Graduate Students

Graduate student publications

Andriani, Cristina
Cristina is starting at Clark as an interdisciplinary Social Psychology/Holocaust and Genocide Studies PhD student. she is interested in exploring some of the parallels between Jewish victimization during the Holocaust and Palestinian victimization in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a dynamic of displaced aggression.

Arner, Jennifer
Jennifer's research interest is in feminist approaches to reasoning. Her dissertation focuses on the interaction between personal epistemology and scientific disciplinary epistemology in the thinking of ninth grade girls.

Beckstead, Zachary

Begic, Sandina
Sandina studies issues related to children born of wartime rape, specifically in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Her current research explores the emotional basis of stigma attached to children born of rape. She received a B.A. in German Language and Literature and a B.S. in Psychology from Boise State.

Bellas, Valerie

Blair, Jonathan

Cameron, Amy
Amy  will be working with Dr. Kathleen Palm in the Clinical Psychology Program. She received her B.S. in Biology from Bucknell University in 1999 and her Masters in Psychology from Harvard in 2006.

Cenko, Enila
Enila is in the Developmental Psychology doctoral program. Her research interests focus on language acquisition and development and the socio-cultural factors that affect this process. Her current work is on the development of verb constructions in Albanian.

Davidson, Tatiana

Dege, Martin
Martin focuses on the story, history and philosophy of psychology as well as the institutional processes that constitute the field of psychology.  In addition, he is interested in deconstructive practices that lead to a constant transformation of hegemonic psychological concepts such as personality, motivation, identity, intelligence, etc.  His current research is concerned with the construction of institutionalized identities.

de Dios, Angela
Angela will be working with Dr. Jeffrey Arnett in the Developmental Psychology Program. Her research focuses on Emerging Adulthood. She is a Developmental Psychology major from Los Angeles, CA.

Dost, Ayfer
Ayfer studies self and identity development in adolescents and adults: how specific types of selves are related to cognitive and affective processes such as perspective taking and conflict resolution.

Downing, Jordan

Eubanks, Caroline (CJ)
Caroline graduated from UNC Chapel Hill. She is working with Dr. James Córdova in the 'couples lab.'

Friendly, Rachel
Rachel is a member of Dr. Wendy Grolnick's research lab, which studies motivation in children through the lens of Self-Determination Theory.  Her research interest is around the role of expectations in children's experience of novel events, particularly negative events such as unpleasant interactions or difficult life events, like divorce.

Green, Jonathan  Jonathan's overarching research interests include adherence to masculine norms and depression in men; specifically the concept of "covert" or "masked" depression. He is currently studying the relationship between men's psychophysiology, endorsement of masculinity norms, and reported feelings of sadness.

Harp, Amanda G.
Since joining the Cordova lab at Clark University, Amanda's projects have included researching commitment structures and optimal functioning in long-term couples. While the term "flow" has been used to define optimal experience in athletics, business, and leisure, Amanda seeks to discover the role of flow in relationships.

Hart, Alex
Alex's research interests include emerging adulthood, identity development across the lifespan, globalization and media use as it pertains to emerging adults, qualitative methods. and the translation of research into public policy. He is currently working under the supervision of Jeff Arnett in the Developmental program.

Hu, Juan
Juan is interested in processes of children's early grammatical development from a developmental-functionalist perspective, in particular, early verb construction development in Mandarin Chinese and English.

Jackson, Theresa
Theresa is in the Developmental Program working with Dr. Michael Bamberg. Her research interests concern the social functions of language as well as identity formation. She graduated in May of 2008 with her B.S. in Psychology from Juniata College in PA.

Kalia, Vrinda
Vrinda is interested in the development of language and literacy skills in bilingual children. For her dissertation she is examining to role of Indian children's home environment in the development of their English oral language and literacy skills.

Kinkler, Lori
Lori is in the Clinical Psychology Program. Her research interests include the construction of social categories such as race and gender and how the intersection of social categories contributes to the development of identity, and sometimes, stigma. She also has a strong desire to examine the ways in which an essentialist approach to the study of gender issues serves to support certain political agendas which harm and marginalize groups identified as "different."

Lacasse, Katherine
Katie graduated from Providence College with a degree in psychology. She is in the PhD program in Social Psychology and is interested in studying conflict and the factors that help lead to peace.

Lieberson, Rebecca

Marbell, Kristine
Kristine's research interest is in the differences in parent-child interactions across cultures, the economic and social influences of a particular society on these parent-child interactions and it's implications. She's also interested in whether or not there can—or should—be an ideal parenting style that spans across cultural lines.

