Rate My Professor Allison Master

Dr. Allison Master is an Associate Professor of Measurement, Quantitative Methods, and Learning Sciences in the Department of Psychological, Health, and Learning Sciences at the University of Houston’s College of Education. She holds a courtesy appointment in Human Development and Family Sciences and directs the Identity and Academic Motivation (I AM) Lab. Master received her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University (2003), M.A. (2007) and Ph.D. (2011) in Developmental Psychology from Stanford University. Before joining UH in 2020, she was a Research Scientist (2016-2020) and Postdoctoral Fellow (2011-2016) at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. Her research explores how social identities shape academic motivation, with a focus on STEM fields across childhood and adolescence. She investigates gender stereotypes’ role in STEM motivation gaps, identity-safe interventions like belonging and growth mindset cues, and social factors promoting young children’s STEM engagement. This interdisciplinary work bridges learning sciences, developmental psychology, and social psychology to enhance STEM outcomes from preschool to college.

Master’s contributions have earned her the 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), UH Teaching Excellence Awards (2022, 2023-2024), and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2007-2010), among others. She has served as principal investigator on major grants from NSF (e.g., $597K CSforAll, 2021-2025) and IES ($1.4M, 2018-2023), securing millions in funding. Key publications include “Divergence of children’s gender stereotypes and motivation across different STEM fields” (PNAS, 2025, with Meltzoff, Tang, Cheryan), “Causes and consequences of stereotypes: Interest stereotypes reduce adolescent girls’ motivation to enroll in computer science classes” (Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 2025), “Gender stereotypes about interests start early and cause gender disparities in computer science and engineering” (PNAS, 2021), and “Social group membership increases STEM engagement among preschoolers” (Developmental Psychology, 2017). With over 8,800 citations, her findings influence educational practices worldwide, advancing equity and motivation in STEM.