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Graduate Students

 
 
301-405-5934
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BPS 3150B

Juliet Aiken

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Paul Hanges
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2011

Current Research : I am a fourth year student in the SDOS program, and my concentration is in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. My content research interests focus on leadership, diversity, and bias. In the field of leadership, my primary interests address issues relating to gender and leadership, but also extend to cover other concerns such as how leaders influence relationships amongst team members. My interests in diversity encompass gender issues, cross-cultural affairs, and implicit discrimination in the workplace. My interest in bias overlaps with my research in diversity, but extends to issues addressing bias in a more general sense (e.g. prior information bias, halo bias), the nature of specific biases (e.g. whether they are "for" one group, "against" another, or both), and what interventions might help overcome bias. My quantitative research interests largely deal with the application of complexity theory, item response theory, and signal detection theory in organizational research. In addition to my research pursuits, I am currently a teaching assistant for the graduate statistics courses, and will begin teaching in the spring of 2010 for the department of psychology. I am also part of the Design and Statistical Analysis Lab ('DaSAL') a statistical consulting group operating out of the department which addresses the methodological and analytical issues of undergraduate students, graduate students, post docs, and faculty. I am proficient with SPSS, MPLUS, HLM, and ORA, and have working knowledge of SAS, Automap, UCINET and Netlogo. For additional information about my research and related activities, please visit my personal website: http://sites.google.com/site/julietaikenpsyc/

 
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BPS 2139

Stacie Ain

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
 
301-405-8276
email
BPS 1105

Sharona Atkins

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
 
email
BPS 3147A

Bryann Baker

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
301-405-8899
2103 Cole Activities Building

Anne Banducci

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Carl Lejuez and Laura MacPherson
Anticipated graduation date : Spring, 2014

Current Research : I am a first year clinical psychology student working in the CAPER Lab. My research interests span three interrelated domains: psychopathology, addiction, and evidence-based therapy. I would like to integrate these interests by examining treatments beneficial to individuals with dual diagnoses. I graduated from Brown University in 2008 with a B.S. in psychology. My undergraduate thesis focused on how counselors understand behavior changes in emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children in a residential treatment program.

 
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BPS 3125

Jocelyn Belanger

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
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BPS 2140E

Maria Berbery

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Karen O'Brien
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : I am currently conducting research on transracial adoptive families. In particular, I am studying predictors of White adoptive parents' cultural and racial socialization of their Asian children. I am interested in learning about why adoptive parents do or do not teach their child about their race and culture of origin. My research interests also include Latina/o mental health, immigrant families, and social justice. This year I will be externing at the University Parent Consultation and Child Evaluation Service (UPCCES) at the University Counseling Center. I am also interested in clinical work with Spanish-speaking immigrants.

 
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BPS 3129

Steven Buzinski

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Harold Sigall
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2011

Current Research : I am a fourth year graduate student in the SDOS program. My research interests include the determinants of communal relationships, mortality salience and communal orientation, and the implication of psychological distance on communal strength and motivation. Additionally, I have recently become interested in the implications of Goal Systems Theory for several intrapersonal and interpersonal phenomena. I have also actively participated in the ADOPT (Advancing the Department of Psychology Teaching) and CTE (Center for Teaching Excellence) programs to advance my understanding of the pedagogical requirements of teaching psychology at the University level.

 
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BPS 1115H

Susan Campbell

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
301-405-6876
email
Hornbake 0121C

Jaime Carreno

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
301-405-0537
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BPS 2123K

Mohit Chadha

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
 
301-405-5934
email
BPS 3150B

Xiafang Chen

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Paul Hanges
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2011

Current Research : I am a fourth year student in the SDOS program focusing on Industrial and Organizational Psychology. My primary research interests focus on leadership, emotion regulation, and diversity issues. In the leadership area, my research interests address issues relating to the authentic leadership construct and its impact on employee work attitudes and behaviors; in addition, I am also interested in examining influences of leaders emotional intelligence on team process outcomes cross-culturally. In the emotional regulation field, I am interested in contextual factors moderating relationships between emotional regulation strategies and individual well-beings. My interest in diversity is related to the relationship between organizational climates and organizational outcomes.

