Professor of Psychology & Women's and Gender Studies
she/her/hers
About
Additional Research Interests: Qualitative Methods
I am a feminist psychologist who examines how social and political environments unevenly shape people’s intimate lives. I ask questions that have to do with what people think is fair, what they expect, and what they think they deserve. I've studied this most often in the domain of teen and adult women's sexual health. My current research focuses on how people in the U.S. think about abortion, particularly at the intersection of race and gender. I examine what are commonly called "abortion attitudes" but also focus on what and who people think about when they think about abortion. I argue that attributions of incompetence fueled by racism and sexism need to be more fully examined if we are to understand the contemporary landscape of abortion policy in the U.S. Recent articles from this project can be seen here.
In addition, I critically revisit how commonly used research methods often obscure the effects of chronic discrimination and develop new methods to address these gaps. For a more detailed overview of my work related to sex ed and critical sexuality studies, see this encyclopedia entry [“Sara McClelland”] written by ProgressLab alum Drs. Leanna Papp & Harley Dutcher. More information about my research can be found at: ProgressLab.info.
I received my PhD in Psychology (2009), was a postdoctoral scholar in the Michigan Society of Fellows (2009-2012), and have received the Class of 1923 Memorial Teaching Award, the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Mentoring in Qualitative Inquiry Award (APA Div 5), the Mary Walsh Roth Teaching the Psychology of Women Award (APA Div 35), and the Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award (Univ of MI).
Recent/Representative publications:
Papp, L. J., & McClelland, S. I. (2021). Too common to count? “Mild” sexual assault and aggression among U.S. college women. Journal of Sex Research, 58(4), 488-501.
McClelland, S. I., Dutcher, H., & Crawford, B. (2020). In the fabric of research: Racial and gender stereotypes in survey items assessing attitudes about abortion. Journal of Social Issues, 76(2), 239-269.
McClelland, S. I. (2018). Critical methods for studying adolescent sexuality. In Lamb, S. & J. Gilbert (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Sexuality: Childhood and Adolescence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 281-299.
McClelland, S. I. (2017). Conceptual disruption: The self-anchored ladder in critical feminist research. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 41(4), 451-464.
McClelland, S. I. (2010). Intimate justice: A critical analysis of sexual satisfaction. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(9), 663-680.
Area
- Joint Program in Women's and Gender Studies and Psychology
- Personality & Social Contexts
Field(s) of Study
- feminist research methods
- gender/sexuality
- critical psychology
- adolescence
- social justice
