Principal Investigator

Belinda Campos

Belinda Campos is an Associate 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 Psychology and Social Behavior. 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 experiences in ways that benefit health. The findings of her work show that sociocultural contexts that emphasize prioritizing others before the self (e.g., Latino and East Asian) can be beneficial for relationships and protective of health.

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Graduate Students

Sharon Shenhav

Sharon Shenhav is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior. Sharon’s current research focuses on family support and/or family conflict regarding intercultural romantic relationships among young adults. Sharon is generally interested in family and romantic relationships, as well as their cultural influences.

Emily Hooker

Emily is a doctoral student in Psychology and Social Behavior at UCI. Her research explores the influence of social relationships on the psychological and physiological experience of a stressor and, in particular, the stress-buffering effects of social support. Emily is also interested in cultural variation in social relationships and support, and how this variation is related to the experience of stressors. In collaboration with Dr. Campos and Dr. Dickerson, she is currently studying the effect of perceived social support on the association between socioeconomic status and physiological responses to stress. Furthermore, Emily is working with Dr. Campos and others to examine the relationship between support, social networks, and familism in Latinos.

Karina Corona 

Karina Corona is a graduate student in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at UC Irvine. Her research interests broadly include the relationship between culture, values, and well-being and the potential benefits for the Latino community. In particular, she is interested in examining whether familism, as a cultural value, might be a pathway towards improving social support and keeping cultural benefits for later generations.

Amanda Acevedo

Amanda received her undergraduate degree with Honors from Alverno College in Psychology. In her senior thesis, she studied the gap between cognition and action during health behavior change and how behavioral economics may help close that gap. After graduating, she obtained a NIH-funded post-baccalaureate research position at the University of New Mexico where she learned about health disparities and the importance of considering culture in research. Currently, she is interested in exploring the ways in which positive emotions, health behaviors, and cultural factors interact with physiological mechanisms to influence physical health outcomes.

Melissa Karnaze

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melissa Karnaze, M.A., is a doctoral candidate in Psychology and Social Behavior, specializing in Affective Science. Melissa’s research focuses on emotion regulation and beliefs about emotion (e.g., as helpful or harmful), and she is interested in physiological and health correlates of emotional experience, especially in the context of stressful life events.

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Research Associate

Gabriela Manzo

Gabriela majored in Psychology and Social Behavior and minored in Educational Studies and Civic and Community Engagement at UCI. Her research interests include family dynamics such as parent-child conflict and cohesion, cross-cultural studies, academic performance in ethnic minority students, acculturation gaps and well-being. In terms of career goals, she intends on applying to clinical psychology graduate programs that offer an emphasis in family systems.

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 Project Coordinators

Alicia Wang

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alicia is a 4th year undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and Social Behavior. Her research interests are health in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and social support. She is currently focusing on preventative measures to combat anxiety and negative emotions in the LGBTQ community. In regards to academic goals, she plans to pursue a counseling or clinical PhD program that offers an emphasis in LGBT communities and social support.

Diana Ortega

Diana is a 5th year undergraduate student majoring in both Psychology and Social Behavior and Gender and Sexuality. Her research interests are in health in various ethnic communities intersecting with LGBT communities. In the future, she would like to conduct research to improve treatments for people of various intersecting identities who have experienced mental illnesses. Her academic goal is to go into a clinical PhD program that offers an emphasis on mental health in non-binary ethnic communities.

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Graduate Student Alumni

David Busse

My research focuses on the physiological and psychological costs of discrimination. More specifically, I look at how experiences of discrimination elicit changes in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA) and how a person’s culture may confer protective benefits.

Arpi Hovasapian

 

Arpi is an instructor of psychology and statistics who is dedicated to the advancement of education. She loves finding new ways to teach and enjoys incorporating technology and creativity into the learning space. As a social scientist, her research investigates the ways in which emotions are communicated, regulated, and expressed.

Chris Marshburn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christopher Marshburn is a native of Virginia Beach, VA and is currently a Multicultural Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He received his B.A. in psychology from Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, VA) and his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Irvine, where he was a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Dr. Marshburn’s research focuses on how Black Americans cope with racism. Specifically, his research examines whether talking to same- and cross-race friends about racism has positive benefits for Black Americans. Additionally, Dr. Marshburn’s research looks at how White Americans think about, react to, and sometimes perpetuate racism. For example, his research investigates (1) how White Americans react when anticipating talking to Black people about racism and (2) how White American’s perceptions of racism are influenced by their motivations.

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Research Assistant Alumni

Saad Ahmed
Hazel Benavides
Sandra Castro Castaneda
Julio Castillo
Heyzel Chevez
Linett Chevez
Christine Chu
Katie Cobian
Haydee Cortes
Israel Cruz
Adam Dayan
Stefanie De Los Santos
Ashley Delgado
Alexandra Delory
Jose Gonzalez
Alejandra Gutierrez
Iris Guzman
Janette Hernandez
Clara Herrera
Nancy Herrera
Brian Hermosillo
Joanna Ho
Ariadna Jimenez
Tiffany Lam
Veronica Lascano
Ariana Martinez
Sonia Martinez
Zahra Mirnajafizadeh
Kathleen Nguyen
Jessica Orellana
Javier Ramirez
Jesus Javier Renteria
Jamila Reynolds
Oscar Rojas
Lanique Ruffin
Maritza Sandoval
Erick Santos
Stacy Serpas
Jiun Shen
Marvin Valencia
Laura Viramontes
Brennan Whitley
Sarah Xie