Laura Hsu, Ed.D.

Dr. Laura M. Hsu is an Assistant Professor of Human Development at Merrimack College.  Dr. Hsu received her Ed.D. and Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Psychology with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Hsu has held a variety of positions in educational settings, including as a consultant for a K-12 inner city charter school’s student support team that addressed students with academic, social-emotional, and behavioral issues.  She has also served as a tutor in Americorps, afterschool settings, and a medium security prison; as an English teacher in China; an assistant professor of psychology at a community college; and a teaching fellow for graduate students in education. 

Dr. Hsu has two lines of research. Her primary research interest is in how young adults’ self-concepts are shaped by various attachment figures and how self-concepts are integrated into a coherent identity.  Her second line of research focuses on how the psychological process of aging can affect physical measures, and how reframing one’s thoughts about aging can improve one’s mental and physical health.