Diana Sanchez

Title: Assistant Professor
Areas: Social Psychology/Intradisciplinary Health
Phone: 732-445-3552
Email: disanche@rci.rutgers.edu
Campus: Livingston
Building: Tillett Hall 625/401/403/439t
Website: sanchezlab.com/index.htm

Since I received my PhD in social psychology and women’s studies in 2005 from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), I have been on the faculty at Rutgers University. I am a member of the social psychology area and maintain affiliations with Health Psychology, the Health Institute, the Race and Ethnicity Center, and the Women’s Studies Department. My research program consists of two lines, one of which concerns racial identity and health and the other, gender roles and identity in close-relationships.

My research on racial identity has examined the psychological well-being of people of multiracial heritages. More broadly, my research on racial identity addresses the extent that racial identities are viewed as stable or contingent aspects of the self, and the potential psychological antecedents and consequences of racial stability. In addition, I examine how racial stigmatization influences perceptions of physical health and the medical community. Finally, I am also using self-determination theory to examine race-related processes.

My research on gender in close relationships has addressed how gender role investment influences psychological well-being, sexual behavior, satisfaction, and functioning. I examine the extent to which externally contingent self-worth explains some of the costs of investment in gender ideals. In my lab, we address various aspects of the gendered experience (e.g. stigmatization, perceptions of vulnerability, motivations, relational self-concepts, perceptions of the body) and how these experiences influence male-female relations and psychological health.