The Social/Personality faculty in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior conduct theory-based empirical work that addresses a variety of important social issues across the life span. Our faculty bring a multidisciplinary approach to the study of human behavior and a sensitivity to the relevance of our research to individual and social problems.  The faculty also share a strong commitment to train students in theory, field and laboratory research methods, and advanced statistical techniques.

Our faculty have research interests covering a broad range of topics in the areas of social and personality psychology, including investigations of social cognition and decision-making; effects of emotions on reasoning and memory; subjective well-being; self and identity across cultures; control behavior; personality resilience; interpersonal relations; adaptation to stressful life events; risk perception; and psychology and law.


Faculty

Charles, Susan T., Ph.D., University of Southern California
Adult life-span development; age-related changes in emotional experience and cognitive appraisal of affective events; how emotional experience relates to physical health and behavior; and how this relation varies as a function of age.

Dickerson, Sally S., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Stress physiology. Psychoneuroimmunology. Effects of social evaluation or rejection on emotional and physiological outcomes. Self-conscious emotions. Health psychology.

Ditto, Peter H., Ph.D., Princeton University
Judgment and decision-making in emotionally-charged or motivationally-involving situations. Current interests include biases in how people respond to threatening medical information and information that challenges firmly-held attitudes and prejudices, and psychological issues involved in end-of-life medical decision-making.

Frattaroli, Joanne, Ph.D. University of California, Riverside
Expressive writing, meta-analysis, positive psychology, health psychology, preventive medicine, educational psychology.

Heckhausen, Jutta, Ph.D., University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Lifespan developmental psychology; psychology of motivation; control behavior across the life span; evolution of regulatory processes in motivation and control.

Knowles, Eric D., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Cultural influences on social inference, White racial identity, beliefs and attitudes concerning intergroup inequality, social and political ideology, person perception.

Levine, Linda J., Ph.D., The University of Chicago
Cognitive appraisals associated with emotions; effects of emotions on attention, memory, and problem-solving; sources of bias in memory for past emotions; emotion regulation; relations between children's cognitive and emotional development.

**Loftus, Elizabeth F., Ph.D., Stanford University
Human memory; the legal field; how facts, ideas, suggestions and other forms of post-event information can modify our memories; psychology and the law.

Maddi, Salvatore, Ph.D., Harvard University
Stress management, health, and personality, especially personal "hardiness;" naturalistic research designs involving adult participants.

Rook, Karen, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Effects of family relationships and friendships on psychological and physical health, particularly in later life; the processes of substitution and compensation following the loss of a major close relationship; the role of close relationships in fostering or hindering older adults' self-care practices and health behaviors; the antecedents and consequences of loneliness in young adults and older adults.

Silver, Roxane Cohen, Ph.D., Northwestern University
Coping with stressful life experiences and traumatic life events, and changes in responses over time; predictors of effective coping; long-term sequelae of acute and chronic stress; how beliefs and expectations of the social network impact on the coping process.

Stokols, Daniel, Ph.D., University of North Carolina
Department of Planning, Policy & Design
Effects of physical and social conditions within work environments on employees' health, performance, and morale; health and behavioral impacts of environmental stressors such as traffic congestion, overcrowding, aircraft noise, and residential relocation; application of behavioral research to facilities planning and urban design; design and evaluation of community health promotion programs.

Thompson, William, C., J.D., University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. , Stanford University
Psychology and the law; human judgment and decision making; the use of mathematical and scientific evidence in jury trials, focusing on the introduction of forensic DNA tests; the use in trials of hearsay and character evidence; testimony of children.

Vaughan, Elaine, Ph.D., Stanford University
How individuals with specific cognitive and affective characteristics, and larger communities, adapt and respond to health, environmental and technological risks; interpretation of and response to scientific risk information by diverse social and cultural groups; the role of science and values in shaping public health and environmental policies; the measurement and statistical issues that arise when studying psychosocial phenomena across diverse populations and communities.

** Member: National Academy of Sciences