LAB MEMBERS

MARIAN ADAMS

My background in art, as well as social psychology, has informed my current research on social support. My research explores the impact of reciprocity norms and emotions, such as gratitude and indebtedness, on helping behaviors. My dissertation is focused on people’s tendency to underestimate their likelihood of receiving help from others. I believe norms of reciprocity can contribute to our understanding of this effect. In addition to my own research, I am proud of my role as a research methods instructor and mentor in the Lang Social Science Fellowship program. 

ZHENLAN WANG

I was born in China and finished my undergraduate degree in social psychology in Belarus. In ongoing developmental research, I assess cultural influences on everyday helping behaviors, such as in examining cultural differences in willingness to sacrifice for parents, and cultural messages for social support conveyed in children’s storybooks.  In my research with adults, I am assessing ways that contrasting face concerns give rise to culturally variable styles of advice giving and am documenting culturally distinctive patterns of motivation in social regulation. Outside the lab, I serve as an intern for the American Psychological Association at the United Nations. 

JESSICA ENGELBRECHT

I am interested in cross-cultural differences in social cognition and moral behaviors such as gossip and social support. I am also currently investigating mate value judgments and LGBTQ psychology with collaborators outside the lab. Prior to attending NSSR, I worked in an infant development lab at Rochester Institute of Technology, and researched educational motivation with a TOESL program in Japan. Drawing on my experience as editor of the New School Psychology Bulletin, I work as a graduate writing tutor at The New School. 

GEN TSUDAKA

Born and raised in Japan. Born and raised in Japan. A Buddhist kindergarten, two international schools, a conservative Jesuit college in Worcester, MA., then a progressive graduate school rooted in Greenwich Village. In encountering series of affordances to culture-switching, I’ve noticed peculiar extents to which the sovereign, individual reality, and the collective, cultural reality (i.e., shared reality/meaning) co-opts and conflicts in shaping our social behavior, sometimes for good, sometimes for misintended harm - never in either, always in both. My interests are in ways cultural and ecological elements interact to produce emergent psychological phenomena, and to layer its understanding through interdisciplinary considerations to both symbolic and functional perspectives. 

​

​For more, please visit: 

​

JIANGXUE VALENTINA NING

Born and raised in China and attended schools in Thailand and the U.S., I became interested in how culture and other types of information influence our judgments and mental representation of the world. I am co-advised by Dr. Joan Miller and Dr. Ben van Buren to investigate my research interests. Prior to the New School, I completed my B.A. in liberal arts at St. John’s College and worked as a full-time research assistant in Experience and Cognition Lab at Cornell University. 

HONG B. NGUYEN

I was born and raised in Viet Nam. I received my BS in Psychology from Manhattan College, where I was a secretary for Psi Chi (The International Honor Society in Psychology). I want to address the importance of the influences of culture and environment on motivation and social cognition. My current research addresses the question, “How does failure influence one’s motivation to achieve in a cross-cultural context?” Other than research, I am a proud dog mom who enjoys playing the ukulele.

VALENCIA SIMON

I am from Charlotte, NC and I received my BA in Community Health from Brown University. My background in Public Health and in particular the theory of the social determinants of health informs my work in the field of Psychology. I am interested in the effects of culture and other environmental factors on the individual's development of motivation, grit, and resilience.