People of Ich und Du
Faculty
Ralph Erber
Research Interests:
- Self-regulation of mood & emotions
- Ironic processes in mental control
- Interpersonal relationships
- Holocaust studies
Verena Graupmann
Research Interests:
Threats to central self-motives
- Freedom (psychological reactance, control)
- Consistency (cognitive dissonance)
- Continuity (mortality salience, time perspective)
- Belonging (social exclusion)
Ellen Dulaney (she/her)
Interim Faculty, Collaborator
Ellen researches well-being outcomes of self-essentialism across cultures and cultural mismatch
Research interests: the self, true self beliefs, well-being, culture, meaning in life, psychological existentialism, threat resilience
Fun facts: Ellen is interested in Japanese language and culture, science fiction (e.g. Blade Runner, Neuromancer, Dune), surrealist art and philosophy, video games, and archery
Graduate research assistants
Devki Patel (she/her)
Research project(s): Social Inclusion – How do we feel about being included too much or too often? This project is looking at experiences where people felt they were being included to a greater than usual or overwhelming extent, and we are trying to figure out what our upper threshold for inclusion is. What states or social contexts make inclusion less overtly positive?
Climate change threat – What do we know about the climate crisis? And what do we do about it? Threat experienced from the climate crisis is at the core of my research. How do we approach or avoid the threat? Drawing from theory of planned behavior, terror management theory, and social identity theory, I’m learning about the interactions between attitudes and groups and how related factors influence environmental behavior and climate action.
Research interests: reactance, climate crisis, environmental behavior, collective efficacy, inclusion
Fun facts: I’m a big runner! I’m training for my third marathon this year. I love to spend time outdoors – One of my favorite places in the city is the Garfield Park Conservatory and its gardens. I’m also really interested in anthropology and evolution, currently reading Otherlands by Thomas Halliday and loving it.
Kaelan Vazquez (he/him)
Research project(s): Antiracism as a Mitigator to Self-Threat: Can we use an antiracism framework to help people overcome racism as a threat to the self, and enable them to have tough conversations around racial inequities?
Research interests: Identity & Identity Signaling/Management, Antiracism and Self-Threat, Stereotyping & Prejudice, Crisis Management through a Social Justice Lens, and Confrontation of Prejudice
Fun facts: Up until I graduated from undergrad, I’ve lived on college campuses my entire life. I’ve even lived in residence halls and eaten dining hall food! I also enjoy rollerblading, photography, and true crime podcasts about scams and fraud.
Research project(s): Culture in relationships- How do we share and create culture in relationships? This project attempts to measure culture in intimate relationships to prove that there is a creation of a “mini-culture” (culture made up of as little as two people) and how positivity resonance may play a mediating role.
Research interests: Intimate relationships, culture, intercultural, positivity resonance, evolutionary
Fun facts: I love trying out new hobbies and, recently, new cafes! My current fixations though are reading fantasy books (hoping to write one someday), doing Jiujitsu twice a week, and the art of perfecting a good banana bread.
Ella Hageman (she/her)
Research project(s): “Have you seen that Tik Tok? Belonging and Self-Esteem in Young adults—How do young adults respond to different genres of TikTok content, humor versus lifestyle. This study evaluated how consuming humorous or lifestyle content impacts self-esteem, sense of belonging, meaningful existence, desire for control, and affect. Even after controlling for affect, we found sense of belonging was significantly higher for participants in the humorous video condition.
Research interests: Social media, community engagement, cultural identity and expression online
Undergraduate Students
Research project(s): Community/Social Justice Outlook: Does personal community involvement impact how willing an individual is to contribute to social justice causes? The research study conducted examined the phenomenon, dividing individuals into one of three community conditions: positive community outlook, negative community outlook, and control condition. Politically moderate individuals in the negative community condition reported higher rates of perceived injustice, suggesting that feeling excluded increases feelings of perceived injustice, while other politically affiliated individual’s results were nonsignificant.
Research interests: community involvement, workplace motivation and organization, organizational justice, and environmental justice.
Fun facts: I love trees! Spring is my favorite season despite my allergies because I get to walk around with my tree identification books and figure out which tree is which. I also like to look up and see the “baby” leaves on the trees that grow on the underside because they get less sun!
Affiliated Scholars
Michaela Pfundmair (University of Munich)
Research Interests:
- Social exclusion
- Cross-cultural psychology
- Psychological effects of oxytocin
Stephanie Draschill (University of Munich)
Research Interests:
- Self-presentation & impression management
- Authenticity
- Triggering & inhibiting factors
- Individual consequences of authentic behavior
- External perceptions of authenticity
- Cross-cultural psychology
Lab Alumni
Research Interests:
- Relationship Maintenance
- Person Perception
- Affective Forecasting
- Unwanted Relationships
Research Interests:
- Self-Presentation and Impression Management
- How do we simultaneously manage our self-presentations across audiences, time, and in-person vs. online interactions?
- How do we address conflict within our self-presentations?
- Social Exclusion and Inclusion
- How are we impacted by our ostracizers' perceived intentions?
- What motivates us to include ostracized others?
Research Interests:
- Self-esteem, self-affirmation, and cognitive biases
- How does self-esteem influence our behaviors to affirm our sense of self?
- How does self-affirming behavior cater to our pre-existing biases?
- Social exclusion, social comparison, and self-perception
- How do social exclusion and social comparative behavior interact to influence how we perceive ourselves?