Faculty Bio

Christopher A. Modica

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Education

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

About

Before coming to Ohio Wesleyan University, Chris 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.

He is currently a licensed psychologist in Ohio and Indiana and a Health Service Provider in Psychology in Indiana. His professional clinical experience has been in private practice, community mental health, and university student counseling centers. He also has experience in providing clinical supervision of doctoral students in individual therapy, group therapy, and testing/assessment. His subspeciality/cognate in his doctoral degree was in research methodology. 

Dr. Modica’s professional and clinical areas of interest broadly include:

A) Psychopathology and diagnosis (specifically anxiety disorders, OCD, MMPI-2-RF)

B) Psychotherapy

C) Eating disorders and body image

D) Professional psychology ethics

E) Statistics (specifically regression, mediation and moderation, structural equation modeling, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis). 

Concerning research, Dr. Modica’s primary areas of research interest are:

A) Sociocultural variables impacting body image, eating disorders, and eating 

B) Social media use 

C) Sexual objectification and its consequences (e.g., body image, eating concerns) 

Publications

  • 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.  https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0434

  • 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. https://doi.org/10.4172/2325-9795.1000329

  • 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.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.02.002                 
  • 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.