Humberto Fabian
Staff Writer
With numerous publications under his belt, professor of psychology Aghop Der-Karabetian, is ready to close his final chapter at the University of La Verne this spring.
Having taught for 37 years, Der-Karabetian has focused his teaching and research on world mindfulness, environmental sustainability, ethnic identity, cultural diversity, anxiety and education. He has focused on learning about the human psyche and understanding social consciousness and inclusivity.
His passion for pursing a career in psychology began during his sophomore year in high school back home in Lebanon. Der-Karabetian spoke of a time he attended a social gathering hosted by one of his math professors and coming across a book that drew his interest.
“I accidentally came across a book by Sigmund Freud. He had a book written on interpretation of dreams and all I knew at that time was, wow, this is an interesting book let me see what it says. So I read that book and it just stuck with me and so I thought, ‘well this would be an interesting field to go into and I never looked back.”
Der-Karabetian continued his education at the University of Kansas as an international student, where he completed his doctorate in social psychology in 1978. He later moved to Los Angeles where he began his career as assistant professor of psychology at the University of La Verne in 1980.
“I noticed that the University of La Verne had an Armenian president who also had started an Armenian International College here a few years before that. I got curious, so I visited the campus and was interested to see what it was like.”
After serving as assistant professor for only two years, Der-Karabetian was promoted to chairman of the behavioral science department in 1982 and then became the associate dean of the College of Arts and Science in 1995. During this time, Der-Karabetian worked double duty as the psychology department chair. In 2009, he became associate vice president for assessment.
“I helped the University with its re-accreditation efforts on where we needed to develop assessment programs, surveys of faculty and alumni, and make sure that students were learning what they were suppose to be learning and making sure the institution was doing what they were suppose to be doing that.”
However in 2012, Der-Karabetian devoted his time as a full-time instructor where he continued his research on ethnic and multicultural identity.
Over the years he has authored and co-authored 77 conference papers and over 50 refereed publications. His studies have focused on multicultural competence, predictors of sustainable behavior, and world-minded value orientation; 23 of which have included undergraduate students as co-authors also.
“Collaboration with students becomes sort of an added dimension of learning for them as well satisfaction for me… I have students tell me, well I’m going to Greece to study abroad and I say, ‘Here’s a questionnaire, go and collect data for us.’ So that’s how I engage my students who go abroad to try and learn something about (being) world-minded.”
In addition to his research, Der-Karabetian has translated and published his grandfather’s and grandfather-in-law’s survival memoirs from the Armenian Genocide.
“I had read these books when I was a teenager, and as I grew older I realized that it was important. They wrote down their experiences and in 2004 (and) I sat down and sort of translated those … for the rest of the world to know the resilience and the challenges,” he said.
Professor of Psychology Arthur Gonchar said he has been captivated by Der-Karabetian’s work.
“Aghop represents, I think, the best of what a psychologist is all about. I think he brings a lot of heart to the profession and caring. The topics that he investigates are those of great social and international significance,” he said.
“I’ve been impressed with just his commitment to learning about (his) culture,” said Professor of Psychology Richard Rogers, who has worked with Der-Karabetian on his research. He added he’s learned a lot from Der-Karabetian over the years.
Today Der-Karabetian spends his time teaching students about world mindedness and individual identity. And he said he and feels that he has made an impact on ULV.
“I’m really happy about seeing the growing cultural evidence at this institution (during) the last 15 years. … Faculty departments and programs, both administrative and academic programs are into self improvement and self-assessment….I would like to think that I made a contribution to trying to create this cultural evidence at this institution.”
Humberto Fabian can be reached at humberto.fabian@laverne.edu.
Humberto Fabian
