Social Psychology

The primary goal of this program is to train psychologists who are capable of conducting high-quality research in social psychology. Under the guidance of their advisors, all students become actively involved in research beginning with their first quarter. Throughout their graduate training, students are expected to spend the majority of their time engaged in research.

While all students complete similar courses their first year, in consultation with their advisors, students develop programs of study tailored to their special interests. These programs not only include specialized courses in social psychology, but also may include coursework in other areas of psychology, including cognitive, physiological, health, developmental, and industrial/organizational.

Faculty

• Mark Alicke, Ph.D. (University of North Carolina, 1984),
  Professor - Research interests include the role of the self in social judgment and in the processes by which negative evaluations of people and their behavior is translated into judgments of blame and the imposition of sanctions.
   
• Emily Balcetis, Ph.D. (Cornell University, 2006),
  Assistant Professor - Research interests include how the motivations, emotions, needs, and goals people hold impact the basic ways people perceive, interpret, and ultimately react to information around them.
   
• Kathi L. Heffner, Ph.D. (University of Nevada, Reno, 2001),
  Assistant Professor - Research interests include: cardiovascular, endocrine and immune linkages between emotional expression and health outcomes, including attention to these processes in older adulthood; physiological indicators of coping during impression management.
   
• Dan Lassiter, Ph.D. (University of Virginia, 1984),
  Professor - Research interests include the problem of how people come to organize and comprehend the information contained in another person's ongoing stream of behavior.
   
• Keith Markman, Ph.D. (Indiana University, 1994),
  Assistant Professor - Research interests include the areas of motivated social cognition and social judgment and decision-making, and counterfactual thinking - the generation of imagined alternatives to reality.