Before joining CMU, Amy Niu received her PhD degree from the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Fall of 2021. She received her MS degree from the same program in 2016.
At CMU, Niu teaches Psych 233 Human Growth and Development, Psych 330 Psychology of Adolescents and Emerging Adults and Psych 310 Child Psychology. Regardless of the specific topic of any course she teaches, as an instructor of psychology, she has three overarching goals for her classes:
- To cultivate students’ interest in psychology
- To facilitate students’ appreciation for psychology as a science and to empower students with scientific literacy to consume and/or practice psychology in their daily life and future career
- To foster students’ awareness of diversity to embrace the uniqueness of one’s own and others
Niu's research mainly focuses on the socioemotional development of late adolescents and young adults, especially the impact of new technology and social media on these individual’s self-image, the formation of social relationships and socioemotional transitions in new settings. Her most recent research plan involves launching a new study on the role of technology in first-generation students' college transition experience at CMU.