Developmental Job Talk
Dr. Kathleen Corriveau will give a talk entitled "Children's selective trust in informants". Dr. Corriveau is a candidate for the position in the developmental area.
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Social, Group, and Cultural Processes
The study of social and group processes is central to psychology, and our department has a long history of basic and applied research in these and related topics. This area has been revolutionized in recent years as a consequence of scientific advances as well as the increased salience of societal issues such as globalization, terrorism, economic disparities, increased awareness of the impact of behavior on health, to name a few. We have expertise and funded research laboratories in social cognition, cross-cultural issues, stereotyping, judgment and decision making, and organizational psychology.
Jude Cassidy
Professor
BPS 2147C
Research Summary : Jude Cassidy is professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, and director of the Maryland Child and Family Development Laboratory. She received her Ph.D in 1986 from the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on attachment, social and emotional development in children and adolescents, social information-processing, peer relations, early intervention, and longitudinal prediction of adolescent risk behavior from earlier family interactions. Dr. Cassidy serves as co-Editor of the journal Attachment and Human Development, and along with Phillip Shaver, is the co-Editor of the Handbook of Attachment (2008). She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and received the Boyd R. McCandless Young Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Michael R. Dougherty
Associate Professor
BPS 1145C
Research Summary : My research consists of three interrelated strands. One strand examines the interplay between attention, memory, and judgment and decision making. We hypothesize that errors and biases in early attentional processes, and limitations in working memory capacity, can cascade into errors and biases in judgment and decision making processes. One important component of this strand is the development of a computational model of diagnostic hypothesis generation that allows us to examine how the processes of information acquisition and attentional limitations feed into the processes of hypothesis generation and judgment. A second strand examines the impact of cognitive plasticity training for improving cognitive functioning. Specifically, the goal of this research is to understand the core processes necessary for effective and efficient processing of information, to improve these processes through extensive cognitive training, and to apply this research to important domains such as quantitative reasoning, language comprehension, and academic achievement. A third strand of research focuses on the development and testing of psychometric measures of cognitive functioning and attitude. Specifically, we are developing novel measures of working memory capacity, and using these new measures to investigate the construct validity of existing measures of implicit attitude formation.
Michele J. Gelfand
Professor
BPS 3147C
Research Summary : As a cross-cultural social organizational psychologist, my research focuses on three areas of investigation: a) Cultural influences on conflict, negotiation, trust, revenge, and forgiveness, particularly in the Middle East and East Asia; (b) The development of theory and methods in cross-cultural psychology, specifically individualism-collectivism, cultural tightness-looseness, fatalism, and honor; (c) Workplace diversity and gender dynamics in organizations, sexual harassment, and discrimination.
Paul J. Hanges
Professor/Associate Chair & Director of Graduate Studies
BPS 1147C
Research Summary : Dr. Hanges research interests center on topics in (a) leadership and culture; (b) personnel selection, test fairness, and diversity; and (c) dynamical modeling, complexity theory, and research methodology. He was a co-Principal Investigator of the GLOBE project. GLOBE is a multi-phase, multi-method project in which investigators spanning the world worked together to examine the inter-relationships between societal culture, organizational culture, and organizational leadership. The project started in 1993 and over the years, approximately 170 social scientists and management scholars from throughout the world have joined the project. The fourth phase of this project is currently being planned. Dr. Hanges also has written articles and conducted research focused on personnel selection, test bias, and discrimination. He started the Adverse Impact Research Group along with Dr. Jim Outtz, an alumni of the Maryland program. This research group is a collaborative research effort to identify factors that reduce or eliminate adverse impact in human resources practices. Dr. Hanges has worked with organizations to develop fair and valid selection systems and has been retained as an expert witness on several court cases. Recently, he has been working with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to understand the role of organizational diversity on the health of the organization (for more information go to http://www.lib.umd.edu/ocda/). Finally, Dr. Hanges is interested in dynamical models and their applicability to changes in perceptions and other cognitive processes. The conceptual model driving this work is the information processing model known as connectionism. With the connectionist perspective, the focus is on activation patterns of information stored in memory and focusing on factors that may activate or inhibit the leadership pattern.
