Donald W. Fiske Distinguished Lecture
Did you know that the first meeting of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology was held at The University of Chicago, and that among the former faculty at the University of Chicago were Louis G. Thurstone, Donald W. Fiske, Milton Rosenberg, and Donald Campbell and that among its students were Norman Anderson and Paul Ekman? The Department of Psychology celebrates this legacy in Social Psychology each year with a Donald W. Fiske Distinguished Lecture.
The inaugural Donald W. Fiske Distinguished Lecturer was Susan Fiske, and the full listing of Donald W. Fiske Distinguished Lecturers is as follows:
Hazel Rose Markus, Stanford University, April 26, 2012
4:30 - 6:00 pm
Social Sciences Research Building, Room 122
1126 East 59th Street
Her webpage
Topic: Inequality, Social Class, and Self
The U.S. is increasingly marked by inequality and divided along social class lines. This divide is evident in the music we listen to, what eat for dinner, how we parent, how we vote, and in how long we live. In this talk, I synthesize many of the powerful and previously unexamined psychological consequences of societal rank or social class, suggesting that rank has its influence on behavior through one's experience of self. In North American settings, those with higher rank (whether measured or manipulated) tend to experience themselves as independent selves—as separate from others, as expressing and promoting their own interests, choices and goals, and as influencing and controlling social interactions. Those with lower rank tend to experience themselves as interdependent selves—as connected with others, as responsive to the social situation and to others' goals, emotions and needs, and as adjusting and deferring to others in interaction. The more unequal we become, the more different we become in our senses of self, and the more societal dysfunction we will experience. Addressing inequality in health, education, and political engagement will require policies and practices that bridge these socioculturally shaped differences in self. SEE FLYER
Hazel Rose Markus revolutionized research on the self-concept, fostering the kind of empirical and theoretical growth that characterizes social psychology at its best. Her early work raised the study of the self to a new level of theoretical and methodological sophistication by treating the self-concept as a schema, a multifaceted, dynamic mental representation of self-relevant information. In the 1990’s, Markus sparked another revolution by arguing that social psychology, which had largely focused on the United States and Europe, had oversimplified the self-concept. In contrast to Western views of the self as independent, Markus argued that East Asians emphasize interdependence and connections between people – a difference that dramatically affects psychological functioning. By prompting social psychology to expand its view, Markus not only highlighted new areas of research, she forced the field to reconsider established phenomena not as general truths, but as culturally bound patterns of human behavior.
She is co-author of Culture and Emotion: Their Mutual Influence; Engaging Cultural Differences:The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies;, Just Schools: Pursuing Equality in Societies of Difference; Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century; and the forthcoming, Facing Social Class:The Social Psychology of Societal Rank; and Clash! Why Cultures Collide and How You Can Harness the Energy. SEE HER AMAZON PAGE
John A. Bargh, Yale University, March 10, 2011
4:30 - 6:00 pm
Social Sciences Research Building, Room 122
1126 East 59th Street
His webpage
Topic: Physical Priming of Psychological States.
John Bargh’s research has illuminated a degree of automaticity of cognition, motivation, emotion, and behavior that has surprised and stimulated a generation of scholars and changed our field. Where complex and deliberative mechanisms governing social behavior were seen, John saw simple, nonconscious controls governing behavior while the conscious aspects of mind engaged in confabulation and credit-taking. His theoretical work, grounded in evolutionary biology, builds on the recognition that nonconscious influences are responsible for complex social behaviors in most if not all nonhuman social species. His empirical tests of these theoretical insights have been both creative and compelling. John’s work has underscored the extent to which nonconscious, automatic mechanisms have been conserved and operate in the human species, and by doing so he has stimulated new theories and research on what function our consciousness truly serves.
Richard Nisbett, University of Michigan, April 23, 2010
4:30 - 6:00 pm
Social Sciences Research Building, Room 122
1126 East 59th Street
Flyer
Richard Nisbett’s career exemplifies interdisciplinary research, both in its origin and in its impact. His research illuminates a stunning array of phenomena in social psychology, ranging from attribution and misattribution, actor–observer differences, and problems with the trait construct, and the role of heuristics and other implicit mental processes to obesity and eating behavior. Nisbett’s work also illustrates that social psychologists can and should do more than simply identify faults and shortcomings in social cognition and behavior, they can also delineate the mechanisms underlying these problems and contribute to their remediation through interventions at the level of the individual and at the level of the situations in which individuals interact.
