Professor of Psychology
About
Jacqueline S. Mattis is Professor of Psychology. Her work explores the meanings, manifestations, and functions of religiosity and spirituality among African American and Afri-Caribbean youth and adults—particularly urban-residing youth and adults. Of particular concern is the link between religiosity, spirituality and positive psychological as well as prosocial outcomes among African American and Afri-Caribbean youth and adults. In this line of work she investigates the ways in which people conceive of God, how they express religious and spiritual commitment, and how they use their faith to guide decisions and behaviors. She examines the extent to which, and ways in which, various domains of religiosity and spirituality (e.g., people’s self-definition as religious and or spiritual, involvement in formal and public aspects of religious life) inform such positive outcomes as forgiveness, empathy, compassion, altruism, volunteerism, and community involvement among those who live with the challenges associated with urban life.
A more recent line of work, conducted with collaborators Dr. Christine McWayne (Tufts University) and Dr. Linnie Green Wright (Graduate School of Social Work, Boston College), seeks to understand how low-income, urban-residing African American, Afri-Caribbean, and African immigrant parents of preschoolers conceive of and assess supportive or positive parenting. This measurement study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, used parent conversation groups, individual interviews, and videotaped observations of dyadic play interactions between parents and their children to identify the goals, values and practices associated with positive parenting.
Dr. Mattis is the co-author (with Fulya Kurter, Bahçesehir University) of two recently published scholarly books on culture and counseling from the experience of Turkish mental health practitioners.
Mattis, J. S., & Kurter, F. (2014). Psikolojik danisma ve kültür arastirmasi: Bulgular ve yorumlar. (Psychological Counseling and culture research: Results and implications). Istanbul, Turkey: Bahçesehir University Press.
Kurter, F., & Mattis, J. S. (In press). Üygulamacilarin gözuyle, Türkiye’de Psikolojik Danismanlikta kulture duyarlilik (Cultural sensitivity in counseling from the perspective of practitioners in Turkey). Istanbul, Turkey: Bahçesehir University Press.
She is the recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award at NYU, and of the Positive Psychology Young Scholars Award from the Templeton Foundation. She serves on the Editorial boards of Spirituality and Psychology and of the Psychology of Women Quarterly.
Dr. Mattis earned her B.A. in Psychology from New York University and her M.A. and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan.
Area
- Personality & Social Contexts
