1. Home
  2. Academics
  3. Colleges & Schools
  4. College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
  5. Departments
  6. Psychology
  7. Research Labs and Opportunities

Research Labs and Opportunities

Intellectual curiosity is strong in the Department of Psychology at Cal State Monterey Bay.

A group of people sit together, smiling as they interact with each other, their laptops open on the table in front of them.
Psychology

Our faculty members are active researchers who present and publish their work far and wide. They also mentor students through capstone projects and enlist their help as research assistants in their labs.  

Cal State Monterey Bay students of all majors have access to a variety of experiences through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC). Within our department, psychology majors can get involved in several ways, from conducting their own research to participating in studies.

Undergraduate Research

A girl delivers a presentation.

Conduct Independent Research

Psychology students regularly work with faculty members on their research or develop their own independent projects.

two students at a table looking at a computer screen in a research lab

Participate in Research Studies

Students can explore opportunities for open research studies through our SONA system — and earn credit for participating.

Faculty Research Labs & Projects

The Department of Psychology at CSUMB is home to a dozen distinct research labs and projects. Here’s a look at what’s happening in Heron Hall.

The ABC Laboratory focuses on the impact of bilingualism on cognition and investigates cognition in the local community.

Faculty: Renee Penalver, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall

The CAFE lab focuses on the validation of psychological assessment instruments, with a special focus on scales that detect invalid test responses.

Faculty: Danielle Burchett, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 159

The Child Health and Wellness Research Lab collaborates with the local community to improve the mental and physical health of children, adolescents and families.

Faculty: Jennifer Lovell, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 111

The DS2 lab uses a variety of methods to examine perspective-taking (when we see the world through another person's eyes). We are specifically interested in how to improve perspective-taking abilities.

Faculty: Jennifer Dyer-Seymour, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 172 and 191

This lab examines structural oppression, strategies for resistance, and how our liberation depends on all our relations (i.e., the interconnections between humans, plants and animals).

Faculty: Christine Rosales, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 136

The M&SC lab examines how people are portrayed in mass media as well as how people think, reason and communicate about physical and social space.

Faculty: Justin Matthews, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 171

The MAP Lab studies eyewitness memory, face perception and false memory. We investigate how false memories are created for semantically related words and how recall may be influenced by collaboration.

Faculty: Jill Yamashita, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 132

We investigate deep conceptual change through struggle - our creativity, moments of insight, moral quandaries, appreciating emotions and the power of teaching and parenting to transform our lives.

Faculty: Katie Grobman, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 169 and 195

The lab uses qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct research aimed at understanding systemically based social inequalities in contemporary U.S. society as they relate to race, class, gender and sexuality.

Faculty: Mrinal Sinha, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 160

The TOAR Lab focuses on uncovering factors that increase risk for violence and the development of posttraumatic stress reactions. Our goal is to improve treatments for trauma survivors by enhancing currently validated therapies and creating theoretically grounded interventions.

Faculty: Christine Valdez, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 111

The Support Young People Project identifies factors that support the healthy development of underrepresented and minoritized youth.

Faculty: Shannon Snapp, Ph.D.
Location: Heron Hall 194