Skip to main content

Search NYU Steinhardt

woman smiling

Jen Ying Zhen Ang

PhD in Counseling Psychology Student

Email: ya2051@nyu.edu

Program: PhD in Counseling Psychology

Year Entered Program: 2020

Research Interests: 

1. Emotional flexibility - understanding how contextual variables such as age, gender, culture, clinical status influence emotion regulation tendencies and preferences.

2. Assessment - how can cultural considerations be incorporated in psychological assessments and interventions?

Principal Advisor(s): Dr. William Tsai

Research Description/Bio: 

Decades of emotion regulation research have cemented the importance of emotion regulation strategies in coping and well-being. Psychological interventions have historically guided individuals towards “adaptive” emotion regulation strategies and away from “maladaptive” ones (e.g. reappraisal vs suppression). Emotional flexibility focuses on the ability to use emotion regulation strategies appropriate to situation – no strategy is universally adaptive or maladaptive; it depends on how useful it is to our goals. I explore how contextual variables impact emotional flexibility and engagement of different emotion regulation strategies.

I also explore how using cultural interviews in assessment can help therapists and clients in treatment. The Wright-Constantine Structured Clinical Interview (WCSCI) is a structured assessment tool for clinicians to collect information from clients about their intersecting identities and experiences with privilege and oppression and includes the 9 dimensions from Hays’ ADDRESSING framework. I explore how the WCSCI is a useful clinical tool for clinicians and clients, and a useful training tool for clinicians to develop multicultural counseling competencies. 

Curriculum vitae

Felix Warburg Award Winner Video 

Psych Cafe: Integrating Multicultural Competencies and Social Justice into Assessment through Use of the Wright-Constantine Structured Cultural Interview (WCSCI)