In my research, I focus largely on the interface of culture and psychology. Recent research advances in culture and psychology have enriched our understanding of culture’s influence on individuals in many important ways. My research brings new insights by revealing how individuals actively participate in cultural processes in their own culture and when they navigate between cultures. As an active agent, individuals recruit cultural schemas and scripts when they construct the meanings of a social situation; they sample and cognitively juxtapose ideas from multiple cultures to generate creative solutions and to navigate the intercultural landscape; and they are motivated by their mindsets and implicit beliefs to appraise and approach their goals. Recently, I seek to bring this research to the next level by examining important societal challenges or issues, such as paradox management, work-motherhood enrichment, the psychology of climate change mitigation and adaptation, lay beliefs of busyness, and cosmopolitanism and globalization. Guided by these research directions, I have developed a coherent program of research studies, some of which move beyond disciplinary boundaries to abridge different fields in psychology.

Angela Leung Ka-yee, Associate Professor of Psychology
Singapore Management University