with Debra Zellner
Born and raised:
Lehighton, Pa.
Resides:
Montclair
Education:
A.B., psychology, Muhlenberg College
M.A., psychology, Ph.D., experimental psychology, American University
Spare-time activities:
Listening to live jazz music, dining out, reading, yoga and going to the
movies
Favorite musician:
Bela Fleck
Favorite restaurant:
Udupi Village in Montclair (South Indian food)
What people would be surprised
to know about you:
I don't drive. I mostly take public transportation.
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"You should do research on what you enjoy," suggests Debra
Zellner of Psychology. "And I enjoy eating."
Debra recently completed a paper on her study of chocolate cravings for
Appetite, an international journal on all aspects of food behavior.
Prior to coming to Montclair State in 2001, Debra spent 17 years at Shippensburg
University in Pennsylvania. When an opportunity presented itself here,
she couldn't resist. "I liked where Montclair State is heading,"
she said. "I enjoy doing research and teaching, and Montclair State
encourages that."
She was teaching Psychology of Food when the inspiration for her latest
research came to her from a student. "One of the topics we covered
was cravings," she explained. "I had students read journal articles
and a couple of them were on chocolate cravings. A Spanish student came
up to me after class and said, 'I don't get it. I don't understand why
they say women crave chocolate.' And I said, 'Because they do.' And she
said, 'Not in Spain.' "
While studies on food cravings in the United States, Canada and England
have found that women not only have more cravings than men, they also
show that the top food craved by women is chocolate, and they almost always
crave it perimenstrually. So Debra decided to examine how Spanish
men and women rated, as well as why.
"If you look at Spanish men and women, there's no difference,"
she said. "But chocolate is used differently in Spain. Men and women
both drink hot chocolate, and candy isn't a big thing to give on special
occasions like on Valentine's Day.
"The other thing about Spanish women is that they are not restrained
eaters, meaning they are not perpetually dieting, counting calories or
constantly depriving themselves," she said.
While the original research showed that there doesn't seem to be a physiological
reason for women to crave chocolate more than men, there was still the
question about whether the perimenstrual period is a factor. Debra
found that the top time for craving chocolate in American women was perimenstrually,
with only 4 percent of Spanish women saying the same. "So it seems
like there's a cultural thing going on," Debra explained, "but
the question is why?"
Debra came back to American women being restrained eaters, and asked,
"What are they restraining from? What don't they eat?" The answer:
Sugar and fat. "What's chocolate? Sugar and fat," she explained.
"It is like the taboo food of the restrained eater. However, when
women are feeling rotten, they allow themselves a treat. It's called disinhibition.
So women say, 'This is when I can have it,' and that winds up being the
time they crave it.
"They not only allow themselves the chocolate then, but every time
that time of the month comes around, they're thinking about chocolate
because these physiological cues trigger the thought of 'I can do it now'
whereas in Spain they don't have that restraint so they just eat it whenever
they want."
And while many women are trying to balance their diets, Debra concentrates
on balancing teaching and research. "I just work like a madwoman,"
she said with a laugh. "The students help. They give you an idea,
they keep you enthusiastic and they keep you at it. If you really love
what you do you just find the time."
In return, Debra tries to instill her enthusiasm in her students, especially
the ones in her Experimental Psychology class. "It's all about how
to do research and how to design research projects. It's kind of dry material
so I really work hard to make it interesting. I always tell them the story
of when I was a kid, my friend and I got into her mother's cleaning supplies
and we decided to make this 'super cleaner.' We combined all the products--God
knows how we didn't kill ourselves--and poured them on her kitchen floor
and it became like goo. I don't do quite as bad things now, but it's still
that idea that you can do something new and different and find out something
that nobody knew before. Doing research is like still being a kid. I think
the students get that."
Is there a colleague you'd like to nominate for "On the Job?" If so, e-mail his/her name along with a brief description of how he/she contributes to the campus community, to Jennifer Fusco at fuscoj@mail.montclair.edu.