I am a social psychologist and the founder of the Institute of Diversity Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. For the past two decades, my research has focused on evidence-based solutions: How do we create learning and work environments that fulfill young people’s feeling of belonging, nurture self-confidence and connect their academic and professional pursuits to purpose and meaning? I’m particularly interested in the experiences of girls and women, students of color and working-class college students.
Maureen Perry-Jenkins is interviewed about her new book, “
UMass Amherst faculty and alumni recently published a study focused on the intersections of gender diversity and neurodiversity among youth. Scott Greenspan (PhD, School Psychology ’20), Samuel Carr (B.S. Psychology ’19), Ashley Woodman (faculty member in PBS), Amy Cannava, and Yena Li explored school and community-based protective factors that relate to psychological well-being and life satisfaction among 31 transgender and gender diverse autistic youths between the ages of 13 to 17.
UMass Amherst research aims to help equip teachers to engage in crucial conversations
The survey, answered by more than 20,000 Afghans from all areas of the country, was particularly designed to capture women’s voices and measure gender gaps in attitudes
UMass Amherst researchers are implementing NIH-supported, family-centered program to aid immigrants in the U.S.
Amid an unprecedented democratic decline in the U.S., a new report by Working with the Theory of Planned Behavior
Professor Emeritus Icek Aizen delivered a keynote address and led a workshop "Working with the Theory of Planned Behavior" at the 7th International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The workshop was designed to familiarize participants with the reasoned action approach represented by the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The first segment of the workshop examined use of the theory to understand and predict behavior in various domains, while the second segment dealt with the TPB as a framework for behavior change interventions. Examples were drawn from research related to traffic and transport behavior.
Parenting and child development in low- and middle-income countries
An international research team including Kirby Deater-Deckard has published a new edited book, Parenting and child development in low- and middle-income countries, in which the team summarize findings from the UNICEF Multi-Indicator Cluster Surveys of ~160,000 3-5 year olds in nationally representative samples in 51 low- and middle-income countries. Some of the topics of chapters include child growth and health, caregiving behaviors and practices, violence exposure, and physical home and neighborhood environments.
Associations of suicide risk with emotional reactivity, dysregulation, and eating disorder treatment outcomes
Dominic Denning (Dom), a first-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology division, published a recent study in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. This study elucidates the salience of emotion regulation in understanding suicide risk and attempts in high-risk clinical populations. Importantly, this study demonstrates that pretreatment suicide risk and lifetime suicide attempts are not predictive of treatment outcomes in partially hospitalized patients with eating disorders when using dialectical behavior therapy.
From Threat to Challenge: Understanding the Impact of Historical Collective Trauma on Contemporary Intergroup Conflict
Professor Bernhard Leidner, along with PBS alumna Mengyao Li (lecturer, Queens University Belfast), former PBS colleague Jiyoung Park (assistant professor, UT Dallas), and long-standing collaborator Gilad Hirschberger (professor, Reichman University, Israel) have recently published a high-impact theory paper in Perspectives on Psychological Science. The paper provides a new comprehensive theory of collective trauma from a social neuroscience perspective. "In the context of intergroup conflict, in the present article, we propose a novel theoretical framework to understand the long-term impact of historical trauma on contemporary intergroup relations from both victim and perpetrator perspectives," the paper states.
