ASU psychology community honored with APA awards for exceptional contributions

Highlighting Arizona State University’s commitment to excellence in psychological research and education, faculty, students and alumni from the Department of Psychology, a unit within The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, are being recognized with American Psychological Association (APA) awards for their exceptional contributions to the field.

With over 600 scholarships, grants and awards supported by APA and its 54 divisions and organizations related to psychology, the organization recognizes scientists who have achieved outstanding research accomplishments and advances in the field of psychology. The APA Scientific Contribution Award, the APA Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology and the APA Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychology are distinguished honors that spotlight exceptional contributions and innovative ideas shaping the future.

Associate Professor Daniel McNeish is among the five recipients to be honored with the 2023 APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology. This prestigious award honors scientists who have obtained their PhD within the past nine years. McNeish, who joined ASU’s Department of Psychology in 2017 as an assistant professor specializing in quantitative psychology, expressed his gratitude for being honored with this award.

“In the 20 or so years that the award has used the current format, there have only been two other quantitative psychologists among the recipients: Dan Bauer and Kris Preacher, who are basically the godfathers of modern quantitative psychology and who created the template for what success in our field looks like. So any time you get mentioned alongside those two, it’s pretty special,” McNeish said.

McNeish’s research interests encompass models for clustered, longitudinal and time-series data, as well as structural equation and measurement models. He also focuses on developing methods to answer research questions for which only limited data is available. Despite being in the early stages of his career, McNeish has already made significant contributions to the field. His work addresses disparities in health and behavioral outcomes, particularly among underrepresented groups and hard-to-reach populations with modest sample sizes. 

“The work I’ve been doing on dynamic fit indices is aiming to create a new class of statistical procedures that expands and generalizes existing methods and hopefully will be able to provide more accurate evaluations of whether traits are being measured reasonably accurately,” McNeish said. “I hope that working on statistical problems related to improving measurement in psychology can help mitigate some issues related to replication and improve the trustworthiness of conclusions and recommendations in research studies.”

While McNeish investigates human behavior through data, ASU alumna Rebecca Neel explores the realm of social psychology. Neel, another recipient of APA’s 2023 Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology, earned her PhD in psychology from ASU in 2013. Her research centers on better understanding social invisibility and why specific social groups can be treated with indifference. During her time at ASU, Neel studied under Steve Neuberg in the Evolution, Ecology, and Social Behavior Lab. She acknowledges ASU’s role in providing a strong foundation for her success. 

“It was deeply collaborative across faculty and students. It offered us students the freedom to try things and follow our interests, as well as support through classes, collaborations and outstanding mentorships,” Neel said.

In addition to these outstanding individuals, the ASU community is being recognized at the division levels within APA this year.

Associate Professor Rebecca Blais is being presented with two awards at the upcoming APA convention in Washington, D.C. She’s the recipient of the APA Division 56 (Trauma Psychology) Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Trauma Psychology Award, as well as the Division 19 (Society for Military Psychology) Distinguished Mentor Award. 

“It is an honor to serve our military in this capacity. The true gift in mentoring is working with talented scholars who push the field forward,” Blais said.

Heining Cham, an ASU alumnus who obtained his PhD in psychology in 2013, has established himself as an associate professor of psychology and the director of the Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology Program at Fordham University. Cham is receiving the Division 5 Anne Anastasia Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award.

Mario Alvarez, a current student in ASU’s Department of Psychology, was awarded the APA 2023 Summer Undergraduate Psychology Experience in Research (SUPER) Fellowship. As a SUPER Fellow, Alvarez was given funding to complete a summer research project with a mentoring faculty member. He’s involved in the Emerging Minds Lab with Kelsey Lucca, where he is leading the ManyBabies project in investigating infants’ social evaluations.

Chair of the Department of Psychology Tamera Schneider emphasized that these awards only scratch the surface of the incredible work being carried out by the students, faculty and alumni at ASU, saying, “Spanning all areas of psychology at various levels of experience, our community continues to push the boundaries of the field. We take immense pride in the accomplishments of our members and are excited to see what the future holds for continued growth and success.”