Faculty Profile: Allyson Washburn

Allyson Washburn

School: Mind-Body Medicine

Bio:
Allyson Washburn received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Johns Hopkins University.Dr. Washburn's current research interests include early identification of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, social cognition in normal aging and dementia, personhood in dementia, nonpharmacological treatment for chronic pain, identification and treatment of depression in frail elders, and the epidemiology and treatment of diabetic complications.
She has been conducting applied psychological research, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, for over twenty years. For the past seven years, she has also been the statistical and methodological consultant for a research project with nursing home residents and another with drug-dependent men and women. She has been principal investigator on grants from the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association. Much of Dr. Washburn's aging research has been conducted at the Jewish Home in San Francisco, where she currently directs evaluations of innovative programs to enhance quality of life for residents and staff. Dr. Washburn's earlier research examined novice mental models of computers (dissertation research using qualitative methods), acupuncture heroin detoxification, acupuncture treatment of cocaine dependence, and retention in substance abuse treatment.
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Curriculum Vitae

Upcoming Presentations and Public Addresses

Degrees, Discipline, Year, Institution

Ph.D./M.A. Experimental Psychology, 1992; The Johns Hopkins University
M.S.Ed. Secondary Guidance, 1976; University of Southern Maine
A.B. Psychology, 1971; Hood College

Current Projects and Professional Activities

I am currently completing work on research projects funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Alzheimer's Association and am seeking funding from the NIA and other sources to continue work on social cognition in aging and dementia and on improving quality of life for nursing home residents. I am also working on a book for the home health care field based on the experience of my co-author and her mother in her last years. In addition to teaching research methods at Saybrook, I teach biostatistics and DOXdesign and analysis of experimentsat a small engineering school, do statistical consulting for medical researchers, and work with governmental and NGOs in solving "wicked" social problems, or messes, using visual analytic methods.

Significant Publications

Washburn, A. M., Sands, L. P., & Walton, P. (2003). Assessment of social cognition in frail seniors and its association with social functioning in the nursing home. The Gerontologist, 43, 203-212.

Washburn, A. M., Luxenberg, J., Brod, M., Steinhauer, M., & Katsap, M. (2000). “Club of Friends”: Enrolling nursing home residents in an adult day program. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2, 225-229.

Batki, S. B. (co-author), Washburn, A. M. (co-author), Delucchi, K. & Jones, R. T. (1996). A controlled trial of fluoxetine treatment of crack cocaine dependence. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 41, 137-142.

Rosenbaum, M., Washburn, A. M., Knight, K., Kelley, M. & Irwin, J. (1996). Methadone maintenance treatment as harm reduction, defunding as harm maximization. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 28(3), 241-249.

Important Conference Presentations

Washburn, A. M., Sands, Laura, P., & Walton, Pamela, J. Assessing social-cognitive functioning in frail older adults with and without cognitive impairment. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Boston, MA, November 2002.
Washburn, A. M., Steinhauer, M., & Korda, S. The Doctors Shenson Quality of life Programs: Integrating adult day care amd long-term care models in a nursing home. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Boston, MA, November 2002.
Washburn, A. M. & Piotrowski, N. Click of Awareness: Family caregivers’ reports of earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Chicago, IL, November 2001.
Washburn, A. M. & Walton, P. J. Theory of mind in aging and dementia. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C., November, 2000.
Washburn, A. M., Luxenberg, J., Brod, M., & Katsap, M. Evaluation of day care programming for nursing home residents. The 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society on Aging. San Francisco, March, 1998.

Research Interests

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Research Expertise

Expertise Working with Saybrook Students

N/A

Research Expertise

Research Expertise Rating Guide:

studied in a class or have read intensively on my own
special training in the form of a workshop or equivalent
taught a class in, or supervised research using this method (research practicum, on a dissertation or master's committee
used in research myself
published or presented at conferences my research using this method

Methods Traditionally Considered As Quantitative (But Need Not Be)

Laboratory Research	1, 2, 5
Field Experiments
Randomized Controlled Clinical
Quasi-experimental methods
Correlational Methods

Methods That Could Use Quantitative Or Qualitative Methods

Action Research
Survey Research
Interview Research
Observational Research
Epidemiological Research
Ethnography
Focus Groups
Self-Observational Methods
Narrative Methods
Feminist Methods
Content Analysis
Discovery-Oriented (psychotherapy)
Events paradigm (psychotherapy)
Archival Research
Case History Methods
Appreciative Inquiry
Multiple Case Depth Research
Hermeneutic Single Case Efficacy Design
Longitudinal research
Cross-sectional research

Methods Primarily Associated With Qualitative Research (But May Also Use Quantitative)

Ethnoautobiographical research	1
Hermeneutics	5
Grounded Theory	4, 5
Phenomenology
Heuristic Research

Types of Analysis

Simple Parametric Statistics (t-test, etc.)
Confidence intervals
Analysis of Variance (including MANOVA)
Analysis of Covariance
Regression (including multiple regression)
Discriminant Function Analysis
Structural Equation Modeling/Path Analysis
Causal Modeling
Cluster Analysis
Survival Analysis
Nonparametrics
Bayesian Analysis
Meta-analysis and effect sizes
Factor Analysis
Time series analysis
Multidimensional scaling

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