My overarching research goal is to critically examine how and why people from dominant and marginalized groups engage in activism to advance equity. In two lines of work, (1) lay beliefs about activism and (2) intraminority solidarity, I integrate social psychological theories on activism, intergroup relations, and social identity with the critical race framework that centers lay, marginalized perspectives and subverts the intersectional systems of power. I conduct my research using both quantitative (e.g., experiment, daily diary, longitudinal) and qualitative methods (e.g., meaning extraction, thematic analysis), in varied contexts (e.g., organizational, community, cross-cultural). Ultimately, my work seeks to build rigorous, empirically grounded theories and interventions for grassroots organizing and policy-making.
Incorporating the understudied lay, marginalized, and systemic perspectives, my research elucidates novel lay beliefs about activism. In light of my prior research demonstrating how a lay theories approach unveils the psychological underpinnings of marginalized experiences (e.g., Pham & Borton, 2024, CDEMP; Chaney, Pham, & Cipollina, 2024, Frontiers), I initiated a research program on lay beliefs of activism. Using mixed methods, my work has demonstrated (1) lay beliefs about the goals and motivations of anti-racism activism (Pham, Chaney, & Ramírez-Esparza, 2023, RASP), (2) Black (but not White) people perceive anti-racism organizational efforts that target both White power and discrimination (Pham & Chaney, under review), (3) a lay theory of neutrality-dismantling activism (e.g., a person either stands with the oppressed or the oppressor; Pham & Chaney, in prep). Directly interrogating the role of systems of oppression, I began to examine beliefs about abolishing police and state violence (e.g., Abolitionist Ideology scale; Oswald, Pham, & Chaney, in press, ASAP), and how systemic support influences Black Americans’ beliefs about and interest in organizational anti-racism task force (Pham & Chaney, in prep).
Lay Beliefs About Activism
My research integrates intersectional and strength-based approaches to holistically understand the conditions that facilitates equitable and sustainable solidarity. Going beyond the dominant shared-discrimination mechanism (Pham & Chaney, R&R, PSPB), my work demonstrated a lay belief of generalized prejudice, or shared perpetrators of prejudice, as a mechanism of solidarity among diverse marginalized groups and cultures (Pham, Chaney, & Lin, 2024, PSPB). Number of marginalized identities is an antecedent of this shared-perpetrator belief and solidarity (Pham, Chaney, & Sanchez, 2024, Self & Identity), suggesting this shared-perpetrator belief reflects the interconnectedness of prejudices. My research has begun to center the hierarchies of discrimination (e.g., passing down the mic is a novel, effective act of intersectional solidarity to promote women of color’s identity safety; Pham & Chaney, in press, SPPS) and integrate a strength-based lens (i.e., marginalized people share identity-conscious strengths that may motivate intraminority solidarity; Pham, Chaney, & Garr-Schultz, in prep).