McKenzie, Jessica
Jessica is working with Drs. Lene Jensen and Jeffrey Arnett on concepts such as globalization and its effect on identity formation across cultures and moral development across cultures. She will be working toward her PhD in Developmental Psychology.

Meade, Amy
Amy's current area of research focuses on understanding how accepting influence, affection, attachment style, and emotion skills impact relationship satisfaction and intimacy. Amy also studies prevention of depression in couples with a focus on short-term intervention.

Morrill, Melinda
Melinda's research interests focus broadly on the interaction between couples' relationships, parenting, and child well-being.  Her recent studies have focused on examining which domains within marital satisfaction are most predictive of successful coparenting.

Ono-Krieger, Kaya
Kaya's research interests include language acquisition, cultural psychology, and positive emotion. Dissertation project: Interview study on Japanese positive emotions

Ortega, Shelby
Shelby's professional research interests include minority mental health, identity development, and adult attachment in romantic relationships. One of her personal objectives is to have both her clinical and research work reflect her commitment to social justice.

Phillips, Rebekah
Rebekah received her B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College, IL. She is currently completing her dissertation in Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology while working as a visiting instructor at the College of the Holy Cross.  Her current research utilizes Social Representation Theory to analyze the historical and personal narratives of Rwandan genocide orphans.

Pollastri, Alisha
Alisha's general research interest is in how societal norms affect the social and emotional functioning of urban, low-income youth. She is currently in the planning stages of her dissertation, which is to be on the ways in which conformity to the expectation of emotional control in urban youth can be both protective and detrimental for social and emotional well-being.

Raftery, Jacquelyn
Jacquelyn is in the Clinical Psychology Program. She is interested in emotion regulation development and how parents and teachers can impact children's emotion regulation styles.

Richardson, Hannah
Hannah is interested in researching family building and gay/lesbian psychology.

Sanchez, Monica
Monica is working with Dr. Estéban Cardémil examining acculturation and minority mental health.

Sarmiento, Ingrid
Ingrid's interests include multicultural mental health, mental health disparities, family functioning and depression.

Sauck, Christine
Christine is currently conducting her dissertation study on Brazilian immigrant families living in Central Massachusetts. The aim of her exploratory investigation is to document the practical and psychological challenges that Brazilian couples face as they build their lives away from their homeland.

Solomon, Rebecca

Sonmez, Doga
Doga is interested in the relationship between culture and the developing mind. She has been asking questions related to symbolic and conceptual development. Her most recent project was on the number concept and the use of numerals in preschool children. She received her B.A. in psychology from Middle East Technical University in Turkey.

Syzdek, Matthew
Matthew's overarching research interests are in gender, class, mental health, and social justice. Presently, he is investigating how masculine gender role socialization is associated with cognitive and behavioral vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety.

Toise, Stephanie
Stephanie is interested in how individuals create health behavior change. More specifically, she is interested in the relationship of psychology and complementary and alternative medicine to specific health behavior changes with regard to self-perception, concepts of health/illness, and the relationship of the body to the mind in the healing process.

Torres, Sandra

Twose, Gabriel
Gabe received his B.A. in psychology from the College of William and Mary. He has since worked at the Women’s Programs Office of the American Psychological Association, focusing on task forces on mental health and abortion, the sexualization of girls, gender identity, and socioeconomic status. Additionally, he has worked with Psychologists for Social Responsibility and the Johannesburg-based Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation on their International Journal of Transitional Justice. His current research interests include transitional justice mechanisms and reconciliation, particularly in post-Apartheid South Africa

Wachs, Karen
Her most recent research focused on how attitudes and behaviors associated with mindfulness-attention to the present moment as cultivated through meditation-may improve satisfaction in relationships. She is currently working on a project which examines how one's beliefs about anger are related to conflict style in intimate relationships, and furthermore how judgments about the relationship may also be related to those beliefs.

Whorley, Mysha
Mysha is interested in men's mental health and developing interventions that make it easier for men to talk about psychological distress with close friends and family members. Her dissertation tests a Pennebaker-style writing intervention for preventing depressive symptoms (and potentially increasing disclosure) in recently unemployed men.

Zack, Rachel
Rachel researches the utilization of mental health services among Latino men and women. She hopes to identify some of the components of positive help-seeking and help-receiving experiences within this population, in order to maximize their access to appropriate mental health care.

Zhong, Amy
Amy is in the Developmental Program working with Dr. Jeffrey Arnett. Her research interests focus on emerging adulthood, qualitative methods, and cultural psychology.