Background
Marilyn Demorest received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from
the Johns Hopkins University in 1969, specializing in psycholinguistics,
psychometrics, and quantitative methods. She spent three years as a
Research Associate in Audiology at the Eye and Ear Hospital, University
of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she collaborated with Robert
C. Bilger on studies of speech perception in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired
adults. She joined the UMBC faculty in 1972. She was promoted to Associate
Professor in 1977 and to full Professor in 1989. Since 1998, she has
served as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.
Research
Dr. Demorest's research
focuses on the perceptual and psychosocial consequences of hearing impairment.
She is co-developer (with Sue
Ann Erdman) of the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired
(CPHI), a self-assessment inventory that measures communication effectiveness,
communication importance, communication environment, communication strategies,
and personal adjustment in hearing-impaired adults. The CPHI is widely
used in research and by rehabilitative audiologists in clinical practice,
and it has been translated into Swedish,Spanish, Russian, and Portugese.
Two new forms of the instrument, CPHI-H and CPHI-W, permit evaluation
of an individual's communication and adjustment problems from the perspective
of his or her spouse or partner.
For the past five years,
the Hearing
Research Laboratory at UMBC has been the site of an NIH-funded project,
"Psychosocial and Behavioral Adjustment to Hearing Loss."
Five clinical research centers from New York to San Francisco joined
to form the Consortium
for Rehabilitative Audiology, and they have provided audiometric,
demographic, and CPHI data on more than 1,300 hearing-impaired adults.
It has been found that psychosocial adjustment to hearing impairment
can be predicted to some extent from the severity of the impairment
and from some demographic variables, but there are large individual
differences in adjustment that are determined by other factors. Data
on psychological adjustment and marital satisfaction were obtained from
nearly 300 clients and 101 spouses. Contrary to prevailing views, there
is no evidence that hearing-impaired adults, as a group, are more psychologically
distressed than the general population, nor is their marital satisfaction
significantly different. However, measures of depression, anxiety, loneliness,
and coping strategies do predict adjustment to hearing impairment for
individuals.
Teaching
Over the past 25 years,
Dr. Demorest has taught a variety of courses ranging from Language and
Thought, Developmental Psychology, Heredity and Intelligence, and Hearing
Impairment in Adults, to courses emphasizing psychometrics and research
design and analysis. At the undergraduate level, she has previously
taught PSYC 331, Experimental Psychology: Research Design and Analysis
I, and she regularly teaches PSYC
320, Psychological Assessment, and supervises students enrolled
in PSYC
397, Research Experience in Psychology. Recent graduate offerings
include PSYC
711, Data Analytic Procedures II (Multivariate Analysis); PSYC 715,
Measurement of Behavior; and PSYC 601, Structural Equation Modeling
and Loglinear Modeling in Psychology. Dr. Demorest also serves on thesis
and dissertation committees of students in the Psychology Department's
two graduate programs: Applied Developmental Psychology and Human Services
Psychology.
Service and Administration
Dr. Demorest has been active
in professional service at the national level, serving as President
of the Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology, Associate Editor of the
Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, a member of the Publications
Board of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and a member
of the Committee on Psychological Testing and Assessment of the American
Psychological Association. She has been Vice President of the University
Senate and has served on numerous departmental and university-wide committees.
In 1998, she was appointed Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at UMBC.
In that position she has been responsible for university policies and
procedures related to faculty, for proposal and review of academic programs,
and for preparation of reports to the University System of Maryland,
the Maryland Higher Education Commission, and the Middle States Association.
For more information, see
Curriculum
Vitae.
9/23/01
Marilyn E. Demorest
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Psychology
UMBC
demorest@umbc.edu
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
Cellular: 410-493-803
Fax: 410-455-110
