Affiliated with the Clinical/Community Division

My current work focuses on understanding how various aspects of race and ethnicity (e.g., cultural pride, racial/ethnic mistrust) are socialized and incorporated into a person's identity and belief system, and how these beliefs, in turn, affect mental health and other behavioral outcomes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am currently collaborating on a series of immigration studies based in Georgia, where my colleagues and I are studying the impact of secondary migration on both the Spanish-speaking (mostly Mexican) immigrants and the local communities which are, for the first time, dealing with the challenges and benefits of a substantial immigrant community. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm also currently completing a series of studies with Roy Eidelson, executive director of the Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, and other colleagues examining race group differences in Americans' beliefs about their racial and national identity groups and the extent to which these beliefs explain attitudes and behaviors associated with group conflict. Among other things, we've found that although Whites are more likely to report being involved in mainstream American culture, both Whites and Blacks feel equally "American." Furthermore, no significant differences exist between Blacks and Whites regarding their perceptions of their national group's vulnerability and experience of injustice, though, Blacks did perceive the national group as being significantly more helpless. In a related project, we are examining conflict between prison inmates and corrections officers (COs) to determine whether stronger beliefs about one's ingroup (i.e., inmates/COs) are associated with greater levels of aggression toward the outgroup, after controlling for type of crime and time in prison. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, I recently completed a book-length, multi-method study of Russian-Jewish immigration titled "Building a diaspora: Russian Jews in Israel, Germany, and the USA." The purpose of this research was to measure the social and linguistic integration of Russian speaking Jews in the three countries of interest and to identify factors that were associated with immigrant engagement in the host country's Jewish community. The project consisted of survey data on behavioral preferences (e.g., food, music) attitudes (e.g., child rearing), language usage, and demographics from 300-500 Russian-Jewish immigrants in each country (total N=1253), qualitative interviews with Russian-Jewish leaders, and content analysis of Russian-language and mainstream media coverage of this immigrant group in each of the three countries. Although this project has been completed (the book was published in 2006), I continue to have strong personal and professional interest in this immigrant group and look forward to the next opportunity to engage with it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to empirical research, I also write an occasional essay about racial dynamics and clinical psychology in popular culture. The first two publications below are recent examples.

Representative Publications:

• Lyubansky, M. (2008). How group prejudice forms and other race-related lessons from the Xavier Institute. In R. Rosenberg (Ed.). The psychology of superheroes: An unauthorized exploration. Dallas, TX: Ben Bella Books.
• Lyubansky, M. (2007). Harry Potter and the word that shall not be named. In N. Mulholland (Ed.). The psychology of Harry Potter: The boy who lived. Dallas, TX: Ben Bella Books.
• Ben-Rafael, E., Lyubansky, M., Gloeckner, O., Harris, P., Schoeps, J., Israel, Y., & Jasper, W. (2006). Building a diaspora: Russian Jews in Israel, Germany, and the USA. Boston: Brill Academic Press.
• Shpungin, E. & Lyubansky, M. (2006). Navigating social class roles in community research. American Journal of Community Psychology, 37, 227-235.
• Lyubansky, M. & Eidelson, R.J. (2005). Revisiting Du Bois: African American double consciousness and its relationship to beliefs about one's racial and national groups. Journal of Black Psychology, 31, 3-26.

Classes Recently Taught:

• Psychology of Race and Ethnicity
• Theories of Psychotherapy
• Abnormal Psychology (course supervisor)