Y. Joel Wong

I am a tenured Provost Professor in the Counseling and Counseling Psychology Programs at Indiana University. My research interests are in (a) positive psychology (especially the psychology of gratitude and the psychology of encouragement), (b) Asian American mental health (especially suicide-related outcomes), and (c) the psychology of men and masculinities. I also have secondary interests in the psychology of race and culture, including cross-racial microffirmations, the relevance of mattering in anti-racism work, the intersection of race and gender, cultural humility, dynamic perspectives on ethnic culture, and the model minority myth.

I maintain a free Substack newsletter where I share insights on the science and practice of gratitude, along with a website that offers practical resources for living gratefully.

I am a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 17, 45, and 51) and of the Asian American Psychological Association.

I am the Editor of the APA journal, Psychology and Men and Masculinities. I coedited two books on the psychology of men and masculinities: the APA Handbook of Men and Masculinities (Wong & Wester, 2016) and the Psychology of Men and Masculinities (Levant & Wong, 2017).

Regarding my clinical interests, I am interested in the application of strength-based approaches to psychotherapy. I have developed an 8-week psychoeducational group program to cultivate gratitude as well as gratitude micro-interventions for individual and group psychotherapy.  I demonstrated the use of these gratitude micro-interventions in an APA training video on strengths and flourishing in psychotherapy.

I am open to admitting a doctoral student. Although my research spans several areas, I would be most interested in admitting students interested in studying gratitude interventions and practices, because these reflect my main (but not exclusive) area of research over the next few years. More information about my current and future research and scholarly projects on gratitude can be found here.

Please click here for more information about my research lab on gratitude interventions and practices.

If you are interested in applying to the Ph.D. program in Counseling Psychology and would like me to be your advisor, I hope the following information will be helpful to you:

1. Students who are interested in working with me are welcome to contact me via email. Please feel free to introduce yourself and ask me questions.
   I have a strong track record of admitting students of color and international students.
2. I value diversity, equity, and inclusion – please click here for more information about the principles that have shaped my thinking on this topic.
3. Mentoring doctoral students is one of my favorite activities!
4. I am more likely to be a good fit with you if (a) you have a strong and genuine interest in research and (b) your research interests align with mine.
5. Although I value the contributions of qualitative research, my research is primarily quantitative in nature.
6. If you’re interested in working with me, please state so explicitly in your personal statement. Also, I encourage you to propose a few research questions that you would be interested in exploring as a doctoral student.
7. My purpose in life is to promote mattering through words of affirmation, which includes enabling people to feel valued and to add value (Prilleltensky, 2020). I will readily admit that I'm not always successful, but I aspire to live out this mission through my research, teaching, mentoring, and service activities.