Web Bio

Dr. Field is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University (USU). He additionally serves as clinic director of the USU Psychology Community Clinic. Previously, Dr. Field was the assistant director of Clinical Services, Research, and Internship Training at Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home (also known as Girls and Boys Town) in Omaha, Nebraska. He completed his graduate training at Idaho State University where he was trained as a scientist-practitioner within a generalist-empiricist framework. Dr. Field has since specialized in the areas of applied behavior analysis and clinical child/behavioral pediatric psychology. Dr. Field currently teaches abnormal psychology, pediatric psychology, psychoeducational assessment and supervises a clinic practicum team. Clinically, Dr. Field is interested in the prevention of children’s conduct problems, the development of parenting skills, children’s social skills training, identification of risk factors associated with children’s externalizing behaviors, treatment of behavioral aspects of pediatric health issues, and the utility of functional analysis in the assessment of child behavior problems.

Dr. Field established the USU Behavioral Pediatric Research Group (BPRG) which is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students with primary interest in conducting research with young children exhibiting a variety of behavioral and health problems. Central to BPRG activities is a multi-faceted empirical framework designed to inform clinical intervention and prevention strategies for children with conduct problems. At a general level, Dr. Field is interested in parent-child interactions especially in relation to the development and maintenance of children’s externalizing behavior problems. As a program, this research is designed to yield critical information regarding the contribution of dysfunctional parenting strategies to early childhood misbehavior (e.g., noncompliance, tantrums, and aggression) The underlying logic and significance of this research is derived from a body of accumulating evidence which indicates that 1) ineffective and counterproductive parenting methods greatly contribute to the display of externalizing behavior in young children; 2) externalizing behaviors represent the most prevalent mental health concern for children; and 3) such behavior patterns are established early in life, tend to be resistant to modification, and have been indicted as behavioral precursors of the externalizing disorders of later childhood and adolescence. To date, this program of research has given rise to four active lines of empirical inquiry: 1) the study of individual sensitivity and responsiveness to environmental cues of punishment and reward in relation to problem behavior, 2) the utility of functional analytic strategies in conceptualizing and treating children’s problem behaviors, 3) the study of parent-child interactions with an emphasis on the empirical evaluation of prevention and early intervention strategies utilized by caregivers in managing the misbehavior of very young children, and 4) the analysis of variables which may hinder implementation within the context of parent-child and family-based intervention approaches. BPRG research activities are generally guided by behavioral and social learning theories, utilize single-case and small-n experimental methods, and incorporate observational data collection strategies.