McGill logo

Social and Personality Psychology
Faculty at McGill University

psy Social Psychology Faculty| See also Research on Identity and Social Relations

[picture] M. Baldwin's main area of research is social cognition, with a focus on the representation and activation of information about significant relationships. His studies often involve questions about relationship security and insecurity, and how they relate to self-esteem and attachment processes.

Selected References

Baldwin, M. W., & Sinclair, L. (1996). Self-esteem and"if...then"contingencies of interpersonal acceptance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1130-1141.    

Baldwin, M. W., Keelan, J. P. R., Fehr, B., Enns, V., & Koh-Rangarajoo,E. (1996). Social cognitive conceptualization of attachment working models:Availability and accessibility effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 94-104.

[picture] J. Lydon's   main area of research is commitment and its relation to stress, wellbeing and the self.  His studies are typically with health care populationsand those in intimate relationships in addition to experimental analogues with university student samples.  His graduate students work in a number of areas of social psychology but typically they focus on cognitive processes in interpersonal relationships.     

Selected References

Lydon, J., Dunkel-Schetter, C., Cohan, C. & Pierce, T. (1996). Pregnancy decision making as a significant life event:  A commitment approach.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,71, 141-151.    

Lydon, J., Meana, M., Sepinwall, D., Richard, N., and Mayman, S. (1999).  The commitment calibration hypothesis: When do people devalue attractive alternatives.  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25.

[picture] D. Taylor is conducting laboratory and field research in the area of intergroup relations.  Of particular interest are the conditions under which members of a disadvantaged group will accept their situation, take individual action, or instigate collective action.  Current research focuses on refugees in Canada, racial groups in urban centres in Canada and the United States, and aboriginal groups such as the Inuit of Arctic Quebec and the Mohawks.  

Selected References

 Ruggiero, K. M., & Taylor, D. M. (1995).  Coping with discrimination: How disadvantaged group members perceive the discrimination that confronts them. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68.  

Taylor, D. M., & Moghaddam, F. M. (1994). Theories of Intergroup relations: International Social Psychological Perspectives (2nd Ed.). New York: Praeger.

[picture] W. Lambert, Professor Emeritus, has studied cross-cultural comparisons; ethnicity and identity; child rearing; cognitive development; neuro-psychology; psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics.

Selected References

Lambert, W. E. (1967). A social psychology of bilingualism. Journal of Social Issues, 23, 91-109.

Lambert, W. E., & Taylor, D. (1984). Language and the education of ethnic minority children in Canada. In R. J. Samuda, J. W. Berry, & M. Laferriere (Eds.), Multiculturalism in Canada. Toronto: Allyn & Bacon.

psy Personality Psychology Faculty

[picture] R. Koestner uses social and personality psychology approaches to examine the influence of self-regulatory factors on behaviour, cognition and emotions. His recent studies involve distinguishing among three types of highly motivated individuals: (1) intrinsically motivated individuals who find an activity naturally interesting, (2) identified individuals who find an activity personally meaningful, (3) and introjected individuals who feel obligated or pressured to perform an activity. His research suggests that although all three forms of self-regulation promote involvement and persistence in a domain such as education or politics, they are associated with unique patterns of emotional experience, information processing, and adaptive behaviour.

Selected References

Koestner, R., Gingras, I., Losier, G., Abutaa, R., DiDio, L, & Gagné, M. (1998). To follow expert advice when making a decision: An examination of reactive versus reflective autonomy. Journal of Personality, in press.

Koestner, R., Losier, G., Vallerand, R., & Carducci, D. (1996). Identified and introjected forms of political internalization: Extending self-determination theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1025-1036.

Koestner, R. & Losier, G. (1996).  Distinguishing reactive vs reflective autonomy.  Journal of Personality, 64, 466-493.  

D. Moskowitz's research concerns patterns of behavior and affect across time and situations.  She studies stability and cross-situational generality of affect and of interpersonal circumplex behaviors (dominance, submissiveness, agreeableness, and quarrelsomeness) and examines the influenceof gender, social role, and setting characteristics on interpersonal behavior and affect at home and at work  

Selected References

  Brown, K.W., and Moskowitz, D.S.  (1998).  Dynamicstability: The rhythms of our daily lives.    Journal of Personality, 66, 105-134.  

