New faculty: Jared Anderson studies marriage, globalization
Monday, August 20th, 2007
Jared Anderson made his third trip to China this summer.
On his first, he and his wife, Stacy, taught English in Taiwan. In 2002 they backpacked through Asia. In July, he traveled with a multi-university group lead by Bill Meredith, head of the School of Family Studies and Human Services. “I love Asia,” Anderson stated.
The assistant professor in Marriage and Family Therapy hopes to return to China next summer to teach workshops in marriage and family therapy and to collect data with collaborators that he met this summer.
His research topic in China: how globalization has affected pair bonding.
Attitudes, expectations and decision-making in marriages can change as a country develops, Anderson said. The changes, along with increased consumerism resulting from economic growth in Asia, have put pressure on these partnerships.
Most of his research investigates the development and change in romantic relationships, an effort to answer the question “What makes a marriage?”
Anderson’s dissertation at the University of Minnesota revolved around a 20-year study of 284 unhappy couples. Some of these couples experienced relationship improvement (46%), some showed no improvement (43%) and a small proportion of the unhappy couples showed relationship deterioration over the course of the study (10.5%). Anderson wanted to know what precipitates the “turn arounds.”
He will teach individual and family assessment.
The Kansas City native studied psychology at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. When he was living in Taiwan, Anderson chose the K-State MFT master’s degree program because he thought it would fit with his interest in working with families. From half way around the world, he and Stacy moved to Manhattan where he completed MS.
They have a 2-year-old daughter named Kate.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 and is filed under Dean's Blog.