University of Colorado DenverCollege of Liberal Arts and SciencesUniversity of Colorado Denver

Mitchell HandelsmanMitchell M. Handelsman, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology
CU President's Teaching Scholar

Office: NC 5002J
Office Phone: 303-556-2672
Fax: 303-556-3520

E-mail: mitchell.handelsman@ucdenver.edu

Click here to visit my personal website.

Biosketch

Education

Ph.D. in Psychology (Clinical), 1981, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

M.A. in Psychology (Clinical), 1979, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

B.A. in Psychology, 1976, Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania

Employment

Professor of Psychology, 1993-present

Associate Professor of Psychology, 1987-1993

Assistant Professor of Psychology, 1982-1987

University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado

Select Honors and Awards

  • Award for Excellence in Research, UC Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2005
  • Distinguished Service Award, Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, 2004
  • President, Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, 2002-2003
  • Elected to fellow status, American Psychological Association, 2002
  • UC Denver Chancellor’s New Urban University Lectureship Award, 1998
  • Teaching Excellence Award, Division 2 of the American Psychological Association, 1995
  • University of Colorado President's Teaching Scholar, 1994-present
  • Service Award, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UC Denver, 1993
  • CASE Colorado Professor of the Year Award, Council for Advancement and Support of Education, 1992
  • Teacher of the Year Award, University of Colorado at Denver, 1992

Research Interests

My major research interest is professional ethics.  I have done research on informed consent to psychotherapy (What do clients want to know, and what should they be told, about  psychotherapy?), confidentiality, and positive approaches to ethics.  These days I’m looking at how people become ethical professionals.  Our thinking is that psychologists need to acculturate to the profession much like immigrants need to adapt to a new culture.  A second are of research is student engagement in college courses.  How do students become engaged or motivated in a college course?  What does engagement look like?  How might we get students more engaged.  So far, we have published a measure of student engagement, and we have been thinking about engagement as multi-faceted, including elements that instructors find hard to observe just by looking at overt student behaviors in the classroom.

Representative Publications

Handelsman, M. M. (2006). Teaching Ethics in Introductory Psychology. In D. S. Dunn & S. L. Chew (Eds.). Best practices in teaching introductory psychology (pp. 159-175). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bashe, A., Anderson, S. K., Handelsman, M. M., & Klevansky, R. (2007). An acculturation model for ethics training: The ethics autobiography and beyond. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 38, 60-67.

Handelsman, M. M., Briggs, W. L., Sullivan, N., & Towler, A. (2005). A measure of college student course engagement. Journal of Educational Research, 98, 184-191. 

Handelsman, M. M., Gottlieb, M. C., & Knapp, S. (2005). Training ethical psychologists: An acculturation model. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36, 59-65.