As an educator and particularly as a first-generation student, I am deeply committed to the classroom as an avenue for nurturing personal growth and advancing educational equity. Engaging with critical and feminist scholarship throughout my academic training profoundly expanded my worldview and professional goals. I am dedicated to fostering similar experiences in my own classrooms by encouraging students to view psychological knowledge as deeply connected to their everyday lives and to broader social issues, to become critical consumers of research, and to challenge inequities within and beyond the classroom. I have taught a variety of courses, including foundational, content, and methods courses.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Psychology
Psychology is the study of human behavior and mental processes– what we do, how we think, and what we feel. This course provides a broad introduction to the science of psychology and its many subfields, including human development, identity, emotion, memory, intelligence, and psychological disorders. We will learn about a wide variety of interesting topics that you may never have associated with psychology. By the end of the course, you should be able to answer many questions that we frequently face: Why can’t I remember my first birthday? Why are some people colorblind? How do Zoloft and therapy help relieve depression? Under what circumstances do victims of childhood abuse disclose their experiences to others? How accurate is eyewitness testimony? Why is it that some people are afraid of romantic commitment? What causes racial prejudice? Why do we dream?
Social Psychology
Social psychology is the systematic study of social behavior, including how we think about, influence, and relate to ourselves and one another. This course is designed to introduce you to the science of social psychology. Together, we will examine how the social world shapes our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, including how we perceive and interpret the behavior of others and the social situation, how we respond to others and they to us, and the nature of social relationships. Many of the concepts we will discuss can be applied to your everyday life. Application of social psychological theory and methodology is encouraged through participation in small-scale laboratory or field observational studies, reflective assignments, group discussions, and other applied assignments.
Psychology of Women and Gender
This course critically examines the psychology of women and gender from a feminist and social constructivist theoretical framework. Readings, assignments, and discussions foreground issues of identity, power, and inequality, as well as avenues for social change. We will explore how laws, institutional practices, gender norms, media representations, and commonly held attitudes and beliefs work together to reinforce women’s subordinate status and the psychological impacts of gender inequality on women, men, and gender nonconforming people. This course also utilizes an intersectional framework and interdisciplinary perspectives to highlight the ways that race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, age, and other categories interact with gender at individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels.
Qualitative Methods
Once considered marginal or devalued, qualitative methods have become increasingly common in psychological research. This course offers a broad survey in approaches to qualitative research design, data collection, and data analysis. During the semester, you will examine how your beliefs shape your understanding of research and you will explore the deeper epistemological concerns associated with research that help us create, claim, and justify our claims to knowledge. We then review qualitative approaches to either data collection or data analysis that have become common in psychology: ethnography, grounded theory, interviewing and focus groups, content analysis, thematic analysis, narrative analysis, phenomenological analysis, and discourse analysis. We conclude with a discussion of the future of qualitative inquiry and attempts to establish disciplinary guidelines for the reporting and reviewing of qualitative research. The course typically culminates in the students’ development of their own research proposals.
Melina Singh, PhD 