Bernadette Park, University of Colorado at Boulder, April 9, 2009
4:30 - 6:00pm
Social Sciences Research Building, Room 122
1126 East 59th Street
Bernadette Park's Homepage
Poster and abstract
Bernadette Park's research has challenged and redefined our understanding of intergroup attitudes and person perception. Her earliest research interests, which still permeate her work today, involved the idea that intergroup attitudes reflect more than differences between groups - that these attitudes also depend fundamentally on the perception of variability among members within a group. Her attention to within-category variation has yielded ground-breaking insights into diverse topics, such as outgroup homogeneity (the tendency to perceive reduced variability among members of groups to which one does not belong), the formation of cognitive representations of social categories, the use of multicultural ideologies to reduce prejudice, and the phenomena of subgrouping and subtyping (by which perceivers subdivide groups into clusters of more or less representative members). Her work has shaped the very definition of stereotypes in the field of psychology. While her research is clearly marked by its theoretical innovation, it is equally notable for its methodological and analytical rigor. The careful use of cognitive methods and measures, combined with sophisticated statistical approaches, contribute to her position as one of the most important students of social cognition.
Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University, March 6, 2008
4:30 - 6:00pm
Social Sciences Research Building, Room 122
1126 East 59th Street
Daniel Gilbert's Homepage
Poster
Daniel Gilbert's early work on person perception led to an appreciation of three sequential processes, categorization, characterization, and correction, which he demonstrated were increasingly subject to interference effects. Gilbert extended this insight to three related areas of social cognition. First, in work on how mental systems believe, Gilbert demonstrated that the comprehension of an idea is associated with its automatic acceptance, whereas to question or reject an idea requires a more effortful correction process. Second, he demonstrated that cognitive busyness could interfere with the activation of stereotypical beliefs by interfering with nonautomatic correction processes. Third, Gilbert drew upon these and related findings to articulate an influential theory of the causes and consequences of the correspondence bias. In addition, Gilbert's work on affective forecasting, or people's predictions about the impact and duration of their emotional reactions to future events, led to new discoveries including immune neglect, focalism, and durability bias.
Dale Miller, Stanford University, March 29, 2007
Dale Miller’s contributions to social psychology are remarkable for their breadth as well as their depth. His early work explored people’s concerns about justice and the implications of these concerns for judgments and behavior. His research has also illuminated a phenomenon known as pluralistic ignorance, which occurs when people believe that their private thoughts and feelings are different from those of others despite the fact that their outward behavior is identical. And he transformed our understanding of the processes by which social norms are constructed and the ways in which they impact thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In particular, Miller developed norm theory, an innovative and generative formulation of the processes by which norms are constructed ad hoc, providing a basis of comparison for events or outcomes. Recently, Miller has examined the antecedents and consequences of a “norm of self interest,” which he has shown has a powerful impact on people’s actions and opinions. Each of these lines of research is characterized by theoretical sophistication, methodological rigor, and a keen appreciation of the nuances of human behavior.
Walter Mischel, Columbia University, March 2, 2006
Walter Mischel has made outstanding contributions to personality theory and assessment. His critical analyses of personality trait conceptions and the case he has made for the cross-situational discrimination of behavior have had landmark effects. He has shown that the perception and organization of personality consistencies may depend more on the temporal stability of prototypical features than on the observation of behavioral consistency across dissimilar situations. He has led the way in linking modern cognitive psychology to the study of personality, and his studies on delay of gratification in children have elucidated the psychological mechanisms of self-control. His wit, wisdom, and intellectual prowess have inspired both students and colleagues.
Robert B. Zajonc, Stanford University, March 30, 2005
Bob Zajonc?s theoretical and empirical contributions to social psychology are characterized by dazzling versatility and power. From his early series of experiments that resolved the paradox of how thought and action can be enhanced or impaired by the presence of others, through his program of research that established the affective significance of repeated stimulus exposures, to his seminal contributions to our understanding of affective and cognitive systems, Zajonc has demonstrated with humane wit and intellectual rigor that social processes are most profitably analyzed by the concepts and methods of experimental and mathematic psychology. The cogency of his approach is witnessed by the impact of his work, which has been widespread and profound, repeatedly giving new impetus and direction to research on the fundamental problems of social psychology.
