Welcome to my web page. I am pleased to have
an opportunity to tell you a bit about myself and my research. I am a social
psychologist. I obtained my M.A. and Ph.D. at Wayne State University in
Detroit. For much of my career my research focused on women's achievements
from a variety of perspectives. I wrote on of the early textbooks
in the psychology of women and I did research on women in management for
the first decade of my career. In the late 1970s I collaborated with a
colleague, Randy Hansen, on a number of studies that explored "sex-determined
attributions." Attributions for the cause of identical behaviors
performed by women and men. During the last decade my interests have shifted
to resilience and thriving among individuals facing profound life challenges,
such as loss and life threatening illness. My early work in this area underscored
the importance of the meaning to which people attribute the challenges
they face and this led me to my current interest in cultural differences
in meaning-making.
Since I first visited Nepal in 1993, I have been captivated
by the people of this poor but beautiful Hindu Kingom in the Himilayas.
I spent a semester sabbatical there in 1997 and have returned at least
once a year since. I am particularly interested in the way in which
different world views affect the way in which people respond to challenge.
There are many Buddhists in Nepal and one of the primary tenants of Buddhism
is the belief that the only universal is change. It thus seems plausible
to suggest that loss or changes in one's health status would be viewed
quite differently in Nepal, than in the west, where the changes accompanying
loss or declines in health are often both unanticipated and unwelcome.
My recent research focuses on the origins of the differences in reactions
to challenge between easterners and westerners.
At the undergraduate level, I teach social psychology.
This fall I will also be teaching I/O psychology. Ocassionally I teach
a seminar on Liking and Loving: The Psychology of Intimate Relations.
I teach the graduate course in Social Psychology that is required by APA
Committe on Accreditation for the clinical and counseling doctoral students.
My research team meets once a week. Both graduate
and undergraduate students are involved in designing and conducting research
studies. Right now we are finishing a cross cultural study of anxiety and
depression in the US and Nepal. We have samples of both college students
and clinic patients in both countries.
We will be presenting some preliminary results of this study at the
upcoming meeting of the American Psychological Society in New Orleans in
June. I encourage my students to be actively involved in research and publication
and frequently coauthor papers and/or posters with them.
My leisure pursuits include travel, reading
and horse back riding (I own two horses and ride often).
Please drop by my office to chat. I enjoy
getting to know students personally (and getting them involved in research
and writing).