arizona state university
LAB DIRECTOR
I am a Professor of Social & Behavioral Sciences in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at Arizona State University. I received my B.A. in psychology from Claremont McKenna College and my Ph.D. in social psychology from Duke University.
I am interested in how social and group identities shape people’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior. In recent years, I have become especially interested in the ways that social identity impacts our interactions online. Across multiple overlapping lines of research, my work is characterized by a high degree of interdisciplinarity, a strong applied focus, and the underlying goal of promoting greater well-being.
I am the Director of the Master’s of Science in Psychology (Campus Immersion) Program on the ASU West Valley Campus. I also help oversee the ASU Statistics and Methods (SAM) Lab--a lab devoted to assisting students in statistics and research methods courses with assignments, research projects, and statistics consulting.
Email: d.hall@asu.edu
Ethan Gilmore is a first year graduate student for ASU West Valley’s Psychology Masters Program. Originally from Henderson, NV, he graduated from ASU West Valley in 2021 with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology. During his time in Barrett Honors College, he completed an undergraduate thesis that assessed the effect of political affiliation on dating preferences. Upon graduating, he wishes to pursue a PhD with an emphasis in Social Psychology. Some of his research interests include social technology, attraction, gender identity, and political identity.
Email: ejgilmo2@asu.edu
Katelyn Skees is a first-year graduate student in the Master’s program in Psychology at Arizona State University’s West Valley campus. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where her capstone project examined how political affiliation predicts attitudes toward Native American mascots. After completing her master’s degree at ASU, she plans to pursue a PhD in Social Psychology. Her research interests center on social identity, bias, intergroup interactions, and promotion of equity.
Email: kskees@asu.edu
Dylan Young is a recent graduate of Loyola University Chicago, where he earned a B.S. in Psychology. As an undergraduate, he assisted with research on open-minded cognition in online political spaces.
He is currently a first-year master’s student in Psychology at Arizona State University’s West Valley campus. His research interests broadly focus on perceptions of mental health and mental health stigma on social media. His current research examines how the trivialization of ADHD on TikTok influences perceptions of the disorder.
After completing his master’s degree at ASU, Dylan plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Social Psychology.
Email: ddyoung7@asu.edu
Amanda Batista is a recent graduate of the Master’s of Science degree in Psychology at the Arizona State University’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. She earned her B.S. in Psychology and minor in Communication Studies from Northern Arizona University at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
While an undergraduate student, she conducted research under Dr. Daniel J. Weidler with a focus on self-identity in the context of close, interpersonal relationships. As a senior undergraduate student, she presented research examining relationships between attachment style and conflict management in romantic relationships at the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association annual research conference.
Her current research interests include expanding her focus to investigate social identity and the influence of such identities on both face-to-face and online social interactions. She is also interested in associations amongst social media usage, body image, and disordered eating behaviors.
Email: akbatis1@asu.edu
Natali Barragan recently earned her Master’s of Science degree in Psychology at the Arizona State University’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. She earned her B.S in psychology here at Arizona State University at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. During her undergrad, she worked for the Las Madres Nuevas Lab (The New Mothers Lab), under Dr. Keith Crnic, completing micro- and macro-coding of mother-child interaction tasks within a lab setting. Upon graduation, she was offered a paid position within the lab to work directly with participants completing interviews with mothers and their children in English and Spanish. Her research interests include parent-child interactions and the factors that promote or disrupt a healthy parent-child relationship.
Email: nbarrig1@asu.edu
MJ Sarraf (she/they) is an undergraduate student at Barrett Arizona State University, pursuing a double major in Neuroscience and Forensic psychology. Their interests are focused in clinical neuropsychology, social psychology, and neuroanatomy.
Email: mjsarraf@asu.edu
Haojian Li is a recent graduate of the Masters of Science in Psychology Program. Before joining the lab, he received B.B.A in Applied Economics with a minor in philosophy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Haojian is a doctoral student in the Ph.D. Program in Communication at UC Davis. His research interest includes human behavior on social media, cultural differences with online expression, cyberbullying analysis and detection.
Email: haojianl@asu.edu
Brittany Wheeler is a recent graduate of the MS Psychology program. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from California State University of Fullerton in 2017. Her research interests include workplace intergroup relations, the impact of social media use on young adults, and quantitative methodology.
Brittany is currently in the Ph.D. in Communication (Quantitative Focus) at the University of California Santa Barbara. She is currently researching the various risk and protective factors associated with cyber-sexual harassment and technology-facilitated harassment.
Email: bmwheel5@asu.edu
Katie Baumel graduated from the Psychology MS Program in 2021. She is currently a doctoral student in Communication at the University of Connecticut.
Before beginning her studies at the Identity & Social Relations Lab, she received her BA in psychology, with a minor in anthropology, from Oklahoma Baptist University. In general, Katie is interested in factors that promote and hinder resilience in sexual minorities.
She is currently researching how online community connectedness and personal acceptance promote resilience, and how compulsory heterosexuality and internalized heterosexism may hinder resilience. She is also working on another project that looks at predictors of cyberbullying and usage of anti-bullying mobile apps.
Email: katie.baumel@asu.edu