Moskowitz, D.S., Brown, K.W., and Côté, S.  (1997). Reconceptualizing stability: Using time as a psychological dimension.  Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6, 1-6.

[picture]   D. Zuroff is interested in the relations between personality, especially dependency and self-criticism, and psychopathology, especially depression. Some topics being studied are the interpersonal relationships, information processing, coping strategies, family backgrounds, and responses to psychotherapy of individuals differing in dependency and self-criticism.  Cross-cultural studies of these variables are also of interest.  

Selected References

Blatt, S. J., & Zuroff, D. C., Quinlan, D.M., and Pilkonis, P. (1996).  Interpersonal factors in brief  treatment of depression: further analyes of the NIMH treatment of depression collaborative research program.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 162-171.

Zuroff, D.C. & Fitzpatrick, D.A. (1995).  Depressive personality styles:  Implications for adult attachment.  Personality and Individual Differences, 18, 253-265.

psy There are also several other faculty members in the department whose research is particularly relevant to social and personality psychology:

[picture]   F. Aboud conducts research on the development of racial prejudice in children, examing how it is acquired and how it can be reduced.  She also studies children's friendships, in particular cross-ethnic friendships, and publishes in the area of international health psychology.  

Selected References

  Aboud, F.E. and Doyle, A.B.  (1996). Does talk of race foster prejudice or tolerance in children?  Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 28, 161-170.  

Aboud, F.E. (1998). Health psychology in global perspective.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

F. Genesee is interested in basic issues related to language learning, representation, and use in bilinguals.  He is also interested in applied issues related to second-language teaching, learning, and testing. He has carried out extensive research on alternative approaches to second-language teaching and on social psychological aspects of second-language learning and usage in bilingual communities.  His current interests include the development of reading skills in monolingual and bilingual children, languagedevelopment in bilingual children, and the representation of grammar in early bilinguals and monolinguals.  

Selected References

  Genesee, F., Boivin, I., Nicoladis, E.  (1996).  Talking with strangers: A study of bilingual children's communicative competence.  Applied Psycholinguistics, 17, 427-442.  

Genesee, F., Nicoladis, E., and Paradis, J.  (1995).  Language differentiation in young preschool children.  Journal of Child Language,22, 611-631.

[picture]B. Knäuper's area of research is applied social cognition with a focus on health and aging.  She studies how individuals construct mental representations of their health; how they draw on these representations and on experiential information in making health related judgments; how changes in these representations may mediate health behavior; and how interventions can be used to restructure health-related cognitions. 

Selected References

Knäuper, B. (1999). The impact of age and education on response order effects in attitude measurement. Public Opinion Quarterly,63 , 347-370.

Winkielman, P., Knäuper, B., & Schwarz, N.(1998). Looking back at anger: Reference periods change the interpretation of emotion frequency questions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,75   (3), 719-728.



   [picture]    M.Mendelson does research on children's social relationships and is interested in how role theory may be used to explain children's sibling interactions.  He also explores how family variables and individual characteristics affect the quality of children's  relationships with siblings and friends and how children's relationships with siblings and friends influence each other.  Finally, he has been exploring positive and negative components of college students' same- and cross-sex friendships.     

Selected References

  Mendelson, M. J., deVilla, E.P., Fitch, T., & Goodman,F.  (1997). Adult's expectations for children's sibling roles.  International Journal of Behavioral Development, 20, 549-572.  

Aboud, F.E., and Mendelson, M.J.  (1996).  Determinants of friendship selection and quality: Developmental perspectives. In W.M. Bukowski, A.F. Newcomb, and W.W. Hartup (Eds.), The company they keep: Friendship in childhood and adolescences, 87-112.  Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

[picture] T. Shultz is interested in cognitive science, cognitive development,and connectionist models of reasoning.  Current projects include constraint satisfaction models of cognitive consistency phenomena in social psychology, including dissonance and balance phenomena.

Selected References

  Mareschal, D., & Shultz, T.R. (1996).  Generative connectionist networks and contructivist cognitive development.  Cognitive Development,11, 571-603.  

Shultz, T.R., & Lepper, M.R.  (1996).  Cognitive dissonance reduction as constraint satisfaction. PsychologicalReview,103, 219-240.

  Back to Graduate Program
 Back to Psych Homepage