About
112
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Introduction
I'm a Professor of Psychology. My focus is on cultural and adolescent developmental psychology, with a specialization in Latin America.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
August 2021 - May 2023
July 2017 - August 2021
August 2004 - May 2009
Education
January 2006 - May 2009
August 2004 - December 2005
January 2002 - December 2003
Publications
Publications (112)
Conservation often focuses on specific species, providing insights into the connections among local culture and communities. Cultural and spiritual relationships can be harnessed for better conservation outcomes but must be critically explored, particularly by local community members and cultural experts. Substantial literature documents culture an...
Cultural and economic contexts shape adolescents’ socio-emotional development. We conducted an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study of adolescents’ empathy, a component of social development, in two schools in Guatemala, a country marked by collectivism and economic disparity. Participants (N = 119, ages 12–18, 64 girls) who attended either a...
In a time where new research methods are constantly being developed and science is evolving, researchers must continually educate themselves on cutting-edge methods and best practices related to their field. The second of three volumes, this Handbook provides comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of a variety of issues important in developing, desi...
Abstract
Objective
Our study investigated women's access to governmental healthcare in the Jazan region of the KSA. Our purpose is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the determinates of women's perceptions of their own access to healthcare, considering various demographic factors, family life, and gender role beliefs.
Methods
We conducted a hi...
Social support has long been associated with positive physical, behavioral, and mental health outcomes. However, contextual factors such as subjective social status and an individual’s cultural values, heavily influence social support behaviors (e.g., perceive available social support, accept support, seek support, provide support). We sought to de...
Sexual harassment has received recent attention related to the #MeToo Movement. Due to public focus on perceptions of accusers and accused, we explored predictors of derogation of both. Participants (n = 146) completed measures of moral values, empathy, derogation, sociosexuality, political ideology, belief in a just world, religiosity, sex guilt a...
Community Development as a journal has undergone streamlining, yet much work remains to improve the journal’s relations with its many stakeholders around the world and within the field of community development. Community Development, in collaboration with the Community Development Society, must respond to the calls of communities. This article conv...
This review discusses the book Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire by Emily Baughan. In the book, Baughan documents and discusses the first 100 years of the Save the Children Fund, which was established in the United Kingdom in 1919. In this article, I review the book in the context of the Community Capitals Framework...
Psychological research has produced a rich body of empirical data documenting humanity’s propensity to commit infidelity in the context of long-term relationships, but comparatively little work has been dedicated to synthesizing these data into an integrated framework that encompasses the full range of its processes, from why it occurs in the first...
Infidelity is often defined as perceived as a violation of relationship exclusivity rules, and many view infidelities as immoral. Thus, one can imagine the importance of understanding why up to a fifth of research samples report cheating in their current relationships. There is considerable literature regarding what factors predict infidelity. Alth...
In this relatively informal commentary, I discuss the potentially helpful and harmful roles that postmodernism and critical theories have in academia in general and particularly in community development scholarship and pedagogy. After introducing postmodernism and critical theories as well as some of the common criticisms of these frameworks, I dis...
The world faced stark challenges during the global pandemic caused by COVID-19. Large forces such as climate change, cultural ethnocentrism and racism, and increasing wealth inequality continue to ripple through communities harming community well-being. While the global pandemic caused by COVID-19 exacerbated these forces, lessons across the globe...
Utilizing adolescents' drawings to investigate their perceptions of self has a long history in psychology. The methodological approach is particularly useful in places, such as Guatemala, where the population may have relatively lower levels of literacy and/or less experience engaging with Western-style research surveys. By asking adolescents to dr...
Cyanobacteria blooms, a recent phenomenon in Lake Atitlán (Guatemala), impact the lake’s ecology and local Maya communities’ cultural identity, subsistence, and employment. The blooms and their anthropogenic provenience are relatively well understood scientifically, yet beliefs and attitudes of impacted communities are less explored. We investigate...
Keynote address at the 3rd Biennial International Psychology Conference at Effat University, Saudi Arabia, October 25, 2021.
Conference Theme: Resilience & Psychological Wellbeing of Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic
According to interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), people who perceive rejection by important others experience more psychological maladjustment than those who do not perceive rejection. IPARTheory predicts universal responses to perceived rejection or acceptance, making it important to explore its predictive ability with theoreti...
In order to determine if a model classroom program (MCP) in the rural highlands
of Guatemala better prepared young children socially and emotionally
for primary school, we interviewed parents and their children enrolled in an
MCP classroom (n = 42) and a business as usual (BAU) classroom (n = 42). The
interview data were analyzed using a thematic a...
In this perspective article, we argue that too often, foreign and developmental aid devolves into a form of imperialism and colonialism that we more fully define in the article. We believe that aided communities and community members are often expected (or required) to change their own cultural ways of living to continue receiving the aid or suppor...
