Dr. QIN Lili

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Lili Qin joined our department in August 2012. She completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The key question guiding her research is that of how to facilitate children’s adjustment during adolescence, a time when children often face heightened academic and emotional challenges. Her work aims to understand how environmental factors (e.g., culture, parents, and peers) and child characteristics (e.g., their self-construct) may shape children’s academic and emotional adjustment during this stage. Currently, she is examining cultural influences on children’s relationships with their parents. A key endeavor has been to understand the trajectories of such relationships as children progress through adolescence, with attention to the implications for their academic and emotional adjustment.

Dr. JIA Lile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lile joined our department in August of 2012, after completing his PhD at Indiana University with Prof Edward Hirt. Lile’s research focuses on the cognitive and affective processes of goal pursuit, the maintenance of and striving toward desirable end-states (e.g., a thin figure, a good grade in school). In particular, Lile is interested in the way conscious and unconscious processes of goal pursuit regulate people’s social behavior. His PhD thesis, for instance, explores the unconscious goal-defense mechanism that automatically protects individuals’ goal pursuit in cases of reduced capacity for self-control. Because the goal pursuit process underlies a myriad of human behaviors, Lile has been able to apply his research to such diverse areas as academic achievement, dietary restraint, task performance, creativity, and interracial conflict.