Faculty Profile for Dr. Ariel Alisha McField

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Dr. McField was Born and Raised in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in Addiction Studies from the University of Central Arkansas. After completing her Bachelor’s, she earned her master’s degree in Social Work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Ph.D. in Clinical Adolescent Psychology from Prairie View A&M University. After completing her pre-doctoral internship at Boys Town Behavioral Health outpatient clinic, she began her career at the University of Texas Permian Basin as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology for two years. Dr. McField is an assistant professor at Texas State University, where she teaches the Psychology of Human Diversity.

Clinically, Dr. McField has experience working with individuals between the ages of 5 and 80 in various settings (e.g., outpatient clinics, counseling centers, VA, etc.). She specializes in working with adolescents with a history of Suicidal ideations and behaviors.

Teaching Interests

Dr. McField has taught various Undergraduate and Graduate classes, including Intellectual Assessment, Personality Assessment, Ethics and Cognitive Treatment, Tests and Measures, Introduction to Counseling, etc. As an Assistant Professor at Texas State University, Dr. McField teaches Psychology of Human Diversity.

Research Interests

My research is focused on understanding how cultural meanings, practices, and experiences influence overall well-being by exploring sociocultural factors that increase and decrease psychopathology (e.g., suicidal ideations and behaviors). Additionally, I engage in research that examines the impact of structural marginalization, such as racism, discrimination, and stigma, on mental health outcomes and intergroup relations. The primary goals of my overall agenda are to:

1. Grow the understanding of a multicultural perspective of psychopathology.
2. Improve treatment, policy, and assessment for underserved and underrepresented people.
3. Contribute to making psychology more culturally responsive by broadening psychological theory and intervention.

I developed the CRISIS Mitigation research lab to assist in accomplishing the above research agenda. CRISIS stands for Culture, Resilience, Intervention, Suicide, Interpersonal/Intergroup engagement, and Structural marginalization.