Area of Specialization: Developmental Psychology
Graduate Students
Afra Agalar
Haley Bennett
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100E
Area of Specialization: Cognitive Psychology
My primary research interest is in the study of working memory and attention. My current work will begin to understand where focus of attention is directed within the encoding consolidation and maintenance phases of working memory, and how introducing distractions may play a role in memory recall.
Mo Chen
Area of Specialization: Cognitive Psychology (Language Production)
Chelsea Cortright
Area of Specialization: Developmental Psychology
I am currently a graduate student in the Developmental Psychology area, working under Dr. Danming An. Broadly my research interests focus on the development of self-concepts, and how self-concepts relate to adjustment, well-being and psychopathology across the lifespan.
Ashley Dautrich
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100F
Area of Specialization: Developmental Psychology
I am interested in studying how infants and young children learn language and develop cognitively and socially within their first few years of life. Considering how impactful children's parents are during this period of their lives, I am also interested in how children's play interactions with their parents facilitate their learning in these areas. I am especially interested in how these early parent-infant interactions help infants to build their broader skills in these areas for future interactions with novel individuals.
Wenyan Feng
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100D
Area of Specialization: Developmental Psychology
In my research, I'm interested in investigating mechanisms that facilitate children's cognitive development. Specifically, I'm interested in examining how parental input in parent-child interactions facilitates children's learning.
Gavin Fox
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100D
Area of Specialization: Social Psychology
My primary research interest is in the study of health behaviors. In this realm, my work has focused on parent-for-child vaccinations, alcohol use, bystander behaviors, exercise, and fruit and vegetable consumption. Currently, I am working to understand the underlying mechanisms that promote/hinder multiple health behavior change as well as what factors impact young adults drinking in the moment. One day, I hope to develop just-in-time interventions to help people live healthier lives in the real world.
Gabriela Gonzalez
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100E
Area of Specialization: Developmental Psychology
My primary research interest is in the study of identity development in adolescents, particularly focusing on how gender and racial stressors influence friendships and the process of co-rumination, how these friendships respond to and mediate stressors, and how they can provide support during challenging experiences. My research aims to understand the social and emotional mechanisms that shape adolescent relationships and how these factors affect their identity formation. In the future, I hope to contribute to the development of school-based interventions or user experience strategies that foster healthier adolescent relationships and support positive identity development.
Luis Gomez Gorgonio
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100E
Area of Specialization: Social Psychology
My primary research interest is in understanding how perceptions of peers shape young adults' behaviors in social contexts, such as alcohol use and bystander behaviors. Currently, I am investigating the mechanisms by which parents influence young adults' health behaviors, with particular attention to parent-emerging adult conversations. I am also interested in how cultural factors affect these dynamics, seeking to contribute to interventions that support healthy decision-making within diverse family contexts.
Karleigh Groves
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100D
Area of Specialization: Social Psychology
My primary research interests are in identity and group dynamics. I am especially interested in identity salience, particularly how people negotiate multiple identities within different social contexts, and how these identity dynamics influence intergroup relations. I am also intrigued by the connections between identity and music. Through my research, I aim to leverage principles from social psychological research, as well as perspectives from other social science disciplines, to develop applied interventions that promote equity, specifically in relation to gender and sexuality.
Nicholas Major
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100A
Area of Specialization: Cognitive Psychology
My primary research interest is the study of creativity. My (in-progress) work focuses on how people may be nudged toward behaving more creatively by manipulating the context of tasks that require novel thinking to solve. I am currently working to understand the impact of gamification on non-game environments to promote creativity. I hope to eventually use the knowledge I've gained here to enhance people's creative spark in their day-to-day lives, both in work and play.
Theresa Mowad
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100A
Area of Specialization: Cognitive Psychology
Joseph Romagano
Area of Specialization: Cognitive Psychology
I am a cognitive psychology PhD student with a M.S. in clinical psychology. I have studied pseudoscience and susceptibility to misinformation. I currently research false memories based on political ideologies.
Alex Sackett
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100C
Area of Specialization: Social Psychology
I study the often unintentional consequences of our social cognition and how we can change them for the better. Specifically, I examine the relationship between our identities, motivations, and social information processing. My work ranges topics such as stereotyping, attributional errors, and how we process misinformation. It is designed to inform or directly test interventions aimed at reducing biases and improving health outcomes.
Matthew Tong
Area of Specialization: Cognitive Psychology
Melinda Marie Westsfall, M.S.
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100C
Area of Specialization: Developmental Psychology
My primary research interest is understanding how parent socialization influences the moral, emotional, racial, and political development of children and adolescents. Alongside Dr. Debbie Laible, our recent studies have investigated how parents influence the development of racial prejudice and extremist political beliefs in White American adolescents. I am especially interested in the role of emotion socialization and parenting behavior in the intergenerational transmission of ideology during pre-adolescence through young adulthood.
Mahsa Zafarmand
Area of Specialization: Cognitive Psychology
Mina Zare
Office Location: Chandler Ullmann 100A
Area of Specialization: Developmental Psychology
My primary research interest is in adolescents' social and emotional development and adjustment, particularly within their friendships. My current ongoing project focuses on coping behaviors, support behaviors, and adolescents' subjective experiences in the context of their friendships. Additionally, I am working with my advisor, Dr. Sarah Borowski, to develop a new research tool to study the effects of social media on adolescents' well-being.
Mengting Zhang
Area of Specialization: Cognitive Psychology