RESEARCH

Primary Collaborators

Leanne Son Hing, University of Guelph
Victoria Esses, University of Western Ontario
Nyla Branscombe, University of Kansas
Monica Biernat, University of Kansas
Glenn Adams, University of Kansas
Laurie O’Brien, Tulane University
Anca Miron, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Sandrine Redersdorff, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand II
Anne-Laure Hernandez, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand II
Serge Desmarais, University of Guelph
Stephanie Gee, University of Windsor
Paula Brochu, University of Western Ontario
Lynne Jackson, King’s University College

Research interests

My program of research focuses on the self-perpetuating nature of social inequality via its effects on human functioning (e.g., motivation, aspirations, achievement, self-regulation, and psychological and physiological well-being). Specifically, I am interested in the impact that inequality has on psycho-social processes, which in turn impair the successful functioning of low status group members but often enhance the functioning of those from high status groups. My study of the effects of social inequality involves three related areas: (1) the psycho-social mechanisms underlying the relationship between social inequality and successful human functioning, (2) the social pressures that discourage people from challenging discrimination, and (3) the self-fulfilling role of cultural oppression on human functioning.

Social Inequality and Human Functioning

I am currently working as a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph, under the direction of Leanne Son Hing. Dr. Son Hing is a fellow of the CIFAR Successful Societies program (http://www2.cifar.ca/). Dr. Son Hing and I are working on two projects together. First, we have developed a complex model of the relationship between social inequality and the health of communities and community members. In line with this model, we are writing a review paper in collaboration with Dr. Felicia Pratto and Judy Tan (University of Connecticut). Our goal is to model how social inequality (or wealth disparity) in a society contributes to important life outcomes via psycho-social processes, independent of individual-level social economic status. We are especially interested in the ways in which societal social inequality can harm all society members, across income levels. Second, Dr. Son Hing, Christine Yip, and I and are also developing a large scale multi-organizational study, which we plan to start running in March 2009. We will test how various forms of inequality within an organization (e.g., decision-making, power, status, pay) predict employee stress, psychological well-being, and performance.

In a second research, I focus on how experiences with discrimination can affect self-regulation in harmful ways (e.g., impaired ability to regulate unhealthy food consumption). Building on past research showing that social exclusion can impair self-regulator ability, I examine whether discriminatory exclusion is more detrimental to self-regulation than is exclusion that is fair and unrelated to group membership.

The Social Costs of Claiming Discrimination

An abundance of research has examined the factors that influence whether individuals will privately perceive that they experienced discrimination and the consequences of these private attributions on emotional well-being. In contrast, I am interested in the factors that influence whether people will publicly label unfair treatment as discrimination and the psychological and social consequences arising from publicly expressing or suppressing personal experiences with discrimination.

The Self-Fulfilling Role of Social Devaluation

My third line of research draws on research concerning stereotype threat – the tendency for stigmatized groups to under-perform when reminded of their stigma – to identify the circumstances that lead men and women to inadvertently confirm stereotypes about their relative performance. I am particularly interested in the role of cultural oppression and devaluation in creating environment that reduce women’s and ethnic minorities’ presence in valued academic and career domains such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. My examination of these issues takes two directions: 1) the role of social comparisons in stereotype threat effects and, 2) the effects that concern about the potential sexism of a male instructor might have on women’s experience in an instruction setting (Adams, Garcia, Purdie-Vaughns, & Steele, 2006, JESP) and whether this concern might harm women’s experience by having a “self-fulfilling” effect on their interaction with the potentially biased instructor.