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Jamilia Blake, a doctoral candidate in UGA's College of Education, is one of only three students in the nation awarded a $20,000 Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Fellowship from the American Psychological Foundation.
The fellowship sponsors groundbreaking psychological research to create significant new understandings and facilitate children's development. It will support Blake's dissertation research of the relationships between young females, ethnicity and aggression.
Previous research suggests that aggression is a stable predictor of maladjustment for girls, with physical and verbal aggression resulting in a more severe pattern of social and psychological maladjustment than social aggression. Findings suggest that the degree to which aggressive females are maladjusted seems to be moderated by ethnicity as well as the form of aggression exhibited.
Given evidence that suggests differences in parenting practices of African-American and Caucasian parents and the influence of family values on children's behavior, parental socialization of aggression might be a plausible explanation for ethnic differences in the relation between aggression and maladjustment.
Blake, a fourth-year doctoral student in educational psychology, is interested in how the occurrence of differences in family socialization practices and community values may explain why there are ethnic differences in the relation between aggression and maladjustment. She seeks to understand how parental socialization of aggressive behavior, or the degree to which parents condone certain forms of aggression, affects the behavior of girls.
Blake, a native of Beacon, N.Y., plans to pursue an academic career as a professor at a Research I institution after she graduates in the spring of 2006. She received her bachelor's in psychology and her master's in educational psychology, both from UGA. “Jamilia is an extraordinarily capable student who possesses a broad range of psychological competencies, social savvy, and the intellectual prowess to become a highly respected and effective member of the academy on the completion of her Ph.D.,” said Michele Lease, assistant professor of educational psychology and Blake's major advisor.
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