James Jackson, Ph.D.
James Jackson, Ph.D.
Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology
Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education
School of Public Health
Director, Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
James S. Jackson is the Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology,
Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, and Director
of the Institute for Social Research, all at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on issues of racial and
ethnic influences on life course development, attitude change, reciprocity, social
support, and coping and health among blacks in the Diaspora. He is past director of
the Center for Afro-American and African Studies and past national president of the
Black Students Psychological Association and Association of Black Psychologists. He
is the recipient of the Distinguished Career Contributions to Research Award, Society
for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, American Psychological Association,
and recently received the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for Distinguished Career
Contributions in Applied Psychology from the Association for Psychological Sciences.
He is an elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of
Sciences.
He is currently directing the most extensive social, political behavior, and mental
and physical health surveys on the African American and Black Caribbean populations
ever conducted, “The National Survey of American Life” and the “The Family Survey across Generations and Nations,” and the National Science Foundation and Carnegie Corporation supported “National
Study of Ethnic Pluralism and Politics.” Recent publications include “African Americans
in a Diversifying Nation,” and “Age cohort, ancestry, and immigration status influences
on family relations and psychological well-being among three generation Caribbean
black families.” Journal of Social Issues, 63 (4), 729-743, 2007. He serves on several Boards for the National Research Council
and the National Academies of Science and is a founding member of the new “Aging Society
Research Network” of the MacArthur Foundation.