Shelley Taylor, University of California at Los Angeles, March 4, 2004
For outstanding contributions to social psychology and health psychology. Her integrative theories, research, and reviews have opened new fields of endeavor for countless psychologists. Her exceptional contributions in social cognition illuminated salience and vividness effects as well as categorization and stereotyping. Her fundamental contributions to basic social psychology have identified the importance of people's positive illusions, synthesized social comparison research in natural settings, and documented the asymmetrical impact of positive and negative events. In health psychology, she has brilliantly analyzed people's responses to intensely stressful negative events and created cognitive adaptation theory. A founder of both social cognition and health psychology, she has shaped these fields for generations to come.
Marilynn Brewer, Ohio State University, March 13, 2003
Marilynn Brewer has made path-breaking contributions to our understanding of the self and social identity, inter-group relations, stereotyping and prejudice, and person perception. Traditionally, the self was conceptualized as an individuated construct, the person?s sense of unique identity. Drawing upon cross-cultural perspectives, Brewer developed a theory of the social self, arguing that the personal, relational, and collective levels of self-definition represent distinct forms of self-representation with different origins, sources of self-worth, and social motivations. In her optimal distinctiveness theory, Brewer argued that two fundamental human needs ? social inclusion and distinctiveness ? could be satisfied simultaneously through individuals' social identities and group memberships. This theory has broadened our understanding of the motivational processes underlying social identification and the importance of social identities for basic human functioning.
Claude Steele, Stanford University, March 7, 2002
Through dazzling theoretical analyses and eloquent experimental work, Claude Steele has revolutionized the way social scientists think about prejudice and stereotypes. The human mind organizes knowledge about the world and its inhabitants in terms of the self. Self-evaluation and coping with self-image threat are, therefore, two fundamental operations performed continuously by the human mind. Claude?s theories of interest in these processes led to a general theory of self-affirmation, in which he articulated an underlying and surprisingly powerful motivation by individuals to think and act in ways that make it possible for them to view themselves as rational, honest, and worthwhile beings. Claude then expanded this theory to address how group stereotypes - by posing an extra self-evaluative threat to such groups as African Americans in all academic domains and women in quantitative domains - can influence intellectual performance and academic identities. Dissatisfied with knowledge for knowledge?s sake, Claude has also developed intervention programs to help ameliorate the effects of stereotypes in our schools.
A second line of research addresses addictive behaviors, particularly alcohol addiction, where his work with several colleagues has led to a theory of “alcohol myopia.” According to this formulation, many of alcohol's social and stress-reducing effects - effects that may underlie its addictive capacity - are explained as a consequence of alcohol's narrowing of perceptual and cognitive functioning. This work, which has forced addiction researchers to consider social as well as biological influences on addiction, has helped revolutionize how addictions are conceptualized, studied, and treated.
Claude Steele is Professor of Psychology as well as the co-director of the research center for the Program in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. Before going to Stanford, Claude served on the faculties of the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, and the University of Utah. He received his B.A. degree from Hiram College (Hiram, Ohio) and his Ph.D. degree in psychology from The Ohio State University in 1971. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Society and as President of the Western Psychological Association. He has also served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Society of Experimental Social Psychologists, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (Division of the APA), and on the editorial boards of numerous journals including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Attitudes and Social Cognition, and the Psychological Review. He has also served on study sections at both the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse. He is a Fellow of the APS and the APA, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Association of Black Psychologists, and is the recipient of a Cattell Faculty Fellowship from the Cattell Foundation and the 1996 Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize. Professor Steele was also a recipient of the 1995 Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford University. He has been described as a terrific lecturer who holds his students spell-bound and an outstanding advisor who exemplifies the best qualities of a teacher and mentor.
Although Claude was never a student at the University of Chicago, his mother was a student here, his father-in-law served on the Board of the Divinity School, and Claude serves on the External Advisory Committee to the University of Chicago?s Social Psychology Program. In his intelligence, intensity, breadth, and eloquence, Claude Steele embodies the life of the mind that we celebrate in the Donald W. Fiske Distinguished Lecturer in 2002.
