What Do We Mean By... [Legal Enculturation]?
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Washington, Washington
What Do We Mean By Legal Enculturation? Featuring Dr. Mikaela Spruill, Assistant Professor of Psychology, School of Interdisciplinary Forensics, Arizona State University Legal Enculturation: Structural‐Level Influence on Individual‐Level Psychology The law is a prominent institutional pillar in societal structure, and psychology has the ability to seriously contended with the way the law shapes individuals' views and perceptions of the world. Join Dr. Mikaela Spruill for an introduction to the theoretical concept of Legal Enculturation—the dynamic process by which the legal system defines our individual psychologies—offering a new approach to critically assess human attitudes and behaviors in psychological science (Spruill, 2026). Rooted in psychological theories, such as The Culture Cycle and Situated Cognition, as well as cross disciplinary perspectives from sociology and legal studies, this theoretical framework outlines the process by which the law and the individual mind are mutually constitutive. These theoretical arguments will be bolstered by an examination of empirical research that speaks to the relationship between historical laws and current psychological outcomes. About Dr. Mikaela Spruill: Dr. Mikaela Spruill is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University’s School of Interdisciplinary Forensics. The objective of her research is to examine how laws affect individual psychologies, and how individual psychologies produce judgments that affect laws and policies. In three complementary research lines she tests how individually expressed factors – like stereotypes and prior beliefs – and structurally imposed factors – like social stratification and constitutional legal standards – inform the judgments and decisions that people come to. Her research reveals how the racialized experiences that people have in stratified societies translates to decision making and demonstrates that those decisions define and reinforce larger inequalities in society. Prior to joining ASU, she earned a Ph.D. in social and personality psychology from Cornell University, a MA in experimental psychology from Wake Forest University, and a BS in neuroscience from The College of William and Mary. She was the Criminal Justice postdoctoral fellow with SPARQ at Stanford. Additionally, she serves on the editorial board for Psychology, Public Policy & Law.