Grace Rivera

Grace Rivera serves as Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Mississippi's College of Liberal Arts. Her office is located in 205 Peabody Hall (Oxford campus), where she teaches PSY 201 (Introduction to Psychology) and PSY 321 (Social Psychology).

Dr. Rivera holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Texas A&M University (2020). Her research centers on Lay Beliefs across three interconnected domains:

• Self and Authenticity: How true-self beliefs influence decision-making, relationship satisfaction, and justice perceptions
• Meritocracy: Cultural narratives about social mobility and their impact on racial biases
• Genetic Beliefs: Lay theories about heritability of character traits and their consequences for parenting practices

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2021-2025) reveals consistent focus on authenticity mechanisms (7 articles), racial/cultural contexts (5 articles), and genetic attributions (4 articles). Her work increasingly integrates cross-cultural methodology and critical race frameworks, particularly evident in 2024 studies on Black forgiveness narratives.

Dr. Rivera actively examines how sociocultural contexts shape psychological processes, with recent research demonstrating how race influences evaluations of socially responsible teachers across political ideologies (2022). Her experimental approach combines qualitative analysis with controlled social experiments.