Cultural Diversity in the Department

The Department of Psychology is strongly committed to having a graduate student body that is diverse with respect to ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic background, gender, sexual orientation, and research interests. The program seeks applications from candidates who can contribute to the intellectual, social, and cultural diversity of both our student body and our academic program.

UCLA is ranked No. 1 among American colleges and universities conferring Ph.D.s to ethnic minority students, according to a recent study published in the journal, Black Issues in Higher Education. The Department is proud of its track record of training psychologists from diverse cultural backgrounds, having awarded 157 Ph.D.s to African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and East Indian/Pakistani Americans.  These students have gone on to distinguished careers in teaching, research, public policy and the delivery of mental health services in the public and private sectors.  Currently, twenty-one percent of the students enrolled in the UCLA Psychology Ph.D. program are from historically underrepresented groups.

The Department is also proud of the resources and opportunities that are available to students interested in studying topics related to race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Presently, there are 13 ethnic minority faculty on staff: six Asian Americans, three African Americans, two Latino Americans, 1 Filipino American, and 1 East Indian American. Their research interests are varied and include the following:

Professor Patricia Cheng (Cognitive) - inductive and deductive reasoning and problem solving

Professor Carlos Grijalva (Behavioral Neuroscience) - psychobiology of stress, behavior and bodily diseases in animal models

Professor Yuen Huo (Social) - social justice and inter-ethnic conflicts

Assistant Professor Anna Lau (Clinical) - mental health care for Asian American families

Assistant Professor Steve Lee (Clinical) - genetic and psychosocial factors in childhood ADHD

Professor Zili Liu (Cognitive) - visual perception, computational vision, and brain imaging

Professor Steven Lopez (Clinical) - Latino and minority mental health

Professor Vickie Mays (Clinical) - studies of African American women and psychosocial aspects of AIDS

Professor Hector Myers (Clinical) - stress and psychosocial factors in health and disease in African American and other minority populations

Assistant Professor Rajesh Nandy (Measurement) – modeling and analysis of functional MRI data

Assistant Professor Ted Robles (Health Psychology) - psychoneuroimmunology and imflammatory processes in wound healing

Professor James Sidanius (Political Psychology) – cultural dominance theory on intergroup relations

Professor Cindy Yee-Bradbury (Clinical) - schizophrenia, emotion and stress in adolescents and adults

In addition, there are other faculty whose research is also of relevance to students with interests in issues of ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation. These include:

Professor Bruce Baker (Clinical) - child clinical psychology, behavior therapy, mental retardation, developmental psychopathology, parent education, program evaluation, families

Professor Christine Dunkel Schetter (Health) - stress and coping processes, social support, biopsychosocial processes in pregnancy, preterm delivery, low birth weight and other maternal/infant outcomes; and women's reproductive health

Professor Patricia Greenfield (Developmental) – the relationship between culture and human development

Professor Jana Juvonen (Developmental) - social motivational analyses of perceived deviance and peer rejection, social adjustment of children with special needs, development of self-presentation strategies, perceived peer group norms and public behavior of young teens, and peer harassment in school

Professor L. Anne Peplau (Social) – social psychology, close relationships, gender issues, gay and lesbian relationships and identity

Professor David Sears (Social) - social psychology; political psychology; intergroup conflict; attitudes and the life cycle

Adjunct Professor Jill Waterman (Clinical) - Child-clinical psychology, parent-child relationships from infancy, adoption of special needs children, child sexual abuse, effects of community violence on children

The department also benefits from other ethnic minority-related research resources that are available both on campus and in the broader community. On campus, the Center on Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities, The American Indian Studies Center, Asian American Studies Department, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, Cesar E. Chavez Instructional Center in Interdisciplinary Chicana and Chicano Studies, Latin American Studies Center are excellent resources for students interested in ethnic minority related topics.  In addition, for students interested in gender and sexual minority related topics, the Women’s Studies Center, the LGBT Center and The Williams Institute on campus are extremely valuable.  These centers all publish journals and monographs, hold seminars on minority, gender and sexual orientation issues, and provide funding for minority-related research projects.  Furthermore, the department's ties with public agencies and schools facilitate students’ connection with and involvement in Asian, African American, Latino, LGBT and other groups throughout Los Angeles' multicultural community.

Graduate students also have the opportunity to venture outside of the Psychology Department to pursue their research and academic interests. There are many faculty from other departments and schools who are interested in issues of diversity and multiculturalism with whom a student may work.  Among these departments and schools are the School of Public Health, Education & Information Sciences, Social Welfare, Political Science, Sociology, and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.

Finally, our programs benefit from being located in Los Angeles, which is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country. Students can enjoy the rich social and cultural opportunities available in the larger metropolitan area, create linkages to their ethnic and/or LGBT communities, and have access to these populations for research and clinical practica.