Avneet Batra

Avneet recently completed her Ph.D. from West Virginia University, USA. Her research interests primarily focus on understanding parent–adolescent relationships and their impact on adolescent adjustment outcomes. Prior to moving to the United States, she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from the University of Delhi. Additionally, she has completed a diploma in Guidance and Counselling from NCERT, New Delhi. She recently published a research article in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, focusing on helicopter parenting and adolescent anxiety and depression. She has also presented her research at various national and international conferences. Furthermore, she has experience working and interning across diverse settings (e.g., schools and hospitals), which has greatly enhanced her ability to work in interdisciplinary teams. She hopes to expand her research interests in the future and continue working in the field. 

Before joining UPES as an Assistant Professor, Avneet worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) at West Virginia University, USA. As a GTA, she taught a variety of undergraduate courses and fulfilled diverse teaching responsibilities. She also has experience working with children with autism, where she utilized Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy while working with them. 

Lifespan Development Psychology I Cross-Cultural Psychology I Parent-Adolescent Relationship I Parenting

Avneet believes in the ideology of inculcating critical thinking and life-long learning skills in her students. She strongly believes that students learn the most when they can relate the learnings of the class to the outside world. Some of the ways via which she instils these skills involve helping students consider diverse viewpoints, drawing analogies between theoretical ideas and real-world problems, and encouraging open discussions, where an attempt is made to respect and value multiple and varied perspectives.  

She also endorses the idea of ‘active learning’ and uses it as a teaching methodology in her classes. She includes its necessary elements such as seeking student feedback, using real-world examples, and varying pitch and tone in her classes. These varied teaching methodologies also help her to fulfill other important goals which include being approachable and sensitive towards her students’ needs. 

Avneet has taught a variety of courses as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the United States, including Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Social Psychology, Introduction to Human Development, Adolescent Development, and Child Development. Currently, at UPES, she teaches Lifespan Development and Experimental Psychology. 

Avneet has taught a variety of undergraduate courses, both in-person and online formats. She has also completed a 15-credit certificate in university teaching, which has greatly enhanced her pedagogical skills. Additionally, she has also been involved in varied research projects. Her master’s thesis examined the relationship between helicopter parenting and adolescent psychopathology while her dissertation explores domain-specific parental behavioural control and its links to youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms in Indians and Indian Americans. She has experience with both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. She also serves as an active member of the International Committee for the Society for Research on Adolescence (USA). 

avneet.batra@upes.ac.in