Ryan Grant Graduate Student, Industrial-Organizational Program Education Education: B.A., Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience, North Central College.
Cassidy Gaddie Graduate Student, Industrial-Organizational Program Education Education: M.S., Industrial/Organizational Psychology, University of Georgia (2024) B.A., Psychology with a Minor in Nonprofit Organizational Studies, University of Oklahoma (2020) Research Research Interests: Employee well-being; DEI; Employee life cycle; Selection and assessment
Brinkley Sharpe Graduate Student, Clinical Program Brinkley received her MS in Psychology from the University of Georgia in 2022. Her doctoral research focuses on perceptions of and self-identification with general and maladaptive personality traits, including endorsement of a "cardinal" or dominant trait. Brinkley is an enthusiastic advocate of open science approaches as forces for transparency, collaboration, inclusion, and self-correction in science. Brinkley's primary clinical interests are the treatment of trauma-related pathology, psychodiagnostic assessment and case formulation, and working with LGBTQ+ clients. Brinkley likes cats, board games, jigsaw puzzles, pinball, and yoga. Education Education: B.A., Psychology, University of Virginia, 2013 M.S., Psychology, University of Georgia, 2022 Research Research Interests: Broadly, I study antagonism, impulsivity, and other externalizing psychopathology. I am additionally interested the structure of psychopathology, ambulatory assessment methods, and dynamic models of personality.
Molly E. Hale Graduate Student, Clinical Program Education Education: 2020 - M.S. William & Mary (Experimental Psychology) 2017 - B.A. University of Washington (Community Psychology) Research Research Interests: I am interested in understanding inter- and intra-personal factors that help to buffer the development of internalizing symptoms (i.e., anxious, depressive, somatic). Within a biopsychosocial framework, I examine the role of self-regulation, close interpersonal relationships with parents an friends, and synchrony using biobehavioral markers to identify how best to support youth's psychological development. Dissertation/Thesis Title: Negative Parental Emotion Socialization Predicts Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms: A Moderated Mediation with Latent Variables (Thesis Title) The impact of Sociocultural Risk and Protective Factors on Trajectories of Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms using the ABCD Study (Dissertation Title)
Andrea George Graduate Student, Clinical Program Education Education: B.S., University of Georgia 2020 Research Research Interests: My research focuses on youth internalizing disorders within a developmental psychopathology framework. I seeks to understand how contextual factors and individual characteristics can impact maladaptive emotional development and later psychopathology in youth by exploring emotion socialization and regulation processes in samples of varying risk.
Jade Dandurand Graduate Student, Clinical Program Jade graduated from Providence College with a B.A. in Psychology and a Neuroscience Certificate in 2018. She then worked as a clinical research assistant and clinical research coordinator at Butler Hospital's Memory & Aging Program in Providence, RI, working on experimental trials for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, as well as building her clinical skills before joining the Clinical Psychology program at UGA in 2020.
Apoorva Sarmal Alumni, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program Apoorva Sarmal is a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) program at the University of Georgia. She works in the Georgia Attitudes, Bias, and Behavior Acquisition (GABBA) Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Allison Skinner. She examines social inequalities and negative impacts of social hierarchies which pervade our day-to-day lives. Specifically, Apoorva researches social hierarchies such as race and gender to promote diversity and inclusion. She integrates multiple methodological approaches including, but not limited to, social-cognitive experiments, randomized interventions, qualitative interviews, multi-level models, secondary data analysis, and scale development to rigorously investigate these research questions. Education Education: M.S. in Psychology, University of Georgia, 2022 M.A. in French Linguistics, Indiana University-Bloomington, 2019 B.A. in French (minor: Psychology), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 2017 B.S. in Business Administration, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 2017 Research Research Interests: Social Psychology; Stereotyping; Prejudice; Racism; Sexism Grants: Society for Personality and Social Psychology Heritage Dissertation Research Award 2024 ($2,000) Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues Grants-in-Aid 2024 ($1,000) Psi Chi Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Research Grant 2024 ($1,000) Charlayne Hunter-Gault Giving Voice to the Voiceless Grant 2024, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia ($1,500) George Hugh Boyd Memorial Scholarship 2022, University of Georgia ($2,000) Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award 2021 from Society of Personality and Social Psychology ($1,000) Selected Publications Selected Publications: *Sarmal, A., ~*Cha, L., *Skinner, A.L. (in press). Shifts in Racial Inequalities and White Backlash in the 21st Century U.S. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Skinner-Dorkenoo, A. L., Rogbeer, K. G., Sarmal, A., Ware, C., Zhu, J. (2023). Challenging Race-Based Medicine Through Historical Education About the Social Construction of Race. Health Equity, 7(1), 764-772. https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2023.0036 Skinner-Dorkenoo, A. L., Sarmal, A., Rogbeer, K., André, C. J., Patel, B., & Cha, L. (2022). Highlighting COVID-19 Racial Disparities Can Reduce Support for Safety Precautions Among White U.S. Residents. Social Science and Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114951 Skinner-Dorkenoo, A. L., ˆSarmal, A., ˆAndré, C. J., & Rogbeer, K. G. (2021). How microaggressions reinforce and perpetuate systemic racism in the U.S. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(5), 903-925. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211002543 Other Information Of note: Summer 2024 - Summer Scholar Intern, National Science Foundation Summer Scholar. Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES, National Science Foundation/Quality Education for Minorities Network, Washington, D.C. & Alexandria, VA Summer 2023 - Fellow, National Science Foundation Summer Institute in Social and Personality Psychology (SISPP). Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. (Course: Toward Theorizing and Studying Emotion as a Multi-level System of Systems: From Cell to Self to Society) Summer 2023: Teaching Assistant, Regression Analysis II Linear Models, ICPSR, University of Michigan.
