Faculty Profile

Professor Cheng Chi-Ying is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychology Area Coordinator at Singapore Management University (SMU). She received her PhD in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research examines how individuals navigate multiple identities, cultures, and emerging technologies, with three interconnected streams of work.

First, she studies identity integration and intrapersonal diversity, examining how individuals integrate multiple cultural, racial, gender, and professional identities and the cognitive mechanisms through which identity integration shapes outcomes such as creativity, well-being, and performance. Second, she investigates Singapore psychology, focusing on national and racial identity, multicultural intergroup relations, and Singaporeans’ Kiasu (Fear of Losing Out) mindset and its implications for well-being, learning, and creativity. Third, her emerging research examines human–AI interaction, investigating how AI systems embody cultural patterns through the language and cultural materials on which they are trained and how such cultural alignment influences human–AI collaboration. She also explores AI as a scalable platform for psychological intervention, including ChatGPT-based interventions designed to promote self-compassion and student well-being.

Professor Cheng’s work has been published in leading journals in psychology, management, and STEM education including Psychological Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), PNAS Nexus, The Leadership Quarterly, and the International Journal of STEM Education. She was a Lee Kong Chian Fellow in 2022–23. She has served as Associate Editor of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology and on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Her teaching spans self and identity, personality and individual differences, cultural psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and business research methods.

Qualifications

• PhD in Organizational Psychology, University of Michigan, 2005
• MS in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, National Taiwan University, 1997
• BS in Psychology, National Taiwan University, 1994

Research Interests

• Biculturalism and Cultural Identity Integration
• Multiculturalism and Creativity
• Cultural Diversity and Team Performance
• Cross-cultural Negotiation
• Gender and Professional Identity Integration

Research Advisor/Co-Research Advisor to

• Dai Xiaoyu
• Davelle Lee Jing Yi
• Tracy Chen Xi
• Isabelle Chiew

Course(s) Taught in SMU

• Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Psychology of Individual Differences
• Psychology of the Self
• Psychology Study Mission
• Cultural Psychology