 
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BPS 3130

Xiaoyan Chen

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
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BPS 2140A

Harold Chui

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
 
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BPS 3127

Ryan Curtis

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
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BPS 2147H

Marianne Dunn

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
 
301-405-0009
email
BPS 0150

Katherine Ehrlich

Graduate Student

Training Program : Developmental Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Jude Cassidy
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2011

Current Research : I study the ways in which family experiences contribute to normal and abnormal social development. I am particularly interested in understanding how destructive family processes (e.g., conflict) shape adolescents peer experiences, risky behaviors, and psychopathology. I also have an interest in learning how psychophysiology (e.g., EEG and ERP) can inform our understanding of cognitive processing of social information. For more details about my current research projects, please visit my personal website at: http://katieehrlich.weebly.com/.

 
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BPS 1219A

Sara Ericson

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
 
301-405-0374
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BPS 2123N

Benjamin Falk

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
Faculty Advisor : Cynthia Moss
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2012

Current Research : My research has focused on the echolocation behavior of flying bats. I have studied the discrimination abilities of flying bats in a large flight room, training them to discriminate between different textured or shaped inedible objects. The goal is to identify to what degree bats can discriminate different textures/shapes using echolocation and then characterize their behavior so that we can identify how they are able to make these discriminations. By using an array of ultrasound microphones placed around the room and high speed video recordings, we can reconstruct the 3-D flight path of the bat and the echolocation beam pattern as the bat flies in the flight room. Through these techniques, I've been working on determining how bats investigate, discriminate, and categorize objects in their environment using echolocation. Another interest of mine is trying to understand how bats integrate somatosensory and motor information (about wind currents and body position) with echolocation in order to successfully navigate their environment. This is an ongoing project but current work has focused on potential wind sensors (very small hairs) on the wings of bats. By carefully removing the hairs we can determine what role those hairs have and in what ways does the bat compensate their removal.

 
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BPS 3147D

Ryan Fehr

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Michele Gelfand
Anticipated graduation date : Spring, 2010

Current Research : Ryan is a fifth year student in the SDOS program. His primary area of research is in conflict management, especially with respect to forgiveness, apologies, and negotiation. His secondary research interests include cultural adaptation and organizational creativity/innovation. More information about Ryan and his research can be found at his website, www.ryanfehr.com

 
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BPS 3150C

Emily Feinberg

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Paul Hanges
Anticipated graduation date : Spring, 2012

Current Research : Emily is a third year student in the SDOS program. Her research interests are broadly focused on cross-cultural topics in organizational psychology. Specifically, she is researching cross-cultural competency acquisition and training, the influence of cultural values on job attraction, and expatriate management. Emily has also published work on adverse impact in selection and a cross-cultural comparison of selection methods. For more information and a link to her CV, please go to http://sites.google.com/site/emilyfeinbergpsyc/.

 
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BPS 3127

Rachel Freidus

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
301-405-5934
email
BPS 3150C

Ashley Fulmer

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Michele Gelfand and Cheri Ostroff
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2012

Current Research : Ashley is a third-year doctoral student in the Social, Decision, and Organizational Sciences (SDOS) Program. Her research focuses on the areas of conflict management, including trust and negotiation, as well as organizational context, such as climate, leadership, and workplace diversity. Many of her studies also concern cross-cultural and levels of analysis issues. Her Master's thesis investigates the dynamics of trust and violation in Japan, Jordan, and the U.S., and how this process is moderated by the situational factor of ingroup-outgroup status and the individual differences in levels of self-construal. As a MURI graduate fellow, Ashley is working with Dr. Michele Gelfand on studies related to negotiation and collaboration in the Middle East. Currently, they have several lines of study, including investigations of 1) how people across cultures perceive emotion differently in negotiation, 2) whether different cultures attach different meanings to silence in communication, 3) how fatalistic belief is related to risk taking, and 4) whether people from different cultures vary in their trajectories of trust building and recovery. Additionally, with Dr. Cheri Ostroff, she is examining the way individuals from different racial backgrounds generate dissimilar psychological perceptions of diversity climate in an organization and whether these perceptions influence their perceptions of societal discrimination. She and Dr. Ostroff also employ Major League Baseball data to examine the impact on individuals performance when they change teams. Finally, as part of the GLOBE project, Ashley works with Dr. Paul Hanges to examine how environmental contingencies moderate the effects of leaders' individual differences on organizational outcomes. Another study involves linking leaders characteristics to the social network structures of their teams. Prior to Maryland, she worked as a Project Director for a NIMH-funded study at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

