PSYCHOLOGY AND WOMEN'S STUDIES
DUAL DEGREE

I work at the intersection of the psychology of emotion, the psychology of gender, and feminist psychology. I focus on the politics of emotion in everyday life, particularly evaluation of others’ emotional behavior and experience. New work is concerned with the politics of emotion in the workplace as they affect women. I also study the social context of psychological research as reflected in the history of the psychology of women and gender and women’s participation in American psychology. I have an ongoing interest in gender theory, especially using social constructionist approaches to inform empirical work and theory construction in psychology.

Recent publications:

Shields, S. A. (in press). The politics of emotion in everyday life: “Appropriate” emotion and claims on identity. Review of General Psychology .

Shields, S. A. (in press). Magda Arnold’s life and work in context. Cognition & Emotion. (Special issue on Magda B. Arnold's contributions to emotions research.)

Shields, S. A. (2002). Speaking from the heart: Gender and the social meaning of emotion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Recipient of 2004 AWP Distinguished Publication Award. Reviewed in Contemporary Psychology, Sex Roles, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Contemporary Sociology, Canadian Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Journal of Social History, Personnel Psychology, Gender Studies, South African Journal of Psychology.

I study power, stereotyping, paternalistic relations, and the maintenance of stable relations of inequality (such as gender relations and race relations). I also do research examining the effectiveness of various prejudice reduction interventions.

Recent publications:

Vescio, T. K., Gervais, S. J., Snyder, M., & Hoover, A. (In Press). Power and the creation of patronizing environments: The stereotype-based behaviors of the powerful and their effects on female performance in masculine domains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Vescio, T. K., Sechrist, G., & Paolucci, M. P. (2003). Perspective taking and prejudice reduction: The mediational role of empathy arousal and situational attributions. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 455-472.

Vescio, T. K., Snyder, M., & Butz, D. A. (2003). Power in stereotypically masculine domains: A social influence strategy X stereotype match model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1062-1078.

Biernat, M., & Vescio, T. K. (2002). She swings, she hits, she’s great, she’s benched: Shifting judgment standards and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 66-76.

I am a cognitive psychologist interested in language and memory. My particular interest is in the psycholinguistics of bilingualism and my research examines both early stages of second language acquisition and fluent bilingual performance. I am one of the founders of the Women in Cognitive Science group that is working to increase the representation, visibility, and success of women cognitive scientists in the U.S. and internationally.

I am a Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at the Penn State campus in Delaware County, near Philadelphia. My work is concentrated on topics that often cross the boundaries between the two fields. Working within a social constructionist metatheoretical perspective, I am interested in relational theory, narrative studies, and gender issues. Many of my collegial contacts are of an international nature. I am also a founder of the Taos Institute, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to the application of Social Constructionist thought in applied arenas.

Recent publications:

Gergen, K. J., & Gergen, M. (2004). Positive aging: Reconstructing the life course. In C. Goodheart & J. Worell (Eds.) Handbook of Women and Girls. Oxford University Press.

Gergen, M., & Davis, S. N. (2003). Dialogic pedagogy: Developing narrative research perspectives through conversation. In R. Josselson, A. Lieblich, & D. McAdams (Eds.). Up Close and Personal: The teaching and learning of narrative research. Washington, DC: APA Publications.

Gergen, M., & Gergen, K. J. (2002). Narratives of the gendered body in popular autobiography. In J. A. Holstein & J. F. Gubrium (Eds). Inner Lives and Social Worlds: Readings in Social Psychology. Oxford University Press.

Gergen, M. (2001). Feminist Reconstructions in Psychology. Narrative, Gender & Performance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Gergen, M., & Davis, S. N. (Eds). (1997). Toward a New Psychology of Gender . New York: Routledge.

My major focus is on the development and consequences of gender schemas. My work includes examining the developmental trends in children’s gender schemas by type of schema, and the consequences for memory and other information processing of stereotypical schemas. I also study gender-related patterns in cognition, most recently in a study of computer users. I frequently use meta-analysis to examine the developmental and gender-related trends.

Recent Publications:

Grimes, G. A., Hough, M. G., & Signorella, M. L. (in press). Email end users and spam: Relations of gender and age group to attitudes and actions. Computers in Human Behavior.

Signorella, M. L. (2000). Single-sex education. In L. Balter (Ed.). Parenthood in America (Vol. 2, pp. 572-574). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Signorella, M. L. (1999). Multidimensionality of gender schemas: Implications for the development of gender-related characteristics. In W. B. Swann, Jr., J. H. Langlois, & L. A. Gilbert (Eds.), Sexism and stereotypes in modern society: The gender science of Janet Taylor Spence (pp. 107-126). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Signorella, M. L., Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L. S. (1997). A meta-analysis of children's memories for own-sex and other-sex information. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 18, 429-445.

Signorella, M. L., Frieze, I. H., & Hershey, S. W. (1996). Single-sex versus mixed-sex classes and gender schemata in children and adolescents: A longitudinal comparison. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20, 599-607.

Connie Matthews, Counseling Psychology & Women’s Studies
Aaronette White, Women’s Studies