Our mission is to train social scientists to (a) critically explore the experiences of people in the contexts and systems in which they develop across the lifespan and (b) use knowledge to address longstanding inequities in settings and systems. Our work is grounded in the belief that empirically based knowledge about “persons in settings” is a key mechanism for achieving racial justice, social justice, and equity and for changing systems and settings as well as individuals. Training in PSI is actively interdisciplinary, drawing on theories and approaches from multiple fields in psychology (including developmental, community, political, and social psychology) and other social and behavioral sciences. We conduct research and action in close partnership with key stakeholders while centering community voice and perspectives.
Our training goals include fostering students’ abilities to:
Conceptualize and measure (i) individual cognitive and psychosocial development and (ii) the social settings, systems, and policies in which individuals are embedded;
Understand the psychological impact of various forms of diversity, conflict, and structural inequity among individuals, groups, institutions, communities, and societies;
Design, improve, implement and evaluate prevention, intervention and policy strategies toward positive social change;
Utilize state-of-the art quantitative and qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to addressing individual and system-level phenomena.
PSI faculty and students study a wide range of contexts and systems (e.g., families, schools, neighborhoods, programs, juvenile justice systems, social movements, intergroup contexts, policy contexts and macro-level economic and social structures) and interventions (e.g., psychological, social, educational and health programs and policies), locally, nationally and internationally. Our faculty also conduct research on how social psychological factors, cultural and racial identities, and marginalization influence and interact with people’s experiences of contexts, systems and interventions. New York University provides an ideal global network for studying many kinds of communities in the US and other regions of the world, including Latin American countries, South Asia, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
PSI faculty collaborate closely with one another, as well as with other social, behavioral, health and policy scientists at NYU and other universities, and with service, community and policy organizations. PSI faculty direct or co-direct a number of affiliated institutes and centers at NYU, including the Institute for Human Development and Social Change, Global TIES for Children, the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools (METRO), and A Research Center for Interconnected Approaches for Suicide Prevention (Arcadia).