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Academic Research
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I have a PhD in psychology from The New School for Social Research, where I focused on cultural psychology, a branch of social psychology that examines the impact of cultural context on human thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Strongly influenced by anthropology and qualitative research methods, cultural psychology seeks to help understand and center the voices of underrepresented groups.
Overview
I worked for two years formally as a Research Assistant, and ten years informally as a lab member with the Cultural Psychology lab at The New School. In the lab, we worked heavily examining cultural differences between India and USA, as well as Japan. Within the USA, we also looked at differences between European and African Americans and between low, middle, and high income individuals.
My masters thesis explored practices of gratitude and reciprocity in US and Indian contexts, and was eventually adapted into a 2018 article published in the peer-reviewed journal, "Testing, Psychometrics, and Methodology in Applied Psychology".
In the lab, and through my larger education in Cognitive, Social, and Developmental psychology, I learned and practiced a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques, utilizing SPSS for a number of tests including ANOVA, regression, correlations, non-parametric tests, and more.
India / USA
Social Class
My dissertation focused on examining practices of gratitude and reciprocity across income groups. This was an area of study that was not currently being looked at in my department, and consequently I forged my own theoretical path in the area of social class research.
I spoke with high and low income individuals, those with advanced degrees and those with minimal education in NYC and in Florida. I rented a booth at a flea market, visited a homeless "tent city", and employed a variety of means to have access to a low income population that is sorely underrepresented in mainstream psychological research.
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