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TARDIS Lab

The Team on Acculturation, Risk, and the Development of Identity and Self (TARDIS) at University of Texas at San Antonio is directed by Dr. Alan Meca (Pronouns: el, he, him).

Student volunteer being connected to a sleep monitoring device for a session

The Sleep and Memory Computational Lab

The lab incorporates various empirical and theoretical techniques to investigate our research questions.

GROWTH lab photo

GROWTH Lab

The Growing Resilient Outcomes Within The Home (GROWTH) Lab advocates for children and families through research and community-engaged projects.

HE lab photo

He Lab

The He Lab investigates how environmental factors, task demands and cognitive ability affect learning and decision-making during spatial navigation.

Research conducted at the UTSA Department of Psychology spans all of the major areas of experimental psychology.

Faculty research interests are listed below.

Michael Baumann, Ph.D.

  • Groups, teams, and multiteam systems
  • Perceiving & leveraging expertise
  • Social / workplace factors in substance use
  • Workplace attitudes towards women

James H. Bray, Ph.D.

  • Family Psychology & Health
  • Adolescent Substance Use
  • Primary Care Psychology

Denver Brown, Ph.D.

  • Exercise Psychology & Behavioral Medicine
  • Time Use Epidemiology
  • Physical Activity Determinants
  • Movement Behaviors and Health

Thomas Coyle, Ph.D.

  • Mental Ability, Intelligence, & IQ
  • Brain Aging & Cerebral Health Markers
  • Academic Aptitude Test (SAT and ACT)

Ephrem Fernandez, Ph.D.

  • Affect Science
  • Psychosomatics
  • Anger Assessment & Treatment
  • Pain

Edward Golob, Ph.D.

  • Spatial Cognition
  • Attention and Working Memory
  • Perception and Action
  • Age-related Neurological Disorders

Willie Hale, Ph.D.

  • Interpersonal Perception
  • Belongingness & Authenticity
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Qiliang He, Ph.D.

  • Memory and Decision-making
  • Virtual Reality
  • Stress and Aging

Joseph W. Houpt, Ph.D.

  • Cognitive Psychology and Quantitative Methods
  • Cognitive Modeling
  • Intersections between AI and Psychology, Visual Perception, Decision Making

Monica Lawson, Ph.D.

  • Cognitive & Socioemotional Development
  • Child Maltreatment

Itamar Lerner, Ph.D.

  • Cognitive & Computational Neuroscience of Memory & Learning
  • Sleep Effects on Cognition & Emotion

Stella Lopez, Ph.D.

  • Social Perception
  • Social Interaction
  • Academic Success

Mary McNaughton-Cassill, Ph.D.

  • Veteran Students’ Success
  • College Student Adjustment
  • Stress and Coping in the Modern World

Alan Meca, Ph.D.

  • Identity development across a variety of domains (e.g., ethnic/racial identity, military identity, etc)
  • Cultural Identity Development among ethnic/racial minorities
  • Acculturation and cultural stress among immigrant populations

Sandra B. Morissette, Ph.D.

  •  Military Health
  • Post-deployment Functional Recovery
  • Trauma, Anxiety and Addictive Behaviors
  • Smoking Cessation

Augustine Osman, Ph.D.

  • Test Construction & Validation
  • Risk & Protective Factors for Mental Health
  • Applied Behavior Analysis

David R. Pillow, Ph.D.

  • Belongingness
  • Attitudes About ADHD & Medication
  • Self & Other Perception
  • Quantitative Methods

Shelby Scott, Ph.D.

  • Couple & Family Psychology
  • Health Disparities
  • LGBTQ Populations

Rebecca Weston, Ph.D.

  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • Quantitative Methods

Tina Zawacki, Ph.D.

  • Alcohol’s Role in HIV-Related Risk Taking
  • Health Disparities Regarding HIV & Sexual Violence
  • Sexual Assault

22

Degree programs

147k+

Internship hours

4

Research centers

$4.8M

in grants awarded across 22 projects