I am currently applying to graduate programs and intend to pursue a PhD in social psychology in the future. The research areas I am most interested in are stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination. Specifically, I would like to focus on how prejudicial thoughts are formed for a perceiver and their subsequent behaviors in reaction to those feelings, as well as ways to reduce the negative effect of stereotype threat. In the lab, I have primarily been involved in a project that examines how peer role models impact underrepresented students’ sense of belonging and self-efficacy in math, especially those who are not highly-identified with the math field. Contrary to peer role model literature, we previously found that low-identifying male students seemingly benefited from a female role model but the low-identifying female students did not. We hope to explain these findings by looking at how students perceive the role models to be similar to themselves and whether students are subtyping the female role model as an exception to a prevalent stereotype.
Education BA, San Diego State University (Psychology) MA, May 2019 (e), San Diego State University (Psychology) E-mail: vdarosa [at] sdsu [dot] edu
