ABOUT US
LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO AND OUR TEAM
WHAT WE DO
We are the Culture, Relationships, and Health Lab at the University of California, Irvine (located in the 4th floor of Social Science Tower). We study factors that promote high-quality relationships, with a particular focus on understanding how cultural factors shape relationship experiences in ways that benefit health. The sociocultural contexts we primarily study – of people of U.S. Latino, European, and East Asian background – have distinct ways of approaching relationships that offer an opportunity to better understand relationships and the implications of relationships for health. We use semi-naturalistic and experimental methods that combine self-report (e.g., questionnaires), observation (e.g., videotaped interactions), and psychophysiology (e.g., heart rate, cortisol).
MEET OUR TEAM
Meet our team. We are a Principal Investigator, Postdoctoral Scholars, Graduate Students, Project Coordinators, Lab Manager, Research Assistants, and Alumni.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Belinda Campos
Belinda Campos is a Professor in the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is also a faculty member in the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC) in the School of Medicine and has a courtesy appointment in the Department of Psychological Sciences. She received her B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to coming to the University of California, Irvine, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Campos studies factors that promote high quality relationships, with a particular focus on understanding how sociocultural context shapes relationship experience in ways that benefit health. The findings of her work show that sociocultural contexts that emphasize prioritizing others before the self can be beneficial for relationships and protective of health. //CONTACT//
GRADUATE STUDENT
Vida Pourmand
Vida Pourmand is a doctoral student in the Psychological Science Department, specializing in Health Psychology. Her research interests broadly include how stress gets under the skin to influence physiological system functioning (e.g., cardiovascular, neuroendocrine), and the downstream effects on health/health disparities. She is also interested in the influence of interpersonal factors such as social support, as well as culture/ethnicity in the link between stress and health. //CONTACT//
GRADUATE STUDENT
Rudy Medina
Rudy Medina is a doctoral student in the Department of Psychological Science, with a concentration in Social Psychology. His research interests include the transmission of cultural values within the family structure, family relationship quality, and their association with the future career aspirations of emerging adults. //CONTACT//
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Hugo Sanchez Hernandez
Dr. Hugo Sanchez Hernandez is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at UCLA. He received his Ph.D. in Psychological Science in 2024. His research interests include interpersonal emotion regulation and positive emotion, with a focus on the consequences of expressing positive emotions across different interpersonal contexts. He has explored status-shifting individuals’ (e.g., first-generation college students’) experiences sharing their academic achievements within and outside of academia (i.e., family contexts). //CONTACT//
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Kallie Brown
Dr. Kallie Brown is a Research Scientist at Scripps Health. She received her Ph.D. in Psychological Science in 2024. Her research explores ethnic/racial identity and its relationship to physical and psychological health in two lines of research. In the first, she studies positive ethnic/racial identity development for members of the Black/African Diaspora. In her second line of research, she examines how these positive identities can be protective against the negative effects of discrimination on various health outcomes (e.g., cardiovascular health, diabetes, and stress). //CONTACT//
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Cameron R. Wiley
Dr. Cameron R. Wiley is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. He received his Ph.D. in Psychological Science with a concentration in Health Psychology in 2024. His research examines how the regulation of stress and emotion is associated with cardiovascular functioning and health, the physiological mechanisms that underlie this link, and how these psychophysiological health connections vary as a function of race/ethnicity. He is also interested in the role that positive psychological factors (e.g., positive affect, social support) play in reducing racial/ethnic disparities in cardiovascular health. //CONTACT//
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Nicole Froidevaux
Dr. Nicole Froidevaux is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology in 2023. Her research interests include studying intimate relationships, in particular those that are under studied or previously understood as being at risk for poor relationship quality. Her aim is to better understand how these couples thrive. Nicole’s research is inspired by theories and empirical work that bridges cultural, developmental, positive and social psychology. She is currently examining how culture, attachment, and social psychological processes predict relationship outcomes among intercultural couples compared to intracultural couples. //CONTACT//
ALUMNI
Nathon Camacho-Morfin
Nathon was a UCI alumnus with a B.A. in Criminology, Law & Society and Psychology & Social Behavior. Nathon plans to apply to Social Psychology Ph.D. programs or a related field with an emphasis on social justice. Nathon’s research interests center around the factors that influence the ability of individuals, families, and communities to be resilient and thrive in the face of adversity.
POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR ALUMNI
Isabel F. Ramos
Dr. Ramos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Ramos studies how biological, psychological, and cultural factors interact to influence women’s reproductive health, with a focus on perinatal processes in Latinas. Specifically, her work is grounded in understanding how cultural factors influence prenatal emotional health, and the biological pathways linking emotional health to birth outcomes. //CONTACT//
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Amanda Acevedo
Dr. Amanda Acevedo is a Social and Behavioral Scientist Administrator/Program Officer in the Basic Biobehavioral and Psychological Sciences Branch at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Acevedo completed her Ph.D. in Health Psychology in 2019. Dr. Acevedo’s supports and conducts research that focuses on psychophysiological influences on cancer control, particularly within the Hispanic/Latino cultural context.
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
David Busse
Dr. Busse’s research investigates the physiological connections between stress and disease. More specifically, Dr. Busse studies the physiological and psychological costs of discrimination, prejudice, sexism, and unfair treatment. Using laboratory stress protocols, he examines how people respond to stressful events and their subsequent adverse health outcomes.
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Karina Corona
Dr. Corona is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Population and Public Health Science at the University of Southern California. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Irvine in 2019 and was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pomona College from 2019-2021. Dr. Corona’s research interests broadly include the cultural shaping of family relationships, social support, and psychological/physical health among ethnic minorities.
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Esmeralda Garcia
Esmeralda R. Garcia is a recent doctoral graduate in Psychology and Social Behavior from the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on women’s health including perinatal health, health disparities, and methods of promoting well-being among survivors of domestic violence.
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Emily Hooker
Dr. Emily D. Hooker is a Postdoctoral Fellow with The Love Consortium at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Hooker examines the link between social class, close relationships, and ensuing physiological and psychological outcomes.
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Arpi Hovasapian
Dr. Hovasapian is a UX Researcher who focuses on health and well-being. Her previous academic research has investigated how emotions are communicated, regulated, and expressed. In her post-doctoral work, Dr. Hovasapian worked on a European project building and testing a mobile app to promote well-being in the young.
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Chris Marshburn
Dr. Marshburn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky and the Director of the Broaching Race in Intra/Interracial, Dyadic, and Group Exchanges (BRIDGE) lab. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Irvine in 2016 and was a Multicultural Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 2016–2018. His research examines the intra- and interpersonal factors that influence how people think about, understand, perpetuate, and cope with racism.
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Sharon Shenhav
Dr. Sharon Shenhav’s research examines the intersection between family relationships and romantic relationships. She studies families of varied cultural backgrounds, with a particular focus on family processes that relate to young adults’ experiences with intercultural romantic relationships. //CONTACT//
SELECTED UNDERGRADUATE ALUMNI
Titus Abraham
Aislinn Beam
Hazel Benavides
Julio Castillo
Abigail Charime
Heyzel Chevez
Linett Chevez
Katie Cobian
Haydee Cortes
Ramiro Diaz-Lara
Nicolas Do
Jose Gonzalez
Ashley Griffith
Janette Hernandez
Clara Herrera
Nancy Herrera
Brian Hermosillo
Baochau Hoangtran
Ariadna Jimenez
Susan Koh
Mary Lamons
Audrey Lopez-Valdez
Gabriela Manzo
Ariana Martinez
Sonia Martinez
Zahra Mirnajafizadeh
Julian Paredes-Gotamco
Javier Ramirez
Oscar Rojas Perez
Stacy Serpas
Marvin Valencia
Marla Vivero
Alicia Wang
Lab Social Outings!
