Name<\/strong>: <\/strong>Yunkyoung Garrison<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Title<\/strong>: <\/strong>Assistant Professor of Psychology<\/p>\n\n\n\n Degrees from<\/strong>: University of Iowa, Ph.D. in counseling psychology and M.A. in educational measurement and statistics; Yonsei University, M.A. in psychology and B.B.A. in business administration<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nontraditional path<\/strong>: As her undergraduate degree indicates, Yun Garrison initially worked in business after graduating from Yonsei University, in Seoul, South Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wasn’t really in touch with my own life values,\u201d she says. Instead, she was initially motivated to please her parents, \u201ca congruent Asian cultural value,\u201d as well as to seek happiness through financial success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A stint in business, specifically the energy sector in South Korea, prompted Garrison to rethink what gives her purpose and meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe energy industry is male-dominated and, because it\u2019s effectively a monopoly, very change-resistant. For me, working toward change is really important. I didn’t feel it was a good fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humans vs. numbers<\/strong>: Her first job outside business was in a university setting, as a staff member working with international programs and international students. \u201cI enjoyed working with the humans more than numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From there, she pursued graduate work in psychology. \u201cPsychology was a great fit for me because it has the tools to uncover knowledge while promoting values that are important to me: diversity, social justice, compassion, and humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Core identity<\/strong>: Garrison says that her doctoral work has only further solidified her \u201ccore identity\u201d as a counseling psychologist, which embraces being a scientist, practitioner, and advocate \u2014 \u201call of which are core roles as a counseling psychologist. That’s how I got into this field, and it’s still continuing, an ongoing journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her work<\/strong>: A scholar-activist, Garrison wants her research to be a \u201ccatalyst for individual and societal change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working with individuals and groups in the place where she\u2019s living, Garrison studies the impacts of racism and classism on mental health \u2014 and develops programs to help mitigate those effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meritocracy myth<\/strong>: As a doctoral student at the University of Iowa, Garrison did research that links student stress to the social concept of meritocracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meritocracy suggests that \u201cif you work harder, you’re going to succeed \u2014 a really hopeful message,\u201d Garrison explains. Some scholars call it a myth because, as evidence shows, achieving upward social mobility<\/a> through merit may not be possible due to the constraints of racism and classism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The American Meritocracy Myth Stress Scale \u201cassesses psychological stress among Americans struggling with the meritocracy myth,\u201d she says, by showing that students\u2019 belief in meritocracy creates \u201cpsychological disequilibrium.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on her findings, \u201cI’m hoping to develop more programming and interventions for communities of color or underserved communities,\u201d she says. Such programming would have two goals, the first being to gain \u201cmore insight about how students internalize the meritocracy myth.\u201d The second would be to help students \u201cdevelop critical consciousness,\u201d that is, the skills needed to \u201cbetter understand intricate relationships between beliefs about society and their personal hopes for work and future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In community<\/strong>: For her dissertation, Garrison wanted to understand how Latinx and white youth differently view their career paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She found rural white students who believe that society is just and the system is fair \u201ctend to have higher career hopes about their future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, she also found that rural immigrant Latinx students who have critical awareness about the status quo tend to have higher hopes for their future careers and work. \u201cA young person\u2019s critical consciousness plays an important role in underserved immigrant youth\u2019s career development. The more they have critical consciousness, they’re more likely to have a more functional and helpful career belief system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Assistant](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/200910_Yun_Garrison_0023.jpg\")