Rick J. Scheidt
Professor
Contact Information
Education
- Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Lifespan Developmental Psychology, University of Southern California
- Ph.D. in Social Psychology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
- M.S. in Psychology, California State University, Fresno
- B.S. in Psychology, California State University, Fresno
Credentials and/or Certifications
- Fellow, American Psychological Association
- Fellow, Gerontological Society of America
- Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
Area(s) of Specialization
- Geropsychology
- Environmental Gerontology
Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors
- The Ecology of Aging
- Rural Aging
- Deculturation
- Place-making
- Aging in Rural Settings
- Associate Editor, The Gerontologist - regular reviewer of documentary films on aging
Courses Taught
- FSHS 510 Human Development and Aging (Undergraduate)
- FSHS 708 Aging in the Cinema (Graduate/Undergraduate)
- FSHS 845 Adult Development and Aging (Graduate)
- FSHS 888 Research Methods (Graduate)
- FSHS 930 Seminar in Lifespan Human Development: Theory, Method, Application (Graduate)
Professional Biography
Dr. Rick Scheidt earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in psychology from the California State University at Fresno and his Ph.D. (with honors) in social psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He trained in the life span human development paradigm under its critical architect, Dr. K. Warner Schaie, at the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California. His research and scholarly contributions are in environmental gerontology and rural aging. Rick has spent several years studying person-environment dynamics among elders living in small rural towns. His interdisciplinary research on the Ghost Town Project examined perhaps the last generation of native-born elderly residents in the Heartland struggling to age-in-place in resource-scarce communities and disappearing local cultures. In addition to his collaborative work with KSU behavioral architects, Rick has collaborated with gerontologists in Europe and Russia. He is among a small number of American researchers invited to present his research before members of the Russian Academic of Sciences -- Psychology --in Moscow.
Rick is a Fellow in three professional organizations: the American Psychological Association, the Gerontological Society of America, and the Association for Psychological Science. He serves on the editorial boards on a number of major journals in gerontology and geriatrics. As an Associate Editor of The Gerontologist, he contributes regular reviews of documentary videos dealing with aging. Rick’s work has appeared in numerous journals, special journal issues and book chapters. He has co-edited four books on environment-aging relations in gerontology: Environment and Aging Theory: A Focus on Housing; Physical Environments and Aging: Critical Contributions of M. Powell Lawton to Theory and Practice; Aging in Context: Socio-Physical Environments: Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and Environmental Gerontology: What Now? Rick recently shared his career work in environmental gerontology in the 2018 Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics: “Environments in an Aging Society: Autobiographical Perspectives in Environmental Gerontology. He is proud that his relatively recent leap into online instruction was recognized with a teaching award.
Personal Information
Rick enjoys archaeology, exploring sites in Europe as well as the American Southwest with his best friend and spouse, Dr. Mary DeLuccie. They have four children and four grandchildren, all of whom live in Kansas. Experienced in armed and unarmed self-defense, Rick is a certified professional firearms instructor and Attorney General-certified Concealed Carry Handgun Instructor in Kansas.