Office: Administration Building, Room 421-B
Office hours: Monday, 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.; by appointment also
PhD Psychology, Life Span Concentration, West Virginia University 2008; MS Psychology, Life Span Concentration, West Virginia University 2006; MRes Education, University of Bath, UK 2006
PSYCH 2304 Adulthood and Aging
PSYCH 2403 Adolescent Development
PSYCH 2303 Child Development
As a social developmental psychologist who studies gender, my goal is to meaningfully contribute to scientific knowledge on gender and social development across the lifespan by conducting quality theoretically-driven work. Broadly defined, my research interests are related to how sex (biological characteristics of a person related to reproduction), gender (culturally socialized characteristics believed to be appropriate for males and females; Unger, 1979), and related social processes (e.g. sex segregation), influence adolescents' and young adults' beliefs and behaviors. I am currently investigating the contextual specificity of gender - how femininity and masculinity vary across time and contexts.
Based on these interests, I have conducted research examining women's career trajectories, influences of sex and gender on romantic and sexual relationships, and the relationship between sex segregation, and gender-typed traits and behaviors among adolescents and young adults. I am currently investigating the contextual specificity of gender - how femininity and masculinity vary across time and contexts. My research is guided by two complimentary theoretical perspectives: (1) a lifespan theoretical perspective, which contends that development occurs across the lifespan within a larger socio-historical context; and (2) a social-constructivist model of gender development that contends that gender-typed characteristics are best understood as created and maintained by the transaction of the individual and the immediate context (Deaux & Major, 1987).
To answer my research questions, I used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
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