Fang Zhang

Associate Professor of Psychology

Degrees Earned

Ph.D., Personality and Social Psychology, Cornell University, 2001

M.A., Personality and Social Psychology, Cornell University, 1999

M.Sc., Developmental Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China, 1996

B.Sc., Psychology, HangZhou University, Zhejiang, China, 1993

Current CV:

Zhang_CV.pdf

Contact

508-767-7000

fzhang@assumption.edu

Special Interests

Dr. Zhang’s broad research interests include the cognitive, motivational, and emotional foundations of personality. Specifically, her research focuses on four areas: 1) personality and self development across the life span, 2) adult attachment and interpersonal dynamics, 3) sending, decoding, and co-regulation of emotions in interpersonal relationships, 4) cross-cultural comparison of person perception and implicit theories of personality. Dr. Zhang is a social and personality psychologist.

Academic Programs

Psychology

Undergraduate Courses Taught

General Psychology

Statistics

Personality

Research Seminar

Graduate Courses Taught

Personality Psychology

Recent Publications & Editorships

Zhang, F. (in press). Neuroticism. In B. J. Carducci (Editor-in-Chief) & C. S. Nave (Vol. Ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of personality and individual differences: Vol. I. Models and theories. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Parmley, M., Zhang, F., Colburn, K., & Georges, N. (2015). Fluctuations in female attention to male facial expressions of emotions across the menstrual cycle. In A. Freitas-Magalhães (Ed.), Emotional Expression: The Brain and The Face (Vol. 7) (pp.148-180). Porto: Edições Universidade Fernando Pessoa.

Zhang, F., Parmley, M., Wan, X. A., & Cavanagh, S. (2015). Cultural differences in recognition of subdued facial expressions of emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 39, 309-319.

Zhang, F. & Parmley M. (2015). Emotion Attention and Recognition of Facial Expressions among Close Friends and Casual Acquaintances. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 32, 633-649. DOI: 10.1177/0265407514541073

Parmley, M., & Zhang, F. (co-first author, 2015). Your face says it all: Closeness and the perception of emotional expressions. Journal of Social Psychology, 155, 127-142.

Zhang, F. & Parmley M. (2011). What your best friend sees that I don’t see: Comparing close friend dyads and casual acquaintance dyads on the perception of emotional facial expressions of varying intensities. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 28-39.

Zhang, F. (2009). The Relationship between State Attachment Security and Daily Interpersonal Experience. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 511–515.

Zhang, F., & Labouvie-Vief, G. (in press). Development of adult attachment orientation: A 6-year longitudinal study. Journal of Attachment and Human Development (Special Issue).

Zhang, F., & Hazan, C. (2002). Working models of attachment and person perception processes. Personal Relationships, 9, 227-237.

Recent Presentations & Lectures

Parmley, M., Zhang, F. (co-first author), doCurral, *A., Visconti, M., & Nguyen T. (2017, May). Global vs. Local Processing: A Shift in Cognitive Processing associated with Serenity. Poster presented at the annual meeting of at the Annual Association for Psychological Association.

Zhang, F., Parmley, M. (co-first author), Gostkowski, R., & *Cavicchi, A. (2017, May). Individual differences in the experience of serenity and regulation of emotions. Poster presented at the annual meeting of at the Annual Association for Psychological Association.

Soysa, C., Zhang, F., Parmley, M., & Lahikainen, K. (2017, August). Novel, Integrative Dimensions of FFM-Mindfulness and Serenity Predict Stress and Well-Being. Poster to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association. DC, Washington.

Parmley, M., Zhang, F., Gostkowski, R., & *Reynolds, N. (2017, January). The serene mind: Serenity and holistic perception. Poster to be presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, TX.

Zhang, F., & Parmley, M., Nguyen, T., & Visconti, M (2017, January). Who are the serene people? Individual differences in the experience of serenity. Poster to be presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, TX.

*doCurral, A., Parmley, M., Zhang, F., & *Knight, B. (2015, October). Global versus local processing: A shift in cognitive processing associated with yoga. Presentation at the New England Psychological Association Conference, Fitchburg, MA.

Nguyen, T., Visconti, M., Parmley, M., & Zhang, F. (2015, October). Promotion of well-Being: Effects of Serenity and Emotion Regulation. Presentation at the New England Psychological Association Conference, Fitchburg, MA.

Soysa, C., Lahikainen, K., Zhang, F., Parmley, M., & Kahn, A. (2015). FFM-mindfulness and models of serenity differentially determine stress and well-being. Poster presented at the Annual Association for Psychological Association.

Parmley, M., Zhang, F., *Colburn, K. L., Georges, N., & *Lincoln, C. (2015). Attentional bias across the menstrual cycle: Emotional expression matters. Poster at the 27th Annual Association for Psychological Science Convention, New York, NY.

Soysa, C., Lahikainen, K., Parmley, M., Zhang, F., Lilly, R., Kahn, A., Erickson, D., & Dupont, K. (2015). Models of serenity in college students: Factor structure, stress, and well-being. Poster presented at the 27th Annual Association for Psychological Science Convention, New York, NY.

