Alysia Burbidge

Hi, my name is Alysia. I am a post-doctoral research associate at the USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center.

My research broadly focuses on motivation, identity, and the social context. I examine how people's interpretations of difficulty shape their actions and are shaped by situational features. I am interested in applying these insights in real-world domains, such as education and environmental sustainability. I use a variety of approaches, including experimental methods, multilevel modeling, text analysis, daily diary designs, and intervention work.

I received my Psychology B.S. from the University of California, Riverside. I received my Social Psychology Ph.D. from the University of Southern California under the supervision of Dr. Daphna Oyserman. I am a multiracial, first-generation student and second-generation immigrant.

Have a question? Want to start a conversation? Contact me at burbidge@usc.edu

Pathways-to-Success

Leveraging the theoretical framework of identity-based motivation theory, Pathways-to-Success is an intervention designed by Dr. Daphna Oyserman to help all students connect what they are doing in school right now to the person they expect to become one day. Through 12 brief sessions implemented during the first six weeks of the school year, students discover that now is the time to act, that school is the path to their future self, and that difficulty does not necessarilly imply impossibility.

I work alongside a team of skilled researchers to accomplish three main tasks. First, to scale-up the intervention. Second, to increase the sustainability of the intervention. Third, to test the impacts of the intervention using sophisticated research methods.

Linking Meaning-Making and Action

People prefer to act and make sense of their experiences in identity-congruent ways. Furthermore, action, meaning-making, and identity are recursively and dynamically linked. I am currently preparing my dissertation, a set of three studies spanning a variety of methodoligies and samples, to document the recursive process in which people's interpretations of difficulty shape their actions and are shaped by features of the situation. Together, these studies take an ecologically-valid approach to understanding how identities affect what people experience and how they use their time.

Social Class Metaphors

People use concretizing metaphors to make sense of abstract concepts, including social class. The metaphors people use frame their perceptions of themselves and others. Examples of social class metaphors common in American discourse include the social ladder, social mobility, and economic growth.

I am currently conducting experimental and qualitative work evaluating these social class metaphors. Importantly, each of these metaphors carries different implications regarding evaluations of character and dispositional vs. situational inferences. This work connects many literatures, including conceptual metaphor theory, essentialism, moralization of effort, and social class stereotypes. This work has both theoretical and applied implications, especially for public policy and politics.

Pro-Environmental Behaviors

The science is clear: climate change is real and caused by humans. Most Americans agree. While people can take pro-environmental actions such as changing personal habits or advocating for policy change, they typically do not. This inconsistency between belief and action increases threat and reduces chances of mitigating climate change. I believe we can draw insights from identity-based motivation to make progress in climate mitigation. I am currently piloting a field study in which people's interpretations of difficulty are leveraged to encourage real-world individual pro-environmental behaviors. If the results are promising, we plan to next explore how a similar method could be used to encourage real-world policy action.

Mind & Society Center Lab Manager As lab manager, I ensure that our interdisciplinary research center can smoothly conduct their day-to-day research activities. I support the research of our co-directors and our team of 25+ graduate students, post-doctoral students, visiting scholars, and research assistants. I interface with various departments across the university to ensure our center has the necessary technological, material, and monetary resources needed. I have been in this position for two years.

Research Assistant Skills Lab Coordinator As the RA Skills Lab Coordinator, I oversee the intellectual and professional development of our center's research assistants. Before my arrival at USC, the Mind & Society Center RA Skills Lab did not exist. Now, our research assistants have the opportunity to engage with psychological science in meaningful ways, such as simulating the process of experimental design, practicing effective science communication, and running and visualising their first regression analysis with the statistical software R. Many of our research assistants have gone on to graduate programs ranging in disciplines including psychology, education, and medicine.

Pathways-to-Success Video Coding Supervisor As the video coding supervisor for the Pathways-to-Success intervention, I oversee the video coding process from start to finish. For each cycle of the intervention, I identify six promising coders from dozens of applications. These coders undergo thorough training to become expert in coding teacher and student behaviors and actions during implementation. They learn the theory underpinning the intervention, engage closely with the implementation manual, and achieve inter-coder reliability with their team members on standardized rubrics before beginning their work. Under my supervision, coders have reliabily and efficiently coded upwards of nearly 300 videos (180 hours) of implementation. I also ensure that all sensitive data is handled correctly. I use Airtable to ensure the data is securely saved and to oversee the quality of the data. This work is essential in evaluating the intervention's outcomes and identifying teacher-trainers for future iterations of the intervention.

CV

Nature & Wildlife

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