Hooley Accepts Tenure in Psych

Loeb Associate Professor of Social Science Jill M. Hooley has accepted a lifetime post at the University, according to Jerome Kagan, Starch professor of psychology and chair of the Psychology department.

Hooley represents the department's first tenure offer to a junior professor already at the University in almost 10 years. In 1981, Ellen J. Langer accepted a similar post.

"I like the Harvard environment because it is very close to the British academic system," Hooley said yesterday. "I'm delighted to have the opportunity to remain here."

Senior faculty members in the Psychology department said this weekend they were pleased that Hooley had accepted the offer, and praised the work of the Oxford-educated psychopathologist, who has been at Harvard since 1985.

"She has been very involved in teaching, in addition to being a good departmental citizen, and a good friend," said Richard J. Herrstein, Pierce professor of psychology.

Professors also said that students have praised Hooley for her interesting course offerings and her dedication to instruction.

"She has brought to the department excellent teaching, a broad mind, wonderful talents, and courses that are important and interesting to undergraduates," Kagan said.

Students have given Hooley higher than average instructor ratings in recent Course Evaluation Guides published by the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE).

The CUE Guide gave Hooley an instructor rating of 4.8 out of a possible 5 in its review of last fall's Psychology 1240: "Abnormal Psychology." Other fall social science professors received an average rating of 4.2.

The British-born Hooley, 35, has researched the effect that family relationships have on the recovery of patients with mental illness, according to Kagan.

"She has performed very important analysis of the social conditions that patients with mental illness return to in order to determine whether they make a recovery or return to the hospital," Kagan said.

"The question has been around for a long time," said Brendan A. Maher, Henderson professor of the psychology of personality. "Others have shown that [success of recovery] is not closely tied to the severity of mental illness. The problem has been identifying the actual link."

In describing her work, Hooley said that very few researchers study the "psychosocial factors that affect the recovery and relapses of depressed and schitzophrenic patients... from a family perspective."

"One of the key factors is criticism," Hooley said. "Patients who return to critical families have a relapse rate four to five times greater than those whose families are not."

Maher said that Hooley's unique approach provides a method for indentifying the factors involved in patient recovery or relapse. Instead of working with patients who have a history of mental illness, as previous studies have done, she has interviewed patients and families soon after the patient enters the hospital for the first time.

"We believe that this is an extremely promising area," Maher said. "In one word, her work has been outstanding."

Maher added that Hooley's investigations have direct bearing on public policy decisions involving those with mental illness.

"In an era when discharging of psychiatric patients has become a matter of wide-spread policy, what happens next is a matter of extremely crucial importance," Maher said.

Hooley's published work includes the book, Readings in Abnormal Psychology, which she co-edited with J.M. Neale and G.C. Davison. She is also consulting editor for the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and associate editor for Psychopathology Research.