My research focuses on reactions to members of racial outgroups. I am particularly interested in associations between outgroups and threat, and the ways this association affects attention, face processing and behavior. Much of our work has examined racial bias in decisions to shoot using a videogame simulation of a police encounter. In this simulation, we typically find that participants are faster and more likely to shoot Black targets (rather than Whites). More recently, we have begun to study (a) aspects of attention, categorization and face processing that may subserve racial bias, and (b) the possibility that cross-race contact can ameliorate bias. In other lines of research, we explore the way that people strategically use group membership to protect and enhance the self-concept; and patterns of non-random variation in human behavior, called 1/f noise.
keywords
Race, face processing, stereotyping and prejudice, intergroup relations, response time
PSYC 2111 - Psychological Science I: Statistics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022
Three hours of lecture and one two-hour lab per week. Introduces descriptive and inferential statistics and their roles in psychological research. Topics include correlation, regression, T-test, analysis of variance and selected nonparametric statistics.
PSYC 4011 - Senior Thesis
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2023
Critically reviews some aspect of psychological literature, scholarly analysis of a major psychological issue, and/or empirical research project. See the psychology honors director for further information.
PSYC 5606 - Proseminar: Social-Personality Psychology
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2022
Provides a thorough introduction to methods and theories in social psychology concerned with topics such as the self, social cognition, judgment and decision making, attitude formation and change, small group processes, inter-group relations, health and social psychology, and others. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours. Instructor consent required.
PSYC 5741 - General Statistics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2021
Surveys probability and statistics in psychology. Instructor consent required.
PSYC 5751 - General Statistics
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2019 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2022
Continuation of PSYC 5741. Instructor consent required.
PSYC 6606 - Professional Issues in Social Psychology
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2019
Covers a range of topics important for professional development in social psychology, including preparation and delivery of research presentations, preparation of grant proposals and manuscripts, and peer review of manuscripts. Intended to prepare students for careers as research scientists. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours.