Conferences

Parmley, M., Zhang, F., *Gostkowski, R., & *Reynolds, N. (2017, January). The serene mind: Serenity and holistic perception. Poster presented at the 17^th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, TX.

Parmley, M., Zhang, F., *doCurral, A., *Visconti, M., & *Nguyen, T. (2017, May). Global vs. Local Processing: A shift in cognitive processing associated with serenity. Poster presented at the 28^th Annual Association for Psychological Science Convention, Boston, MA.

Zhang, F., Parmley, M. (co-first author), *Gostkowski, R., & *Cavicchi, A. (2017, May). Individual differences in the experience of serenity and regulation of emotions. Poster presented at the annual meeting of at the Annual Association for Psychological Association.

Zhang, F., Parmley, M., *Nguyen, T., & *Visconti, M (2017, January). Who are the serene people? Individual differences in the experience of serenity. Poster presented at the 17^th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, TX.

Current Research Projects

My research focuses on three areas:

1) Adult attachment. I am interested in the development of attachment styles across the life span as well as the relationship between attachment style and interpersonal behavior and cognition. Attachment style are distinct patterns people have for viewing and being involved in close relationships. I have collaborated with Dr. Gisela Labouvie-vief from Wayne State University (now in University of Geneva, Sweden), Dr. Itziar Alonso-Arbiol from University of the Basque Country in Spain, and Dr. TongGui Li from Beijing University in China in a number of investigations of individual differences in attachment style.

2) Perception of facial expressions of emotions. Facial expressions reflecting happiness, anger, sadness, fear, surprise, contempt, and disgust are commonly observed in everyday life and are considered primary emotional expressions. Accurately perceiving facial expressions, especially subtle expressions of emotions, can be beneficial to individuals because it allows them to correctly interpret another person’s state of mind and respond accordingly. My research investigates individual, contextual, and cultural differences in the perception of expressions. I have collaborated with Dr. Maria Parmley and Dr. Sarah Cavanagh at Assumption and two Chinese colleagues, Dr. Ping Yao from Beijing University and Dr. XiaoAng Wan from Tsinghua University, on this research.

3) Serenity and Buddhist psychology. The interplay between culture, religion (specifically, Buddhism), and emotion interests me a great deal. Cultures differ in what they consider to be ideal emotions. Western cultures endorse high-arousal positive emotions, such as happiness, excitement, joy, and ecstasy, whereas Eastern cultures value low-arousal positive emotions, such as serenity, calmness, peace, and tranquility, best exemplified by the serene smile of the Buddha. Serenity has been described as a transcendent emotional experience that expands consciousness and brings peace, acceptance, and gladness to the individual. My colleague Maria Parmley and I are interested in exploring this transcendent nature of serenity and its relationship to physiological and neurological changes in the body as well as changes in cognition and emotion. We also are collaborating with Dr. Keith Lahikainenm at Assumption and Dr. Soysa Champika from Worcester State University on a project examining links between mindfulness and serenity.

Recent conference presentations:

Zhang, F., Parmley, M., Cavanagh, S., & Wan, X. A. (2013, July). Cultural differences in selective attention to facial expressions of emotions: A case for engagement and disengagement. Poster presented at the 13^th annual European Congress of Psychology Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.

Parmley, M., Zhang, F., Cavanagh, S., & Wan, X. A. (2013, May). Identifying American and Chinese Facial Expressions: Sex of the Face Can Make a Difference. Poster presented at the annual Association for Psychological Science Conference in, Washington, D.C.

Parmley, M., Zhang, F., Colburn, K. L., Walker, A., Gjemnica, F., & Georges, N. N. (2013, May). Exploring serenity: Identifying Distinguishing Characteristics. Poster presented at the annual Association for Psychological Science Conference in, Washington, D.C.
Zhang, F., Parmley, M., Wang, X. A., & Cavanagh, S. (2012, July). Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions of Varying Intensities: Examining In-group Advantage in an American-Chinese Comparison. Paper presented at the 30^th International Congress of Psychology, in Cape Town, South Africa.

Zhang, F. & Li, T. G. (2011, July). Adult attachment style and experience of daily positive and negative events. Poster presented at the plenary conference of the International Society for Research on Emotion, in Kyoto, Japan.

Zhang, F., Parmley, M., Cavanagh, S., & Wan, X. A. (2011, July). Perception of emotional facial expressions of varying intensities: An American-Chinese Comparison. Poster presented at the regional conference of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Recent publications and manuscripts:

Zhang, F., Parmley, M., Wang, X. A., & Cavanagh, S. (under review). Are you sad: Cultural differences in recognition of subdued facial expressions of emotions?

Parmley M. & Zhang, F. (co-first authors; under revision). Emotion attention and decoding of facial expressions in interpersonal relationships.

Parmley, M., & Zhang, F. (under revision). Your face says it all: Closeness and the perception of emotional expressions.

Zhang, F., & Parmley M. (2011). What your best friend sees that I don’t see: Comparing close friend dyads and casual acquaintance dyads on the perception of emotional facial expressions of varying intensities. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 28-39.

Zhang, F. (2009). The relationship between state attachment security and daily interpersonal experience. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 511–515.

Academics

Fang Zhang

Assumption College

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