Project
Social determinants of fear.
My project will examine the role of social appraisals in the experience
of emotions. Social appraisal refers to the way in which people judge
other peoples responses and reactions to situations. We observe others,
and attribute meaning to their responses, which then informs our own appraisals
of, and reactions to the situation. Specifically, I will examine whether
the intensity of the experience of fear will change as a function of the
presence of ‘others’ in the social situation, and whether
the role of the ‘other’ also influences emotional experience.
In the first stage of the project, I have applied social appraisal theory
to the experience of fear of a ‘non-social object’: disease.
While my results so far indicate that people's emotions are influenced
by the presence and
responses of others within a fearful situation, the processes which underpin
this are not clear. I am currently examing the thoughtss people have when
responding to 'frightening' material, within the social context, in order
to
try to identify some of these underlying processes.
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Other Experience
I am currently tutoring for the topic PSYC 2013: Personality and Social
Psychology.
From May 2005 to the present I have been employed by Dr Michael Wenzel,
as a research assistant, for an Australian Research Council grant funded
project on 'restorative justice', a project examining the social psychology
of justice and justice motivations.
I am the Tutor for the online topic PSYC 9064: Introduction to Teaching
Secondary Psychology .
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