Graduate Students

Hanbyeol (Esther) Lee

Hanbyeol (Esther) is in her second year of the Ph.D. program in Social Psychology at the University at Buffalo. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Psychology from Yonsei University. Her research interests broadly include how various motivations and behaviors affect each other bidirectionally, and how the belief in the timeless self influences motivation. She also studies factors that contribute to well-being in romantic relationships. In her free time, Hanbyeol likes to spend time with her friends, play the piano, and watch a movie with some beer.Selected Works:Lee, H. E., Kim, J. J., Cheon, J. E., & Kim, Y. H. (2023). Multifaceted effects of promotion focus on marital outcomes under mate value discrepancy. Family Relations.Lee, H.E. (2023, February). The effect of disease avoidance motivation on the interpersonal distance perception. Poster presented at Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference. Atlanta, GA.Kim, J.J., Lee, H.E., Yang, H.W., Cheon, J.E., Kim, Y-H. (2021). The mediating role of emotional suppression in the relationship between spouse’s neuroticism and marital well-being. Korean Journal of Family and Culture, 33(2), 89-123. doi:10.21478/family.33.2.202106.004

Nicole Koefler

Nicole is in her fourth year of the Ph.D. program in Social Psychology at the University at Buffalo and is the lab manager for the Self and Motivation Lab. She earned her B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Theology & Ethics from the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University. Nicole’s research interests include understanding how individuals successfully (and unsuccessfully) seek connection with others, and the ways in which people make sense of the world through their moral and religious convictions. In her leisure time, she enjoys perusing used-book stores, exploring Buffalo, and increasing her collection of house plants.

Selected Works:

Koefler, N., & Park, L.E. (2024, February). Judgments of moral transgressions against the self and others. Poster presented at Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference. San Diego, CA. 

Koefler, N., & Park, L. E. (2023, February). Threats to morality increase moral convictions and decrease prosocial behavior. Poster presented at Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference. Atlanta, GA.

Naidu, E.S., Koefler, N., Park, L.E., & Lee, D. (2023, February). Lay beliefs about social media use and frequency of use. Poster presented at Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference. Atlanta, GA.

Park, L.E., Ward, D.E., Naragon-Gainey, K., Fujita, K., & Koefler, N. (2024). I’m still spending:  Financial contingency of self-worth predicts financial motivational conflict and compulsive buying. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50(2), 232-252.

Lab Affiliated Graduate Students

Corey Allred

Corey Allred is a first year Ph.D. student in Psychology at the University at Buffalo. He received his B.A. at Carleton College in Psychology with a concentration in Neuroscience. Corey’s research interests include the boundary conditions of empathy and compassion, impact of social media on interpersonal processes, and how anger expression elicits empathic concern in others. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games and DnD with friends, looking after his cat and plants, and getting overly invested in the workings of fictional worlds.

Katie Finnerty

Katie is in her fourth year as a graduate student at the University at Buffalo, where she first worked towards her M.A. in Psychology and is now in her second year in the Social Psychology Ph.D. program. Katie’s research interests include understanding when people engage in prosocial emotions and behavior. In her free time Katie enjoys painting, being outside, and spending time with friends and family. 

Leslie Mei

Leslie is a fifth year PhD student interested in narrative, empathy, and identity. They earned their B.A. in Psychology and English from Carleton College and their MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. Their research interests primarily include how people engage with displays of suffering, both in relation to fictional characters and to real life cross-cultural interactions. In their free time, they play DnD, study Victorian fashion, and try to craft the perfect latte.

Selected Works:

Mei, L. (2023, April). Do cultural norms for suffering displays predict judgments of character? Midwestern Psychology Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

Mei, L. (2019, May). Exploring a framework of personality, identity, and time perspective. MAPSS Graduate Student Academic Conference, Chicago, IL. Collaborated and presented o

Gabby Pascuzzi

Gabby Pascuzzi is a fourth-year PhD student in University at Buffalo SUNY’s Social-Personality Psychology program. Her research interests broadly concern how people are motivated to self-protect and protect their relationships, and how identity (for example, gender) may impact relationship processes. Additionally, she is interested in non-traditional ways people pursue belonging, such as parasocial relationships. In her free time, Gabby can be found watching too much reality TV, playing board games and video games, and keeping her two cats and many plants alive.

Valerie Vessels

Valerie Vessels is the Project Support Specialist for Dr. Lora Park at the University at Buffalo. She received her B.S. in Psychobiology and B.A. in Gender Studies from UCLA, and her M.A. in Psychological Research from California State University, Long Beach. For the last three years, Valerie has used her administrative and research experience in Dr. Park’s lab to manage multiple study projects including an NSF grant project. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her cat, baking sourdough, reading, and listening to true crime podcasts.

Selected Works:

Park, L. E., Naidu, E., Lemay, E., Canning, E., Ward, D. E., Panlilio, Z., & Vessels, V. (2023). Social evaluative threat across individual, relational, and collective selves. In B. Gawronski (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol.68, pp.139-199). Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

Park, L. E., Italiano, A., & Vessels, V. (2023). Managers’ frequent displays of busyness predict employees’ job disengagement, burnout, and turnover intentions. International Journal of Social Psychology, 1-48.