Lisa Finkelstein

Lisa Finkelstein serves as a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Northern Illinois University, specializing in Social and Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Her research program investigates critical workplace dynamics including age-based discrimination, generational interactions, and organizational interventions for inclusive workplaces. With over 30 years of scholarly contributions since her 1996 Tulane University doctorate, she maintains active research leadership through the FinkLab while teaching core courses in social psychology and organizational behavior.

Education

• Ph.D. in Psychology, Tulane University (1996)

Professor Finkelstein's research centers on metastereotypes, age discrimination mechanisms, and mentoring effectiveness in multigenerational workplaces. She examines how implicit biases affect employment decisions, how humor functions as both coping mechanism and potential aggression vector, and the complex interplay between high-potential designation and leadership success. Her work bridges theoretical social psychology with practical organizational applications, particularly regarding cyber incivility impacts on older workers and Dark Tetrad personality influences on abusive supervision responses.

Analysis of her 2020-2025 publications reveals intensifying focus on intersectional discrimination frameworks, with growing emphasis on pandemic-exacerbated age biases and methodological innovations for measuring implicit metastereotypes. Recent work demonstrates sophisticated integration of daily diary methodologies with traditional experimental designs, while maintaining consistent attention to practical HR implications through resources like her 2021 "Ageless Talent" framework for age-diverse workforce optimization.

Scientific Awards

• No specific awards were documented in available materials

Professor Finkelstein's mentoring scholarship directly informs her teaching of PSYC 617 (Individual Assessment) and PSYC 619 (Organizational Development), where she translates research on mentor-protégé efficacy crossover into classroom practice. Her extensive publication record in top journals like Personnel Psychology and Work, Aging and Retirement demonstrates sustained research productivity without mention of major external grants in available materials. She maintains active scholarly engagement through the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), contributing to special issues on generational workplace dynamics.

She directs the FinkLab, which serves as the operational hub for her metastereotype research program. The lab employs mixed-methods approaches to investigate age-based workplace interactions, with particular focus on developing measurement tools like the word fragment completion task for metastereotype activation. Current lab activities appear centered on pandemic-era workplace adaptations and the Dark Tetrad's impact on abusive supervision responses.