Psychology

Lowell Gaertner

Lowell Gaertner

Lowell Gaertner

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Website
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=i-fbbh4AAAAJ&hl=en
Phone
865-974-3348

Lowell Gaertner

Professor

Key words: Social Psychology, groups, self, violence

Education

Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1999)

Research

Research Interests

Social Psychology, groups, self, violence

Research statement

I have three research areas, which are frequently intertwined: groups, the self, and violence. My research on groups examines processes involved in intergroup conflict and intragroup harmony. Relevant questions addressed by this line of research are “Why are relations between groups more competitive and abrasive than relations between individuals?” and “Why and under what circumstances do persons enact behaviors and thoughts that are beneficial to other members of their own social group?” My research on the self explores the interplay between the individual-self (i.e., self as unique and independent social agent) and the collective-self (i.e., self as interchangeable group member). My recent efforts have been addressing the question “Given that both the individual and collective selves are important forms of self-definition, which self-definition is more primary?” My research on violence examines processes that contribute to physical attacks against close-relationship members and violence directed toward numerous persons (e.g., school shootings at Columbine High School). My more recent research in this area address the question of whether there is a group dynamic affecting episodes of violence in which multiple persons are victimized. That is, are the persons victimized in episodes of mass violence the intended targets or is the intended target the social group to which the victimized persons belong?

Honors

  • Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
  • Fellow, Society of Experimental Social Psychology
  • Fellow, Society for Personality and Social Psychology
  • Associate Editor (2008-2013), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
  • Editorial Board, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
  • Editorial Board, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations
  • Editorial Board, Social Cognition
  • Editorial Board, Self and Identity
  • Editorial Board, Social and Personality Psychology Compass (Launch 2008)
  • Editorial Board, Personality and Social Psychology Review

Grants

  • National Institute of Mental Health (2002)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (2004-2006)
  • National Science Foundation (2008-2010)

Publications

Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L., Luke, M. A., O’Mara, E., & Gebauer, J. E. (2013). A three-tier hierarchy of self-potency: Individual self, relational self, Collective self. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 235-295.

O’Mara, E. M, Gaertner, L., Sedikides, C., Zhou, X., & Liu, Y. (2012). A longitudinal-experimental test of the panculturality of self-enhancement: Self-enhancement promotes psychological well-being both in the West and the East. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 157-163.

Gaertner, L., Sedikides, C., Luke, M., O’Mara, E. M., Iuzzini, J., Jackson, L. E., Cai, H., & Quiping. W. (2012). A Motivational Hierarchy Within:  Primacy of the Individual Self, Relational Self, or Collective Self? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 997-1013.

Gaertner, L., Sedikides, C., & Cai, H. (2012). Wanting to be great and better but not average:  On the pancultural desire for self-enhancing and self-improving feedback. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43, 521-526.

O’Mara, E. M., Jackson, L. E., Batson, C. D., & Gaertner, L. (2011). Will moral outrage stand up? Distinguishing among emotional reactions to a moral violation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 173-179

Cai, H., Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L., Wang, C., Carvallo, M., Xu, Y., O’Mara, E. M., & Jackson, L. E. (2011). Tactical self-enhancement in China: Is modesty at the service of self-enhancement in East-Asian culture? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 59-64.

Jackson, L. E., & Gaertner, L. (2010). Mechanisms of moral disengagement and their differential use by Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation in support of war. Aggressive Behavior, 36, 238-250.

Gaertner, L., Sedikides, C., Cai, H., & Brown, J. D. (2010). It’s not WEIRD, it’s WRONG: When Researchers Overlook uNderlying Genotypes they will not detect universal processes. Behavioral and Brain Science, 33, 93-94.

Gaertner, L., Sedikides, C., & O’Mara, E. M. (2008). On The Motivational Primacy of the Individual Self: “I” is Stronger than “We.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 1913-1929.

Gaertner, L., Sedikides, C., & Chang, K. (2008). On pancultural self-enhancement: Well-adjusted Taiwanese self-enhance on personally-valued traits. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39, 463-477.

Gaertner, L., Iuzzini, J., O’Mara, E. M. (2008). When rejection by one fosters aggression against many: Multiple-victim aggression as a consequence of social rejection and perceived groupness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 958-970.

Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L. & Vevea, J. L. (2007). Evaluating the evidence for pancultural self-enhancement. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 201-203.

Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L., & Vevea, J. L. (2007). The inclusion of theory-relevant moderators yield the same conclusions as Sedikides, Gaertner, and Vevea (2005): A meta-analytic reply to Heine, Kitayama, and Hamamura (2007). Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 59-67.

Boldry, J. G., Gaertner, L., Quinn, J.  (2007). Measuring the measures: A meta-analytic investigation of the measures of outgroup homogeneity. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 10, 157-178.

Gaertner, L., Iuzzini, J., Guerrero Witt, M., & Oriña, M. M. (2006). Us without them: Evidence for an intragroup origin of positive ingroup regard. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 426-439.

Boldry, J. G., & Gaertner, L. (2006). Separating status from power as an antecedent of intergroup perception. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 9, 377-400.

Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L., & Vevea, J. L. (2005). Pancultural self-enhancement reloaded: A meta-analytic reply to Heine. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 539-551.

Gramzow, R. H. & Gaertner, L. (2005). Self-esteem and favoritism toward novel in-groups: The self as an evaluative base. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 801-815.

Sedikides, C., Skowronski, J. J., Gaertner, L. (2004). Self-enhancement and self-protection motivation: From the laboratory to an evolutionary context. Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology, 2, 61-79.

Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L., & Toguchi, Y. (2003). Pancultural self-enhancement.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 60-79.

Herbst, K. C., Gaertner, L., & Insko, C. A. (2003). My head says “yes,” But my heart says “no”: Cognitive and Affective attraction as a function of similarity to the ideal self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1206-1219.

Wildschut, T., Insko, C., A., & Gaertner, L. (2002). Intragroup social influence and intergroup competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 975 – 992.

Gaertner, L., Sedikides, C., Vevea, J.,  & Iuzzini, J. (2002). The “I,” the “We,” and the “When”: A Meta-Analysis of Motivational Primacy in Self-Definition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 574-591.

Insko, C. A., Schopler, J., Gaertner, L., Wildschut, T., Kozar, R., Pinter, B., Finkel, E. J., Brazil, D. B., Cecil, C. L., & Montoya, M. R. (2001). Interindividual-intergroup discontinuity reduction through the anticipation of future interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 95-111.

Gramzow, R. H., Gaertner, L., & Sedikides, C. (2001). Memory for ingroup and outgroup information in a minimal group context: The self as an informational base. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 188-205.

Gaertner, L., & Insko, C. A. (2001). On the measurement of social orientations in the minimal group paradigm: Norms as moderators of the expression of intergroup bias. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31, 143-154.

Gaertner, L. &  Insko, C. A. (2000). Intergroup discrimination in the minimal group paradigm: Categorization, reciprocation, or fear? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79,77-94.

Gaertner, L., Sedikides, C., & Graetz, K. (1999). In search of self-definition: Motivational primacy of the individual self, motivational primacy of the collective self, or contextual primacy? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 5-18.

Insko, C. A., Schopler, J., Pemberton, M. R., Weiselquist, J., McIlraith, S. A., Currey, D., & Gaertner, L. (1998). Long-term outcome maximization and the reduction of interindividual-intergroup discontinuity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 695-710.

Gaertner, L., & Schopler, J. (1998). Perceived ingroup entitativity and intergroup bias: An interconnection of self and others. European Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 963-980.