Research Interests
My research is concentrated on process of personal change and identity development as they occur within social contexts. I am intrigued by how people develop new understandings of how to live in the world, how these understandings are consolidated into new identities, and how these processes are influenced by interpersonal and cultural systems. My research contributions on these processes can best be categorized within two main areas: the study of psychotherapeutic change and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) gender and discrimination.
In addition, my writing is focused on qualitative and mixed methods and their design, review, and reporting. Within my research endeavors, I regularly utilize both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. I am intrigued with models of research design and analysis and, for most of my programs of research, I find that using a plurality of methodological approaches strengthens their methodological integrity. I tend to initiate my inquiries with a qualitative project to develop understandings and models grounded in specific contexts and populations, and then test these models using quantitative models of analyses. I am an advocate for a psychology in which researchers learn pluralistic approaches to research and in which clinical guidance is based on the integration of findings from across a wide range of methods and clinical perspectives. As well, I have a strong and abiding interest in the philosophy of human science and enjoy considering this subject. Click below to read more about specific areas of scholarship:
"Per scientiam ad justitiam" (Through science to justice) -- Magnus Hirschfeld