 
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BPS 2139

Heather Ganginis

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Karen O'Brien
Anticipated graduation date : Summer 2011

Current Research : I have been conducting research on women's career development while at the University of Maryland, however my research interests also include other women's issues such as domestic violence. I enjoy teaching the helping skills lab in the psychology department. Teaching helps me connect with undergraduates as well as improve my skills as a counselor. I have externed as a counselor at the Health Center on campus as well as Towson University. I am currently a counselor at American University.

 
301-405-5622
email
BPS 0124D

Sarah Gerson

Graduate Student

Training Program : Developmental Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Amanda Woodward
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2011

Current Research : Broadly, I am interested in studying social cognitive development. In particular, I study the origins of infants' understandings of other agents and their actions. In my masters research, I examined the unique effects of active versus observational experience on three-month-old infants' initial understanding of others' intentions. I am continuing to examine the development and generalization of intention understand using several methodologies, including imitation, habituation, eyetracking, and EEG.

 
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BPS 1134

Meghan Graham

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
 

Andrew Herst

Graduate Student

Training Program : Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS)
 
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BPS 2140A

Teresa Huang

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
 

Suzanne Huggins

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Andrea Chronis-Tuscano
Anticipated graduation date : Spring, 2014

Current Research : I am interested in the treatment and assessment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in children and young adults, maternal psychopathology and parenting, parenting and child skills training, and impulse control and risky sexual behavior. I have spent 2006-2009 working as a senior research assistant for Prof. Stephen Hinshaw at UC Berkeley on his longitudinal study of girls diagnosed with ADHD. Additionally, during that time I volunteered in Dr. Linda Pfiffner's Life Skills and Training Program at UC San Francisco in the Hyperactivity, Attention, and Learning Problems (HALP) Clinic. Prior to this experience, I attended the University of Washington in Seattle and graduated with a B.S. in Psychology in 2005.

 
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BPS 2140F

Ann Hummel

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Charles J. Gelso
Anticipated graduation date : May 2012

Current Research : My primary research interests include psychotherapy process and outcome, counselor training, and the therapeutic relationship. For psychotherapy process and outcome research, I am currently involved with the Maryland Psychotherapy Clinic and Research Lab. Topics being studied include therapist interventions, corrective relational experiences, and the discussion of dreams in therapy. For counselor training research, I am currently involved in studies on immediacy (process comments) training, and insight skills training. Past projects have included a study of the interrelationships between personality, theoretical orientation and helping skill preference, and a study of predictors and outcomes of helping skills training. For the study of the therapeutic relationship, I am interested in testing the tripartite model of the therapeutic relationship, especially the real (or personal) relationship and how it relates to outcome. My secondary or developing research interests include willpower, self-control, personality, and eating disorders. My teaching interests and experiences include helping skills training, psychology of human sexuality, and psychology of women. As a clinician, I am interested in individual and group therapy, career counseling, and clinical assessment. My theoretical orientation is interpersonal-behavioral.

