PostDoctoral Research Fellowship

这项美国国家科学基金会少数族裔博士后奖学金将产生有关应对非裔美国人种族相关压力的新知识，显著提高研究员作为研究科学家的技能，并为科学事业的未来活力做出贡献。该研究员将在霍华德大学心理学系朱尔斯·哈雷尔博士的指导下进行研究。霍华德大学在研究非裔美国人经历的多样性方面有着出色的记录。此外，哈雷尔博士的研究调查了生理系统和人格因素，这些因素解释了非洲人后裔对压力反应的个体差异。本研究采用定量与定性相结合的方法，探讨种族主义经历、种族认同、应对与心脏活动之间的关系。研究的第一阶段将招募一年级非裔美国大学生参加一项关于非裔美国人种族主义经历的纵向研究，研究是否：(1)歧视经历可预测心脏活动的变化；(2)种族认同可缓冲种族相关应激经历对心脏活动变化的负面影响；(3)歧视经历与心输出量变化的关系是由种族认同和应对介导的。研究的第二阶段将根据第一阶段研究参与者的心脏活动和种族身份选择一部分参与者参加半结构化访谈，检查非裔美国人应对心脏活动的模式和过程。基于理论的方法将用于分析数据，从而允许产生新的理论。培训目标是加强研究员研究种族相关压力和应对的理论方法，获得心理生理学技能，并建立他不断发展的研究项目，研究非裔美国人在种族相关压力方面的经历的影响以及这些经历对心理调整的影响。这些训练目标将帮助研究员在研究型大学获得终身教授职位。研讨会、课程以及在霍华德大学心理生理学实验室的参与将扩大他的培训经验范围，并为他探索以新的创新方式应对种族主义做好准备。奖学金活动将使他能够在现有理论的基础上，增加有关非裔美国人种族相关风险和保护因素、应对和整体功能的基本知识。

This National Science Foundation Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship will generate new knowledge about coping with race-related stress in African Americans, significantly enhancing the Fellow's skills as a research scientist, and contribute to the future vitality of scientific enterprise. The Fellow will perform his research at Howard University under Dr. Jules Harrell in the Psychology Department. Howard University has an excellent track record in producing research that examines the diversity of the African American experience. Additionally, Dr. Harrell's research investigates physiological systems and personality factors that account for individual differences in responses to stress in people of African descent. The research combines quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate the relations among racism experiences, racial identity, coping, and cardiac activity. The first phase of the research will recruit first-year African American college students to participate in a longitudinal study of African Americans' experienceswith racism, examining whether: (1) discrimination experiences predict changes in cardiac activity, (2) racial identity buffers the negative effects of race-related stress experiences on changes in cardiac activity, and (3) the relation between discrimination experiences and changes in cardiac output is mediated by racial identity and coping. The second phase of the study will choose a subset of Phase I study participants on the basis of their cardiac activity and racial identity to participate in semi-structured interviews, examining patterns and processes through which African American coping responses relate to cardiac activity. Grounded theory methods will be used to analyze the data, thus allowing for the generation of new theory. The training objectives are to enhance the Fellow's theoretical approaches to the study of race-related stress and coping, to gain skills in psychophysiology, and to build his evolving program of research, which examines the influence of African American experiences with race-related stress and the consequence of these experiences for psychological adjustment. These training goals will help the Fellow attain a tenure-track professorship at a research-extensive university. Seminars, coursework, and participation in the Psychophysiology Laboratory at Howard will expand his scope of training experiences and prepare him to explore copingwith racism in new and innovative ways. Fellowship activities will allow him to build on existing theory, increasing basic knowledge about race-related risk and protective factors, coping, and overall functioning in African Americans.