Graduate Trainee Profile:
Mariana Preciado
Graduate Trainee - Psychology
Advisors: Professors Anne Peplau, Ben Karney and Kerri Johnson
Year Entered Doctoral Program at UCLA: 2007
Undergraduate School/Major: Yale University, Psychology
Email: mariana.preciado@ucla.edu

Research:
I am interested in the process by which people come to form impressions of themselves. I have been looking at the relationship between people's experiences (e.g., their sexual experiences with men and/or women) and the way they identify with those experiences (e.g., if they think of themselves as gay, straight, bisexual). I have been exploring how stigma and social support may play a role in how people organize their experiences into a coherent identity.
I am also interested in the way people form impressions of others. I have been looking at how motivation (e.g., the desire to think positively about a relationship partner) may play impact the types of information people focus on when forming impressions about others (e.g., only focusing on the positive aspects of a relationship partner).

Publications and conference presentations:

Preciado, M.A., Peplau, L.A., & Johnson, K. (2009, February).Sexual experience, sexual flexibility, and the space in between: The role of stigma and political environment. Poster presented at 11th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Tampa, Florida.

Frederick, D.A., Filossof, Y.R., Gildersleeve, K.A., Maisel, N.C., Phuphanich, M.E., Poore, J. C., Preciado, M.A., Saxbe, D.E., & Usahacharoenporn, P. (in press). Fidelity: Why are people faithful to their mates? Perspectives from evolutionary psychology, sociology, and social psychology. In T. Cooke (Ed.), Sex and society. New York, NY: Marshall Cavendish.

Preciado, M.A., & LaFrance, M. (2007, May). Is sexual orientation mutable? Perceptions of the fluidity of sexual orientation in males and females by males and females. Poster presented at 19th Annual APS Convention, Washington, D.C.

Preciado, M.A., & LaFrance, M. (2006, March). Sexual orientation: An exploratory study. Presentation given at Calhoun College Mellon Forum, Yale University.

Preciado, M.A., & LaFrance, M. (2005, July). Sex, fantasy, romance, and identity: Lay  beliefs about the stability of the components of sexual orientation in self and others. Presentation given at the Second New View Campaign Conference, Women and the new sexual politics: Profits versus pleasures, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Honors and awards:
Society for Personality and Social Psychology Diversity Travel Award
UCLA Interdisciplinary Relationship Science Program Trainee (2008-2009)
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Fellow (2008-2011)
Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship Program Honorable Mention (2008-2009)
National Science Foundation Diversity Initiative Summer Fellowship (2008)
UCLA Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship (2007-2008)
Yale University Mellon Undergraduate Research Grant (2006)
Yale University Psychology Department Senior Research Grant (2005)
Yale University Class of '59 Summer Research Grant (2004)
ill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholarship Recipient (2002-2006)

Current hobbies, interests, extracurricular activities:
Singing, video games, watching LOST, cooking, and getting to know L.A.
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