This proposal requests support for the continuation of the program at UC Irvine that provides research training in the scientific analysis of human adaptation in various sociocultural, environmental and developmental contexts. Recent discussions of the future of academic psychology have been remarkably consistent in their call for research in the behavioral sciences to place greater emphasis on: 1) producing a productive synergy between basic and applied research that will lead to evidence-based solutions to problems of societal importance, 2) understanding how both adaptive and maladaptive behavior are influenced by the sociocultural, environmental, and development contexts in which they occur, and 3) approaching research problems from a multidisciplinary and multi-level perspective. The faculty of the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior are uniquely well-tuned to this emerging national research agenda and have a long history of training young scholars in psychological science with a broad social ecological orientation. During its initial period of support, our department has developed a training program offering coursework, seminars, and supervised research experience designed to provide predoctoral and postdoctoral students with the theoretical and methodological tools needed to examine the complexities of human adaptation from a multidisciplinary perspective and with reference to the sociocultural, environmental, and developmental contexts within which individuals function. Our faculty continue to be productive scholars, using varied and innovative methodological approaches to address a variety of issues relevant to fundamental problems in human adaptation. Several new faculty have been hired in recent years bolstering pre-existing departmental strengths in cross-cultural psychology and life span development and the department expects continued growth over the next several years. Our goal is to continue our training program and expand it to meet the national need for behavioral scientists trained to conduct multidisciplinary, context-sensitive research on problems of social significance. We request funding to support three (3) predoctoral and three (3) postdoctoral trainees in the next project period.
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