“The more students can be actively involved, the more they learn,” Professor Puncky Heppner believes.  Heppner is a professor in the college’s Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology (ESCP), and he believes in a very hands-on approach to teaching.  In each of his courses, he asks students to produce some type of project in collaboration with their peers.  It is only through this learning by doing technique, he believes, that students can truly learn. 

Heppner has been teaching at Mizzou for thirty-one years, as of this year.  “I’m a trainer at heart, and MU has been a very good place for me,” he says.  “I like working with the students, preparing them for future careers, and also collaborating with them.”  It is through these collaborations and in his own research that Heppner focuses in on a topic that has always interested him—how people cope with stress, and how various cultures impact these coping mechanisms.

For as long as Heppner has been interested psychology, he has been curious about why people react the way they do in stressful situations.  He recalls seeing friends handle stress in their respective ways, and wondering why they chose those coping mechanisms.  In his current research, he is finding that culture has a very large impact on people’s responses.  For example, a recent study of Heppner’s found that people in Taiwan often take a collectivist approach to dealing with stress; a key element in coping involves relationships, particularly their family members.  It is approaches such as this that western psychologists might be able to apply here in the United States.

Up until now, psychology in the western world has been just that— a very western school of thought.  “The United States is only five percent of the world, and yet we’re making generalizations about humanity based off of that,” Heppner says.  In an effort to change this, Heppner is at the forefront of a very critical movement that is bringing western and eastern psychological theory together to create a more comprehensive understanding of how people in different cultures cope with stress.

“The work we’re doing today is going across national boundaries,” says Heppner.  “It’s all about culture, and how cultural context changes the way people respond to stressful events.”  Heppner was recently awarded the Society of Counseling Psychology’s (APA Division 17) most prestigious recognition, the Leona Tyler Award, for his role in helping to internationalize counseling psychology.

Heppner is very clearly an asset to both the college and the university.  He hopes to inspire his students to achieve great success as well:  “Prepare yourself as broadly as you can,” he advises.  “When opportunities become available, work very hard to do a good job.  When you have a good track record, more opportunity will come your way.”