Jason A. Kaufman

• Ph.D., Ed.D.
• Professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Nature appears to possess the potential to promote health and well-being. Empirical support for this potential appears to roughly bifurcate along two conceptual lines. Attention restoration theory indicates that exposure to Nature may improve executive functioning via effects on attentional processing. Concomitantly, stress reduction theory posits...

Few dispute the importance of introducing undergraduates to the methods of experimental psychology. Unfortunately, the resources aren’t always available to provide access to laboratory research opportunities. The psychology laboratory at Inver Hills Community College outside St. Paul, Minnesota opened its doors to faculty and students on August 24,...

Telepresence courses help colleges and universities serve geographically distributed students and thus achieve their goals of helping all students succeed. An annual survey at Minnesota State University, Mankato of telepresence students has shed light on their experiences with telepresence learning compared with learning in traditional classrooms....

Leading schools has always been a stressful profession. Educational administration is by its very nature a challenging vocation that requires one to balance the needs of various stakeholders (e.g., students, educators, legislation, finances) in an equitable and innovative manner in response to ever growing demands for accountability (Klocko & Wells...

Exposure to Nature appears to be fundamental to optimal human functioning. Yet modern society has become defined in recent decades by a reliance upon computing and mobile technology. This technological ascendance appears to have driven a decrease of human interaction with natural environmental systems as our species has become in- creasingly urbani...

There exists a wealth of empirical evidence suggesting that immersive experiences in Nature can promote health and healing. Kaufman argued that there exists a continuum of intervention bolstered by Nature along with meditative practices that can facilitate improved human functioning. Lenartz’s model of Nature connection further provides actionable...

What are the skills necessary for effective leadership? How can we learn to lead toward a better tomorrow? For six decades, the captains of Star Trek have demonstrated the potential for enlightened leaders to leverage reason and compassion in the service of others. Grounded in science yet focused on practical application, Leadership in Star Trek: L...

Technologically mediated nature during long-haul crewed space missions would promote the achievement of mission objectives.

There is a small lake on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area that I have visited numerous times. Its shores are lined with pine, cedar, and spruce and remain almost entirely undeveloped save for a collection of several unassuming cabins grouped near its more accessible end. Set well back from the water, each cabin has a narrow trail that mea...

The intended role of a protocol droid is ostensibly straightforward. Equipped with a broad array of communication skills and a vaguely humanoid form intended to ease anxieties without favoring any one faction, a protocol droid is programmed to help parties navigate “the accepted or established code of procedure or behavior in any group, organizatio...

The launch of Artemis I marks the first step in humanity’s return to the Moon after more than a fifty-year hiatus during which no human traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Although the Orion capsule stacked atop the massive Space Launch System rocket is uncrewed for its inaugural cislunar flight, the mission nonetheless marked the beginning of our spe...

It might seem counterintuitive amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to make such an argument, but humanity stands upon the shores of crewed deep space exploration and our inevitable peregrination among the planets. The boons to our psychological and cultural evolution will be inestimable. However, it is prudent to first question the as- sumption...

In the summer of 2020, we sought to measure the experience of community college faculty across one of the largest state systems of higher education in the nation (the Minnesota State Community College System) as they pivoted to online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Peterson et al., 2020). We found that faculty were largely able to cope with...

Much has been written about the conditions necessary for the effective practice of leadership. Yet, the research is quite mixed and rather little is actually agreed upon regarding what makes a good leader. In our teaching, we instead have sought to offer students a set of basic leadership skills that can be readily implemented in their own learning...

These results suggest that those faculty who responded to our survey were successfully coping with the elevated stress of the online pandemic pivot. Yet, in response to a final, open-ended item asking what they had done since the online transition due to the coronavirus pandemic to cope with the stress of teaching, research, and/or service at their...

It has been understood for millennia that nature can foster healing. Therein resides an irony of modern life. Living in a city offers an array of social and technological affordances, but it also promulgates a range of unwanted mind-body consequences that for many individuals disrupt psychological and physical health as our daily habits shift away...

We sought to explore the extent to which race might influence how African American superintendents cope with the stressors of their leadership roles and the presence of support while in such positions. In order to test this question, we recruited African American superintendents across the United States. We specifically measured their ability to co...

In this week’s Innovation Abstracts, “Two Heads Are Better Than One: Collaborating for Undergraduate Research,” Jon A. Jensen, Instructor, Psychology, Inver Hills Community College (MN), and Jason A. Kaufman, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership, Minnesota State University, Mankato (MN), share their experience with cross-institutional collab...

The present study sought to investigate perceptions of stress and coping among public school principals. School principals are daily called upon to make decisions regarding a range of unscripted events. The position can be stressful, and stress is known to interfere with sound decision making. It was predicted that present samples of school princip...

Objective: The human mind-body possesses a remarkable innate ability to heal. Grounded in the evolutionarily conserved systems of the brain and body, nature appears to function as the fundamental source of wellness along the two vectors of attention and relaxation. Yet, our species is moving away from nature at a time when humanity is just beginni...

The experience of attending college can be a stressful experience for many students, one that college and university counseling centers may have limited resources of time and finances to assuage. For instance, decision making may deteriorate during times of stress and result in a narrowed perceptual set. The present study sought to determine throug...

The present study attempted to empirically characterize the landscape of organizational culture among master’s colleges and universities. Data were collected from a sample of academic deans representing the colleges and universities of four states in the Upper Midwest. The results indicate that there exists a strong desire for clan cultures to mani...

There is something inherent to the human interaction with nature that presents the potential for a state of contemplation. Such experience often manifests as a psychological state in which an individual’s sense of self and time are eclipsed by absorption in the moment. Yet, the discipline of ecopsychology has remained largely silent on the matter o...

Recent years have witnessed a growing recognition of the importance of research involvement to the cognitive and professional development of undergraduate students (Froyd, 2008; Bransford, 2000; Kuh, 2008) and the recognition that quantitative literacy must be as an essential outcome of college (Association of American Colleges and Universities, n....

As participants in the 2011-2012 class of the Luoma Leadership Academy, the authors comprised an action team charged to investigate how undergraduate research is currently incorporated into collegiate studies in Minnesota. We developed a survey that was delivered to Deans at all Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) institutions using t...

It is the authors’ contention that two of the most important contributions of Alfred Adler to the behavioral sciences were the projective use of early recollections and the role of birth order as they both impact one’s personality. This article is meant to be one of several that are part of a theme issue on the topic of birth order in The Journal o...

Stress has become a topic of major inquiry in recent decades among psychology and its allied disciplines. Although the stress response is an adaptive mechanism with short-term utility, individuals experiencing chronic stress may eventually manifest physiological and psychological incapacities as their abilities to cope are overwhelmed. Guided visua...

This study explored the relationship between perceived stress and perceived need for social support among doctoral psychology students attending a distance education university. Although small sample size conceivably prevented identification of a direct correlation between these two factors, female doctoral students perceiving greater levels of str...

In a relationship rating system, a pair of lovers regularly graph their conduct to better their bonding. The graph shows the couple's dynamics - interaction, emotion, expression, clarity (understanding), and contact (feeling of connection). Based on the graph, lovers each pledge behaviors that raise or lower their ratings on each dynamic to achieve...