Richard E. Petty, Ohio State University, March 14, 2001
The attitude construct has long been considered the most essential concept in social psychology, as understanding how people form and change their positive or negative evaluations of other people, objects, and issues is essential to understanding everything from personal values and relationships to election outcomes and health behaviors. Not surprisingly, social psychologists view basic research aimed at understanding how attitudes are formed and changed as critical for dealing with some of society's most pressing national and international problems.
By the time Richard began his research on attitudes as a graduate student in the mid 1970s, so much conflicting research had been generated that prominent scholars in the field were writing that few simple and direct empirical generalizations could be made concerning how to change attitudes. Indeed, the field of attitudes was viewed as not the thriving field it once was. After more than 20 years of research by Richard Petty, the field of attitudes is once again at the forefront of research in social psychology. His work has done nothing less than “fostered a revolution in the study of persuasion.”
Richard?s initial research introduced a methodological innovation to persuasion studies that has now become standard practice in the field.
His early research provided support for the then radical idea that the same variable could have opposite effects on persuasion. His theory, called the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (ELM), holds that persuasion can be thoughtful or not, and importantly it specifies the conditions under which each type of persuasion occurs.
The notion that there are both effortful and non-effortful persuasion processes that operate under different but specifiable conditions, a notion that predated distinctions between automatic and controlled processing, provided a long awaited integration of research and theory in the field. Numerous others have adapted this conceptualization to explain a wide variety of other social phenomena.
Although less well known is that Richard is something of a contrarian.
When attitude change was thought to be mindless, Richard demonstrated the importance of idiosyncratic interpretations and cognitive responses to persuasive appeals. When the field became infatuated with heuristics and biases, Richard demonstrated the conditions under which bias and bias-correction processes each operated. And more recently, as the field has become enamored with implicit attitude processes, Richard has shown the importance of meta-cognitive processes in attitude change. In recognition of Richard?s distinction in the field, he received numerous awards including the Campbell Award (the field?s award for a lifetime of distinguished scientific contribution), the Ohio State Distinguished Scholar Award, and an endowed chair in 1997. It is our pleasure to add to that list by recognizing Richard?s scientific contributions as the Donald W. Fiske Distinguished Lecturer in 2001.
Susan T. Fiske, Princeton University, February 24, 2000
The Department of Psychology last year decided to rebuild the Social Psychology Program at The University of Chicago. One of the first decisions made by the Department as part of this rebuilding process was to establish an annual Distinguished Lecture in honor of Donald W. Fiske.
Don Fiske joined the faculty of The University of Chicago almost sixty years ago and made major contributions to the Department and University, the field of social psychology, and the discipline of psychology at large.
Once the decision was made to establish this annual distinguished lecture, it was obvious to us all who should serve as the inaugural speaker ? someone who is not only highly distinguished for her own contributions to the field of social psychology and to the discipline of psychology but who has been influenced profoundly by Don and Barbara Fiske. The obvious choice for the inaugural Donald W. Fiske Distinguished Lecturer is, of course, their brilliant daughter, Susan T. Fiske.
She has authored over 100 journal articles and book chapters; she has edited 7 books and journal special issues. Her graduate text with Shelley Taylor, Social Cognition (1984; 2nd ed., 1991), defined the sub-field of how people think about and make sense of other people.
Her research on social cognition has focused on social structure, motivation, and stereotyping, which led to expert testimony cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark discrimination case in 1984. In 1998, she also testified before President Clinton's Race Initiative Advisory Board. Fiske won the 1991 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, Early Career, in part for the earlier testimony.
Fiske also won, with Peter Glick, the 1995 Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues for work on ambivalent sexism. She was 1994 President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and she received an honorary doctorate from the University Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, in 1995. She serves on the boards of Scientific Affairs for the American Psychological Association, the Social Science Research Council, and the Common School in Amherst.
As she notes on her webpage, Susan grew up in a stable, racially integrated neighborhood here in Hyde Park and still wonders why more of the world isn't like that. It is our pleasure to recognize both Donald and Susan Fiske for outstanding scientific contributions in this, the inaugural Donald W. Fiske Distinguished Lecture.
