Position:

Assistant Professor of Psychology, Fall 2010-present

Southern Utah University

 

Education:

 

Ph.D. Social Psychology, 2010

Minor-Experimental Statistics

New Mexico State University

Advisor:  Dr. Laura Madson

Dissertation:  Using cognitive and social cognitive measures to assess overlap of cultural identities in bicultural, Mexican-American individuals 

 

M.A. Experimental Psychology, 2006

New Mexico State University

Advisor:  Dr. Tim Ketelaar

Thesis:  Personality, morality, and emotions: 

Emotional components of moral values

 

M.Ed. Community Agency Counseling, 2000

Advisor:  Dr. Jamie Carney

Auburn University

B.A. Psychology, 1998

Angelo State University

Research Interests:

1.  Bicultural Identity & Cognition

Although many areas of cultural psychology interest me, current dissertation research focuses on how culture impacts one’s identity.  More specifically, I am evaluating how significant exposure to two different cultures, such as the case of bicultural individuals, can be represented through one’s cognitions.  Since the circumstances by which individuals become exposed to a second culture vary from person to person (e.g. age at which the person is introduced to the new culture), the way that these two cultures are cognitively represented should also vary.  Some bicultural individuals will integrate and blend their cognitions from the two cultures together, while others will keep the cognitions relatively separated by the respective culture.  Currently I am collecting data from Mexican-American participants using three novel measurements and one previously established measure to evaluate the extent to which their Mexican and American cognitions blend together versus remaining separate.  The three novel measures are unique in that they are implicit measures that attempt to assess the cognitive representations of bicultural individuals while not being influenced by deliberate, controlled responses from the participant.

2.  Acculturative Issues & Stereotype Threat

This line of research integrates findings from stereotype threat studies with findings from bicultural research.  In regards to bicultural identity research, previous studies have shown that individuals tend to take on additional cultural identities with increasing exposure to different cultures.  For example, an individual that identifies as bicultural may take on two separate identities for two different cultures (Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000).  In regards to stereotype threat, this is a process that occurs when a stereotype associated with one's particular social group is activated, thereby decreasing performance in a related task.  For example, women are often stereotyped as performing poorly in math tasks.  When the identity of being female is made salient prior to a math task, women tend to underperform compared to their normal math performance level (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999).  By integrating these two concepts, bicultural identity and stereotype threat, it may be possible to identify why bicultural individuals often report the subjective feeling of being "caught between two cultures."  It is anticipated that bicultural individuals may be at risk to stereotype threats associated with both cultures.  In addition, by evaluating how bicultural individuals respond to stereotype threat levied at their cultural identity, this will help to answer theoretical questions about the nature of the bicultural self and the nature of stereotype threat.

3.  Unconscious & Implicit Influences

In conjunction with Robert Lawson at William Paterson University, we are answering the questions of 1. what are atheists attitudes towards atheism and 2. how do these attitudes differ from attitudes that religious believers hold?  Explicitly these questions may have fairly obvious answers (e.g. atheists have positive explicit attitudes towards atheism), but implicitly this may not be the case.  Since atheists in the U.S. have grown up in a culture primarily supportive of religious beliefs, and in particular Christian beliefs, this cultural exposure may influence any implicit measure attempt accordingly (i.e. atheists show an implicit negative attitude toward atheism).  In contrast, if the implicit measure is actually measuring attitudes towards atheists, cultural exposure should not be a factor, and atheists should implicitly favor atheism.  Along these research lines, we are also using religious and unreligious priming manipulations to evaluate implicit attitudes.

4.  Political Ideology & Morality

By using Haidt & Joseph’s (2004) model of morality, I am exploring how liberals and conservatives respond to priming manipulations of their five identified moral domains; fairness, harm, purity, authority, and ingroup.  I hypothesize that conservatives will respond to the more conservative moral priming manipulations of purity, authority, and ingroup differently than they respond to the more liberal moral priming manipulations of fairness and harm.  Likewise, liberals should respond to the liberal moral priming manipulations differently that they respond to the conservative moral priming manipulations, but this pattern will be opposite of the conservative participants’ responses.

Publications:

Yates, D. T., Strosser, G. L., Black, P.L., Halalsheh, R. A., Lankford, L. M., Hernandez, L. L., Löest, C. A., & Ross, T. T. (2010). Technical note: Effects of rumen passage on fluoxetine bioavailability in serum and effects of fluoxetine on serum prolactin concentration and demeanor in ewes. Journal of Animal Science, 88, 3611-3616.

 

Thompson, L. A., & Strosser, G. L. (in press). Perceptual development. In R. Parasuraman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior, Vol. 2.

 

Ketelaar, T., Preston, B., Russel, D., Davis, M., & Strosser, G.  (2007). EMOTLAB:  Software for studying emotional signaling in economic bargaining games. Behavior Research Methods, 39(4), 959-972.

 

Guynn, M. J., McDaniel, M. A., Strosser, G. L., Ramirez, J. M., Hinrichs, E.L., & Hayes, K. R. (under review). Relational and item-specific influences on generate-recognize process in recall.

Recent Presentations:

 

Strosser, G. L. (July, 2010). Implicitly assessing overlap of cognitive, cultural identities in bicultural, Mexican American individuals. International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology: Oral Presentation, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

 

Teaching Experience:

Assistant Professor (Southern Utah University)

Statistics for Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

General Psychology

Forensic Psychology

 

Instructor

Thinking

Introduction to Psychology

Human Growth & Development

Childhood Development

 

Teaching Assistant

Social Psychology

Quantitative Methods in Psychology I (Graduate Course)

Advanced Experimental Methods

Experimental Methods

Learning (Graduate & Undergraduate Course)

Biopsychology

Introduction to Psychology

 

Honors:

Summer Institute in Political Psychology Participant

(Stanford University)

Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society Member

 

Professional Experience:

Undergraduate Psychology Advisor

Social Lab Series Coordinator

Therapist

Mental Health Case Manager

 

Personal Statement:

In my free time, I enjoy listening to local live music, hiking and outdoor activities, eating green & red chiles (see below), and following collegiate sports.

Curriculum Vitae