Jack W. Berry, Ph.D.

Jack W. Berry, Ph.D. is statistician and co-director of EPARG. He currently teaches in the psychology department at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.

Before returning to Alabama, Dr. Barry served as Director of Research for the Marriage Assessment, Treatment, and Enrichment Center in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Prior to his appointment at VCU, Dr. Berry was a research methodologist at the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group and a faculty member of the Wright Institute, Berkeley, California, where he taught graduate courses in research methods, statistics, and psychometrics. Dr. Berry has also been a research associate at the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinics, Detoxification and Aftercare Project in San Francisco and at Walden House Drug Treatment Facility, San Francisco. He received his Ph.D from the Wright Institute and a B.S., University of Alabama at Birmingham.

His academic specialty areas are in personality and individual differences, evolutionary psychology, the psychology of religion, and objective psychological measurement. His most recent research includes studies of the disposition to forgive and its relationship to physical and mental health; empathy and forgiveness in newlywed couples; the psychophysiology of forgiveness; forgiveness in the workplace; forgiveness and cortisol stress responses in happy and unhappy relationships; interpersonal guilt and responses to terrorism; guilt, empathy, and submissiveness in depression; and personality and personality disorders among chimpanzees (conducted in collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute). Supported by a grant from the Fetzer Institute, Dr. Berry is currently conducting research on the classical moral virtues and altruism considered from an evolutionary perspective.

Selected Publications

O’Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Lewis, T., Mulherin, K., & Yi, E. (2007). Empathy and depression: The moral system on overdrive. In T.F.D. Farrow and P.W.R. Woodruff (Eds.), Empathy and Mental Illness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Berry, J.W. (2006). Can concept mapping promote course mastery? Presentation at Society for the Teaching of Psychology Program, American Psychological Association, New Orleans, August 10-13, 2006.

Albertson, E.J., O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W. (2006). Religion and interpersonal guilt: Variations across ethnicity and spirituality. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 9 (1), 67-84.

Berry, J.W., Worthington, E.L., O'Connor, L.E., & Wade,N.G. (2005). Forgivingness, vengeful rumination, and affective traits. Journal-of-Personality,73(1), 183-225.

Worthington, E.L., Jr., O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Sharp, C., Murray, R., & Yi, E. (2005). Compassion and forgiveness: Implications for psychotherapy. In P. Gilbert (Ed.), Compassion: Conceptualisations, Research and Use in Psychotherapy (pp.168-192). London: Brunner-Routledge.

Lampton, C., Oliver, C.J., Worthington, E.L., & Berry, J.W. (2005). Helping college students become more forgiving: an intervention study to promote forgiveness as part of a program to shape Christian character. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 33 (4), 278-281.

Worthington, E.L., & Berry, J.W. (2004). Virtues, vices, and character education. In W.R. Miller & H.D. Delaney (Eds.) Judeo-Christian Perspectives on Psychology: Human Nature, Motivation, and Change (pp. 145-164). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Berry, J.W. (2003, June). Familial love: The foundation of altruism. Invited lecture to the Works of Love: Scientific & Religious Perspectives on Altruism, Villanueva, PA.

Burchard, G.A, Yarhouse, M.A; Kilian, M.K., Worthington, E.L., Berry, J.W., & Canter, D.E. (2003). A study of two marital enrichment programs and couples' quality of life. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 31(3), 240-252.

O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Weiss, J., & Gilbert, P. (2002). Guilt, fear, submission, and empathy in depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 71, 19-27.

Worthington, E.L., Heizenroth, W.R., Berry, J.T., & Berry,J.W. (2001). Development of the Coping with Unwanted Sexual Situations (CUSS) Scale. Marriage and Family: A Christian Journal, 4(3), 263-284.

Worthington, E.L., Berry, J.W. (2001). Unforgiveness, forgiveness, religion, and health. In T.G.Plante and A.C. Sherman (Eds.), Faith and health: Psychological perspectives. (pp. 107-138). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Berry, J.W., Worthington, E.L., Parrott, L., O'Connor, L.E., & Wade, N.G., (2001). Dispositional forgivingness: Development and construct validity of the Transgression Narrative Test of Forgivingness (TNTF). Personality-and-Social-Psychology-Bulletin, 27(10), 1277-1290.

Ripley, J.S., Worthington, E.L., Berry, J.W. (2001).The effects of religiosity on preferences and expectations for marital therapy among married Christians. American Journal of Family Therapy, 29(1), 39-58.

Berry, J.W. & Worthington, E.L.(2001). Forgivingness, relationship quality, stress while imagining relationship events, and physical and mental health. Journal of Counseling Psychology,48(4), 447-455.

O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Weiss, J., Schweitzer, D., & Sevier, M. (2000). Survivor guilt, submissive behaviour and evolutionary theory: The down-side of winning in social comparison. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 73, 519-530.

Foreman, S.A., Gibbins, J., Grienenberger, J., & Berry, J.W. (2000). Developing methods to study child psychotherapy using new scales of therapeutic alliance and progressiveness. Psychotherapy Research, 10(4), 450-461.

Sandage, S.J., Worthington, E.L., Hight, T.L., & Berry, J.W.(2000). Seeking forgiveness: Theoretical context and an initial empirical study. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 28(1), 21-35.

Worthington, E.L., Sandage, S.J., & Berry, J.W.(2000). Group interventions to promote forgiveness: What researchers and clinicians ought to know.In M.E. McCullough,K.I. Pargament, & C.E. Thoresen (Eds.), Forgiveness: Theory, research, and practice. (pp. 228-253). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., & Weiss, J. (1999). Interpersonal guilt, shame, and psychological problems. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 18, 181-203.

O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Weiss, J., Bush. M., & Sampson, H. (1997). Interpersonal guilt: The development of a new measure. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 53 (1), 73-89.

Meehan, W., O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Weiss, J., Morrison, A., & Acampora, A. (1996). Guilt, shame, and depression in clients in recovery from addiction. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 28, 125-134.

O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Morrison, A., & Brown, S. (1995). The drug-of-choice phenomenon: Psychological differences among drug users who preferred different drugs. The International Journal of the Addictions, 30, 541-555.

O'Connor, L.E., Edelstein, S., Berry, J.W., & Weiss, J. (1994). Changes in the patient's level of insight in brief psychotherapy: Two pilot studies. Psychotherapy, 31, 533-544.

O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Inaba, D., Weiss, J., & Morrison, A. (1994). Shame, guilt, and depression in men and women in recovery from addiction. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 11, 503-510.

Weaver, A.J., Berry, J.W., & Pittel, S.M. (1994). Ego development in fundamentalist and nonfundamentalist Protestants. Journal of Psychology and Theology,22(3), 215-225.

Troyer, T.N., Acampor, A.P., O'Connor, L.E., & Berry, J.W. (1995). The changing relationship between therapeutic communities and 12-step programs: A survey. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 27, 177-180.

Baars, B.J., Cohen, J., Bower, G.H., Berry, J.W.(1992). Some caveats on testing the Freudian slip hypothesis: Problems in systematic replication.In B.J. Baars (Ed.), Experimental slips and human error: Exploring the architecture of volition. (pp. 289-313). New York, NY: Plenum Press

O'Connor, L.E., Berry, J.W., Morrison, A., & Brown, S. (1992). Retrospective reports of psychiatric symptoms before, during, and after drug use in a recovering population. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 24, 65-68.

O'Connor, L.E., & Berry, J.W. (1990). The drug-of-choice phenomenon: Why addicts start using their preferred drug. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 22, 305-311.