Social Sciences
Ajita Srivastava
Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
PhD (Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Germany)
+91.79.61911110
Research Interests: Social Psychology, Cross-Cultural Psychology, Ecology, Decision Making, Urbanisation, Social Change, Quantitative Social Measurement
Profile
Professor Srivastava is a social and cross-cultural psychologist. She completed her PhD at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), Germany, and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Allahabad. She held postdoctoral and lectureship positions at BIGSSS and Constructor University, Bremen, Germany. Her research focuses on social ecology, culture, economy, and social change in their effects on human behaviour.
Research
Professor Srivastava studies how social change affects human behaviour through various micro- and macro-level factors, including social ecology, culture, the market, and the economy. She utilises comparative frameworks from Western and non-Western cultures to quantitatively assess these cross-cultural and socio-ecological differences.
Publications
Journal Articles
- Srivastava, A., Kühnen, U., Simunovic, D., and Boehnke, K. (2025). Cultural and economic factors in maximizing: Differences in rural–urban contexts in India. Psychological Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-025-00827-4
- Srivastava, A. (2024). Reflections from field surveys and ethnography in northern rural India. Qualitative & Multi-Method Research, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14062870
- Srivastava, A., Kühnen, U., Simunovic, D., & Boehnke, K. (2023). “More” or “enough”? Rural-urban differences in maximizing: The case of India. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 5, Article 100140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100140
- Bouwmeester, S., P., P., Aczel, B., Barbosa, F., Bègue, L., Brañas-Garza, P., ... E., C. (2017). Registered replication report: Rand, Greene, and Nowak (2012). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(3), 527–542. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617693624
Book Chapters
- Srivastava, A., and Kalyegira, J. (2026). Field studies. In Reference module in social sciences. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-26629-4.00290-2
- Simunovic, D., and Srivastava, A. (2026). Implicit bias. In Reference module in social sciences. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-26629-4.00293-8
- Srivastava, A., and Simunovic, D. (in press). Urban transitions: A socio-ecological framework for cultural change in urban environments. In F. E. B. Alcántara & I. R. Cantalapiedra (Eds.), Urban futures: Citizen engagement, mobility, and sustainable design. Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Dissertation
- Srivastava, A. (2021). More or enough: Maximizing and satisficing in different socio-ecological contexts (Publication No. 2016) [Doctoral dissertation, Universität Bremen and Constructor University Bremen]. https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/2016
Teaching
- Introduction to Psychology
- Introduction to Research Methods