Students
 
Graduate Students Cory Cook Dewayne Bettag, MA Rebecca Luning, MA My research interests include child development, education, and cultural psychology. Specifically, my research is concerned with the influence of culture based education on child development. The focus of my thesis will examine student development in Hawaiian language immersion programs. Katrin Tovote, Dipl. (M. Sc.), MA Based on the concept that every person has his or her own ‘Developmental Niche’, my research focus is the child’s development within his or her own cultural environment. In particular, I am interested in the social development of children living and working on the streets of developed and developing countries. In order to elucidate complex research topics, I use an interdisciplinary approach by combining methods of developmental and cultural psychology, as well as anthropology. Current projects involve a field study with street working children in the South of Mexico. Recent Graduates Lance Linke, MA, PhD My interest in philosophical questions of human nature grounded my fascination with psychology. I entered the Educational Psychology program with an intention to consider how people in various cultures perceive and interpret the world, and how these perceptions and interpretations influence behavior. My belief in the developmental importance and influence of education is expressed in a research agenda designed to elucidate some of the variables that influence human decision-making. I pursue this goal with a multi-faceted approach that includes developmental, educational and evolutionary perspectives of psychology. Maria-Christina Stewart, MA, PhD My research interests span clinical, social, cultural, and peace psychology. Current studies and papers include examination of: 1) the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and eating disorder symptomatology; 2) the relationship between obsessive beliefs and eating disorder symptomatology; 3) the stigmatization of individuals with eating disorders; and 4) cross-cultural interpretations and definitions of peace and human rights and values. Marianna Valdez, MA, PhD As a graduate student in the Community & Culture Psychology program, my research interests involve the development, implementation, and evaluation of culturally appropriate community programs, especially related to the public school setting. For my masters thesis, I examined school – family – community partnerships within an urban Samoan population. My graduate research assistantship focuses on the evaluation of substance abuse prevention and family strengthening programs. As a developing researcher, I am most interested in the process of gathering information and understanding to inform effective and culturally appropriate programs. Particularly, participatory action research, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, can be indispensable when working with disadvantaged or under-represented groups. Under the direction of Dr. Maynard, my interests and research are informed by a culturalist approach as I seek to understand and represent emic perspectives to drive action research.
 
Students in the Maynard lab have an opportunity to learn research skills including research design, data collection, coding video using a special digital media system, writing manuscripts, and giving research presentations.  The major aims of the lab group are to extend theoretical and methodological underpinnings of psychology as a field and to extend the results of various research programs across cultural groups. Undergraduate students work together with Dr. Maynard and the graduate students to produce research that meets these aims.