Supervising Faculty: Dr. Kevin Binning
Contact: Louis Deng, yud63@pitt.edu
Area of Research: Social psychology; psychological interventions; education; belonging; identity; motivation; organizational engagement.
Description of Research: The Diversity and Equity Lab, directed by Dr. Kevin Binning, uses social psychological theory and methods to study how people experience, understand, and respond to diversity in educational, political, and organizational contexts.
Much of our work focuses on how social environments shape belonging, identity, motivation, engagement, and performance, especially for students navigating challenging or diverse learning contexts. We also study how psychological interventions can create more inclusive environments, reduce inequities, and support individual and collective thriving.
Current and recent projects examine topics such as ecological belonging interventions, self-affirmation, classroom equity, and intergroup relations.
Duties of Students: Students may help with a range of research tasks depending on current lab needs, student interests, and level of experience. Duties may include reviewing research literature, helping develop study materials and procedures, programming or testing surveys, coding text data, cleaning and processing data, and attending lab or project meetings when available.
Requirements:
- Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher
- 12 credits of Psychology (including current term)
- STAT 0200/1000/1100 Statistics
- PSY 0036 Research Methods Lecture
- PSY 0037 Research Methods Lab
Recruitment Process: If you would like to apply, please fill out our application form here: Apply to be a Research Assistant in the Diversity & Equity Lab – Fill out form
Terms Offered: Fall, Spring
Number of Students: varies by semester