Research

My research concerns the connections between individual psychology and social structure. I am particularly interested in the ways in which our positions in the social structure (specifically with respect to gender, social class, race, and disability) shape our individual psychological experiences.

I pursue these interests by studying relationships across differences of identity (specifically between people with disabilities and non-disabled people, Deaf and hearing people, and people of color and white people). I have also done research about social class and the college experience, socioeconomic status and health, and women's midlife personality development.

I've conducted work on friendships and alliances between Deaf and hearing people in collaboration with Gallaudet University professors Linda Lytle and Gina Oliva. Kendrick Brown (now Provost at Morehouse College) and I collaborated on studies of alliances between people of color and white people. I'm currently part of a team of researchers studying the mental health implications of COVID-19 among people with disabilities; the team is led by Professors Katie Wang (Yale University) and Kathleen Bogart (Oregon State University).

My CV includes a complete list of my publications

My Google scholar page

My ResearchGate page

Link to open access preprint:

• Wang, K., Manning, R. B., Bogart, K. R., Adler, J. M., Nario-Redmond, M. R., Ostrove, J. M., & Lowe, S. R. (2022). Predictors of depression and anxiety among adults with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rehabilitation Psychology.

  • © 2021, American Psychological Association. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the final, authoritative version of the article. Please do not copy or cite without authors' permission. The final article will be available, upon publication, via its DOI: 10.1037/rep0000434

Links to open access publications:

• Adler, J. M., Manning, R. B., Hennein, R., Winschel, J., Baldari, A., Bogart, K. R., Nario-Redmond, M. R., Ostrove, J. M., Lowe, S. R., & Wang, K. (2022). Narrative identity among people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic: The interdependent self. Journal of Research in Personality, online first.

  • Check out our Psychology Today blog from November, 2022, summarizing this research

• Ostrove, J. M., & Brown, K. T. (2018). Are allies who we think they are? A comparative analysis.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 48, 195-204.

• Ostrove, J. M., & Rinaldi, J. (2013).  Guest editors' introduction to special issue - Self reflection as scholarly praxis: Researcher identity in disability studies. Disability Studies Quarterly, 33(2).

• Ostrove, J. M., Oliva, G. A., & Katowitz, A. (2009).  Reflections of the K-12 years in public schools:  Relations with hearing teachers and peers from the perspective of deaf and hard-of-hearing adults. Disability Studies Quarterly, 29(3).

• Ostrove, J. M., & Crawford, D. (2006).  "One lady was so busy staring at me she walked into a wall": Interability relations from the perspective of women with disabilities.  Disability Studies Quarterly, 26(3).

You're welcome to check out this transcript of a non-academic talk related to disability that I gave at my synagogue, and this video of a talk I gave at the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) in the summer of 2019 based on my research with Gallaudet Professor Linda Lytle about Deaf-hearing friendships (the video does not include these slides, referenced in the talk). Social psychology of disability colleagues Thomas Dirth, Kathleen Bogart, Amanda Hemmesch, and I did a session at the 2022 American Psychological Association Convention on resisting ableism in psychological theory, research, education, and policy that we reprised in October of 2022 for an online event through the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Check it out at this link!    

2018-2019 research group members:

Alex Barba-Cook '19

Aditi Dalela '20

Bailey Haas '19

Leah Meisel '20

Zahara Spilka '21

2017-2018 research group members:

Alex Cook '20

Aditi Dalela '20

Bailey Haas '19

Isabel Velazquez-Acero '18

2016-2017 research group members:

Elena Torry-Schrag '17

Bailey Haas '19

Olivia Shaffer '19

Previous research group members:

Leah Beckmann '16

Maren Bettermann '16

Marium Ibrahim '16

Maddie Kornfeld '16

P.J. Murphy '15

Maegan O'Herin '18

Wei Peng '16

Olivia Wolf '17