Tabitha Kirkland, Ph.D.
Research
I am an educator and social psychologist with expertise in happiness and emotional intelligence. One of the best parts of my job is connecting with students. In my classes, students engage in contemplative and metacognitive practices, collaboration, discussion, and debate.
I write about motherhood, work, identity, and well-being, integrating personal stories with research and systemic critiques. Other interests include questions about technology, mental health, and education, such as:
- The effects of modern technologies on our connectedness with others and mental health
- Nature and well-being
- How to best integrate AI in education
- Why we mistrust AI and, more broadly, what it means to be “authentic”
Beyond the classroom and the keyboard, I love going for long runs with an audio book, cooking, working with clay, and playing with my kids.
Education
- PSYCH 101: Introduction to Psychology
- PSYCH 245: Introduction to Social Psychology
- PSYCH 209: Fundamentals of Psychological Research
- PSYCH 345: Social Psychology
- PSYCH 440: Psychology of Emotion
- PSYCH 445: Theories of Social Psychology
- PSYCH 208: Happiness
- PSYCH 448: The Good Life
- September 20, 2023 Tabitha Kirkland awarded a UW Diversity and Inclusion Seed Grant
- December 7, 2022 Tabitha Kirkland is quoted in a KUOW Seattle Now piece about how laughter can help with mental health during winter
- November 15, 2022 Tabitha Kirkland is quoted in FastCompany about toxic positivity
- November 15, 2022 Tabitha Kirkland is quoted in a UW Medicine Right as Rain article about tackling the scarcity mindset
- February 10, 2022 Tabitha Kirkland discusses the important of sleep in the UW Daily
- September 28, 2021 Tabitha Kirkland interviewed for two UW Medicine Right as Rain articles
- January 24, 2020 Tabitha Kirkland is featured in this University of Washington Magazine article
- June 25, 2019 Tabitha Kirkland was a finalist for the Distinguished Teaching Award. Way to go Tabitha!
- December 14, 2018 The Psychology Department has several instructors nominated for the 2019 Teaching Awards! Kelly Chang and Margarita Zeitlin are up for the Excellence in Teaching Award. Tabitha Kirkland and Nicole McNichols are up for the Distinguished Teaching Award, which is the highest teaching distinction a faculty member can receive at the University of Washington.
- March 22, 2018 Tabitha Kirkland’s Happiness class, and the beneficial perspectives it provides, is the subject of a UW College of Arts & Sciences Perspectives newsletter article.
- February 26, 2018 Tabitha Kirkland was interviewed in this article, from The Daily, about diet and self-perception
- February 14, 2018 Tabitha Kirkland was interviewed about happiness and positive psychology in this article from The Daily.
- January 31, 2018 Nicole McNichols and Tabitha Kirkland discuss the psychological aspects of hazing in this article from The Daily.
- December 15, 2017 You can read Tabitha Kirkland’s tips for introverts on surviving the holidays in this Right as Rain, UW Medicine article.
- Kirkland, T., Gruber, J., & Cunningham, W. A. (2015). Comparing happiness and hypomania risk: A study of extraversion and neuroticism aspects. PLoS One, 10(7), e0132438.
- Cunningham, W. A., & Kirkland, T. (2014). The joyful, yet balanced, amygdala: Moderated responses to positive but not negative stimuli in trait happiness. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(6), 760-766.
- Cunningham, W. A., & Kirkland, T. (2012). Emotion, cognition, and the classical elements of mind. Emotion Review, 4(4), 469-370.
- Kirkland, T., & Cunningham, W. A. (2012). Mapping emotions through time: How affective trajectories inform the language of emotion. Emotion, 12(2), 268-282.
- Kirkland, T., & Cunningham, W. A. (2011). Neural basis of affect and emotion. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 2(6), 656-665.