Learning Beyond the Classroom

Research Groups in Psychology

Faculty in the Department of Psychology lead a variety of research groups.  Students who are interested in attending graduate school after completing their undergraduate education are encouraged to get involved with faculty research, usually during the junior year.   Here is a listing of research groups that are currently active in the department. 

Family Relationships, Culture, and Well-Being Research Group

Christina Hardway and her students examine the roles that family relationships play in the trajectory of development in terms of how these relationships are associated with psychological well being and achievement outcomes.   More specifically, this team of researchers examines the associations between qualities of children’s interpersonal relationships and their social and cognitive skills as they transition into and through formal education settings.  As part of this work, members of this research group investigate whether and how the nature of these associations is moderated by culture.

Selected Publications

• Hardway, C., & Fuligni, A. (2006). Dimensions of Family Connectedness Among Adolescents with Mexican, Chinese, and European Backgrounds. Developmental Psychology, 42, 1246-1258.
• Hardway, C. L., & Duncan, S. D., Jr. (2005). Me first! Structure and dynamics of a four-way family conflict. In L. Anolli, S. D. Duncan, Jr., & M. Magnusson. (Eds.). The Hidden Structure of Social Interaction. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press.
• Fuligni, A., & Hardway, C. (2004). Preparing Diverse Adolescents for the Transition to Adulthood. The Future of Children, 14, 99-119.

Memory and Lateralization Research Group

In this laboratory, Ruth Propper and her students investigate the neural correlates of memory. She uses a variety of different methods to examine whether the two hemispheres of the brain interact more or less during different forms of memory. Some techniques that they use include examination of participant hand-preference, bilateral stimulation, sleep monitoring, and EEG. 

In addition to being an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department, Dr. Propper is also a Visiting Researcher in the Golby Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.  There, she examines the relationship between language lateralization and memory encoding lateralization using fMRI. Her collaborations with individuals at the Center for Sleep and Cognition, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA, involve investigating the relationship between sleep and memory formation.  Undergraduate students have had the opportunity to participate in this research, both as subjects and as experimenters.

Selected Publications

• Propper, R. E., Christman, S. D., & Olejarz, S.* (2007) Home-recorded sleep architecture as a function of handedness II: Consistent right- versus consistent left-handers. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
• Propper, R. E., Pierce, J.*, Geisler, M. W., Christman, S. D., & Bellorado, N.* (2007).  Effect of bilateral eye movements on frontal interhemispheric gamma EEG coherence: Implications for EMDR therapy. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 195, 689-692.
• Propper R. E., Stickgold, R., Raeann, K.*, & Christman, S. D. (2007).  Is television traumatic? Dreams, stress, and media exposure in the aftermath of 9/11. Psychological Science, 18, 334-340.
   

Memory, Attention and Aging Research Group

In this group, Ray Shaw and his students s study the ways in which semantic, episodic and implicit memory changes as people get older.   They also examine the role of physical and social context in supporting the memory capacities of older people.  Dr. Shaw also has an interest in positive psychology, happiness, and the development of wisdom with age.

Selected Publications

• Matvey, G., Dunlosky, J., Shaw, R., J.; Parks, C.,  Hertzog, C. (2002). Age-related equivalence and deficit knowledge in updating of cue effectiveness.  Psychology and Aging, 17, 589-597.
• Long, L. L., Shaw, R. J. (2000).  Adult age differences in vocabulary acquisition.  Educational Gerontology, 26,  651-664.
• McDowd, Joan M.; Shaw, Raymond J. (2000).  Attention and aging: A functional perspective.    In Craik, F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.) The handbook of aging and cognition (pp. 221-292) (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers

Emotions, Self and Development Research Group

In this group, Michael Mascolo and his students examine the nature, role and development of emotions in children, in adults, and across cultures.  Students analyze moment-by-moment changes in the production of emotion in children and adults.  The group is interested in changes in self-evaluative emotions such as pride, shame, and guilt; the development of anger; the role of emotion in promoting change in psychotherapy; and cultural similarities and differences in the experience of emotion. 

Selected Publications

• Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (2007).  The co-development of self-awareness and self-evaluative emotions across the toddler years.  In Brownell, C. A., & Kopp, C. B. (Eds.). Transitions in early socioemotional development: The toddler years.  New York, N.Y.: Guilford Press.
• Mascolo, M. F., Misra, G., & Rapisardi, C. (2004).  Individual and relational conceptions of self-experience in India and the US.  In Mascolo, M. F., & Li, J. (Eds.).  Culture and self: Beyond dichotomization (pp. 9-26).  New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development Series.  W. Damon (Series Editor).  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
• Mascolo, M. J., Fischer, K. W., & Li, J. (2002). Dynamic development of component systems of emotions: Pride, shame, and guilt in China and the United States. In R. J. Davidson, K. Scherer, & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of Affective Science. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.

Love, Sex and Relationships Research Group

Of all the emotions that philosophers and psychologists study, love is amongst the most difficult to understand.  What is love?  In this research group, Michael Mascolo and his students examine the nature of love and related emotions.  We ask, is there a difference between "partnership love" such states as "being in love", "infatuation" or similar experiences.   This group is also interested in the meaning of sexuality in loving relationships.  The popular press is replete with books and articles about sexuality.  But none of these ask the important question: What is the meaning of sexuality in loving relationships?  How does sexuality function as a vehicle for the expression of genuine intimacy or for the development of relationships?   The group uses a variety of methods in their work, including interview and online surveys. 

Psychotherapy Process Research Group

In this group, Michael Mascolo and his students study the types of developmental changes that occur in psychotherapy.  The group examines videotapes, audiotapes and transcripts of psychotherapy sessions conducted with therapists from different theoretical orientations.  The group analyzes changes in the organization of the client's of thinking, feeling and actions over the course of psychotherapy, as well as the therapeutic processes that lead to those changes.

Selected Publications

• Basseches, M., & Mascolo, M. F. (in progress).  Psychotherapy as a developmental process.  Taylor & Francis Group.
• Mascolo, M., F., Michalek, M*., Sorensen, G*., & Hunt*, R. (2002).  The microdevelopment of adult selves in psychotherapy: An intersystemic activity approach.  Paper presented at the 17th annual meeting of the Society for Research in Adult Development, New York, New York, June, 2002.
• Mascolo, M. F., Craig-Bray, L., & Neimeyer, R. (1997).The construction of meaning and action in development and psychotherapy: An epigenetic systems approach.  In G. Neimeyer & R. Neimeyer (Eds.), Advances in personal construct psychology (Vol. 4) (pp. 3-38). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.