School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences - The University of Texas at Dallas

PAIR Lab Director

Robert A. Ackerman, PhD

Dr. Ackerman’s research addresses questions about interpersonal relationships using methods and models from both social and personality psychology. It is characterized by three broad lines of work. First, he is interested in developmental factors that contribute to the functioning of adult romantic relationships. His second line of research focuses on how narcissistic attributes impact the development of relationships and how such attributes affect important relationship outcomes in ongoing relationships. Finally, because his substantive interests involve processes that occur within relationships and therefore often involve non-independent data, Dr. Ackerman is particularly interested in analytic models for both cross-sectional and longitudinal dyadic data. Please see his CV for more information.

Graduate Research Assistant

Kevin Carson, BA

Kevin earned a BA in psychology from UT Dallas in the spring of 2012. He is currently a first year student in the MS Psychological Sciences program. He is interested in researching how people's behaviors and perceptions in romantic relationships are influenced by early-life relationships. After receiving his Master's, Kevin hopes to be admitted into a PhD program in either experimental or social psychology.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Amanda Bierschenk

Amanda is a senior at UT Dallas, double majoring in speech-language pathology & audiology and child learning & development. Although she is not majoring in psychology, Amanda finds the fields of social and personality psychology fascinating and is particularly interested in how social interactions are affected by disordered or abnormal communication. She plans to attend graduate school and earn an MS in Communication Disorders and become a practicing pediatric speech-language pathologist.

Julia Evans

Julia is a second-semester junior, double majoring in psychology and child learning and development. She is interested in the interpersonal relationships of individuals with ADHD, and more generally, the dynamics of romantic relationships. Julia plans on pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology and possibly working for a non-profit organization.

Sarah Hubbard

Sarah is a junior majoring in psychology and minoring in child learning development. She is interested in research on personality, social and developmental psychology. She would like to pursue an MS or PhD in child psychology after she graduates.

Aaron Levy

Aaron is in his senior year at UT Dallas, majoring in psychology and minoring in criminology. After graduating, he plans to attend graduate school and obtain a PhD in Criminal Psychology. His research interests include personality psychology, criminology and social psychology.

Gargi Patel

Gargi graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in anthropology. She is currently taking psychology classes at UT Dallas to pursue a Master's Degree in counseling psychology. This is her first time working in a lab to gain more exposure to the various aspects that go into research.

Maria Petty

Maria is a senior majoring in neuroscience at UT Dallas with a strong interest in psychology and a desire to remain involved in the research process, hopefully continuing on to a PhD. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a doctorate of physical therapy and working to further the credibility of the field by contributing to empirical research efforts. In her spare time she enjoys riding horses.

Amrutha Sanjay

Amrutha is a senior majoring in psychology and child development with minors in business administration and literary studies. She loves traveling and Bikram yoga.

Daisy Siegert

Daisy is a psychology major in her senior year at UT Dallas. She is excited to continue to learn and contribute to every aspect of the research process here until graduate school. Her research interests include self-perceptions and social interactions, narcissism and social networking sites. Daisy is not completely sure what her future job is, but is sure she is on the right path so far. A prime example of positive reinforcement for her efforts thus far comes in the form of a trip to Harry Potter World after graduating in May.

Vincent Theolier

Vincent is a junior majoring in psychology with interests in social and clinical psychology. He plans to pursue further training in psychology in graduate school after graduating from UT Dallas and narrowing his research interests.

Margaret Watson

Maggie received a BA in psychology from UT Dallas in the spring of 2012. She is currently applying to masters programs in social psychology, with the goal of one day teaching and performing research of her own. Her interests include gender socialization, families and personal relationships, and cognitive dissonance.

Ashton Wetsel

Ashton is a junior double majoring in psychology and child development. She is interested in parent-child relationships and hopes to attend graduate school in the future.

Andy Wright

Andy is a sophomore at UT Dallas and a psychology major. His interests within the field of psychology are both vast and numerous, but he's most intrigued by social perception, self-recognition and narcissism. He enjoys research and aspires to both gain an advanced degree in psychology and to find some form of employment using those skills, be it academic or something decidedly more capitalistic. Also, he's an Aries and his spirit animal is a fox.