Sara Etchison
Sara is in her final semester of her Ph.D. in experimental social psychology. Her research focuses on 1) how expectations about whether and why we will be accepted versus rejected influence motivation and self-perception, and 2) how these expectations can be re-trained using social-cognitive methods. Her most recent project focused on how media portrayals of the wealthy shape expectancies about whether money can buy social acceptance and how those expectancies impact people’s wealth acquisition goals.
Before coming to McGill, Sara obtained her B.A. in psychology from the University of Kansas. There, she studied positive psychology, adult attachment, and altruism working with Professors C. R. Snyder and Daniel Batson. Following graduation, she worked for two years providing research assistance for Professors Daniel Oppenheimer and Eldar Shafir’s judgment and decision-making labs at Princeton University.
She is grateful for research support from the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation and McGill University.
When not in the lab, Sara enjoys tennis, satire, and a good cup of coffee.
Sébastien Nguyen
Sebastien is a graduate student in clinical psychology. His research focuses on the processes whereby people gain self-knowledge, in particular when driven by curiosity. The avenues he is pursuing are guided by the paradigm of situated cognition.
Sébastien obtained his B.A. in psychology at the University of Montreal, where he was involved with two different research groups. His first line of research sought to identify the differences between the cognitive mechanisms responsible for musical versus linguistic pitch processing. In his second line of research, he has examined the cognitive processes underlying identity integration in multicultural people.
He is grateful for research support from the FQRSC, SSHRC and McGill University.
During his spare time, Sébastien enjoys playing music and racquet sports, listening to radio shows, and discussions over coffee.
Darrick Chow
Darrick is a newly admitted 1st year graduate student in Dr.Baldwin's lab.His research interests are in self-esteem and how it manifests in online settings.
Darrick obtained his B.A. in psychology at the Univeristy of Waterloo, where he worked with Dr.Joanne Wood on driving and texting behaviour differences among people with different levels of self-esteem.