The University of Chicago
Department of Psychology
5848 South University Avenue
Chicago, IL, 60637
Debbie Ma
Background
Debbie is a third year student in the Social Psychology doctoral program. Her research interests are varied, but her primary line of research investigates attitude structure and the effect of context on automatic evaluation. She also examines the impact of cognitive states (e.g. executive control and arousal) on stereotype application. Her primary collaborators are Joshua Correll and Bernd Wittenbrink.
Debbie earned her B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2003, after which she earned a Master's in English Literature from the University at Buffalo. She also spent a year working with researchers at San Diego State University working with Thierry Devos and Jean Twenge.
Other Research Interest
Debbie has also conducted research with Georg Matt studying nicotine and tobacco contaminants in used vehicles. While at the University of Chicago she has also collaborated with Nicholas Epley examining more implicit types of enhancement between romantic partners and Howard Nusbaum and John Cacioppo on a project examining personality dimensions and their effect on economic decision-making.
Website
www.psych.uchicago.edu/~debbiema
Beyond Research
Debbie spends most of her free time playing with her puppy, Mulligan. Outside of school, she also enjoys nearly all outdoor activities, playing sports, reading, and dabbling in still life and candid photography. Some of her photography is posted at her website above.
Papers
Matt, G.E., Quintana, P.J.E., Hovell, Chatfield, D., Ma, D.S., Romero, R., Uribe, A. (in press). Residual Tobacco Smoke Pollution in Used Cars for Sale: Air, Dust, and Surfaces. Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
Matt, G.E., Romero, R., Ma, D.S., Quintana, P.J.E., Hovell,
M.F., Salem, S., Aguilar, M.,
Boland, J., Cullimore, J., Crane, M., Junker, J., Tassinario, P.,
Timmermann, V., Wong, K., & Chatfield, D. (in press). Tobacco use and
asking prices of used cars: Prevalence, costs, and new opportunities for
changing smoking behavior. Tobacco Induced Diseases.
Devos, T., & Ma, D. (in press). Is Kate Winslet more American than Lucy Liu? The impact of construal processes on the implicit ascription of a national identity. British Journal of Social Psychology.
Presentations
Devos, T., Ma, D., & Gaffud, T. (2008). Is Barack Obama American enough to be the next President? The role of ethnicity and national identity in American politics. Poster accepted for presentation at the IXth Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Albuquerque, NM.
Ma, D. (2007, April). Constructivism in attitudes: Recruitment of context specific information in target evaluation. Talk given at PsychFest, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.
Ma, D., Reid, M., & Twenge, J. (2007, January). Social Exclusion and Emotion Regulation. Poster presented at the IXth Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Emotion Pre-Conference, Memphis, TN.
Ma, D., Devos, T., & Noto, M. (2006, January). Is Kate Winslet more American than Lucy Liu? Reducing a dissociation between explicit and implicit knowledge. Poster presented at the VIIth Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Palm Springs, CA.
Back to Top
