Kathryn O’Toole

Education

PhD, Developmental Psychology, Loyola University Chicago
MA, Developmental Psychology, Loyola University Chicago
BS, Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Profile

Dr. Kathryn O’Toole knew North Park was the right fit for her because of the close-knit community among students, faculty, and staff. “I eschew the traditional instructor-student relationship, in which the teacher teaches and the student listens, in favor of one that is more cooperative, collaborative, and bidirectional,” she says.

Teaching is her passion, and she finds that North Park excels at fostering the professional growth and development of its professors. “This support allows me to strengthen my pedagogy,” she says, “which in turn benefits the students.”

O’Toole believes that the variety of psychology courses offered meet the needs of all students. “Non-majors will benefit by developing critical thinking skills and applying psychology to their own lives,” she says. Psychology majors will also develop scientific thinking skills to prepare them for success in graduate school and their future careers.

Many of O’Toole’s students gain experiential learning through internships in Chicago at nonprofits, hospitals, businesses, and schools. “I like to point out opportunities for students to apply what they learn in the classroom to the Chicago context,” says O’Toole.

Recent Publications

O’Toole, K. (2025). Presenting a technology policy in a course syllabus? Avoid highlighting losses. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000450

 O’Toole, K. (2024). Perpetually preoccupied: Applying interference framework to understand effects of smartphone use and vibrations on an academic task. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 38(1), e4137. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.4137

 O’Toole, K. (2022). Smartphone use and well-being in two contexts: An outdoor camp and a college campus. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 34(5), 313–319. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000321