Principal Investigator

P. Priscilla Lui, Ph.D.

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington (UW). I received my B.S. in biology and psychology from the UW, and M.A. in general psychology from the California State University in Los Angeles. I received my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a Graduate Certificate in Psychological Statistics at the APA– and PCSAS-accredited program at Purdue University. I completed the APA-accredited predoctoral clinical psychology internship at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Prior to returning to UW as a faculty member, I was an Assistant Professor (2016-2022) and Associate Professor (2022) at the Southern Methodist University.

*** Update (September 2024): I will be taking a new Ph.D. student in adult clinical psychology to matriculate in Fall 2025. See Graduate Students section for more. 

Research Interests and Expertise

As a clinical scientist, I conduct multicultural research related to mental health among people of color, and health disparities. I am interested in how people from diverse sociocultural backgrounds make sense of the world, and how their lived experiences associated with culture, ethnicity, race, and racism affect their psychopathology symptoms and addictive behaviors. Grounded in a social ecological framework, my research incorporates a range of designs, methodological, sampling, and analytic approaches, and focuses on:

  • processes involved in intercultural contact, particularly acculturation and racial discrimination;
  • cultural values, practices, and beliefs;
  • romantic and marital relationships, and intergenerational conflict; and,
  • personality and individual difference determinants of psychopathology and addictive behaviors.

To the extent that knowledge on the prediction and explanation of human psychology only is as good as our ability to assess these concepts, I am interested in scale development and evaluation of the quality of psychological measures. Some measures that I have developed can be found HERE.

Recently, I have been conducting meta-science research to understand how psychological scholars leverage open science and culturally competent research frameworks and tools to produce credible and impactful knowledge, and to ensure an equitable and transparent scientific process. A list of my publications can be found in my NCBI bibliography or my ResearchGate.

In addition to contributing to science by producing original research, I am an associate editor for Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and Assessment. I also serve as a consulting editor on several other journal editorial boards (Asian American Journal of Psychology, Clinical Psychological Science, Journal of Counseling Psychology, Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, and Psychology of Addictive Behaviors) and as an ad hoc reviewer for numerous peer-reviewed journals. My service to the profession aligns with my research interests and expertise. For example, I was a Workgroup member of the American Psychological Association (APA)’s Journal Reporting Guidelines for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice in Psychological Science, that helped develop the Journal Article Reporting Standards for Race, Ethnicity, and Culture (JARS-REC). I also serve on APA’s Open Science & Methodology Expert Panel.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to receive some awards, including:

Teaching Interests

I have experiences teaching undergraduate-level courses on Psychology and the Challenges of Life and Psychology of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race, Research Methods in Psychology, Abnormal Psychology (i.e., Psychopathology), and a graduate-level course entitled Cultural and Individual Diversity: Principles and Best Practices in Research and Applications. I also have taught a workshop to doctoral students in psychology entitled, How to Conduct a Comprehensive Literature Review with an Eye Toward Publishing it in a Top Tier Journal.

I aim to inspire students to use psychology courses to shed light on or solve real-world problems to “give psychology away.” For example, in light of the pandemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), students in my Summer 2020 Psychology and the Challenges of Life created a resource list for young adults to learn about stress and coping. Additionally, students in my Psychology of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race course complete fact sheets that address cultural diversity issues in psychology. Examples of these resources can be found HERE.

I received the 2019-2020 Golden Mustang Award at the Southern Methodist University in recognition of my contributions to teaching, student learning, and the discipline.

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