Research
Our award-winning faculty and graduate students conduct both basic and applied empirical research with a variety of populations, including college students, community adults, schoolchildren, and medical patients. Researchers in the program use a range of technologies, including fMRI, EEG/ERP, and eye-tracking, along with computer-based and smartphone-based methods. Topics addressed include the influence of emotions on self-judgments, the role of mindfulness in psychological and social well-being, how implicit attitudes affect decision-making, alcohol use and aggression, and close relationship processes. Visit the program faculty page for further details.
The program emphasizes research training above all other goals. From entry into the program until graduation, students work with faculty and advanced graduate students on empirical research projects. Virginia Commonwealth University is a highly collaborative environment, and students have abundant opportunities to collaborate, with students and faculty in the other Psychology programs, as well as with the high-profile Spit for Science project, the College Behavioral and Emotional Health Institute, the Virginia Institute of Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, and in the Collaborative Advanced Research Imaging facility. Whether a Social program student is interested in social or emotional development, social health phenomena, genetics, or brain science, there are potential collaborative relationships waiting to happen.
Faculty Research Spotlights
- Are mindful people better at regulating their emotions?
- Can people have a "relationship" with the natural world?
- How do we react to criticism?
- Is revenge truly sweet?
- Do physicians' racial biases affect clinical decision-making?
- What else do college students do while studying?
Faculty Labs