Social Identity, Health, and Education Inequality Lab
아주대학교 심리학과 사회 정체성과 불평등 연구실
(사회 및 건강심리)
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About Our Lab
We study how experiencing threat to one's important identity (e.g., socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, gender) can lead to worse health and educational outcomes. In our group, we utilize innovative biological (e.g., cortisol from saliva and hair, heart rate variability), psychological (e.g., ecological momentary assessment using smartphone), and computational (e.g., social media data, machine learning, and natural language processing) approaches to maximize the ecological validity of our research. Please reach out to us for more information or if you would like to be part of the group!
Ongoing Project
In an ongoing project, we examine how major political events shaped a range of outcomes, including emotional, physical, and psychological well-being, as well as attitudes toward key social and political issues. We investigate these questions using three-wave longitudinal data collected during a period of significant political turmoil in South Korea. Wave 1 was fielded shortly after the impeachment (2025.4.4), Wave 2 was conducted one week before the presidential election (2025.6.3), and Wave 3 took place one week after the election.
In an upcoming NRF-funded project, we examine how anxiety about future socioeconomic status decline affects the psychology, health, and political orientation of men in their 20s and 30s. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), text mining, and experimental methods, we aim to understand both real-time experiences and the underlying mechanisms through multilevel analyses.
2026.05. Dr. Park gave an invited talk at the Spring conference of the Korean Social and Personality Psychological Association at Seoul!
The Psychology of Political Crisis: Vulnerability, Protective Factors, Relationships, and Health in the Aftermath of Democratic Threat
정치적 위기의 심리학: 민주주의 위협 이후의 취약성, 보호요인, 관계와 건강
2026.05. Lab members will present two posters at the Spring conference of the Korean Social and Personality Psychological Association at Seoul!
A Diachronic Word Embedding Analysis of Men’s Dating and Marriage Discourse Before and After “Dishwashing Theory” (김유빈)
남성 중심 온라인 커뮤니티의 연애·결혼 담론은 어떻게 달라졌는가?: 설거지론 전후 시계열 워드 임베딩 분석
Information Acquisition Pathway and Political Polarization During a Period of Political Turmoil: A Longitudinal Test of Group Identity-Related Psychological Mechanisms (홍다한하늘, 박은언)
정치적 혼란기 정보 습득 경로와 정치적 양극화: :집단 정체성 관련 심리 기제의 종단적 검증
2026.02. Dr. Park presented at the Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) in the United States on the impact of threats to democracy on health.
2025.12. Dr. Park gave an invited talk on the diverse impacts of social identity threat on health at 1) the Annual Conference for the Korean Health Psychological Association and 2) Ajou University Medical Center!
2025.11. Lab members will present three posters at the Winter conference of the Korean Social and Personality Psychological Association at Busan!
Shifting Moral Foundations in Political Turmoil: Comparative Study of Liberal and Conservatives (손세희, 송유진, Raha Shogi)
The Influence of Political Group Malleability Beliefs on Political Psychology (강다현, 박은언, Caro Njie)
The Impact of Political and Social Event on Men and Women in Their 20s and 30s: Focusing on the December 3 Martial Law Declaration, the Impeachment, and the 21st Presidential Election (서지예, 이혜연, 한예린)
2025.10. Dr. Park gave an invited talk on the diverse impacts of social identity threat at the Psychology Department’s lecture series at Seoul National University
2025. 08. Lab members presented two posters at the Annual Conference of Korean Psychological Association, Ilsan, Korea!
Information Sources and Their Effects on Political Polarization and Health Outcomes: Focusing on the Martial Law Declaration, Impeachment, and Presidential Election in South Korea (박은언, 김환희, 배영주, 이혜연, 손세희, 송유진, 이세희, Valeria)
The Impact of Prosociality and Political Inclinations on Health in a Time of Political Chaos: Focusing on the impeachment in 2017 and 2025 (손세희, 송유진, 이세희, Valeria, 김환희, 박은언, 배영주, 이혜연)
2025. 08. Dr. Hyun Joon Park gave a talk at the Annual Conference of Korean Psychological Association about how threats to democracy lead to worse psychological and physical health outcomes!
For more information, please see News/Event section!
2026.04. Dr. Park (co-PI) with Dr. Choi (PI) received the A-RISE Borderless Education & Research Project award (₩20,000,000 ≈ $14,000) to develop a global course titled "Multimodal Inquiry into Global Social Issues: A Social and Health Psychology Perspective".
2026.03. Dr. Park has received Ajou University’s Excellence in Teaching Award (교육우수교수 선정)!
2025.12. Dr. Park co-authored an article published in PNAS Nexus examining how trust in advisors affects PhD students’ motivation, health, and performance.
2025.10. Dr. Park published an article in Self & Identity as a co-author that investigates the implications of felt understanding for psychological well-being!
2025.08. Dr. Park was awarded the Jae-Il Kim Early Career Award from the Korean Psychological Association, which recognizes the top paper by an early-career scholar across all areas of psychology.
2025.06. Dr. Park was awarded the Young Researchers Program grant (₩40,000,000 ≈ $28,000) from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) for 2025–2027. This grant is titled “Impact of Anxiety About Future Socioeconomic Status Decline on the Psychology, Health, and Political Orientation of Men in Their 20s and 30s: A Multilevel Analysis Using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), Text Mining, and Experimental Research.”
For more information, please see News/Event section!
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