 
301-405-8276
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BPS 1105G

Erika Hussey

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
Faculty Advisor : Mike Dougherty
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2012

Current Research : As a NACS student working as a trainee for the Linguistics Departments IGERT program, my research interests appropriately lie at the intersection of psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience. As an undergraduate, I studied human memory and learning under Arnold Glass and Carolyn Rovee-Collier at Rutgers University. Upon beginning at UMD, I added decision-making and attention to those research topics. In collaborating with researchers at the Center for Advanced Study of Language and the Linguistics Department, I have recently added language to this mix. My current work examines the effects of cognitive control on language processing. In particular, I've recently become interested in understanding how individual differences in working memory, specifically pre-potent response inhibition and selective attention, cascade into language processing. I use behavioral and eye tracking techniques to understand this relationship. Aside from this, I am also involved with work examining memory retrieval processes, inductive inference, and multisensory integration: Specifically, my research on retrieval dynamics involves the application of computational models of memory to understand stopping decisions. My multisensory work uses neuroimaging and electrophysiology methods to understand the relationship between controlled attention and low-level audio-visual processing. My research on inductive inference and judgment is aimed at understanding both how people generate explanations of data and the influence of these explanations on probability judgment and language comprehension.

 
301-405-5934
email
BPS 3150A

Lynn Imai

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
301-405-5866
email
BPS 1107

John Jackson

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
 
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BPS 3129

Kristen Klein

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Arie Kruglanski
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : As a member of the SDOS program, my research interests connect basic theory with its real world implications. The Department of Homeland Security has generously decided to fund my graduate studies, so that I can develop expertise that will help them in their mission to curb the rise of terrorism. My basic research projects explore the process of radicalization through the lens of rationality theory and motivated cognition. I am currently investigating how properties of goals can distort perceptions of the rationality of various means to achieving those goals. In my applied research, I study the roles of motivation, culture, and social influence in terrorist and extremist behavior. My area of special interest lies in the individual- and organizational-level factors that drive suicide terrorists to commit such radical acts. This research is conducted in partnership with the START Center at Maryland, a DHS Center of Excellence dedicated to studying the human causes and consequences of terrorism. I am also launching a project with a team of graduate students to examine factors involved in the radicalization and de-radicalization of gang members.

 
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BPS 1127

Stephanie Lin

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Jack Blanchard
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2014

Current Research : Stephanie received her B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 2008 and is now a second year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Program at UMD. Broadly, she is interested in social behavior in schizophrenia and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Her Master's thesis aims to examine how individuals with social anhedonia interact with others and involves examining the relationship between social functioning, social skill, and social cognition.

 
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BPS 2140F

Jinqjing Liu

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
 
301-405-5934
email
BPS 3129

Songqi Liu

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Mo Wang
Anticipated graduation date : Spring, 2011

Current Research : My research has focused on employee emotional and behavioral reactions to daily work experience and retirement. My thesis Work stress and employee alcohol use: A daily study has been accepted by Personnel Psychology. I have also been involved with several retirement-related research projects, which have been published in Journal of Applied Psychology and Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

 
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BPS 1127

Katiah Llerena

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Jack Blanchard
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : My research interest is in schizophrenia and spectrum disorders. More specifically, I am interested in the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and their role in predicting schizophrenia spectrum disorders. My Masters Thesis research will examine how the emotional characteristics and social behaviors of individuals with social anhedonia contribute to social impairments.

 
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BPS 3143

Sarah Lyons

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Michele Gelfand
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2014

Current Research : I am a first year student in the SDOS program with a focus on social and cultural psychology. Prior to my graduate study at the University of Maryland I collaborated with Dr. Shigehiro Oishi at the University of Virginia on research pertaining to culture and well-being. Current research interests include cultural influences on negotiation, emotional expression, motivation, and group behavior.

 
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BPS 1123H

Jessica Magidson

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
email
Cole field House 2103

Alexis Matusiewicz

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
301-405-5942
email
BPS 1134

Vanessa Medley

Graduate Student

Training Program : Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS)
Faculty Advisor : Jens Herberholz
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : The overall goal of my research is to gain a better understanding of the neural processes that control behavior. I am using electrophysiological and neuropharmacological techniques to investigate nervous system function in crayfish (Procambarus clarkii). In response to visual stimuli that signify a predator attack, crayfish activate a set of giant interneurons which leads to a rapid flexion of the abdomen that propels the animal away from the threatening stimulus. My research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying the activation of the giant interneurons. I am interested in identifying the organization of the visual input pathways to the giant interneurons and determining how their activity is influenced by the nature of the stimulus and the internal condition of the animal. Since different animals produce different behavioral responses to the same visual danger stimulus, I am also testing how neuromodulators can change the activity patterns of the interneurons and their visual input pathways.

