About Mark Hatala, PhD

Who doesn't want to sing their own praises on the About page. Here's a little background about who I am and where I'm from.

My Background

Education

I did my undergraduate work at Miami University of Ohio. I was a triple major in Russian, psychology, and history until my senior year, when I dropped the Russian major because I would have been required to complete yet another year of the language. To this day, I still remember more of my high school French. I did my graduate work in Experimental Psychology at Ohio University, where both my masters and doctorate involved mathematically modeling consumer choice behavior. Boring! I considered working for a marketing company in Philadelphia after completing my Ph.D. until I realized that it would be a very poor choice.

Currently

I've had a lot of different jobs over the years, but I have worked as a professor of psychology at Truman State University since 1994. I have developed and taught a variety of courses in psychology (see below), interdisciplinary studies (Cognitive Science and Science and Society: Time Travel), business (Psychology of Marketing), and history (Why We Fight: American Civil War and Why We Fight: World War II). Why administrators let me teach courses outside of psychology says a lot about my own varied interests, the nature of teaching at a liberal arts college, and the stultifying passivity of university administrators.

Employment History

I began teaching at the college level with a 120-seat section of General Psychology at age 23 when I was in graduate school at Ohio University. I don't want to consider what the students in that class actually learned. I then went on to visiting positions at St. Mary's College of Maryland and Dickinson College before coming to Truman State.

Courses Taught in Psychology

Applied Psychology
Cognitive Psychology (online and onsite)
Cognitive Science
Evolutionary Psychology (online and onsite)
Experimental Psychology (online and onsite)
General Psychology (online and onsite)
History & Systems of Psychology (online and onsite)
Psychological Research
Psychological Statistics
Romantic Relationships (online)
Sensation & Perception
Writing in Psychology
You at 21: The Quantified Self