Douglas A. Bernstein

Doug Bernstein completed his bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Pittsburgh in 1964, then his masters and Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Northwestern University in 1966 and 1968, respectively. From 1968 to 1998, he was on the psychology faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he served both as Associate Department Head and Director of Introductory Psychology. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois and Courtesy Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida. From 2006-2008 he was Visiting Professor of Psychology and Education Advisor to the School of Psychology at Southampton University, and in January, 2009 was a visiting professor and education consultant at l’Institut du Psychologie at the University of Paris. He is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.

His current interests are focused on the teaching of psychology, and toward efforts to promote excellence in that arena. From 1980 to 2012 he was chairman of the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology and he founded the APS Preconference Institute on the Teaching of Psychology. He was also the founding chairman of the Steering Committee for the APS Fund for the Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science, and he served on the steering committee for the European Network for Psychology Learning and Teaching (Europlat). His has won several teaching awards, including the APA Distinguished Teaching in Psychology Award in 2002.

He has co-authored or co-edited numerous textbooks in psychology, has contributed chapters to several books on the teaching of psychology, and with Sandra Goss Lucas, wrote Teaching Psychology: A Step by Step Guide, now in its second edition. He occasionally offers workshops on teaching techniques and on textbook-writing for prospective authors. As a hobby, he collects student excuses.