WWU / Fairhaven College of Interdiscipinary Studies
Dana Jack
Professor
360-650-4913
Dana.Jack@wwu.edu
Office: FA 334
Biography
Dana C. Jack, Psychologist, earned her BA at Mount Holyoke College, her MSW at University of Washington, and her Ed.D. at Harvard University. Her main areas of research focus on women's depression and anger in the U. S. and internationally. As a Fulbright Scholar to Nepal in 2001, she taught in a graduate women's studies program at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, and also completed research on gender and depression in Patan Mental Hospital and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. She was awarded WWU Olscamp Outstanding Researcher in 2002. In addition to research, Dana enjoys teaching at Fairhaven College in the areas of culture, gender and psyche!
Dana Jack: Curriculum Vitae (PDF, 83KB)
Interest Areas
Dana's interests also include emerging research on brain plasticity, attachment theories, and culture's affect on symptom formation, as with eating disorders and depression. In addition, she has participated in the Mind and Life conferences and 08 Summer Research Institute. Her course on the Psychology of Mindfulness and Wellbeing summarizes recent research on the nature of the self and the effects of meditation on the brain. She is an avid hiker, having trekked over 135 days in remote areas of Nepal; ocean kayaker; and traveler, including in Kenya, Madagascar, and Zambia as well as Asia, Central and South America.
Selected Publications
Reflections on the Silencing the Self
Scale and Its Origins
Jack, Dana. Psychology of Women Quarterly 2011 35: 523
The online version of this article can be found at: http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/35/3/523
Silencing the Self Across Cultures: Depression and Gender in the Social World
First Edition Edited by Dana C. Jack and Alisha Ali
Oxford University Press, March 2010
This international volume offers new perspectives on social and psychological aspects of the complex dynamic of depression. The twenty-one contributors from thirteen countries - Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Haiti, India, Israel, Nepal, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Scotland, and the United States - represent contexts with very different histories, political and economic structures, and gender role disparities. Authors rely on Silencing the Self theory, which details the negative psychological effects when individuals silence themselves in close relationships and the importance of the social context in precipitating depression. Specific patterns of thought about how to achieve closeness in relationships (self-silencing schema) are known to predict depression. This book breaks new ground by demonstrating that the linkage of depressive symptoms with self-silencing occurs across a range of cultures. We offer a new view of gender differences in depression situated in the formation and consequences of self-silencing, including differing motivational aims, norms of masculinity and femininity, and the broader social context of gender inequality.
Silencing the Self: Women and Depression
Jack, Dana. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 1991. Paperback, 1992, HarperCollins.
Reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, The London Times Literary Supplement, Harvard Educational Review, Women's Review of Books, Choice, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, Medical Humanities Review, Transactional Analysis Journal, News for Women in Psychiatry, Contemporary Psychology, Mirabella, and numerous others. A Behavioral Sciences Book Club selection.
Translations: German: 1993 Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich. Transl: Ilse Utz; French: 1993 Le Jour; Sogides. Transl: Marie Perron; Italian: 1996 La Tartaruga edizioni, Milano. Transl: Bianca Piazzese; Chinese 2000
Behind the Mask: Destruction and Creativity in Women's Aggression.
Jack, Dana. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press. November, 1999.
Paperback, 2001. Translations: Chinese, (Simplified characters), 2001. North Literature and Art Press for People's Republic of China. Chinese, (complex characters), 2002. Hangzhong Publishing House of Taiwan. Reviewed in Contemporary Psychology, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Feminism Psychology, and others.
Moral Vision and Professional Decisions: The Changing Values of Women & Men Lawyers.
Jack, Dana. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Co-author, Rand Jack. Reviewed in the Nation, The New York Times, American Bar Association Journal, and numerous others.
Cultural Perspectives on Women's Depression: Self-Silencing, Psychological Distress and Recovery
With co-editor Alisha Ali, Dana is finalizing the manuscript for this book which includes chapters by authors from 14 different countries, to be published by Oxford University Press early 2010.
