Just as the ecological framework guides my research interests, so too does it inform my strategy for teaching. By attempting to ecologize psychology, my goal has been to present students with a more holistic view of cognition and behavior; specifically, by framing critical questions in terms of how humans must continually learn to understand, navigate, and influence the environments they occupy. What information in the world do humans need to be sensitive to in order to function effectively? What capacities do they possess to detect and interpret this information? How does their ongoing behavior alter this environment, the information within it, and their ability to understand it? It is by designing my courses in this way that I seek to provide students with a larger, meta-theoretical framework for approaching topics in psychology.
Courses I am currently teaching or have recently taught include:
- Introductory Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Advanced Research Methods
- Personality Psychology
- Environmental Psychology
As someone that works in a liberal arts environment, research and teaching are closely intertwined for me. My lab involves undergraduate students in all parts of the scientific process, including project design, data collection, statistical analysis, and conference presentation.