 
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BPS 2141

Erica Merson

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Karen O'Brien
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2012

Current Research : My thesis involved the psychological functioning of adoptive parents and their use and level of satisfaction with adoption agency services. My dissertation will likely address women's career development. I am currently externing at the University of Maryland's Counseling Center and serve as a teaching assistant for helping skills.

 
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BPS 3130

Lauren Minacapelli

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Arie Kruglanski
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : I am a second year student in the SDOS program with a focus on social psychology. I am also a participant of the Department of Defense Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service program. My research interests mainly focus on terrorism which I study from several different angles including revenge and goals systems. I also am involved in projects regarding suicide terrorism and gangs. In addition, I am interested in the individual difference characteristic need for cognitive closure. My Masters Thesis examines the relationship between need for closure and revenge and specifically studies the dispositional and situational circumstances that influence the relationship between need for closure and revenge.

 
301-405-4606
email
BPS 2109H

Abigail Mintz

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Andrea Chronis-Tuscano
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2012

Current Research : My research interests focus mainly on the relationships between various characteristics of fathers and the psychological problems experienced by their children. My thesis project, specifically, examines father psychopathology and father involvement and the relationship between these and the behavioral problems of their children with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study of fatherhood, especially within clinical populations, is one that has been neglected for several decades. Though fatherhood has finally become a focus for some clinical researchers within the past few years, our knowledge of this topic still lags far behind that of the topic of motherhood. Thus, my general research interests throughout my graduate training and beyond pertain to better understanding the role of fathers in the psychosocial wellbeing of their children who may be at risk for significant mental health problems. Toward this end, I hope to examine a variety of father-related variables, including treatment involvement, parental involvement, marital relationships, and fathers in ethnic minority populations.

 
301.405.5934
email
BPS 3143

Rabiah Muhammad

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Paul Hanges
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2014

Current Research : I am a first year grad student in the SDOS program, and my concentration is in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. The primary goal for my research is to investigate ways in which to increase diversity for leadership positions in different aspects of business, using different approaches such as mentoring. Additionally, I would like to understand different cultural frameworks on topics such as teams, trust, customer service, retention, and future career goals.

 
301-405-5934
email
BPS 3143

Monisha Nag

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Paul Hanges
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : My interests revolve around quantitative research methods applied in studying organizational phenomena. I am also interested in the cognitive aspects of human behavior; for example, how mental schemas might affect one's perceptions and actions.

 
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BPS 3147A

Earta Norwood

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
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BPS 3125

Julie O'Brien

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
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BPS 2140A

Andres Perez Rojas

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Charles Gelso
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2014

Current Research : The focus of my research is on the influence of language and culture in therapy. How do client and therapist relate to one another when one or both are bilingual, or from different cultures? How can language impede or enhance the therapeutic relationship? Broadly speaking, I am interested in how language and culture shape an individuals ability to form relationships, recall memories, and express emotions, and how these processes relate to the therapy experience

 
301-405-8441
email
BPS 1123N

Elizabeth Reynolds

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Carl Lejuez
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2011

Current Research : My current research interests focus on the initiation and maintenance of risk-taking behaviors such as substance use and risky sexual behavior. I am interested in self-regulation (e.g., impulsivity) and context (e.g., social, neighborhood, family) predictors. In 2007, I received NRSA funding for a project titled Risk Factors in the Relationship between Gender and Crack Cocaine. The goal of this study, conducted with a sample of residents from an urban substance abuse treatment center, is to better understand gender differences in crack/cocaine users by specifically focusing on relevant environmental and personality factors. During graduate school, I have acted as the project director of a NIDA grant (PI: Lejuez) testing the utility of a behavioral measure of risk taking (the Balloon Analogue Risk Task) in prospectively predicting adolescent risk taking behaviors.

