders did work to combat and call attention to ethnic cleansing as it occurred, but the vast majority of politicians and diplomats ignored the issue, as did the American public, leading Power to note that "no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence. It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on." This powerful book is a call to make such indifference a thing of the past. -- Shawn Carkonen

    • Heart Mountain (1989) by Gretel Ehrlich

    • To order: Amazon Books

    • Ingram: Ehrlich explores the twin solitudes of political exile and geographic isolation in this powerful novel--the story of Japanese Americans forced into a relocation camp--set in Wyoming during World War II.

    • Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? (2000) by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman

    • To order: Amazon.com

    • Book description from Amazon.com: Denying History is a courageous and accessible study of "a looking-glass world where black is white, up is down, and the normal rules of reason no longer apply." Authors Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman have immersed themselves in the conferences, literature, and Web culture of Holocaust deniers; they have engaged the pseudo-historians in debate; and they have visited the concentration camps in Europe to investigate the truth of what happened there. Denying History presents Shermer and Grobman's findings. The book refutes, in detail, the Holocaust deniers' claims, and it demonstrates conclusively that the Holocaust did happen.It also explores the fundamental historical issue in all debates over the truth of the Holocaust: the question of "how we know that any past event happened." Thus, Denying History is a doubly useful book; it sets the record straight on one of history's most terrible events, and it instructs readers in the scientific, logical, and historiographical principles that can help us make wise judgments about history on our own. -- Michael Joseph Gross.

    • When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge (2001) by Chanrithy Him

    • To order: Amazon Books

    • Dith Pran, editor of Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Chanrithy's memoir helps bring to light the suffering of the Cambodian people during the Khmer Rouge reign. Even though Chanrithy was young during the genocide, she never forgot her mission to educate the world. I commend her for this effort.

    • Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia (1998) by Mike Resnick

    • To order: Amazon Books

    • Book Description from Booklist: Kirinyaga was born of an idea given to Resnick by Orson Scott Card: conceive of a story in which earth people migrate to a terraformed world and set up a utopia. Resnick, possessed of a bounty of knowledge about East Africa, devised Kirinyaga, the ancient home of the Kikuyu and Maasai peoples before the Europeans came and invented Kenya. Kirinyaga is presided over by Koriba, the mundumugu, or, as Europeans would have it, witch doctor. Koriba is intent on the old ways because he feels modern Kenyans have lost their way, and he imposes strict disciplines: no machinery, no weapons but spears, no modern medicine. In one of the more touching stories in a book that is basically a collection, Koriba will not allow a brilliant young girl to learn to read, since reading is a European corruption; the girl kills herself. In another, particularly clever episode, Koriba appears to invoke magic when he trains hyenas to attack a Maasai hunter who briefly takes over the colony; but there is no magic, only the wisdom of the ancients. Each story in Kirinyaga has won several awards; in an afterword, Resnick claims this is "the most honored science-fiction book in history." As disquieting and lyrical as the tales are, they are somewhat repetitive when presented as a whole. Even so, Kirinyaga is extraordinary work. -- John Mort

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