Projects in Social Psychology Supervised by Jen Borton
Professor Borton will supervise one-semester research projects in either the fall or spring semester. Empirical projects will focus on the topic of self-compassion. Self-compassion involves extending kindness and sympathy to the self in times of failure or difficulty. Self-compassionate people recognize that failure and imperfection are part of being human and offer themselves grace when they experience it. Empirical projects in 2024-2025 will be designed to understand whether self-compassion can buffer the negative effects of social rejection.
Depending on their interest and preparation, thesis students in Professor Borton’s lab can be involved with (1) data collection for empirical research with college students and/or online samples (likely in groups of two or three students), or (2) a literature review and research proposal in one of the following areas of social psychology:
Self-Compassion
Over the past twenty years, an explosion of research on self-compassion (defined above) has documented its relation to a variety of variables, including well-being, motivation, quality of interpersonal and romantic relationships, and taking personal responsibility for one’s actions (see Neff, 2023, for a review). Researchers have measured self-compassion as an individual difference variable and have also manipulated it in interventions to examine its causal effect. Students could develop an interesting proposal to further our understanding of self-compassion.
Neff, K. D. (2023). Self-compassion: Theory, method, research, and intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 74, 193-218. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-032420-031047
Contingent Self-esteem
People differ in the extent to which they base their sense of self-worth on achieving success in different domains (e.g., academic, social, athletic, physical appearance) and on what domains they value. Contingent self-esteem has been associated with a variety of negative outcomes, including poorer well-being (depression, anxiety), perfectionism, poorer relationship satisfaction, and defensiveness. It’s also been shown to moderate how people handle self-threatening events. Students could propose a variety of interesting questions in this area.
Stereotyping & Prejudice
Students could explore a variety of topics in the area of stereotyping and prejudice, including perceptions or experiences of biracial and multiracial individuals, negative effects of so-called “positive” stereotypes, stereotype threat, internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice, effects of masculinity threat on prejudice, and prejudice-reduction techniques.