 
301-405-8441
email
Cole field House 2103

Jessica Richards

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Carl Lejuez
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : My current research interests revolve around the biological mechanisms underlying addiction and relapse. I am currently aiding in protocol development for an fMRI study examining neurological mechanisms and genetic polymorphisms associated with distress tolerance in inner city substance users and healthy controls. In addition, I am currently collecting data for my master's thesis which will examine changes in cortisol reactivity to psychological stressors in inner city substance users over the course of residential drug treatment.

 
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BPS 1219J

Mary Rooney

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
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BPS 3147A

Christina Sadak

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
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BPS 3143

Elizabeth Salmon

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
301-405-1531
email
Hornbake 0121H

Marsha Sargeant

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Jack Blanchard
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2011

Current Research : Broadly, my research interest is in substance use (SU) disorders and co-occurring psychopathology (dual diagnosis). More specifically, I am interested in mechanisms underlying dual diagnosis and treatment outcomes among under-served and incarcerated populations. During my graduate career, I was the lead therapist and a co-developer of a manual for a treatment study examining the use of Behavioral Activation for substance users with elevated depression symptoms. My Masters thesis research examined biobehavioral mechanisms underlying emotionality in Antisocial Personality Disorder and the role of psychopathic traits among inner-city treatment-seeking substance users. My dissertation research will investigate processes involved in SU treatment engagement and outcome in individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), with a particular focus on schizophrenia. To this end, I will use psycholinguistic coding to code client language during Motivational Interviewing therapy sessions. This research will be useful in future studies examining the predictive utility of change language in this population. Such studies will be informative for clinicians working with substance use problems among individuals with SMI.

 
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BPS 3150C

Andrew Schmidt

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
email
BPS 3125

Jeremy Schultz

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
301-405-5934
email
BPS 3150C

Laura Severance

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Michele Gelfand
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2012

Current Research : My research interests lie in issues of culture, diversity, negotiation, and the role of biology in the organizational sciences. My masters thesis focuses on the role of hormones (e.g. estradiol) in competitive versus conciliatory behavior in negotiation with male and female opponents. The theory underlying this research is informed by both evolutionary and organizational psychology, hence putting forth a multidisciplinary perspective on negotiation. Gender is also a primary research interest of mine; I am currently examining the joint effect of gender and attractiveness on backlash directed towards individuals who initiate negotiation. Another project focuses on the match between personal appearance (masculine versus feminine) and gendered job context (masculine-typed jobs versus feminine-typed jobs). My work on diversity also delves into racial discrimination. More specifically, I am currently examining covertly and overtly expressed prejudice towards Arab-Americans in a hiring context. My work on MURI Project INTERaction examines communication patterns in integrative negotiations in the Middle East and the US. An additional project (with collaborators at the University of Warsaw) puts forth a dynamical approach to conflict escalation across cultures of honor, dignity, and face.

 
301.405.4606
email
BPS1219K

Karen Seymour

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
301-405-0009
email
BPS 0150

Laura Sherman

Graduate Student

Training Program : Developmental Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Jude Cassidy
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2011

Current Research : My research interests center on how parenting contributes to infant social-emotional development. Specifically, I study the development of infant-parent attachment, examining the effect of parents' cognition and behavior on the quality of infant attachment. I am particularly interested in interventions designed to improve parenting and child outcomes and have been involved in two research projects on attachment-based interventions.

 
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BPS3127

Anna Sheveland

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
301.405.5935
email
BPS 3125

Hyeyoung Shin

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
email
BPS 0128

Yaron Shlomi

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
301-405-5622
email
BPS 0124D

Lauren Shuck

Graduate Student

Training Program : Developmental Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Amanda Woodward
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : I graduated in 2007 from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.Phil in Psychology and Anthropology. My primary research interests include infant/toddler memory development in the context of agency. Specifically, I am interested in whether memory is improved when information is presented by a person (as opposed to no agent or an inanimate object). I am also involved in studying cognitive goal understanding and the comprehension of linguistic conventions. At this time, I am primarily using imitation as a measure of learning and have begun training in EEG/ERP procedures. Additionally, I hope to utilize habituation and eye-tracking procedures to further study the workings of the infant mind.

