Applied Social Psychology

Resources

Grant-supported research and fieldwork opportunities are widely available for graduate students, with many students working with faculty on state- and federally-funded research, or on projects supported by private and foundation funds. Many of these research projects are housed in the Institute for Research on Social Issues, another resource available to support student research and that offers employment opportunities. Currently, grant-supported research and projects focus on topics ranging from drug prevention to civic participation and volunteerism among older adults, from understanding cultural factors that facilitate drug prevention and HIV avoidance to field-based intervention research focused on building psychological sense of community and encouraging community health.

In addition to faculty grant-funded research, the climate of the program is collegial and attempts to facilitate collaborative research among graduate students and between students and faculty. The graduate students and faculty in the program frequently gather for brown bag lunch talks on topics of current interest. Many classes are also designed to encourage students to produce and publish their work. Recent student research includes projects on jury decision-making, gender stereotypes, identity conflict and self-esteem among stigmatized populations, romantic relationships, minority persuasion attempts, women's health, and responses to the terrorist attacks of 9-11.

The Faculty in Social Psychology

The core faculty of Claremont Graduate University’s social psychology concentration are:

Michael Hogg
(Ph.D., Bristol University, 1983)

Allen M. Omoto
(Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1989)

William D. Crano
(Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1968)

Stuart Oskamp
(Ph.D., Stanford University, 1960)

In addition to the core faculty in social psychology at Claremont Graduate University, a number of allied faculty are affiliated with the program. Approximately 40 additional professors, The Graduate Faculty in Psychology, are associated with one or another of the undergraduate colleges that are part of the Claremont Colleges consortium. These include Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer Colleges, along with the Keck Graduate institute of Applied Life Sciences. Graduate Faculty involved with the social psychology program include the following (click here for a complete list of faculty and their research interests):

Mark Costanzo (University of California, Santa Cruz) Human communication, interpersonal influence, social cognition, and the application of social psychology to environmental issues, the law, and education.

Sharon Goto (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Antecedents and consequences of individualism/collectivism; cross-cultural methodology; influence of cross-cultural interaction on intergroup attitudes; issues in Asian-American psychology.

Shana Levin (University of California, Los Angeles) Intergroup relations; ethnic identity and social status; racism.

Amy Marcus-Newhall (University of Southern California) Intergroup relations, displaced aggression, psychology and the legal system, psychology of women.

Ron Riggio (University of California, Riverside) Leadership; assessment of career readiness; social skillls; nonverbal behavior; industrial/organizational psychology.

Suzanne Thompson (University of California, Los Angeles) Coping with chronic disease; HIV disease and AIDS; physician-patient relationship; outgroup homogeneity; attitudes toward the environment.

Jeff Lewis (University of California, Santa Barbara) Organizational behavior; social psychology; attributions; history of psychology.

Susan Murphy (University of Washington) Leadership; small group decision making; motivational processes; organizational culture; mentoring relationships; the effects of work stressors on employee performance.

Ray Buriel (University of California, Riverside) Acculturation and adjustment of Mexican immigrants; comparisons in acculturation processes of Asians and Central American immigrants as well as African Americans.

Hal Fairchild (University of Michigan) “Activist” orientation to social psychology; Black psychology; eradicating racism.