The United States of America has a long history of discriminatory immigration and refugee policies that have resulted in disparities of health, education, employment and wages for many. This official discrimination is reflected in the personal prejudice of many U.S. Americans. In this study, we compare the social distance that participants desire f...
One in five children suffers from mental illness, yet estimates suggest that for various reasons, 50%-70% of these children are not receiving sufficient care. This study examines how mental illness stigma and parents’ help-seeking for their children interact with community social capital and demographic factors. Parents (N = 104) of children ages t...
Perceiving one’s self as accepted by important others, such as parents, is fundamental and crucial for the well-being of each individual. One major aspect of interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory) is examining how parental acceptance-rejection affects people’s psychological adjustment. This theory has been validated in many countrie...
The present study examined the relationship between perceived parental acceptance-rejection and fear of intimacy; explored psychological maladjustment and interpersonal relationship anxiety as mediators of this relationship; and examined whether the patterns of relations between perceived parental acceptance-rejection, psychological maladjustment,...
COVID-19 has caused a global pandemic requiring localized responses. Much of the locally based support comes from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that serve a particular community. In this paper, we present a case study of an educational and nutritional NGO functioning in a semi-urban town in Guatemala. We discuss how Education for the Childr...
The current study examined relationships between sociosexual constructs and motivations for infidelity in a currently cheating sample. Members of the AshleyMadison.com website who were actively using the website to search for and/or engage in infidelity completed a brief anonymous online survey. Our findings supported previous research regarding em...
What do we mean when we talk about “good parenting”? How do we know if someone providing care to a child is doing it the “right way”? These are important questions that any caregiver, teacher, researcher, scholar, or other parenting and child-care professionals should recognize can only be answered within cultural context. However, too often the wa...
This book explores diverse parent-child relationships from around the world, drawing on connections between culture and parenting values and challenges. It identifies parenting practices within various countries’ unique historical, political, and cultural backgrounds, reframing parenting as a cultural process whose goals are to encourage culturally...
An over-reliance on quantitative data collected via ‘traditional’ surveys means key information about the lives and thoughts of adolescents in the majority world is often overlooked. The importance of qualitative data—which allow the voices of participants to speak for themselves—has been well established in previous literature. One hurdle often co...
Many challenges of conducting research with undergraduates while abroad are similar to working with undergraduates on campus. Undergraduates are research novices, requiring significant supervision and training (Thiry & Laursen, 2011; Shellito, Shea, Weissman, Mueller-Solger, & Davis, 2001). Challenges specific to international research, like workin...
This study assesses interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory’s (IPARTheory’s) prediction that adults’ (both men’s and women’s) remembrances of parental (both maternal and paternal) rejection in childhood are likely to be associated with adults’ fear of intimacy, as mediated by adults’ psychological maladjustment and relationship anxiety. The study...
Manufacturers of adult coloring books often make the claim that coloring is a technique that can decrease stress and negative emotions and enhance relaxation and mindfulness. This technique has not been explored, with high external validity, in psychological research. Participants included 66 college students (63.6% females; 86.4% Caucasian). Study...
Interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory posits that people require parental acceptance in childhood to develop healthy psychological adjustment. People’s beliefs about and their relationship with deity also influences their psychological adjustment. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how both perceived parental acceptance and a r...
In his article, Brouwers argues that cross-cultural psychologists (CCPs; a term he uses to include cultural psychologists and indigenous psychologists) should be a resource for agencies and organizations that engage in international and developmental aid. His argument is that CCPs can help these agencies and organizations ensure that their interven...
In 2015, AshleyMadison.com (AshleyMadison) was hacked, leading to the release of site members’ personal information. The exposed members faced public scrutiny, judgment, and other negative outcomes. In this study, we examined predictors of the demonization of the AshleyMadison participants (i.e., AshleyMadison members, owners, hackers) to help expl...
Utilizing adolescents’ drawings in order to investigate their perceptions of self has a long history in psychology. The tactic is particularly useful in places, such as Guatemala, where the population has relatively lower levels of literacy and less experience engaging with Western-style research surveys. By asking adolescents to draw a picture of...
Utilizing a large group project for the teaching of psychological statistics.
It is important to identify stereotypes about indigenous people because those stereotypes influence prejudice and discrimination, both obstacles to social justice and universal human rights. The purpose of the current study was to document the stereotypes, as held by Guatemalan adolescents, of indigenous Maya people (e.g., Maya) and nonindigenous L...
A common cultural norm in committed relationships is that of sexual exclusiveness. When this norm is violated, those involved are often perceived negatively. Recently, a website facilitating extradyadic relationships, AshleyMadison.com (AM), was hacked, and the personal information of the members was illegally disseminated. As a result of the large...
