Andrew G. Ryder, PhD

Education

Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology, University of British Columbia)
B.Sc. (Psychology, University of Toronto)

Scholarly interests

I have dual training in clinical psychology and cultural psychology, along with sustained exposure to the interdisciplinary field of transcultural psychiatry. As such, my scholarly work aims to integrate these disciplines, particularly through empirical contributions falling under three broad and interrelated themes. First, I study the cultural shaping of emotions and emotional disorders, with an emphasis on East Asian societies: China, Korea, and Japan. Second, I study the acculturation process and its implications for mental health in migrants to Montreal, focusing in particular on the development of better assessment tools to measure key aspects of acculturation. Third, I study best practices for evidence-based psychological interventions that are transcultural and transdiagnostic. These three themes are united by the subfield of Cultural-Clinical Psychology, which I am helping to develop and promote through collaborative conceptual work.

Undergraduate teaching

Cultural Psychology (PSYC 424)
Cultural-Clinical Psychology (PSYC 428)
Honours Seminar (PSYC 490)

Graduate teaching

Cultural-Clinical Psychology (PSYC 721)
Group and Systemic Interventions (PSYC 704)

Cultural shaping of emotions and emotional disorders

• Somatic vs. psychological symptom presentations in China, Korea, Canada, and the United States
• Change in depression symptom presentation over recent decades in China
• Social anxiety in Japan and Canada
• Lay beliefs about mental illness in China, Japan, and Canada
• Cultural values and alexithymia

Acculturation and adaptation to Montréal

• Trajectories of acculturation and adaptation in the first year of settlement
• Development of the 'acculturation toolkit' for research and clinical assessment
• Daily fluctuations in cultural identity and emotion
• The interrelation of cultural learning and language learning
• Linguistic and cultural barriers to mental healthcare access

Transcultural and transdiagnostic evidence-based psychological interventions

• Best practices for evidence-based psychological interventions in contexts with high levels of cultural and linguistic diversity
• Best practices for training and supervision in transcultural, transdiagnostic psychological interventions

Cultural-clinical psychology

• Conceptual underpinnings of cultural-clinical psychology
• Emergence of psychopathology in culture-mind-brain
• Culturally-aware psychotherapeutic interventions

Highlight

Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E., & Ryder, A. G. (in press). Internalizing disorders as shape-shifters: Understanding individual and cultural heterogeneity in the presentation of symptoms. Psychological Review. Preprint available.

Publications as lead author

Ryder, A. G., & Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E. (2024). Cultural-clinical psychology. In D. Friedman-Wheeler & A. Wenzel (Eds), The SAGE encyclopedia of mood and anxiety disorders (Vol. 3, pp. 345-348). SAGE publications.

Ryder, A. G., Doucerain, M. M., Dere, J., Jurcik, T., Zhou, B., & Zhou, X. (2021). On dynamic contexts and unstable categories: Steps towards a cultural-clinical psychology. In M. Gelfand, C.-Y. Chiu, & Y.-Y. Hong (Eds), Advances in culture and psychology, volume 8 (pp. 195-245). Oxford University Press.

Ryder, A. G., Sunohara, M., Dere, J., & Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E. (2018). The cultural shaping of alexithymia. In O. Luminet, R. M. Bagby, & G. Taylor (Eds), Alexithymia: A disorder of affect regulation. Cambridge University Press.

Ryder, A. G., & Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E. (2015). Cultural-Clinical Psychology: From cultural scripts to contextualized treatments. In L. J. Kirmayer, R. Lemelson, & C. A. Cummings (Eds.), Revisioning psychiatry: Cultural phenomenology, critical neuroscience, and global mental health (pp.400-433). Cambridge University Press.    

Ryder, A. G., Ban, L. M., & Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E. (2011). Towards a cultural-clinical psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5, 960-975.

Ryder, A. G., Yang, J., Zhu, X., Yao, S., Yi, J., Heine, S. J., & Bagby, R. M. (2008). The cultural shaping of depression: Somatic symptoms in China, psychological symptoms in North America? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 300-313.

Ryder, A. G., Alden, L. E., & Paulhus, D. L. (2000). Is acculturation unidimensional or bidimensional? A head-to-head comparison in the prediction of personality, self-identity, and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 49-65.

Publications as supervisor

Bayeh, R., & Ryder, A. G. (2025). Neurodiversity, minority status, and mental health: A quantitative study on the experiences of culturally diverse university students in Canada. Autism in Adulthood. Published online ahead of print.

Sunohara, M., Sasaki, J., Kogo, S., & Ryder, A. G. (2022). Japanese clinical psychologists’ consensus beliefs about mental health: A mixed-methods approach. Japanese Psychological Research, 64(2), 109-126.

