Faculty Bio

Christopher A. Modica

Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology

Education

  • B.A., Judson College
  • M.S., Illinois State University
  • Ph.D., Ball State University

About

Chris Modica is an Associate Professor in the psychology department at Ohio Wesleyan University. Before coming to Ohio Wesleyan University, Dr. Modica was an Assistant Professor at Wright State University within the School of Professional Psychology (Clinical Psychology Psy.D. program) where he taught classes in clinical interviewing, ethics, and statistics. He also has teaching experience at Ball State University at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Clinical Experience

Dr. Modica is currently a licensed psychologist in Ohio and Indiana and a Health Service Provider in Psychology (HSPP) in Indiana. He has experience providing outpatient psychotherapy and assessment in private practice, community mental health centers, and university student counseling centers. He also has experience in providing clinical supervision of doctoral students in individual therapy, group therapy, and testing/assessment.

Teaching

Dr. Modica teaches several classes including the following: Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 110), Psychology and Law (PSYC 258), Abnormal Psychology (PSYC 322), and Research Methods (PSYC 310). He also routinely teaches Independent Studies (PSYC 490) and Directed Readings (PSYC 491) within the psychology department. When possible, Dr. Modica tries to foster hands-on learning by using elaborate case studies as assignments (i.e., PSYC 258 & 322) and realistic data sets to practice statistical analyses (PSYC 310).

Research

Dr. Modica enjoys helping students design and conduct their own research studies, learn statistical analyses, and collaborating with students on his own research projects. At Ohio Wesleyan University he often supervises student research projects and co-teaches an Honors class with Dr. Andrew Busch focused on helping students navigate their honors theses. He enjoys learning new statistical analyses and furthering his expertise in using R, SPSS, and other software programs. Academically, his subspecialty/cognate within his doctoral degree was in research methodology. For his areas of research interest see below.

Professional and Clinical Areas of Interest

  • Psychopathology, assessment, and diagnosis of mental illness (specifically anxiety disorders, OCD, use of the MMPI)
  • Eating disorders and body image
  • Professional psychology ethics
  • Psychotherapy

Areas of Research Interest

  • Sociocultural variables impacting body image, eating, and eating disorders
  • Social media use and smartphone use
  • Sexual objectification
  • Statistical analyses (specifically regression, mediation and moderation, structural equation modeling (SEM), and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA/CFA), best practices in data analysis, statistical assumption-testing, data processing).

Publications

(Note, * refers to a current or past OWU student)

  • Modica, C.A. & Markley, A.E.* (2024). Reciprocal longitudinal associations between positive body image and wellbeing among early-adult women. Body Image, 51. DOI:10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101770
  • Busch, A.M., Modica, C.A., & Sheridan, E. (2023). The effect of yoga on anxiety, attention and social-emotional symptoms in preschool children: A pilot quasi-experimental study. Child Psychiatry & Human Development.DOI: 10.1007/s10578-023-01588-9
  • Modica, C.A. & DiLillo, V.G. (2023). A structural invariance analysis of the acceptance model of intuitive eating across Black, Hispanic, and White young-adult women. Body Image, 44, 157-169.
  • Modica, C.A., DiLillo, V.G., & Swami, V. (2023). Measurement invariance of the Broad Conceptualization of Beauty Scale (BCBS) across Black, Hispanic, and White women in the United States. Body Image, 44, 69-77.
  • Modica, C.A. & Murnen, S.K (2022). Are men who identify as a feminist less likely to sexually objectify women?: A cross-sectional study of heterosexual men. Journal of Sexual Aggression. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2022.2097325
  • Bigler, K.M.* & Modica, C.A. (2022). Emotionally-focused couples therapy and gay and lesbian couples: Considerations for pursuer-distancer patterns. Journal of LGBTQ Issues in Counseling, 16(3), 300-316.
  • Modica, C.A. & Alonso, M.G.* (2021). Ethical considerations in supervising undergraduate internships across professions: Issues of competence. The Ohio Psychologist, 68,12-15.
  • Modica, C.A. (2021). Modeling the associations between internal body orientation, body appreciation, and intuitive eating among early-adult and middle-adult men and women: A multigroup structural invariance analysis. Body Image, 39,1-15.
  • Modica, C.A. (2020). The associations between Instagram use, selfie-activities, appearance-comparison, and body dissatisfaction in adult men. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(2), 90-99.
  • Modica, C.A. (2019). The association between body surveillance and body satisfaction moderated by self-concept clarity in adult women in the United States: A cross sectional study. Journal of Women's Health, Issues and Care, 8, 1-6.
  • Modica, C.A. (2019). Facebook, body esteem, and body surveillance in adult women: The moderating role of self-compassion and appearance-contingent self-worth. Body Image, 29, 17-30.
  • Modica, C. A. (2018). Problems related to eating, nutrition, and body image. In J. Santos & J. Cutcliffe (Eds.), European psychiatric/mental health nursing in the 21st century: A person-centered evidence-based approach (pp. 425-439). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing Switzerland.