Arie W. Kruglanski
Distinguished University Professor
BPS 3147
Research Summary : My research concerns the formation of attitudes and beliefs as they are impacted by cognitive and motivational variables. From this perspective I have been carrying out research in the domains of social cognition, the psychology of goals and goal pursuit, persuasion, and social judgment processes, group formation, intergroup relations, terrorism and the psychology of culture.
Kent L. Norman
Associate Professor
BPS 3123F
Research Summary : His research is on human/computer interaction and cognitive issues in interface design. He has two online books, The Psychology of Menu Selection: Designing Cognitive Control at the Human/Computer Interface (1991, http://lap.umd.edu/poms) and The Switched On Classroom (1999, http://lap.umd.edu/soc). He is the developer of HyperCourseware", a Web-based prototype for electronic educational environments and is a co-author of the QUIS: The Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction, licensed by the University to corporate and government usability labs. His latest book is Cyberpsychology: An introduction to the psychology of the human/computer interface (2008) published by Cambridge University Press. On the humorous side, Dr. Norman does research on "Computer Rage" and has appeared on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, Good Morning America and numerous talk shows and in news articles on this topic (http://computer-rage.org)
Cheri Ostroff
Professor
BPS 3147B
Research Summary : Two inter-related themes characterize my research: Congruence and Levels of Analysis issues. Congruence deals with the notion that a good fit or alignment between characteristics of people and features of their work situation results in better work-related responses than when people and their situation do not fit or are misaligned. The levels perspective includes a focus on how individuals influence their groups and organizations, and how aspects of the organization influence the attitudes and responses of people. For example, how do individual employee perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors combine to impact overall organizational effectiveness? How do the culture, climate and practices of the organization influence job satisfaction, helping behaviors, performance and turnover?
Benjamin Schneider
Emeritus Professor
1363 Caminito Floreo, Suite G
Research Summary : Ben's interests concern service quality, organizational climate and culture, staffing issues, the role of personality in organizational life, and employee engagement. His most recent books are: (with Susan White) Service Quality: Research Perspectives (Sage, 2004), (with Brent Smith) Personality and Organizations (Erlbaum, 2004), (with Rob Ployhart and Neal Schmitt) Staffing Organizations, 3rd ed. (Erlbaum, 2006), and (with William Macey, Karen Barbera, and Scott Young), Employee engagement: Tools for analysis, practice and competitive advantage (Blackwell, 2009).
Harold Sigall
Professor
BPS 3123E
Research Summary : My research explores various aspects of self-presentation, including the perceived morality of self-presentation, the goals of self-presentation, the unintended consequences of self-presentation, and self-presentational considerations in research measures. A related research interest I have is interpersonal relations. I also conduct research in certain problems related to stereotypes and stereotyping, including measurement of stereotypes and positive stereotypes. Final I have some interest in reactance theory.
Charles Stangor
Professor
BPS 3123G
Research Summary : Charles Stangor is professor of psychology in the social psychology area at the University of Maryland, and has also taught at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He received his B.A. from Beloit College in 1973, and his Ph.D. from New York University in 1986. Dr. Stangor is the recipient of research grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and from the National Science Foundation. He has published 7 books and over 50 research articles and book chapters, and has served as an associate editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology. Dr. Stangor's research interests concern the development of stereotypes and prejudice, and their influences upon individuals who are potential victims of discrimination. He is a charter fellow of the American Psychological Society, and has served as the chair of the executive committee of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. Dr. Stangor regularly teaches Social Psychology (Psyc 221), Research Methods (Psyc 420) and, at the graduate level, Group Processes (Psyc 742). Dr. Stangor has also won a distinguished teaching award from the University of Maryland.
Mo Wang
Assistant Professor
BPS 3147E
Research Summary : My research focuses on four broad areas of investigation: a) older worker employment and retirement; (b) expatriate management and global/cross-cultural HR practice; (c) application of advanced quantitative methodology; and (d) occupational health psychology. These areas of inquiry reflect my combined research interests and expertise in organizational behavior, human resource management, adult development, cross-cultural psychology, and quantitative methods.