Psychological & Brain Sciences

Dr. Barch's current research is focused on understanding the interplay among cognition, emotion, and brain function to better understand the deficits in behavior and cognition found in illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression. More recently, her work has expanded to include a focus on the mechanisms through which early adversity (e.g., poverty, stress, disparities in access to health care and education) shape early brain development and subsequent risk for mental health challenges.  Dr. Barch’s faculty website can be reached here. Some recent publications relevant to this research focus are:
 

• Barch, D. M., Belden, A. C., Tillman, R., Whalen, D. & Luby, J. L. (2018). Early adverse childhood experiences, inferior frontal gyrus connectivity and the trajectory of externalizing psychopathology. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 57, 183-190. 

• Luby, J. L., Barch, D. M., Whalen, D., Tillman, R., & Belden, A. (2017). Association between early life adversity and risk for poor emotional and physical health in adolescence: A putative mechanistic neurodevelopmental pathway. JAMA Pediatrics, 171, 1168-1175. 

Dr. Hill’s current research is focused on understanding the benefits of having a sense of purpose across different life domains, including the promotion of health, wealth, and psychological well-being. His recent work has considered whether purposeful individuals may seek out and navigate experiences of diversity differently from others, demonstrating that having a sense of purpose may promote comfort with diverse groups. Dr. Hill’s faculty website can be reached here: https://psychweb.wustl.edu/hill-0. Some recent publications relevant to this research focus are:
 

• Burrow, A. L., & Hill, P. L. (2013). Derailed by diversity? Purpose buffers the relationship between ethnic composition on trains and passenger negative mood. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(12), 1610-1619.
• Burrow, A. L., Stanley, M., Sumner, R., & Hill, P. L. (2014). Purpose in life as a resource for increasing comfort with ethnic diversity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(11), 1507-1516.
• Sumner, R., Burrow, A. L., & Hill, P. L. (2018). The development of purpose in life among adolescents who experience marginalization: Potential opportunities and obstacles. American Psychologist, 73(6), 740-752.

Dr. Lai studies how people create, interpret, and maintain social group distinctions. He is particularly interested in implicit biases: automatic or unconscious mental processes that create a gap between what people value (e.g., racial equality) and what people do (e.g., racial discrimination). His research focuses on (1) learning how implicit biases change, (2) understanding the consequences of implicit bias for behavior, and (3) developing interventions to reduce the impact of implicit biases on behavior. 

Dr. Lai's Diversity Science Lab website: https://calvinklai.wordpress.com/
 

• Lai, C.K., & Banaji, M.R. (in press). The psychology of implicit intergroup bias and the prospect of change. In D. Allen & R. Somanathan (Eds.),  Difference without domination: Justice and democracy in conditions of diversity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Lai, C. K., Marini, M., Lehr, S. A., Cerruti, C., Shin, J. L., Joy-Gaba, J. A., ... Nosek, B. A. (2014). Reducing implicit racial preferences: I. A comparative investigation of 17 interventions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1765-1785.
• Lai, C. K., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2014). Moral elevation reduces prejudice against gay men. Cognition and Emotion, 28, 781-794.
• Lai, C. K., Hoffman, K. M., & Nosek, B. A. (2013). Reducing implicit prejudice. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7, 315-330.

Dr. English's research is focused on better understanding of how emotion regulation operates in daily life across diverse groups and sociocultural contexts. Recently, her work has begun to examine 1. Emotion regulation and communication in the context of intergroup interactions and, 2. The impact of emotion regulation processes on goal pursuit and well-being of first-generation college students and ethnic minorities in educational contexts. Dr. English's faculty website can be reached here https://psychweb.wustl.edu/english
 

• Boucher, H.C., & English, T. (2017). The yin-yang of personality: Implications of naive dialecticism for social cognition, the self-concept, and well-being. In A. T. Church (Ed.), Handbook of Personality across Cultures (Vol. 3, pp. 179-206). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
• English, T., & John, O. P. (2013). Understanding the social effects of emotion regulation: The mediating role of authenticity for individual differences in suppression. Emotion, 13, 314-329.
• English, T., & Chen, S. (2011). Self-concept consistency and culture: The differential impact of two forms of consistency. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 838-849.
• English, T., & Chen, S. (2007). Culture and self-concept stability: Consistency across and within contexts among Asian Americans and European Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 478-490.

Dr. White's research focuses on developmental trajectories of executive abilities in typically-developing children and children with damage to frontal regions of the brain. A population of particular interest is children with sickle cell disease, who are predominantly of African descent. Strokes occur in approximately 1/3 of children with sickle cell disease, and most of these strokes damage frontal brain regions that subserve executive abilities. In past and ongoing research, we have demonstrated the utility of blood transfusion in preventing the recurrence of stroke and further decline in cognition. Most recently we showed that executive abilities significantly improve soon after blood transfusion in this underserved and understudied population of children. In terms of teaching, I lead the Clinical Psychology Diversity Proseminar for graduate students in our Clinical Psychology Program.
 

