Berryhill

As a community psychologist, my research usually takes place in the "real world." It is action research that is done in collaboration with children, adolescents and adults in the community (as opposed to experiments done on them). My projects have been diverse, but are tied by a theme of promotion of hope among disenfranchised children, adolescents and adults. In psychology, promotion of hope often means helping people think differently about their situations, but my interest is in changing policies, institutions, and environments that have an adverse impact on people, thus making them less hopeful. Under this approach, for example, it would be better to make a neighborhood safer rather than teach a child to cope with the violence there. I am currently developing the Latino Youth Project, which is designed to explore and understand through their eyes the lives of children who have immigrated to the United States.