Yen-Pin Chang, a graduate student in Social Psychology, has received an honorable mention for the 2017 Ernest C. Davenport Award for Outstanding Psychological Research by a Student Who Enhances Diversity.
The purpose of the Ernest C. Davenport Award for Outstanding Psychological Research by a Student Who Enhances Diversity is to encourage and honor students from under-represented groups who make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge of psychological science.
Yen-Ping, a fifth year doctoral student, is receiving this recognition for his work with Dr. Sara Algoe. Yen-Ping’s research on emotion and positive psychology appears in top journals. For his dissertation work, he has developed theory regarding when, why, and how culture shapes the expression or demonstration of emotion, using the specific example of gratitude. Whereas most research on gratitude has focused on the experience of people in the United States, his predictions compare gratitude in Taiwanese and American samples. Overall, Yen-Ping is highly deserving of this award because of his creativity of ideas, sophistication of methods, and breadth of scholarship. Yen-Ping’s natural curiosity and team-focused attitude make him an excellent academic and colleague. His work stands to have an important impact in helping researchers theorizing about diversity in the experience and communication of emotion.