• Hood, A., Fields, M., Ford, A., King, A., & White, D. A. (in preparation). Biological interventions to improve cognition in children with sickle cell disease.  
• Hood, A., King, A., Shenoy, N., & White, D. A. (in preparation). Cognitive and neurologic consequences of sickle cell disease in children: a comprehensive review and meta-analysis.
• Yarboi, J., et al. (2017). Association of social-environmental factors with cognitive function in children with sickle cell disease. Child Neuropsychology, 23, 343-360.PMID26568287
• King, A., et al. (2014). Silent cerebral infarction, income, and grade retention among students with sickle cell. American Journal of Hematology, 89, 188-192. PMID25042018
• DeBaun, M. R., et al. (2014). Controlled trial of transfusions for silent cerebral infarcts in sickle cell anemia. New England Journal of Medicine, 371, 699-710. PMID25140956

Dr. Wilkins is a social psychologist whose research examines prejudice, stereotyping, and the self. She explores how social change (e.g. racial and gender progress) affects high-status groups’ perceptions of victimization. She also examines how variation in racial and ethnic minorities’ physical appearance shapes stereotyping and identification. The over-arching goal of her work is to understand social inequities in order to minimize their negative effects on individuals, groups and society. 
 

• Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J. D., Flavin, E. L., & Manrique, J. (2017). When men perceive anti-male bias: Status-legitimizing beliefs increase discrimination against women. Psychology of Men and Masculinity. DOI: 10.1037/men0000097

• Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J. D., & Schad, K. D. (2017). Reactions to anti-male sexism claims: the moderating roles of status legitimizing belief endorsement and group identification. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 20(2), 173-185. DOI: 10.1177/1368430215595109

• Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J.D., Babbitt, L., Toosi, N., & Schad, K. D. (2015). You can win but I can't lose: Bias against high-status groups increases their zero-sum beliefs. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 1-15. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2014.10.008

• Wilkins, C. L. & Kaiser, C. R. (2014). Racial progress as threat to the status hierarchy: Implications for perceptions of anti-White bias. Psychological Science, 25(2) 439-446. DOI: 10.1177/0956797613508412

• Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J. D. & Kaiser, C. R. (2013). Status legitimizing beliefs increase positivity toward Whites who claim anti-White bias. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49 (6), 1114-1119. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.05.017

Dr. Oltmanns, the members of his lab, and their collaborators are conducting a longitudinal investigation of trajectory and impact of personality on health in later life.  The original participants in the study are a representative sample of 1,600 residents of the St. Louis metropolitan area who were between the ages of 55 and 64 when they entered the study.  One third of the participants are Black and two thirds are White.  Therefore, this sample provides an opportunity to explore racial health disparities and, more specifically, the psychosocial and biological mechanisms that may be responsible for their origins and maintenance.
 

• Iacovino, J.M., Bogdan, R., Jackson, J., & Oltmanns, T.F. (in press). Trajectories of racial and gender health disparities during later midlife: Connections to personality. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.
• Iacovino, J.M., Jackson, J.J., & Oltmanns, T.F. (2014). The relative impact of socioeconomic status and childhood trauma on Black-White differences in paranoid personality disorder symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 225-230.
• Spence, C.T., & Oltmanns, T.F. (2011). Recruitment of African American men: Over-coming challenges for an epidemiological study of personality and health. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17, 377-380.

Professor Baugh's primary research interest has been the social stratification of linguistic behavior in multicultural and multilingual nations. Initial interest in this area began with quantitative and experimental studies of linguistic variation among African Americans. These studies evolved into applied linguistic research devoted to policy issues in medicine, education, and law. Gradually his analyses expanded to include populations who suffered various forms of linguistic discrimination, including deaf communities, as well as speakers of languages or dialects who lack fluency in the dominant linguistic norms of their respective societies.

Most of Professor Baugh's research is interdisciplinary, drawing extensively upon related work in the fields of anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, and sociology. These experimental investigations are tailored to have practical applications whenever possible. Recently he has conducted studies of linguistic profiling over the telephone, where callers seeking housing or other goods and services face discrimination due to stereotypes about their speech. Very often these discriminatory acts have legal implications in civil and criminal court cases.

In addition to his linguistic research, Professor Baugh directs the African and African American Studies program, which strives to advance distinguished scholarship of and by people of African descent regardless of academic discipline. These administrative duties are collaborative and involve scholars and students across Washington University who work to advance teaching, scholarship, and public service throughout the African Diaspora.
 

• 1983 Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure and Survival. Austin : University of Texas Press.
• 1999 Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• 2000 Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice. New York : Oxford University Press.
• In Press (with H. Samy Alim) Black Language, Education, and Social Change. New York : Teachers College Press.

Dr. Markson studies social cognitive development with a focus on children’s thinking about race. Current research projects in her lab investigate the effects of exposure to diversity on children’s racial attitudes and preferences, children and adults’ perceptions of multiracial individuals, the effects of integrated and segregated environments on children’s learning from and trust in others, and how subtle environmental cues influence our thinking and perceptions of others, the role of representation in the development of stereotypes, the development of optimism in children, and children’s reasoning about individuals who speak a different language or have different cultural conventions. Dr. Markson’s faculty website can be reached here: https://sites.wustl.edu/children/ Some recent publications and presentations relevant to this focus are:

• Hwang, H.G., & Markson, L. (2018). Locals don’t have accents: Children weigh phonological proficiency over syntactic or semantic proficiency when categorizing individuals. Journal of Child Language.
• Afshordi, N., Sullivan, K., & Markson, L. (2018). Children’s understanding of communication in a foreign language. Collabra: Psychology, 4(1), 2.
• Markson, L., Hwang, H.G., & Bird McGuire, T.  Does race affect children’s trust in others? Talk in symposium: New directions in studying trust in infants and young children at BCCCD the CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, January 4-6, 2018, Budapest, Hungary.
• Markson, L. Race and children. Invited lunch seminar presented at the Arts & Sciences National Council Meeting, Washington University in St Louis, April 2018.
• Markson, L. Environmental influences on children’s intergroup cognition. Symposium organized for the Cognitive Development Society meeting, October 12-14, 2017, Portland, OR.