Mrs. Megan Johnson, Ph.D. Candidate

E-mail: Megan_Johnson2@baylor.edu

Office: Baylor Science Building A.410

Department: Psychology and Neuroscience

BIC Courses: Examined Life I and Social World I

Megan Johnson, a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in Experimental Psychology at Baylor, is both a BIC professor and former BIC student. She received her B.A. in Psychology and French (with a minor in Philosophy) from Baylor in 2007, her M.A. in Experimental Psychology in 2009 from Baylor, and she is currently working on her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology. Ms. Johnson's research examines the influence of religiosity-spirituality and rigid ideology on prejudice toward racial and value-violating out-groups. She has published over nine articles in journals such as Social Psychological and Personality Science, Personality and Individual Differences, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Currently, she is working on her dissertation examining the influence of priming Christian concepts on prosocial and aggressive behaviors toward various religious in- and out-group members. Other current projects include examining the role of rigid ideology in mediating the relationship between religiosity and prejudice.

Ms. Johnson's teaching interests include social and personality psychology, the psychology of religion, the intersection of psychology and philosophy, and quantitative methods. In spring of 2011, she won Baylor's Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching award. The cornerstone of her teaching philosophy is to foster creativity, interest, and learning within the classroom to help students become their own learning agents. Her ultimate goals are for students to begin seeking information outside of the classroom and to learn actively rather than simply memorize information. As a former BIC student, she has experienced how the BIC helped foster those learning environments for herself and she hopes to foster them for her students as well.