My Teaching

Relatable examples that encourage engagement

Psychological concepts, particularly statistics and research methods, can be challenging for students when they first enter the field. To make them more approachable, I use examples that students can relate to. For instance, I have found that clips from TV shows, like The Office, help students connect concepts from class to concrete examples and provide a foundation for productive discussion.

Collect and discuss course feedback with students

I believe a classroom is a community. This means that the both the students and I have responsibilities to ensure the community functions effectively. To this end, students in my courses regularly reflect on what and how they are learning, and look for gaps in their knowledge in formative assessments. These assignments also help me assess student learning and revisit material when necessary.

Establish an inclusive, growth-oriented environment

It is important that all students feel welcomed in the classroom and feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and opinions about the content. Students play an active role in establishing this type of community, and collectively create a set of classroom expectations and rules. Further, I ensure that all students feel represented in class examples by creating examples based on their favorite TV shows, using sample problems from various areas of psychology. I encourage students to create and share their own examples and applications of course material with each other.

My Research

My Research Interests

How do we choose who we interact with? Our choice of social partners greatly influences how we interact with the world around us, including the groups we are a part of and how others view us. My research broadly falls into the category of social cognitive development and can be categorized into three main areas associated with how children choose social partners. Specifically, I am interested in 1) how children evaluate and respond to social exclusion, 2) how children infer social relationships from observed interactions and use their knowledge of these relationship dynamics to predict future behavior, and 3) how children evaluate those who do or do not engage in prosocial behavior, such as helping or comforting someone in need. These three areas inform children’s choices of who to interact with.

Mentoring Style

I believe in supporting students' professional development- wherever their career path takes them.

My mentorship style involves a lot of communication and giving students space to learn and work independently. Generally, I meet with mentees at least twice a semester to make sure that what their working on aligns with their interests and to identify transferable skills. It is important to me that students I work with are exposed to multiple aspects of the research process and that students are engaged in meaningful tasks. More information about my mentoring style can be found in my mentoring statement.