Susannah Paletz, Ph.D.

Research Psychologist -- NASA

Academic Background

Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology, University of California-Berkeley, 2003
M.A. in Social/Personality Psychology, University of California-Berkeley, 1999
B.A. in Psychology & Science in Society, Wesleyan University, 1994

Research and Applied Work

Susannah Paletz is a Research Psychologist at NASA Ames Research Center who studies teamwork, creativity, cultural and organizational factors, and the psychology of science. She completed both the Psychology major and the Science in Society program at Wesleyan University (1994, Phi Beta Kappa), receiving High Honors on her thesis examining student attrition from science and mathematics majors. After college, Susannah worked as a research assistant for Dr. William McAuliffe at the National Technical Center for Substance Abuse Needs Assessment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She earned her M.A. (December 1999) and Ph.D. (December 2003) in Social/Personality Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, collaborating with Drs. Kaiping Peng, Christina Maslach, and Robert MacCoun. She studied social and personality effects on group creativity with Dr. Maslach and is currently writing a paper with Dr. MacCoun on bias in the interpretation of scientific evidence. With Dr. Peng, Susannah continues to examine the effects of culture on creativity. Susannah’s dissertation assessed lay theories of creativity using original survey data from Japan, China, and the United States.

Since coming to NASA (March 2004), Susannah has researched team composition and cohesion, organizational risk factors, individual and team selection, and aviation decision-making. She is also a co-PI on a NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) underwater mission studying group dynamics and creativity and is affiliated with the Distributed Team Decision Making laboratory, collaborating with Drs. Judith Orasanu and Christopher Bearman. Susannah joined the HCI lab in March 2006 to conduct user research with Irene Tollinger and Christian Ratterman for the Problem Reporting Analysis and Corrective Action (PRACA) system. She currently also examines the distributed teamwork of the Mars Rover scientists with Professor Chris Schunn (University of Pittsburgh), Irene Tollinger, and Alonso Vera.

Recent Papers

Paletz, S. B. F., & Peng, K. (In press). Problem finding and contradiction: Examining the relationship between naïve dialectical thinking, ethnicity, and creativity. Creativity Research Journal.

Bearman, C. R., Paletz, S. B. F., Farlow, S., Bernhard, R., & Orasanu, J. (2006, August). An examination of conflict between pilots and air traffic controllers in weather and non-weather situations. In S.B.F. Paletz (Chair), Types, causes, and countermeasures of team conflict: Diverse perspectives. Symposium conducted at the American Psychological Association’s Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA.

Paletz, S. B. F. & Peng, K. (2006, July). Values and the importance of novelty and appropriateness to creativity. Paper presented at the 18th International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Spetses, Greece.

Paletz, S. B. F., Orasanu, J., Tada, Y., Bernhard, R., Fischer, U., & Kraft, N. (2006, January). Multilevel analyses of personality, social, and gender effects on group climate and efficacy. Poster presented at the 7th Annual Meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Palm Springs, CA.

Paletz, S. B. F., Peng, K., Erez, M., & Maslach, C. (2004). Ethnic composition and its differential impact on group processes in diverse teams. Small Group Research, 35, 128-157.