Social Psychology Program

This program integrates social and cultural perspectives to link basic affective processes with socially crucial issues within and outside of North America. The social psychological perspective examines human interactions from the point of view of the experiences of self and the emotional feelings and actions of the participants. At Clark, it includes the study of group dynamics, inter-group relations, and societal peace and conflict. The cultural psychological perspective examines how presuppositions arising from language, culture, and social and political ideology interact with our basic natures to produce human experience and behavior. Students and faculty in the program are concerned with how the understanding of basic developmental, social, and political processes, and the use of a wide variety of both quantitative and qualitative methods –experimental, field, phenomenological, and semiotic-can be used to investigate and address pressing social issues in health and peace. The program encourages interdisciplinary research, as well as novel projects and research-action paradigms. Faculty and students work together to design courses. For further information, contact Dr. Joseph de Rivera at jderivera@clarku.edu .

Course of Study

The Program makes use of the resources of the Department, the University, and other Consortium Institutions to prepare students for academic careers in social psychology. For us, such preparation requires a student

• to develop a perspective on the field,
• to identify a research literature made salient by that perspective,
• to pick out a family of empirical problems related to that literature,
• to become fully competent in the research methods necessary to solving those problems, and
• to begin a systematic program of research that will sustain them through the early stages of a career.

Along the way, we provide opportunities to practice and perfect the skills of an academic. These include:

• assisting in and teaching courses,
• applying for and receiving grants,
• presenting posters and papers at conferences, and
• publishing collaborative and individual work in the scholarly journals of the field.

 

Social graduate students are encouraged to work closely with one another, with advanced undergraduate students, and with faculty colleagues in developing their research programs. The program does not emphasize courses as such, except as they are related to the specific career development needs of its members. When the taking of specific courses is indicated, students can select from an array of occasional graduate courses, advanced undergraduate courses, courses at neighboring institutions, and courses developed for their needs with the social faculty. We would particularly like to call attention to courses offered in individual and family development offered by members of our Clinical and Developmental Programs.

The principle training settings of the program are the Department's research groups, forums, and lab meetings. These are groupings of faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students drawn together regularly by common theoretical concerns, research interests, or training needs. The number, focus, and constitution of these groups changes from year to year, but there will always be several that are active at any time. Groups are initiated both by faculty and by graduate students.

For the purposes of meeting the University's formal course and residency requirements, the Department arranges for participation in these meetings to constitute "course taking."

Currently Active Groups of Particular Interest to Social Students are listed below, along with their Social Psychology Program faculty and graduate participants

Social forum
This is a forum on research and theory in Social and cultural Psychology in which members discuss theoretical and methodological problems, plan new research, and share updates on ongoing projects. The forum is also the home of the E-motion Project which explores computer projected minimal social phenomena such as the Heider films. (de Rivera, Laird, Valsiner, Rudolph)

Peace Studies Group
Associated with Clark's Peace Studies Program, this group conducts studies on the social and emotional conditions that relate to the compassion, political identity and political action involved in international relations. This group is currently examining group conflict in Bosnia, Colombia, Ireland, Rwanda and Turkey, conducting surveys and interviews on emotional climates and cultures of peace, and experimentally investigating factors that influence human security and social responsibility. (Begic, Mahoney, Phillips, Cordova, de Rivera)

Self-Perception Lab
This group examines emotions through the lens of self-perception theory. Recent projects include a qualitative analysis of emotion experience and research re-examining cognitive dissonance. Current research foci are on individual differences in the role of autonomic arousal in emotional experience, and on the factors that generate pain experiences. (Laird, Timothy)

"Kitchen" Meeting
The most wide-ranging and free-wheeling of the Department's interest groups, the Kitchen group is currently exploring how individuals live at the nexus of biological, cognitive, and semiotic imperatives. (Valsiner, Bamberg, Bibace)

Social Psychology Faculty

Joseph de Rivera, Ph.D.
The structure and function of different emotions, the relationships between emotion and action, the social psychology of non-violent action for peace and justice

James D. Laird, Ph.D.
Emotional experience, self-perception, attributions to others, structures of person awareness, world hypotheses as personality variables

Jaan Valsiner, Ph.D.
Cultural psychology, history of ideas

Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Ph.D.
Intergroup relations (in particular between minority groups); the social psychology of ethnopolitical conflict and cooperation; group-based victim consciousness; altruism and prosocial behavior; attributions in intergroup contexts; conceptual and methodological relations between social psychology and peace psychology

Affiliated Faculty

Michael Bamberg, Ph.D.
Narrative and discourse analysis

Roger Bibace, Ph.D.
Psychology and religion; morality, values, and grading; risk governance; gender differences; changing behaviors

James Cordova, Ph.D.
Development and maintenance of intimacy and acceptance, the role of emotion skills in relationships, motivating the adoption of relationship healthy practices

Program Costs

Tuition and Fees:  Students supported on an assistantship or fellowship can expect to have their tuition waived. Tuition rates can be found at: http://www.clarku.edu/admissions/financialaid/tuition.cfm  The remaining costs not covered by the waiver include activity fees ($15/semester) and optional health insurance ($1257/year).

Assistantships and fellowships:  Teaching assistantships currently pay a stipend of $16,700 for the academic year. Research assistantships pay at least as much as a teaching assistantship, often more, and often continue through the summer. Additional financial assistance information can be found through the Office of Financial Aid at: http://www.clarku.edu/admissions/financialaid/apply/graduate/grad_index.cfm