Vaishali Raval

Vaishali Raval 2016

Professor

308 Psychology Building
Oxford, OH 45056
513-529-6209
ravalvv@MiamiOH.edu
CARE Lab

CV

Education

  • BSc Psychology (honors), University of Toronto, 1998
  • MA Clinical/Developmental Psychology, University of Windsor, 2001
  • PhD Clinical/Developmental Psychology, University of Windsor, 2004
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cultural Psychology and Human Development, University of Chicago, 2006

Research Interests

Psychological science that aims to understand human emotion, cognition, and behavior is based on research conducted with White middle-class groups in Western countries, which represent less than five percent of the world’s population (Arnett, 2008). Because people around the world live in differing sociocultural, political, and economic contexts, a knowledgebase derived from this small and selective segment of the World’ s population is not universally applicable. In collaboration with students and colleagues from Miami University and around the world, my program of research aims to fill this gap by contributing to culturally informed understanding of parenting, emotion, and psychopathology, with practical implications for youth in the World’s most populous countries, and the fastest growing minority groups in USA.

My interest in this work stemmed from questioning what I read in psychology textbooks and journal articles during my undergraduate and graduate studies based on my experiences of having lived in multiple communities across three countries. Coursework in cultural psychology and developmental psychopathology in graduate school, and postdoctoral fellowship with exposure to the fields of cultural, medical, and psychological anthropology introduced me to cultural and developmental frameworks that helped to provide a conceptual grounding for my research. My program of research focuses on three interrelated areas: A line of work that began in graduate school examines cultural and contextual foundations of parental socialization of their children’s emotions, and how these socialization approaches related to children’s emotion regulation and their internalizing psychopathology (see e.g., Raval & Martini 2011; Raval & Walker, 2019). This work has continued with a more recent focus on socialization of positive emotions (Raval et al., 2019).

A second line of research focuses on global mental health, understanding subjective experiences of mental health problems like depression and suicide (Aggarwal et al., 2021), training in cultural competence, and cultural adaptations of psychosocial interventions for resource limited settings globally.

Inspired by my graduate students who are interested in exploring experiences of marginalization and mental health in their own communities, a third line of research focuses on experiences of ethnic racial discrimination, ethnic racial socialization, emotions in racially salient contexts, and mental health in racially and ethnically diverse communities in USA (e.g., Daga & Raval, 2018; Raval et al., 2021).

Teaching

My teaching is informed by an interdisciplinary and global perspective, and utilizes a student-centered inquiry based approach that aims to facilitate critical thinking, integration of scholarly knowledge with life experiences, a deep appreciation of multiple perspectives and diverse views, and an understanding of human behavior and psychopathology as intricately tied to varying contexts.

Undergraduate Courses Taught

  • PSY 210 | Psychology across Cultures
  • PSY 345 | Childhood Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities
  • PSY 410 | Capstone in Clinical Psychology: Culture and Psychopathology
  • GHS 201 | Data and Decisions in Global Health, (co-taught)
  • Family, Religion, and Well-being in India: Faculty-led study abroad workshop (co-directed)

Graduate Courses Taught

  • PSY 605 | Multicultural Topics in Clinical Psychology
  • PSY 646 and 647 | Psychological Assessment I and II
  • PSY 649 | Ethics in Clinical Psychology
  • PSY 697 | Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
  • PSY 750 | Child/Adolescent Psychosocial Interventions Practicum
  • PSY 740 | Seminar in Developmental Psychopathology

Professional Recognition

  • Henry David International Mentoring Award, American Psychological Association Division 52 (International Psychology) (2020)
  • Associate Editor: Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Journal of Research on Adolescence
  • Consulting Editor, Asian American Journal of Psychology, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Child and Family Studies
  • American Psychological Association Division 52 (International Psychology) Early Career Professional Award (2014)

Publications

  • Raval, V. V., **Ovia, T., *Freeman, M., *Raj, S. P., & *Daga, S. S. (2021). Discourses about race in the United States: A thematic analysis of short essays. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 83, 98-113. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.05.004
  • *Aggarwal, P., Raval, V. V., Chari, U., Raman, V., Kamalesh, K. S., Sanjana, K., & Viswesweriah, A. M. (2021). Clinicians’ perspectives on diagnostic markers for depression among adolescents in India: An embedded mixed methods study. Culture, Medicine, & Psychiatry, 45 (2), 163-192: doi: 10.1007/s11013-020-09680-8
  • **Trevethan, M., Jain, A. T., Sathiyaseelan, A., Luebbe, A. L., Raval, V. V. (2021). A longitudinal examination of the relation between academic stress and anxiety among adolescents in India: The role of physiological hyperarousal and social acceptance. International Journal of Psychology. Advance online publication. http://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12825
  • Raval, V. V. & *Walker, B. L. (2019). Unpacking ‘culture’: Caregiver socialization of emotion and child functioning in diverse families. Developmental Review, 51, 146-174.

*graduate student 

**undergraduate student 

Grants

  • Enhancing cultural competence and integrating international perspectives in the redesign of Global Miami Plan Courses through explorations of diverse subcultures of India (Role: Project Director), Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (short-term), US Department of Education, 2021-22
  • Using best practices to promote internationalization of higher education in India in collaboration with US partnerships (Role: Co-Project Director), Promoting Internationalization of Indian Universities through U.S. collaboration, US Department of State 2020-21.
  • Extending the Christ-Miami Partnership: Training in Innovation to Address Global Health and Economic Disparities, funded by Partnership 2020 educational initiative, U.S. Department of State (administered in cooperation with University of Nebraska, Omaha), 2019-20 (Project Director).
  • A training model for culturally competent and evidence-based mental health care for diverse societies, 2015-18 (Project Director), funded by United States-India Education Foundation. For more information, visit USIEF Indo-US Project.