Social

Research in social psychology is concerned with how people behave in, think about, understand and are affected by social situations. The members of this area deal with a wide variety of problems from several different points of view, using diverse methods.

 One of the most important themes in contemporary social psychology is the impact of cognitive processes on social behavior. John Bassili's research focuses on the cognitive processes that underlie social judgments. For several years, he has been studying the judgments that we make about other people. His present research deals with how cognitive processes affect responses in opinion surveys. His laboratory is set up for the conduct of computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) while measuring response latency with high accuracy. Election studies as well as studies investigating attitude strength, the relationship between attitudes and values, susceptibility to response effects, and the stability of attitudes are currently in progress.

Several members of the department do research on how we perceive others. Karen Dion has studied how people are stereotyped on the basis of physical attractiveness. Her present research focuses on why such stereotyping occurs, with special emphasis on the role of sociocultural factors. Ken Dion also works on stereotyping, and is studying prejudice and intergroup relations.

Closely related to the work on person perception is research on the relationships that people form. Ken and Karen Dion are interested in romantic love. They have suggested that this is not a unitary phenomenon, but rather means different things to different people and must therefore be understood in terms of the role played by personality and culture.

Jonathan Freedman has been studying a variety of issues related to psychology and the law. His work concerns why we believe some witnesses in court more than others, the effect of capital punishment on jury verdicts, and how a witness' sexual or violent history affects jurors' decisions. His most recent work focuses on the conflict between freedom of the press and the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial.

Gerald Cupchik has explored the search for meaning as it pertains to social psychology and aesthetics. He has studied the experience and communication of emotion, with special emphasis on individual and sex differences in nonverbal expressiveness. His work on aesthetics deals with how people learn to appreciate art and with creativity.

 Much of Romin Tafarodi's research involves relating a two-dimensional conceptualization of global self-esteem to aspects of motivation and cognition. He is also examining the role of choice in the development of self-competence. Alison Chasteen is interested in stereotyping and person perception, particularly in older adults. In one line of research she is examining how stereotypes of aging affect cognitive performance in older people. In another line she is investigating how older adults form impressions of others. Penelope Lockwood studies how individuals' motivation and self-evaluations are affected by comparisons to others.

Martin Evans' research focuses on organizationally interesting phenomena. He is currently exploring career mobility in the biotechnology industry and Cosmides' "Cheater Detection" paradigm in organizational situations. On the methodology side, he is exploring the problems of MultiTrait-MultiMethod analysis using Confirmatory Factor Analysis techniques.
 

Faculty:

John N. Bassili (Cornell) SCAR - social cognition, survey research

Alison L. Chasteen (Washington-St. Louis) ST.G - stereotyping and prejudice, person perception, mental control, aging

Gerald C. Cupchik (Wisconsin) SCAR - emotion, experimental aesthetics

Karen K. Dion (Minnesota) SCAR - stereotyping; attraction; relationships and interpersonal processes

Kenneth L. Dion (Minnesota) ST.G. - stereotyping, prejudice and intergroup relations, and close relationships

Jonathan Freedman (Yale) ST.G. - social psychology, law and psychology

Penelope Lockwood (Waterloo) ST.G. - social comparison, social cognition, self-esteem

Patricia Pliner (Pennsylvania) ERIN - social interaction

Romin W. Tafarodi (UTexas - Austin) ST.G. - self-esteem, choice, culture

Cross-appointed faculty members:

Gary Latham(Akron) ST.G., employee selection, performance, appraisal/management, training, employee motivation, and leadership

Martin G. Evans (Yale) ST.G. - organizational psychology, research methods