Zhao, Y., Segalowitz, N., Voloshyn, A., Chamoux, E., & Ryder, A. G. (2021). Language barriers to healthcare for linguistic minorities: The case of second language-specific health communication anxiety. Health Communication, 36, 334-346.

Jurcik, T., Sunohara, M., Yakobov, E., Solopieieva-Jurcikova, L., Ahmed, R., & Ryder, A. G. (2019). Acculturation and adjustment of migrants reporting trauma: The contextual effects of perceived ethnic density. Journal of Community Psychology, 47, 1313-1328.

Vargas, S. M., Dere, J., Garcia, L., & Ryder, A. G. (2019). The role of cultural values in the folk psychiatry explanatory framework: A comparison of Chinese- and Euro-Canadians. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50, 703-707.

Doucerain, M. M., Deschênes, S. S., Gouin, J.-P., Amiot, C. E., & Ryder, A. G. (2016). Initial mainstream cultural orientations predict early social participation in the mainstream cultural group. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43, 245-258.

Zhou, X., Peng, Y., Zhu, X., Yao, S., Dere, J., Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E., & Ryder, A. G. (2016). From culture to symptom: Testing a structural model of “Chinese somatization”. Transcultural Psychiatry, 53, 3-23.

Zhou, B., Lacroix, F., Sasaki, J., Peng, Y., Wang, X., & Ryder, A. G. (2014). Unpacking cultural variations in social anxiety and the offensive-type of Taijin Kyofusho through the indirect effects of intolerance of uncertainty and self-construals. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45, 1561-1578.

Dere, J., Tang, Q., Zhu, X., Cai, L., Yao, S., & Ryder, A. G. (2013). The cultural shaping of alexithymia: Values and externally-oriented thinking in a Chinese clinical sample. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 54, 362-368.

Ryder, A. G. (2025, February). Understanding mental health in cultural context. Invited talk delivered for Social Science Week, Dawson College, Montréal, QC.

Ryder, A. G. (2024, September). From field to lab to clinic: Steps towards a cultural-clinical psychology. Invited talk delivered to the Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC.

Ryder, A. G. (2020, May). Cultural scripts for normalcy and deviancy: A mixed-methods approach to understanding mental illness in new contexts. Invited talk delivered to the Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark [delivered remotely].

Ryder, A. G. (2018, August). Cultural models of normalcy and deviancy: Implications for understanding well- and ill-being. Invited talk delivered to the Future Value Creation Research Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.

Ryder, A. G. (2018, July). Depression and hikikomori in Japan. Invited talk delivered to the Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

Ryder, A. G., & Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E. (2016, July). On the instability of diagnostic categories: A cultural-clinical psychology approach. Keynote address delivered at the 31st International Congress of Psychology, Yokohama, Japan.

Ryder, A. G. (2016, June). Cultural-clinical psychology: From field to lab to clinic. Keynote address delivered at the 77th annual convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, Victoria, BC.

Ryder, A. G. (2015, July). Unpacking culture in social anxiety: A cultural-clinical psychology approach. Invited talk delivered to the Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

Ryder, A. G. (2014, July). Cultural-clinical psychology: The next steps. Invited talk delivered at the 22nd biannual convention of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, Reims, France.

Ryder, A. G. (2012, June). Resilience and the culture-mind-brain: A systems approach with application to migrants. Invited talk delivered at the 1er Congrès Mondial sur la Résilience, Paris, France.

Ryder, A. G. (2010, November). Modernization, Westernization, and Urbanization: Sociocultural effects on depressive symptoms in China and South Korea. Invited talk delivered at the University of Heidelberg - Conference on Intercultural Aspects of Mental Disorders, Heidelberg, Germany.

Ryder, A. G. (2010, June). New directions in the cultural psychology of somatization. Invited talk delivered at the annual meeting of the World Psychiatric Association - Transcultural Psychiatry Section, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Ryder, A. G. (2009, June). On the integration of clinical and cultural psychology: Implications for research and practice. Invited talk delivered at the 70th annual convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, Montreal, QC.

Ryder, A. G. (2008, November). Cultural competence training for psychologists: The Canadian view. Keynote address delivered at the annual meeting of the Association of State and Provincial Boards in Psychology, Nashville, TN.

Ryder, A. G. (2008, January). The cultural shaping of depression: Somatic symptoms in China, psychological symptoms in Canada? Colloquium delivered to the Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.

Psychology Today

I write occasional articles for the public at my Psychology Today blog:

Mental Health in Context: Perspectives from Cultural-Clinical Psychology

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