Kiarah O'Kane
Student
Master of Arts in Psychology (MA)
Department of Psychology
UBC’s Department of Psychology is a top-ranked research department in Canada and in the world. Our faculty members, full-time graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows conduct research across the spectrum of psychology, representing eight sub-disciplinary specializations: Behavioural Neuroscience, Clinical, Cognitive Science, Developmental, Health, Quantitative Methods, Social/Personality and Teaching/Learning.
The strength of our graduate programs lie in the highly productive research faculty, well-organized programs of study, extensive opportunities for student-faculty interaction, and rich offering of research specializations. Our faculty are well known for their research expertise in happiness, language acquisition, gambling, child development, gender roles, environmental behaviour, neuroscience, and many other areas of psychology. Our research programs are well funded by major national granting agencies, and our faculty are committed to research excellence and interdisciplinary collaborations within UBC’s Faculties of Medicine, Science and Arts, the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and many other institutions around the world.
Graduate Degree Programs
Research Supervisors
| Name | Research Interests |
|---|---|
| Alden, Lynn | Cognitive processes in the anxiety disorders, Social Anxiety Disorder, adult-onset Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, cognitive-behavior therapy |
| Baron, Andrew | cognitive development, infancy, childhood, adolescence, racism, race, stereotypes, cooperation, bias, innateness, science education, multiculturalism, gender, ethnicity, neuromarketing, attitudes, preferences, psychology |
| Biesanz, Jeremy | personality, Personality, interpersonal perception, accuracy, personality coherence, quantitative methods |
| Birch, Susan | Social perspective taking, social learning, social cognition, imitation, nonverbal behavior, confidence, communication, decision-making, impression formation, child development My primary area of expertise is the study of children and adults’ social perspective taking abilities (i.e., their abilities to reason about other peoples’ mental states–their intentions, knowledge, and beliefs) and how their abilities to take another person’s perspective impacts how they form impressions of others, learn from others, communicate with others, and informs a range of socials. Of particular interest is a) how children make inferences about what is credible information to learn (e.g., how they decide whether someone is a credible source of information based on how confident that person seems) and b) how a widespread bias in perspective taking referred to as ‘the curse of knowledge bias’ (a difficulty reasoning about a more naive perspective as the result of being biased by one’s current knowledge) can impair communication (both written and in person) and decision-making across a range of fields (politics, law, education, economics, medicine, etc.)., Development of language, learning, and social understanding in infants and children |
| Chen, Frances | social connection; social support; stress; coping; conflict and negotiation; hormones; Neuroendocrinology; social connection, social support, stress, coping, conflict and negotiation, hormones, neuroendocrinology |
| Christoff Hadjiilieva, Kalina | brain, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, prefronal cortex, fMRI, neuroimaging, neuropsychology, executive functions, problem solving, reasoning, thinking, mind-wandering, attention, consciousness, real-time fMRI, trauma and PTSD, Cognitive and neural basis of human thought, reasoning and problem solving |
| Clark, Luke | Gambling, Problem Gambling, Addiction, Decision-Making, Reward, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms involved in gambling behaviour and disordered gambling |
| Dawson, Samantha | Interventions for sexual dysfunction; Sexual function and dysfunction in individuals and couples; Interventions for sexual dysfunction, Sexual function and dysfunction in individuals and couples |
| DeLongis, Anita | social determinants of health; chronic illness; coping; couples; families; health; Health Psychology; marriage; social support; stress; Social Determinants of Health, Chronic illness, Coping, Couples, Families, Health, Health psychology, Marriage, Social support, Stress |
| Dunn, Elizabeth | Happiness, money and spending decisions, self-knowledge |
| Emberson, Lauren | Learning, Perception (audition, vision, crossmodal or multisensory), Language development, Face/object perception, Impacts of premature birth, Neural connecitivty, fNIRS, Neonatal and Infant development , Early adversity / Risk and resilience , Increasing diversity and representation in the neurosciences , Naturalistic neuroimaging recordings |
| Enns, James | attention; action kinematics; social perception; perceptual development; attention, action kinematics, social perception, perceptual development |
| Flake, Jessica | applied measurement and modeling research; psychological measurement; theoretical and qualitative issues in instrument development; psychometric latent variables models; open science; applied measurement and modeling research, psychological measurement, theoretical and qualitative issues in instrument development, psychometric latent variables models, open science |
| Floresco, Stan | Neural circuits subserving learning and executive functions, behavioural and electrophysiological analyses of limbic-cortical-striatal interactions involved in decision making and behavioural flexibility, animal models of schizophrenia and drug addiction |
| Goetz, Friedrich | Geographical psychology; Causes and consequences of regional personality differences; Mobility and migration; Wanderlust; Courage; Entrepreneurship; Personality development; open science; Geographical psychology, Causes and consequences of regional personality differences, Mobility and migration, Wanderlust, Courage, Entrepreneurship, Personality development, Open science |
| Hall, David Geoffrey | Lexical and conceptual development, semantic development, language acquisition |
| Hamlin, Kiley | Cognitive development; Moral Judgement and Duty or Obligation Morals; Infant / Child Development; Foundations of Religious, Mystical, Mythical and Moral Thoughts; Infant moral cognition; infant social cognition; Cognitive Development, Moral Judgement and Duty or Obligation Morals, Infant / Child Development, Foundations of Religious, Mystical, Mythical and Moral Thoughts, Infant moral cognition, Infant social cognition |
| Handy, Todd | aging and cognition, aging and exercise, cognitive neuroscience, attention, migraine, fMRI, Cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging, attention and its impairment in clinical populations, mind wandering, and real-world human behaviour |
| Heine, Steven | Culture and human nature in psychology, culture, how people strive to maintain a sense of meaning in their lives when they encounter anomalies which they are unable to make any sense of, how people understand essences and genetic foundations for human behavior |
| Hewitt, Paul | perfectionism, Therapy Perfectionism, personality vulnerability, depression, suicide in adults and children |
| Hoppmann, Christiane | Aging Process; Social Aspects of Aging; stress; Health Promotion; social determinants of health; Health and well-being across the adult lifespan and into old age; individual differences in goals; Aging Process, Social Aspects of Aging, Stress, Health Promotion, Social Determinants of Health, Health and well-being across the adult lifespan and into old age, Individual differences in goals |
| Im, Hee Yeon | |
| Kerns, Connor | assessment and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD); childhood anxiety and stress-related disorders; trauma-related disorders; Autism; Anxiety; Comorbidity; Anxiety, Assessment and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Autism, Childhood anxiety and stress-related disorders, Comorbidity, Trauma-related disorders |
| Kim, Eric | psychological well-being; Purpose in life / Meaning in life; resilience; Optimism / Hope; Health Psychology; Social Epidemiology; Aging; Psychological well-being, Purpose in life / Meaning in life, Resilience, Optimism / Hope, Health Psychology, Social Epidemiology, Aging |
| Kingstone, Alan | Brain mechanisms of human perception, attention, and behaviour in experimental & everyday situations; Brain mechanisms of human perception, attention, and behaviour in experimental & everyday situations |