Featured Profiles
Congratulations to our 2022 Award Recipients!
July 1, 2022
Learning through Observing and Pitching In
May 9, 2022
A strength of many Mexican and Indigenous-heritage communities is a learning paradigm that involves Learning by Observing and Pitching In to family and community endeavors (LOPI). In describing key features of LOPI, we hope our work's impact will include broadening participation by recognizing strengths for learning, inspiring changes in formal and informal educational settings, and serving communities in which LOPI prevails, by offering a tool for explaining these ways of learning to outside agencies. Some of the key features of LOPI include community organization in which all ages contribute to shared endeavors, with voluntary and fulfilling participation, collaborating with initiative to foster the direction of the group, using a theory of learning that emphasizes growth in contributing to the greater good, and learning through keen attention and contribution. NSF Program: Research on Education and Learning (REAL)
Do dreams mean anything? Why do I feel like I’m falling? Or wake up paralyzed? We asked experts.
December 30, 2021
Do dreams mean anything? Why do I feel like I’m falling? Or wake up paralyzed? We asked experts. Distinguished Professor Emeritus G. William Domhoff interviewed.
California will require large retailers to provide gender-neutral toy sections
October 9, 2021
SACRAMENTO — California became the first state in the nation Saturday to adopt a law requiring large retail stores to provide gender-neutral toy sections under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Distinguished Professor Campbell Leaper interviewed.
How COVID-19 Challenged Us to Rewrite Our Life Stories
June 24, 2021
How we made meaning, stayed sane, and may have become more authentic. *The pandemic forced people to turn inward, gave them time to slow down and think deeply about their identities, desires and relationships. *An uptick in Google searches related to relationship dissolution at the start of the pandemic suggests that many faced turning points. *Many used technology in positive ways, for example by using it to explore different sides of themselves and connect with others.
What prisoners in solitary confinement can teach us about social isolation
April 3, 2020
Tens of millions of Californians are sheltering in place — a passive form of social isolation that radically limits the amount of social contact they are supposed to have with others. There are a number of unanticipated, unintended, but potentially very serious consequences of this form of social distancing, no matter how absolutely necessary it is.
These L.A. parents don’t want to assign a gender to their baby, so the government did it for them
September 25, 2019
Campbell Leaper, a psychology professor at UC Santa Cruz who studies childhood gender development, said that gender stereotypes limit kids early and enduringly.
Helping and Hindering Undergraduate Women’s STEM Motivation: Experiences with STEM Encouragement, STEM-Related Gender Bias, and Sexual Harassment
May 9, 2019
Professor Campbell Leaper and Graduate Student Christy Starr discuss the #MeToo and other feminist social movements have highlighted the prevalence of sexual harassment and gender-biased treatment, as well as how damaging they can be.
In the Realm of "Ahh"
May 7, 2019
Professor Jean E. Fox Tree discusses voice and style of speech—including pesky filler words—reveal a lot about a speaker.
Open Forum: On the legacy of AIDS — trauma and shame get in the way of HIV prevention
March 28, 2019
Men & Women Tend To Approach Conversations Differently — Here's How
March 26, 2019
Supreme Court takes no action on DACA, what this means for ‘Dreamers’ in Salinas
January 22, 2019
Professor Gina Langhout was interviewed for this article on DACA.
An immigration and deportation talk translates the scientific and legal speak
January 17, 2019
The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History is running a series called Hardcore Natural History in which they explore different themes in research presentations through three lenses: plant, animal, and human/cultural. Their latest theme is migration, which they’ve covered via eucalyptus trees and plankton; this Friday they cover the human element in a talk titled “Deportation Uncovered.”
Beyond ‘no means no’: What most parents aren’t teaching their sons about sexual consent
October 4, 2018
In the age of #MeToo, and in the wake of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, parents across the country have been wrestling with the anxieties of raising teenage boys to understand consent. How does a parent bring clarity to an issue that is too complex even for the country’s political leaders to navigate? How can a mother or father prevent their teenage son from someday being accused of sexual assault?
Q & A with Professor Su-hua Wang
January 15, 2016
We sat down with Wang for a Q&A to learn more about her work and about the unique research internship program she offers to psychology majors.
Meet the Psychology Department's newest faculty
November 04, 2015
The Psychology Department now consists of 26 faculty thanks to its three newest hires: Christy Byrd, Audun Dahl and Rebecca Covarrubias.
Craig Haney: A career dedicated to social justice
June 20, 2015
No one has documented the long-term psychological damage of incarceration in the United States more than UC Santa Cruz professor Craig Haney.
Alumna Kris Perry shares how she overturned Prop 8, the same-sex marriage ban
October 14, 2014
At a recent event on campus, Perry talks about her leadership in the gay rights movement
Reduce Poverty? Social Barriers Need To Be Removed
October 10, 2014
UCSC psychology professor Heather Bullock sheds light on social obstacles to poverty reduction in a recent UN report.
Youth, empowerment, and social change
May 5, 2013
Participatory action research (PAR), which is a model of research where community members and university-based researchers work collaboratively at all stages in the research process.
How do people learn without being taught?
November 2, 2011
Professor Barbara Rogoff on how people learn by observing and pitching in.
Message from Avril Thorne, Chair
September 6, 2011
Having been at much larger universities and at private colleges, I have found that nothing compares with Psychology at UC Santa Cruz. The students are unusually creative and bold.