 
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BPS 3127

Eric Siegel

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 

Benjamin Smith

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
 
email
BPS 2140E

Patricia Spangler

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
 
301.405.0009
email
BPS 0146

Brandi Stupica

Graduate Student

Training Program : Developmental Psychology
 
email
BPS 1123J

Joanna Szczepanik

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Carl Lejuez
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : People suffering from depression seem to get no joy out of life. So called anhedonia, the inability experience pleasure, is one of the defining features of major depressive disorder (MDD). Unable to feel enthusiasm for friends, hobbies, food, or sex, people with MDD drop out and withdraw into themselves. Recent research, including functional brain imaging such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imagaing (fMRI) provided evidence that symptoms of anhedonia may be related to dysfunction in so called brain reward system, and putatively identified brain regions where depressed patients differ from healthy controls in their responses to reward, such as winning money. My research is aimed at investigating whether Behavioral Activation Therapy for Depression, which directly addresses symptoms of anhedonia by encouraging re-engagement in previously enjoyed activities while providing structure and therapeutic support, will result in neurobiological changes in the networks engaged in response to pleasure and reward.

 
301-405-8276
email
BPS 1105

Susan Teubner-Rhodes

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
Faculty Advisor : Michael Dougherty
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2013

Current Research : The overarching theme that unites my research projects is the cognition of language. My primary research focuses on the relationship between language of acquisition and emotional arousal. The fast processing of taboo words and its subsequent effects on recall and recognition can reveal information about first and second language cognition. My research additionally examines the interplay between cognitive control and syntactic ambiguity resolution in online and offline sentence processing. This research uses an Eyelink1000 eye-tracker during reading to measure the online effects of garden-path sentences. These effects are compared to individual differences in executive function. Employing a program of working memory training, my research aims to improve cognitive control, which has cascade effects on performance on a battery of cognitive tasks, including sentence processing. I have also used MEG to study the Sonority Sequencing Principle, which posits that consonant clusters with large onset rise in certain acoustical properties are universally preferred. My research examines the involvement of this principle in the ability to distinguish between perceptually similar onset clusters.

 

Marissa Tolep

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Lea Dougherty
Anticipated graduation date : Spring 2014
 
301.405.5940
email
BPS 4123

Hsiao-Wei Tu

Graduate Student

Training Program : Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS)
 
email
BPS 3125

Katherine Van Allen

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
 
email
BPS 4123

Beth Vernaleo

Graduate Student

Training Program : Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
 
email
Cole Field House 2103

Thomas White

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
email
Hornbake

Amy Wilson

Graduate Student

Training Program : Clinical Psychology
 
email
BPS 2140E

Maria Wydra

Graduate Student

Training Program : Counseling Psychology
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Karen O'Brien
 
301-405-5934
email

Yujie (Jessie) Zhan

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Mo Wang

Current Research : Current research: My current research focuses on two areas. The first one is older worker employment and retirement from the life course perspective. I did my master thesis in examining the antecedents and health outcomes of older peoples employment status after official retirement. The second area is the expression and regulation of emotions in service interactions. By looking factors at both inter- and intra-individual levels, my research aims to better understand the emotional labor process in a dynamic perspective.

 
301-405-5934
email
BPS 3107

Le Zhou

Graduate Student

Training Program : Social, Decision and Organizational Science (SDOS)
Faculty Advisor : Dr. Mo Wang
Anticipated graduation date : Spring, 2014

Current Research : I am a first year student in the SDOS program. I am interested in studying leadership from a multilevel perspective. My current research is on social exchange across multiple levels in organizations. I am also interested in destructive behavior in leadership.