Dr. Lui is passionate about teaching undergraduate and graduate students valuable knowledge and skills that are applicable in the real world. She intends to design learning activities and assignments that will “give psychology away” in tangible ways.
- Dr. Lui’s undergraduate course PSYC 2362 Psychology and the Challenges of Life introduces scientific evidence on how people from diverse backgrounds make adjustments to various life experiences. Topics include individual differences in stress and coping, development of self-concept across the lifespan, experiences with bereavement and loss, and cultural transitions, as well as psychological treatments and other health-promoting behaviors that can promote adjustment amid life challenges. It is intended to offer research-based information and promote practical skills for healthy psychological adjustment. Students will learn and practice mindfulness as a way to manage life stressors.
- Students conduct case study interviews with someone who had gone through a significant life challenge. The assignment allows students to develop empathy. Topics of these projects and presentations have included adjusting to immigration, bereavement and loss, and transitioning to motherhood.
- Amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic, (with the subsequent contributions by the lab members of the Acculturation, Diversity, and Psychopathology Team) students collectively conducted literature searches and developed a resource list that addresses stress and coping for healthful adjustment to this challenge. The COVID-19 RESOURCE LIST [click to download] is a tangible contribution to society by providing suggestions for managing pandemic-related stress using systematic psychological evidence.
- Dr. Lui’s undergraduate seminar course PSYC 4345 Psychology of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race discusses various issues that pertain to multicultural psychology, including culturally competent research methods used in psychology, the roles of ethnicity, race, and culture on human behaviors, interpersonal relationships, psychopathology, and physical health. This course will help prepare students to grapple with issues of multiculturalism in the modern diverse society.
- Students develop fact sheets that present clear information about the statistics and psychological understanding of phenomena in the realm of culture, ethnicity, and race. Topics of the fact sheet projects have included cultural differences in intimate partner violence, religiosity in the Black community, Hispanic depression, and professional help seeking behaviors among Asian Americans. Check out outstanding examples of completed fact sheets as resources for the general public.
- Dr. Lui teaches PSYC 2301/3301 Research Methods in Psychology, which is an introduction to various research methods used in psychology and other behavioral sciences. The course provides students with a broad and comprehensive overview of research designs and tools to evaluate their quality.
- Train students to “think like a scientist,” they are provided with a real data set, design their research questions, select appropriate measures and variables, conduct simple statistical analyses, and write a research paper using APA style.
- News releases about scientific research often over-simplify or sensationalize the findings. To ensure that students are able to be a good consumer of science and communicate effectively about research results, they are given published peer-reviewed articles from the SMU Psychology faculty/students to present them in press releases.