Lucia Q ParryVisiting Assistant Professor in Psychology

My broad area of interest lies in children’s socioemotional adaptation within the context of close relationships, particularly those within the family system. More specifically, I am interested in how and why children exposed to family conflict and adversity exhibit heightened vulnerability to an array of psychological problems. In addition, I am interested in how children exposed to family adversity develop coping skills, specifically grit and resilience, and the impact of these coping skills on their later adjustment or maladjustment. Finally, I am interested in three parts of the translational aspect of this research – 1) programs that can be implemented in a home or academic setting that focus on teaching children the crucial coping skills that will allow them to be successful, contributing members of society, both academically and personally; 2) policy development relevant to these topics; and 3) the advocacy of using science to inform policy.

PSY100: My primary goal for this course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the field of psychology. We will spend time throughout the semester learning about many of the different sub-fields (e.g., developmental, clinical, social) within the larger field of psychology, and we will cover major themes and theories within each subfield. We will also highlight some of the interesting, current research that is being conducted within each subfield. Throughout the course, we will make connections not only between subfields of psychology, but also between what we are learning in lecture, activities we are completing in lab, and events and behaviors we see in the real world. My hope is that this introductory course will get students excited about psychology and will encourage them to want to learn more.

PSY100 lab: This is the “hands on” companion to your PSY100 lecture. It is designed to give you experience with a variety of research methods in psychology. The laboratory portion of this course covers three general topics: 1) Fundamental concepts in experimental design and statistics, 2) Empirical studies with non-human subjects, and 3) Empirical studies with human participants.

PSY482:  In this course, students will work in teams to design and carry out a research project. As a team, they will generate a research question, design a study, collect and analyze data, present your results to the larger group, and make a plan to disseminate your findings more broadly. General research areas will include experimental social psychology and/or evolutionary psychology, but group research topics will reflect both student interests and the expertise of the course instructor. The course will consistent of two main components: (1) the class component, which involves all students in the course completing readings and engaging in class activities each week; and (2) the lab component, which involves weekly individual research team meetings with the instructor where students will be working collaboratively through their research project.