Navid Amarlou

Research Intern
​
Ventana Wildlife Society
9699 Blue Larkspur Ln, Ste 105
Monterey, CA 93940
(831) 455-9514, fax (831) 455-2846

• Bio
• Areas of Expertise

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Navid contributes to the design, implementation, and evaluation of nature-based interventions that promote psychological well-being and social connectedness. Building upon his psychology and research background, Navid's internship work with the Wellness through Nature Program draws on theories of environmental and social psychology to investigate how natural environments influence mental health, identity, and equity in access to wellness resources.
Navid’s [research portfolio] reflects his commitment to bridging empirical rigor with community relevance:

•  In the From Self to Sustainability project, he investigates the psychological antecedents of pro-environmental behavior using validated instruments such as the Environmental Identity Scale, Environmental Attitudes Inventory, Climate Hope Scale, and Pro-Environmental Behavior Scale. His analyses in RStudio highlight the connections between environmental identity, hope, and behavioral intentions.
• He leads the Monterey County Environmental Attitudes and Accessibility Survey, a population-level project assessing environmental attitudes, demographics, health status, and structural barriers to outdoor engagement through quota-based sampling methods.
• In collaboration with local agencies through the ParksRx Wellness Program, Navid evaluates the efficacy of community wellness initiatives, contributing to the development of standardized impact analysis and evidence-based recommendations for organizations, including Montage Health, CalFresh, and the Big Sur Land Trust.
• He evaluates the forest bathing programs for adolescents, analyzing pre- and post-intervention outcomes on anxiety and depression using PHQ-2 and GAD-2, while considering program attendance as a factor shaping psychological outcomes.

Beyond his applied research, Navid is deeply engaged in questions of equity in education and health. He has delivered a TEDx Talk on deficit thinking in education, advocating for asset-based approaches that foreground community strengths.
Navid aspires to pursue a PhD in social psychology with the goal of becoming research-driven faculty, where he will continue developing research at the intersection of environmental identity, stigma, and community-based intervention. His long-term goal is to design and evaluate interventions that advance environmental justice, health equity, and collective well-being. Through this work, he is committed to sustained partnerships with communities and to mentoring the next generation of scholars in socially responsive, methodologically rigorous research.

• Environmental and Social Psychology - ​Researching how environmental identity, attitudes, and accessibility shape well-being, collective behavior, and equity in engagement with nature. Experienced in psychometric evaluation, survey design, and the development of interventions to promote environmental justice and health equity.
• Stigma, Identity, and Education - Investigating the psychological mechanisms of deficit thinking and attributions for academic failure, with a focus on Latinx students and marginalized populations. Developed measures to assess deficit-based experiences and delivered a TEDx Talk on deficit thinking in education.
• Community-Based Intervention Science - Designing and evaluating programs in collaboration with non-profit and educational organizations (e.g., ParksRx Wellness Program, Ventana Wildlife Society, Outside the Box Education). Committed to equity-centered, participatory approaches that connect psychological research with community health outcomes.
• Quantitative and Mixed-Methods Research - Skilled in statistical analysis and computational methods, including R, Jamovi, SPSS, and Python. Experienced in survey methodology, psychometric testing, thematic and content analysis, and coding reliability measures (e.g., Krippendorff’s Alpha, bootstrapping). Applied computational approaches to online data, including the use of RedditExtractor for content analysis of Reddit data, expanding research into digital environments.
• Technology and Urban Psychology - Contributing to an upcoming volume chapter extending Stanley Milgram’s legacy to examine applications of technology in urban psychological research, with attention to social connectedness, identity, and modern urban stressors.
• Academic Communication and Knowledge Translation - Experienced presenter at conferences, including the Western Psychological Association, MAA MathFest, and university research symposia. Published with the APA’s Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Committed to translating research into accessible forms for both academic and community audiences.