SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP

Social Psychology has had a presence at the University of Essex since the inception of the department. The current Social Psychology Research Group consists of a dynamic group of international researchers, with a diversity of backgrounds and complementary interests.  This in turn provides for successful ongoing collaborations, both within the Group and with members of the other departmental research groups.

Our interests range through classic areas such as health psychology, intention-behaviour relations, judgement and decision-making, just world beliefs, and social perceptions.  We also have strong interests in topics such as self-determination theory, psychology of justice, psychology of liberty, terror management theory, thought suppression, evolutionary psychology, and cultural and cross-cultural psychology.

1. Can the satisfaction of key psychological needs provide a protective role for disordered eating and compulsive buying?
   

2. What are the roots of honour-related aggression?
   

3. Does feeling worse off than others influence gambling behaviour and change the way we think about the future?
   

4. Does restricting liberty lower our trust in others and in prominent institutions?
   

5. What leads to norms of trust and helping in society?
   

6. Can informal support improve older people’s ability to carry out everyday tasks after hospitalisation?
   

7. What is the role of unconscious processes in decision making?
   

We have received funding from a variety of sources, including the British Academy, ESRC, EOARD, and the National Science Foundation.

Members of the Social Psychology Research Group also contribute to teaching social psychology at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level, and we have a number of PhD and MSc students, and post-doctoral members in the Group. For research resources to which the Social Psychology Research Group has access, see the overview of the departmental resources, and for modules taught by Social Psychology Research Group members, see under individual group-members' webpages (links below).

ACADEMIC STAFF

Mitchell Callan investigates the psychology of justice.

Philip Cozzolino is investigating the psychological experience of liberty and of restricted liberty by exploring processes relevant to freedom in the contexts of ‘existential liberty’ and ‘civil liberty’.

Nicolas Geeraert is interested in social cognition and the impact of  intercultural contact.   

Rick O’Gorman studies whether human behaviour is functionally adaptive, particularly in regard to how we achieve cooperation in the face of evolutionary pressures for selfishness.

Sheina Orbell investigates self-regulation of behaviour with particular emphasis on how we regulate our actions in response to health related threats. 

Tim Rakow researches judgement and decision making

Gerulf Rieger’s recent work has focused on sexual orientation: how it is organized, how it develops, and how it affects a person’s life.

Netta Weinstein studies human motivation, relationships, and well-being.

RESEARCH STAFF

Kali Demes is examining the impact of intercultural exchange through longitudinal research.

PhD STUDENTS

Kali Demes is interested in examining the relationship between expectations, experience and evaluations in the context on an intercultural sojourn.

Annelie Harvey is examining the various cognitive tactics individuals employ when their sense of justice has been threatened.

Varinia Heidel

Lukasz Walasek is examining psychological moderators of query theory in relation to the valuation disparity between buyers and sellers.

Becky Wright is researching intuitive versus deliberative decision making together with physiological measures during sequential risk taking tasks.