Florida A&M University proposes to continue to elevate its academic environment by fostering ongoing research projects in the social and behavioral sciences. This proposal is being submitted in response to the Minority Institutional Research Development Support Program RFP. It is intended to continue a previously funded program to enhance the research skills and research productivity of faculty and provide a challenging and stimulating environment to encourage students to consider research careers in the broad area of mental health. Faculty and students will be provided the support, encouragement, and skills that will be provided by the opportunities afforded by this research grant. While psychology is the only discipline area included in the present proposal, efforts will be made to include faculty from all of the social, behavioral and natural sciences to create a truly visionary interdisciplinary program. The proposed research activities are strongly supported by the emerging Masters and Doctoral programs at Florida A&M University. The various proposed research activities are as follows: 1. Developmental support to enhance the technical research skills of faculty and students through intensive participation in workshops and collaboration with established research scientists. 2. An investigation of the Africentric cultural-based Black personality construct called African Self-Consciousness, in relation to a complex network of general personality dispositions and socio-environmental factors as predictors of positive mental health outcome among a national sample of urban African-American adults. 3. A longitudinal investigation of the psychophysiological factors that contribute to the physiological stress response in young African-American adults.
