Eliana Hadjiandreou

 

I grew up on the beautiful, yet politically conflicted island of Cyprus. My experiences with intergroup efforts of peace-building and conflict reconciliation interventions between Greek and Turkish Cypriots provided me with a unique perspective on the moralization of ethnic conflict and political disagreement.

 

I was funded by the Cyprus Fulbright Commission and moved to the United States to pursue my Bachelor's in Psychology at Clark University. During my undergraduate years, I was fortunate to work with amazing scholars. Having initial interests in social and political psychology, I collaborated with Dr. Johanna Vollhardt on a project examining inclusive victim beliefs in contexts with ethnic conflict. Around the same time, I interned at Dr. Tessa West's lab at New York University, providing assistance on a project looking at the effects of gender stereotypes on perceptions of group efficacy.

 

Studying destructive social processes (e.g. ethnic conflict, stereotypes, and discrimination) has sparked an interest in the other side of the coin: the ways people are maximally good. I completed my honors thesis with Dr. Seana Moran, looking at the self-reported life purpose of students engaged in service-learning. As an APA Summer Science Fellow, and working alongside Dr. June Tangney, I had the opportunity to examine prosocial values of offenders from a breath of data from incarcerated populations. 

 

The combination of these experiences has shaped my interests in moral psychology, empathy, and effective altruism (for details on research interests, please visit the next tab), which I explored as part of Dr. Daryl Cameron's research lab during my PhD.