Associate Professor of Psychology & Women's and Gender Studies
she/her/hers
About
Additional Research Interests: Qualitative Methods
I am a feminist psychologist who studies stigma and discrimination, with a focus on issues of reproductive justice and critical sexuality studies.
One of the major concerns I focus on is the politics of measurement. Across several studies that use qualitative and quantitative methods, I focus on how racist and sexist assumptions structure how and what researchers learn about -- and as a result, what is missed and overlooked.
My current project focuses on the role of racist and sexist sterotypes in surveys of Americans' abortion attitudes. Over the last two years, I have interviewed individuals across the U.S. about who and what they imagine when they answer survey questions about abortion. In this project, I test and develop an array of innovative methods to study individuals' imaginations and associations while taking surveys. You can read more about this project here.
In a second line of research, I investigate how individuals accommodate to unjust treatment over time. Across several studies -- with queer youth, with ill women at the end of life, with students who have recently been sexually assaulted -- I find that people frequently dismiss their experiences of pain, discrimination, and abuse as “no big deal.” This presents a crucial methodological and policy dilemma when researchers and policy makers rely on individuals to recount their own experiences of mistreatment in order to document and pursue justice claims. For example, in my research on forms of sexual stigma that lesbian, bisexual, and queer women face, I find that those who face chronic marginalization see small injustices as normal and to be expected, which in turn, makes research on “mundane" or chronic experiences of discrimination especially difficult to measure and interpret. My work intervenes in this dilemma by developing feminist psychological theories and methods that acknowledge the role of testimonial, as well as its limits.
I received my PhD in Psychology (2009), was a postdoctoral scholar in the Michigan Society of Fellows (2009-2012), and received the Class of 1923 Memorial Teaching Award, the Distinguished Early Career Contributions in Qualitative Inquiry Award (APA Div 5), the Mary Walsh Roth Teaching the Psychology of Women Award (APA Div 35) and the Michele Alexander Early Career Award for Scholarship and Service (APA Div 9).
More information about my research can be found at: ProgressLab.info.
Recent/Representative publications:
Papp, L. J., & McClelland, S. I. (2021). Too common to count? “Mild” sexual assault and aggression among U.S. college women. Journal of Sex Research, 58(4), 488-501.
McClelland, S. I., Dutcher, H., & Crawford, B. (2020). In the fabric of research: Racial and gender stereotypes in survey items assessing attitudes about abortion. Journal of Social Issues, 76(2), 239-269.
McClelland, S. I. (2018). Critical methods for studying adolescent sexuality. In Lamb, S. & J. Gilbert (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Sexuality: Childhood and Adolescence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 281-299.
McClelland, S. I. (2017). Conceptual disruption: The self-anchored ladder in critical feminist research. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 41(4), 451-464.
McClelland, S. I. (2010). Intimate justice: A critical analysis of sexual satisfaction. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(9), 663-680.
Area
- Personality & Social Contexts
- Joint Program in Women's and Gender Studies and Psychology
Field(s) of Study
- feminist research methods
- gender/sexuality
- critical psychology
- adolescence
- social justice