Christina Leckfor Alumni, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program Christina Leckfor received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Georgia in December 2024 and is now a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Leckfor's research examines the factors that facilitate and interfere with social connection. Some of her most recent projects investigate the motivations behind why people talk to strangers, how people develop intimacy in different contexts (e.g., in-person vs. texting and video chat, dyadic vs. group interactions, wearing face masks vs. no masks), and how the psychological experience of being ghosted differs from being directly rejected. Education Education: Ph.D., Social Psychology, University of Georgia M.S., Social Psychology, University of Pittsburgh B.A., Psychology, Youngstown State University Research Research Interests: Christina's research aims to understand the factors that facilitate and interfere with relationship processes and how social interactions and supportive relationships influence well-being. Her work has examined how social technologies can be used to foster and maintain relationships through deep meaningful conversations (e.g., over video chat and texting), while also impeding social connection by making it easier to displace minimal social interactions with strangers and end existing relationships (e.g., through ghosting). Ultimately, Christina aims to understand how people can maximize the benefits of social relationships to lead happier and healthier lives. In addition to her own research, Christina is currently serving as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Social Psychology of Research Experiences and Education (SPREE) Lab. Grants: University of Georgia Graduate School (2021). “From close to ghost: The effects of ghosting and need for closure on need satisfaction and coping behaviors.” Total: $1,500. Role: Principal Investigator Psi Chi: The International Honor Society of Psychology (2020). “Feeling gloom after Zoom: The psychological effects of video chat vs. face-to-face interactions.” Total: $1,500. Role: Principal Investigator Selected Publications Selected Publications: (* indicates shared first authorship) Leckfor, C. M., Wood, N. R., Kwiatek, S. M., & Orehek, E. (2024). Expectations and experiences of screen time, social interaction, and solitude. Journal of Social Psychology, 164(6), 1008-1023. Wood, N. R., Leckfor, C. M., Wicks, S. G., & Hales, A. H. (2023). Ghosting from the workplace: The impact of feedback (or lack thereof) on applicants’ psychological needs satisfaction. Routledge Open Research, 2(3). *Leckfor, C. M., *Wood, N. R., Slatcher, R. B., & Hales, A. H. (2023). From close to ghost: Examining the relationship between the need for closure, intentions to ghost, and reactions to being ghosted. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 40(8), 2422-2444. Juergensen, J., & Leckfor, C. (2019). Stop pushing me away: Facebook addiction relates to automatic approach motivation for Facebook stimuli. Psychological Reports, 122(6), 2012-2025. Other Information Of note: Dr. Leckfor's research has received coverage in the following media outlets: “As online dating grows, why is ghosting on the rise as well? What are the effects?” by River Gracey (2023, October 28). WUGA "Socializing boosts mood compared to screentime" by Erica Techo (2023, September, 14). UGA Today “What does being ‘ghosted’ mean and why does it make us feel so bad?” by Sara Novak (2023, July 26). Discover Magazine “What to do if a friend ghosts you” by Catherine Pearson (2023, April 12). The New York Times “What science knows about ghosting: It’s worse than direct rejection” by Karelia Vázquex. (2023, March 7). El País (Spanish and English versions) “There's a weird link between people who seek closure and those who ghost” by Dayna McAlpine. (2023, February 14). HuffPost “People who ‘ghost’ actually have a stronger need for closure. Wait, what?” by Faima Baker. (2023, February 20). Metro “People with a high need for closure are more likely to ghost, yet also feel more distressed when they are ghosted” by Eric. W. Dolan (2023, February 19). PsyPost “Love in 2023: Ghosting ‘new normal’ for ending relationships, research shows” by John Anderer. (2023, February 14). StudyFinds “The relationship between ghosting and closure” by Erica Techo. (2023, February 13). UGA Today “Healthy Relationships 101: Advice from the UGA community” by Maddy Franklin (2021, August 19). The Red & Black, pp. 14-15 Other Affiliations: University of Pittsburgh Faculty Page
