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Sumie Okazaki

Professor of Applied Psychology

Applied Psychology

(212) 992-7662

Professor Okazaki will be on a sabbatical leave for AY 23-24 and is not taking on any new doctoral students for Fall 24.

Sumie Okazaki conducts research on the impact of immigration, social and culture change, and race on Asian and Asian American adolescents, emerging adults, and parents within local and transnational contexts. With colleagues in anthropology, education, and developmental psychology as well as community partners, she has ongoing research projects with urban Chinese American adolescents and immigrant young adults in New York City; Chinese parents and adolescents in Shanghai and Nanjing, China; Korean American and Filipino American adolescents and parents in Chicago; and current and former Korean early study abroad students in New York City, the Philippines, and South Korea.

Her most recent book, co-authored with Nancy Abelmann, is titled Korean American Families in Immigrant America: How Teens and Parents Navigate Race (2018, NYU Press). She has also co-edited three books: South Korea’s education exodus: The life and challenges of early study abroad (2015; with Adrienne Lo, Soo-Ah Kwon, & Nancy Abelmann), Asian American Psychology: The Science of Lives in Context (2002; with Gordon C. N. Hall) and Asian American Mental Health: Assessment Theories and Methods (2002; with Karen Kurasaki and Stanley Sue). She was the President of Asian American Psychological Association (2013-2015) and has served as an Associate Editor of the journal Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2004-2011). She is the recipient of Early Career Award and Distinguished Contribution Award from Asian American Psychological Association, Emerging Professional Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, and Early Career Award and Dalmas Taylor Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program. Okazaki received her doctorate in psychology from UCLA in 1994 and has taught in the psychology departments and Asian American Studies programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign prior to coming to Steinhardt.

Selected Publications

AUTHORED BOOK

Okazaki, S. & Abelmann, N. (2018). Korean American families in immigrant America: How teens and parents navigate race. NYU Press. https://nyupress.org/9781479836680/

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

Okazaki, S., Lee, C. S., Prasai, A., Chang, D. F., & Yoo, G. (2022).  Disaggregating the data: Diversity of COVID-19 stressors, discrimination, and mental health among Asian American communities. Frontiers in Public Health. doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.956076

Cui, L., Sun, Q., Waters, T. E. A., Li, X., Zhang, C., Zhang, G., Chen, X., Okazaki, S., Yoshikawa, H., & Way, N. (2022). Prospective between- and within-family bidirectional effects between parental emotion socialization practices and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment. Development and Psychopathology, First View, 1-12.

Yoo, H. C., Gabriel, A. K., & Okazaki, S. (2022). Advancing research within Asian American psychology using Asian Critical Theory and an Asian Americanist perspective. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 62(4), 563-590.

Tu, M.-C., & Okazaki, S. (2021). What is career success? A new Asian American psychology of working. American Psychologist, 76, 673-688.

Wong-Padoongpatt, G., Zane, N., Okazaki, S., & Saw, A. (2020). Individual variations of stress response to racial microaggressions among Asian Americans. Journal of Asian American Psychology, 11, 126-137.

Kim, J., & Okazaki, S. (2020). Becoming multicultural: Kinship development of Korean adolescents with Asian cross-border marriage migrant stepmothers. Journal of Adolescent Research. DOI: 10.1177/0743558420906085

Alif, A., Nelson, B. S., Stefancic, A., Ahmed, R., & Okazaki, S. (2020). Documentation status and psychological distress among New York City public college students. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 26(1), 11-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000290

Tu, M.-C., Zhou, S., Wong, S. N., & Okazaki, S. (2019). Realities of the American dream: Vocational experiences and intersecting invisibility of low-income urban Chinese immigrant laborers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 113, 88-102.

Graziano, M. J., Okazaki, S., Chun, G. H., & Barnes, S. P. (2018). Identities of accommodation, identities of resistance: Korean American women and Meaning making during and post college. Narrative Inquiry, 28, 75-93.

Juang, L., Kim, S. Y., Lee, R. M., Lau, A., Okazaki, S., Park, I., Swartz, T., & Qin, D. (2018). Reactive and proactive ethnic-racial socialization practices of Asian American second generation parents. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 9, 4-16.

Okazaki, S., Wong, S. N., & Kaplan, B. (2017). Strategic collaborative partnerships to improve immigrant Chinese community health: A case study. Asian American Journal of Psychology. 8(4), 339-350.

Courses

Abnormal Psychology

Classification, etiology, symptoms, and treatment of major psychological disorders, including anxiety, mood, eating, substance-related, sexual and gender identity, cognitive, personality, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders as well as disorders associated with childhood.
Course #
APSY-GE 2038
Credits
3
Department
Applied Psychology

Cross-Cultural Counseling

An examination of how behavior and experience are influenced by culture and intersectionality. Emphasis is given to increasing counselor self awareness, knowledge, and skills necessary to apply counseling theory and technique to diverse populations and settings.
Course #
APSY-GE 2682
Credits
3
Department
Applied Psychology

Interpretation and Use of Tests in Counseling Adults

Introduction to formal assessment. Includes surveys of vocational personality, and aptitude tests and structured experience in administration and scoring. The synthesis of various tests with background and behavioral information is stressed, as are interviewing techniques necessary for introducing and interpreting test batteries to clients. Source of clients to be tested is highly desirable.
Course #
APSY-GE 2672
Credits
3
Department
Applied Psychology

Introduction to Multicultural Counseling and Mental Health

An examination of the ways in which culture and context shape counselor and client identities and their cross-cultural encounters. Topics include individual identities and systems of societal privilege and oppression associated with gender and sexuality, race/ethnicity, disabilities, class, religion, and other forms of cultural influences. The course also focuses on effective strategies for navigating cross-cultural relationships in helping professions.
Course #
APSY-UE 1682
Credits
4
Department
Applied Psychology

Supervised Advanced Counseling Practicum: Individual and Group I

Counseling under supervision of the departmental faculty with school, college, and agency clients. In addition to direct counseling with clients, individual supervisory conferences, and weekly seminars, students prepare case reports, analyze tape recordings, and hold consultations as appropriate.
Course #
APSY-GE 3607
Credits
2
Department
Applied Psychology