Ben Freer

Ben Freer

Director, School of Psychology and Counseling
Associate Professor of Psychology
School of Psychology and Counseling

Contact Information

Courses

• Research Methods (undergraduate)
• Cognitive Psychology (undergraduate)
• Teaching Seminar (graduate)
• Learning, Cognition, and Emotion (graduate)
• Biological Basis of Behavior (graduate)

Research

I am currently involved in four separate but related lines of research:

1) Examining attitudes toward mental health services and peers in mental health distress for military veterans and the general public  (collaboration with Dr. Stefanie Ulrich).

2) Examining the relationship between sleep, executive functions, and theory of mind in childhood (collaboration with Drs. McGlinchey and DeNigris).

3) Examining higher-order cognition, with a special interest in the relationship between attention, inhibition, and working memory.

4) Examining the construct of empathy and effective practices in empathy training with a focus on long-term organizational change to a common language and culture of empathy.

Education

• BA, Valparaiso University
• MA, University of Kentucky
• PhD, University of Kentucky

Academic Profile

I am the Director of the School of Psychology and Counseling and have served as the Director since the Summer of 2020. I joined the faculty in the Fall of 2011.

As co-founder of FDU’s Center for Empathy Research and Training (CERT), I provide training and research on the importance of empathy and the skills necessary to interact from the perspective of empathy.

I have represented FDU at the United Nations since 2013. In this role, I have served as an Executive Committee member of the NGO Committee on the Family-New York. I organize trips to the United Nations for our students for International Days and Commissions. I regularly attend the Commission on the Status of Women, Psychology Day at the UN, and International Day of the Family.