Mindfulness-based treatments for health issues and psychological disorders have increased in popularity and use. A large amount of empirical evidence indicates that these treatments are effective. However, it is possible that these scientific investigations of mindfulness-based treatments have not been conducted with representative samples. In part...
According to interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), parental acceptance is fundamentally important to healthy development. IPARTheory has been validated around the world, but there has been relatively little IPARTheory research conducted in Latin America. The first purpose of our research was to extend the reliability and convergen...
Almost half of Guatemalan children quit school before 6th grade. One NGO in rural Guatemala works with local educators to maintain a “model” classroom preparing children for greater academic success. The model incorporates more hands-on activities, requires parents spend time in the classroom, and provides training to the teacher. The current study...
Drawings, created by participants and coded by researchers, have been used to measure social attitudes. Yet drawings are interpreted differently based upon the cultural backgrounds of the participants and researchers. In Guatemala, disparities exist between Ladinos (who claim European heritage) and the indigenous Maya. Ninety-three adolescents (Mag...
Examines the interaction of gender and ethnicity in the way that targets are perceived by others.
Anger and demonization: Perceptions of Ashely Madison users
Reviews the book, Sexuality in Adolescence: The Digital Generation by Meredith Temple-Smith, Susan Moore, and Doreen Rosenthal (see record 2015-42339-000 ). While some people might prefer to pretend it isn’t so, teenagers have sex. In fact, according to this book, by the time they are 20 years old, about two thirds of young people in the United Sta...
Reviews the book, How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haims (see record 2015-22917-000 ). Lythcott-Haims suggests that many of the issues that millennials face in school and the workplace are due to overinvolved “helicopter” parents. Parents are focused on making sure their...
To teach statistics, teachers must attempt to overcome pedagogical obstacles, such as dread, anxiety, and boredom. There are many options available to teachers that facilitate a pedagogically conducive environment in the classroom. The current study examined the effectiveness of incorporating scripted stories and humor into statistical method selec...
The relationship between religion and sexual satisfaction has long been debated. Oftentimes, previous research on the relationship between these two constructs has been directly contradictory. The current study sought to provide more detail, or perhaps clarify the way that religiosity may relate to sexual satisfaction. Past studies have shown that...
Parental ethnotheories, or parents’ beliefs about their children’s development, provide a framework for cultural transmission of values and behaviors. In this study we aimed to understand Guatemalan mothers’ beliefs about children’s learning, what is “good” and “bad” behavior, and the desired qualities of grown-up children. Twenty-two low-income mo...
Las etnoteorías de los padres sobre el desarrollo de sus hijos proporcionan un marco para la transmisión cultural de valores y comportamientos. El objetivo de este estudio fue comprender las creencias de un grupo de madres guatemaltecas sobre el aprendizaje de los niños, los comportamientos "buenos" y "malos," y las cualidades deseadas de los hijos...
For most of its history, the field of psychology has been tied to the cultures of the countries in which it originated—the United States and the nations of Western Europe.1 As a result, psychology is culture-bound (limited to the findings, evidence, and assumptions of the United States and Europe) and culture-blind (overlooking and disregarding the...
Reviews the book, When Boys Become Boys: Development, Relationships, and Masculinity by Judy Y. Chu (see record 2013-42053-000 ). As Chu explains in the Introduction of her book (and Carol Gilligan also highlights in her Foreword), much of the research on gender development in the 1990s and 2000s focused on boys’ emotional and social development as...
Adolescent identity develops across various domains (e.g., ethnicity, gender, religion). Although these domainsshare elements of identity (e.g., belongingness, self-categorization) there is a lack of continuity in the elementsselected when measuring various domains of adolescent identity. This study tested whether an adapted version ofPhinney and O...
Guatemala has a relatively low ratio of psychologists to the general population (6.89 psychologists per 100,000 people), which makes it imperative that the therapeutic treatments utilized by psychologists are successful, effective and efficient. The current study explored the effectiveness and efficiency of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reproces...
Relationship satisfaction is influenced by sexual satisfaction, which in turn is dependent upon successful initiation of sexual activity. Heterosexual married couples (n = 15) kept written journals for two weeks, detailing sexual activity and use of sexual initiation cues (i.e., what they or their partners did to initiate sexual activity). The data...
A lthough F aith Development T heory (F D T), developed in North A merica by James Fowler, is the prevailing theory of religious or faith development, it has not been systematically tested cross-culturally. A ccording to F D T , the transition from lower to higher stages requires the formation of a personal/individual faith. Because the cultural di...
Aspects of one"s sexual behaviors, such as expectations, frequency, and types of behaviors affect one"s sexual satisfaction. The current study investigated both sexual and non-sexual variables associated with sexual satisfaction. Participants were asked to report the frequency of various specific sexual behaviors within their marital relationship,...
