SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

At the University of Texas

Personality and Individual Differences

It is impossible to understand real world behaviors without a strong knowledge of both personality psychology and social psychology. At the University of Texas, the "person-situation debate" isn't a debate at all. We all recognize the importance of studying how people create their situations and vice versa. Some of the hot projects include:

Sam Gosling and his students are examining how people create their own physical environments that signal to others who they are or want to be. Their "residues of personality" can be seen in the ways they decorate their offices or bedrooms and even how they purchase their food and fill their refrigerators.

Jamie Pennebaker's research team is particularly interested in stable linguistic styles. Most of us tend to talk and write in remarkably reliable ways over the course of our lives. To what degree can the words we use tell us about who we are? And can personality be affected by bringing about linguistic shifts?

Bill Swann and his students are looking at the trait of "blirtatiousness" (marked by the speed and effusiveness with which people respond to others) on how accurately people perceive them. When provoked by others, high blirters quickly speak up and express their disgruntlement. Low blirters sit and fume, which causes their physiological systems to switch into overdrive.

Sam Gosling and his students are also looking at the world of animal personality. Not surprisingly, dogs and cats are viewed as having remarkably stable personality characteristics. But Gosling is extending this to many other non-human species.

Jane Richards and her collaborators have been examining how the social lives of emotionally expressive people may differ from those of emotionally inexpressive people. One of the biggest challenges adults face is teaching their children to reign in their emotions. However, failing to show emotion can be a social liability that prompts negative reactions from others. Are there some situations in which inexpressivity is socially advantageous? If so, why might that be? Do people use our transient grimaces, smiles, and frowns to form sweeping generalizations about our general abilities and personality traits?

Bob Joseph and his students are focusing on some of the differences between men and women in terms of issues of dominance strivings. Does it make more sense to thing about behaviors in terms of sex differences or in terms of baseline testosterone differences or simply dominance needs? All of these dimensions are highly related and, in some situations, strongly related to behavior.