THRIVE Social Science Study
The THRIVE Research Team, led by Dr. Christine Spitzmueller (THRIVE Co-PI), applied the Psychologically Healthy Workplace theoretical framework to the design of a multi-phase social science study. In consultation with our external evaluator Dr. Emorcia Hill, we devised a survey-based, multi-stakeholder, quasi-experimental design to determine how, when and why our department chair programming would lead to the strengthening of the climates within the department chairs’ academic unit.
Leveraging prior work by our team at UTRGV, and in partnership with the University of Houston and the University of California Merced, we created survey instruments to be administered to faculty members working within the departments of the chairs who are participating in our Cohort 1. Our hypotheses are that our summit-based exchanges with department chairs, and the chair-led and Latina-reviewed action plans, will a) result in improvements in perceptions of climate across faculty groups, b) strengthen positive climate perceptions by faculty of color, and c) strengthen positive climate perceptions by Latina faculty in particular.
Our survey instrument, currently being refined by our project Leadership Team, will be available after the launch of the Social Science Study.