Hi everyone! My name is Shannon Brady, and I’m a 5th-year PhD candidate in the Psychology department. I grew up outside Washington, DC, but I have been in Southern California for over ten years. I came out to Los Angeles for college and decided I would never leave (if I could help it)!

I always knew I wanted to study psychology and pursued this topic during my undergraduate years. While in school, I worked at the school library commons, was a research assistant in an infant research lab, and volunteered in my mom’s second-grade classroom during the breaks. After graduating, I became a lab manager for that same baby lab and assisted with studies on infant and toddler perception, pattern learning, and emotion understanding. It was one of the best jobs ever–because I got paid to do research that I found exciting, AND I got to play with babies every day!

[Alt Description: Logo for UCLA Baby Lab with a sleeping baby in a bear costume on a blue background.]

Ever since I was little, I liked working with other people, especially children. This interest influenced me to pursue graduate studies in developmental psychology. Now, as a graduate student, I study how children learn about and develop knowledge of emotions and emotional processes, like the labels we use to categorize different feelings, how we show different feelings, and how we react to or change our feelings. I’m particularly interested in how emotional development may be influenced by context–specifically aspects of culture and language background. Most recently, I published a paper on Yucatec Maya children’s emotional responses to receiving a disappointing present. My dissertation aims to explore how self-talk may help children manage frustration.

As a child, I drew anthropomorphic cats, went with my mom to coffee shops to study, and read LOTS of books (to the point that my parents had to take them away so I’d stop and eat dinner) – things haven’t changed much since then! Nowadays, I like to feed and befriend outdoor cats, try out new coffee shops, read science fiction novels, and complete the daily Washington Post crossword puzzle. I also love to wear fun, bright colors - especially pink, and match my outfits to my slides when I teach. I even took inspiration from Elle Woods (Legally Blonde) when making the syllabus for my first course as an instructor!

[Alt Description: GIF showing a computer screen scrolling through Shannon’s pink syllabus for PSYC160.]

After participating in last year's Grad Slam public speaking competition, I was inspired to apply to be a teaching consultant with TADP. It was a great experience to meet and work alongside graduate students from other parts of campus as they all strove to hone their presentation skills. Because not everyone may seek out this kind of competition, I wanted to find an opportunity that would help support these skills for other graduate students. Teaching is one form of presentation. I hope to share the wonderful skills I’ve learned from others over the years to help other TAs in the classroom (and perhaps hone presentation skills applicable to broader contexts out of the classroom, such as conferences or even writing!).

If you have questions about anything – my research, emotions, or teaching, you can reach me at sbrad034@ucr.edu!