Dr. Arpana Inman Awarded Distinguished Contributions to the Science and Practice of Psychology by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association
Dr. Arpana Inman, Professor and Chair of the Department of Education and Human Services at Lehigh University, was awarded with the Distinguished Contributions to the Science and Practice of Psychology by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association.
She is set to be the President of Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological Association and has also been involved in the Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA).
As a teacher and a scholar Dr. Inman has focused on the influence of culture and the cultural identity.
During her time at Lehigh University Dr. Inman has fostered programs that emphasize multiculturalism in the coursework and in the make-up of the student body and faculty. Her goal is to instill a multicultural mindset throughout the program.
Dr. Inman has numerous peer reviewed articles or book chapters. Being the excellent mentor that she is, most of these publications were co-written with at least one of her graduate students. Her research program has addressed many important topics in counseling, such as supervision, social justice, sexual orientation, and cultural identity. She was the co-editor of the Handbook of Asian American Psychology.
However, Dr. Inman’s most salient contributions have been in the study of the journey of South Asian Americans where she has studied their acculturation, perceptions of discrimination, coping, gender roles, and other topics related to their well-being. Currently about 3.4 Americans are of South Asian descent (1% of the American population), making them the second largest Asian group within the United States (second only to Chinese-Americans). Although as a group they tend to do well economically, Dr. Inman has done pioneering work in identifying their unique social and emotional challenges.
In recognition of her many contributions to the science and profession of psychology, Dr. Inman will be presented with the Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Science and Profession of Psychology at the annual conference by Samuel Knapp, on behalf of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association.