Lida Ponce

Graduate Research Assistant

Industrial/Organizational Psychology: Personality, Employee Well-Being, Gender Harassment, Political Will, Neurodivergent

Lida is a 5th-year doctoral student in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at George Mason, working with Dr. Seth Kaplan. She received both her M.S. in I/O Psychology and her B.A. in Psychology with a Minor in Management at Florida Institute of Technology.

Her research interests span across various domains of psychology in the workplace, such as personality, organizational politics, and neurodiversity. At the core of her research in personality, she explores the complex factors that influence individual behavior and interpersonal dynamics. Further, she is examining engagement by dissecting the factors that foster a deep sense of involvement and commitment in organizational settings. Central to her work in organizational politics, she examines political will, focusing on its origins and its impact on workplace interactions. Further examining workplace dynamics, she is examining gender harassment and its underpinnings, ramifications, and strategies for redress. Most recently, Lida has initiated studies on neurodiversity, examining the importance of inclusivity and appreciation of others in the workplace.

While obtaining her M.S. in I/O Psychology, she project managed a Navy-funded project of $50,000 and conducted weekly experiments over a period of 7 months to evaluate a training program and mindfulness intervention. In addition, she worked as an associate consultant for the Center for Organizational Effectiveness, where she developed client surveys and administered assessments for medium to large-sized organizations. After her M.S. degree, she worked as a Human Resource Generalist. She created and implemented an employee handbook, revamped the onboarding process, the new hire orientation program, employee surveys, and training. She also analyzed HR data, established the best plan of action for implementation, and recommended action items based on trends.

Lastly, Lida has taken on roles as a Teaching Assistant for courses in Statistics and has served as an Instructor for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Personality Theory, Groups and Teams, Personnel Training and Development, Mental Illness and Criminal Justice, and Mystery, Madness, Murder. She is dedicated to making a lasting impact on her students through teaching and mentorship.

Selected Publications

Kim, J., Kaplan, S. A., Aitken, J. A., & Ponce, L. P. (2025). An examination of the daily relationship between job boredom and later burnout and turnover intentions along with mitigating strategies. Current Psychology: A Journal for Diverse Perspectives on Diverse Psychological Issues. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-07788-x

Kim, J., Kaplan, S. A., Aitken, J. A., & Ponce, L. P. (2024). Within-person dynamics of job boredom and counterproductive work behavior: A latent change score modeling approach. Affective Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-024-00256-y

Milosevic, M., Rau, K., Ponce, L. P., Moon, N. A., Quraishi, N., Webber, A., & Griffith, R. L. (2020, July 19). Guided Mindfulness: Using Expert Schemas to Evaluate Complex Skill Acquisition. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 233-256). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50439-7

Courses Taught

PSYC 381 Mental Illness and Criminal Justice [Instructor on Record] - Spring 2025

PSYC 301 Research Methods in Psychology [Graduate Teaching Assistant] - Spring 2025

PSYC 467 Psychology of Working in Groups and Teams [Instructor on Record] - Fall 2024

PSYC 333 Industrial and Organizational Psychology [Instructor on Record] - Spring 2024

PSYC 435 Personnel Training and Development [Instructor on Record] - Spring 2024

PSYC 324 Personality Theory [Instructor on Record] - Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2025

PSYC 405 Mystery, Madness, Murder [Instructor on Record] - Fall 2023, Fall 2025 [Graduate Teaching Assistant] - Spring 2022

PSYC 300 Statistics in Psychology [Graduate Teaching Assistant] - Fall 2021, Summer 2022, Fall 2022

Education

M.S. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology | Florida Institute of Technology

B.A. in Psychology, Minor in Management | Florida Institute of Technology

Recent Presentations

Ponce, L. P. (Co-Chair), Mintz, R. M. (Co-Chair), & Wittman, S. (Co-Chair). (2025, April). Understanding neurodiversity in the workplace: Perceptions, intersectionality, and interventions [Symposium]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Denver, CO. United States.

Ponce, L. P., Son, M., Moon, N.A., Kaplan, S. A., & Lee, P. (2024, August). Towards a New Understanding: Validating a Multidimensional Political Will Measure. Paper to be presented at the 84th Annual Conference of the Academy of Management, Chicago, IL.

Ponce, L. P., Son, M., Kaplan, S. A., Lee, P. (2024, April). Navigating the Office Arena: Developing a Multidimensional Measure for Political Will [Poster session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, United States.

Ponce, L. P., Moon, N.A., Cannon, J., Bradshaw, B., Kuykendall, L. (2024, April). Neurodiversity Unleashed: Tapping into Hidden Talent [Poster session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, United States.

Ponce, L. P., Aitken, J. A., Kim, J., Farrar, S., & Kaplan, S. A. (2023, April). The incremental advantage of personality facets in predicting state work engagement [Poster session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Boston, MA, United States

Aitken, J. A., Kim, J., Ponce, L., Farrar, S., Kaplan, S., & Merlo, K. (2023, April). Delineating the performance consequences of affective states versus emotion episodes [Poster session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Boston, MA, United States.

Kim, J., Ponce, L., Aitken, J. A., Farrar, S., & Kaplan, S. (2023, April). Within-person examination of workplace boredom and its potential coping mechanisms [Poster session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Boston, MA, United States.

Baines, J. I., Tsai, H.-C., Ponce, L., Dalal., R.S., (2023, April). Advice from Algorithms: An Integrative Conceptual Review and Practical Implications [Poster session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Boston, MA, United States.

Ponce, L.P., Aitken, J.A., Kim, J., Kim, H., Farrar, S., & Kaplan, S.A. (2022, August). Who will make the cut? Comparing scale shortening techniques [Poster session]. American Psychological Association Conference Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN.

al-Qallawi, S., Moon, N., Converse, P., Ponce, L., Caylor, J., Merlini, K., Juszczyk, C., Belluccia, A. (2020). Personality profiles at work: Nature and implications. Presented at the 35nd Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Austin, TX.

Moon, N., Converse, P., Merlini, K., & Ponce, L. (2020). Conflict management styles: exploring links with negative mood regulation and burnout. Presented at the 35nd Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Austin, TX.

Milosevic, J., Moon, N., al-Qallawi, S., Ponce, L., McFerran, M., Juszczyk, C., Converse, P (2020). The development and validation of a self-control strategies measure. Presented at the 35nd Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Austin, TX.

In the Media

2016-17 Noba + Psi Chi Student Video Award- Received “Honorable Mention”

Topic: Person-Situation Debate

https://nobaproject.com/student-video-award/winners