Psychology Advising
Undergraduate Research
The Psychology Department produces a great deal of cutting-edge research that is published
and presented at numerous research conferences. As a department with a strong empirical
approach, we encourage all students to participate in research. This is done through
(a) Psych 144 research projects, (b) volunteering on a research team, and (c) participating
on a research team for Independent Study (Psych 190) credit.
Poster session of all Psychology 144 undergraduate student research projects
Research Team Participation
Participation in the research process has many benefits.
- It facilitates academic and career choices. Specifically, it often paves the way to graduate school education.
- It allows a faculty member to get to know a student on a deeper level than as a student in a class. This is very important when it comes to asking a faculty member for a letter of recommendation.
- If one enrolls in Independent Study, it fulfills elective units towards graduation and will be reflected on one's transcripts.\
- It allows students to gain a deeper understanding of a particular issue of interest.
- Being a member of a research team facilitates student interaction.
- It often allows students the opportunity to present research at local and/or regional conferences.
- It helps one understand how we know about the mind, behavior, and the brain.
For more information on the different areas of research that our faculty are engaged in, please see below.
Faculty Research at Fresno State
The following full-time professors have expressed a desire to receive inquiries from undergraduate students seeking to volunteer as research assistants. Note, however that research positions are limited. A professor's listing does not guarantee that positions are available for all students who wish to work on a particular project. Research positions are negotiated agreements between the student and the professor and thus will vary in amount and type of work required, and whether student name recognition is possible on presentations and publications resulting from the research. Most professors require completion of Psychology 42 and Psychology 144 prior to assisting with research. Additional courses may also be required.
Bakhtiari, Farin
S2 345 | 559.278.5681 | farin@mail.fresnostate.ed
Research Interests: Well-being and development of adolescents and young adults in context (e.g., family, peers, school, immigration); family conflict; scale development; alcohol use.
Botwin, Michael
S2 344 | 559.278.5099 | mikeb@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Personality assessment; personality structure; cognitive organization of personality information; interpersonal relationships; personality and health, cancer and repressive behaviors.
Dial, Lauren
S2 342 | 559.278.8137 | ladial@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Children’s conceptualization of health; food cognitions and food-related decisions; factors that impact food-related decisions in children and adults; food in relation to culture and identity.
Edmondson, Chirstine
S2 331 | 559.278.6944 | cedmond@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Assessment, diagnosis, and conceptualization of clinically significant anger, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders.
Jackson, Marianne
S2 336 | 559.278.2757 | majackson@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Clinical interest in the treatment of severe problem behaviors and the teaching of complex behavior and social skills. Research in complex human behavior, verbal behavior, and health and fitness intervention.
Jones, Constance
S2 312 | 559.278.5127 | conniej@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Lifespan developmental psychology; personality change; longitudinal methods and statistics.
Kosloff, Spee
S2 358 | 559.278.3043 | skosloff@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Terror management, political beliefs and attitudes, responses to traumatic events, and killing behavior.
Lachs, Lorin
S2 338 | 559.278.4853 | llachs@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Speech perception, spoken word recognition, role of memory in language, lipreading, perception of virtual reality, and video game behavior.
Millar, Jean
S2 334 | 559.278.5125 | jeanr@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Emotional and social development; appearance stereotypes; attachment.
Miller, Chirs
S2 356 | 559.278.7514 | chmiller@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Neuroscience of psychiatric disorders; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); meta-analysis; machine learning.
Mortimer, Amanda
S2 329 | 559.278.5126 | amortimer@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Looking at clinical psychology from a neural science perspective - basic learning in anxiety disorders, couple communication in Alzheimer's Disease.
Ni, Hong
S2 351 | 559.278.1726 | hongni@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Teachers' and parents' cultural beliefs about learning and school education; students' views about learning and schooling; student adjustment.
Oswald, Karl
S2 332 | 559.278.4215 | koswald@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Cognitive psychology; human memory; forgetting; memory for faces; memory enhancement/ effective cognitive processing; critical thinking.
Payne, Steven
S2 337 | 559.278.6937 | spayne@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Assessment and treatment of severe problem behavior; behavior analysis; behavioral economics; basic behavioral processes; and sustainability.
Price, Paul
S2 333 | 559.278.2120 | paulpri@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Cognitive psychology, social cognition, judgment and decision making, clinical judgment, wishful thinking, computer simulation models.
Rafacz, Sharlet
S2 335 | 559.278.2479 | srafacz@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Organizational behavior management; systems analysis; verbal behavior; health behavior; school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports.
Shapiro, Martin
S2 359 | 559.278.2358 | mashapiro@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Learning, decision making, psychophysiology, and neuroscience; animal behavior and animal learning; risky decision-making and confidence in humans; memory and gambling decisions.
Sharps, Matthew
S2 340 | 559.278.2347 | matthews@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Forensic cognitive science; representation theory; evolution of cognition.
Swami, Sruthi
sswami@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Racism, discrimination, and racial and ethnic disparities in systems (schools, community mental health, juvenile justice). Early language and literacy assessment and intervention. Motivation and engagement in schools. Asian American mental health.
Tora, Rosa
S2 355 | 559.278.4061 | rtoro@csufresno.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/mail.fresnostate.edu/rosatoro/home
Research Interests: Impact of context (i.e. housing, community, neighborhood, and culture) on children’s development with an implicit focus on immigrant children and families.
Wilson, Marilyn
S2 354 | 559.278.5129 | marilynw@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: School psychology roles; curriculum-based assessment and academic intervention.
Woo, Ellen
S2 352 | 559.278.5124 | ewoo@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Clinical neuropsychology; neurodegenerative disease; cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease; semantic processing and executive skills; everyday functioning.
Yockey, Ronald
S2 339 | 559.278.2438 | ryockey@csufresno.edu
Research Interests: Measurement; positive psychology.