Background

Tell us a bit about your background: What is your area of research? What is your most recent journal-editing experience?

I am a social psychologist, with a long-term research interest in cultural variation in psychological processes including cognition, emotion, and motivation as well as in the self that is constituted by these processes.

I have had extensive journal editing experiences. I was Editor-in-Chief at Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin(2007–2012).

More recently, I have been an associate editor at the second section (Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP).

 

Priorities

Briefly, what are your main priorities? For example, how will you grow readership, what type of scholarship would you like to see in the journal, and what kind of content are you hoping to attract?

The top priority of our editorial team is the scientific rigor of the papers we publish in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition (JPSP-ASC).

In addition, we will encourage methodological innovations, while also fostering greater awareness of the diversity in subject populations (or the absence thereof) to address the generality of findings.

 

Journal Importance

Why is this journal important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health? What are the hot issues in your area right now? What challenges, if any, lie ahead for the field?

Throughout my career, I've always thought about social and personality psychology as a nexus point for some of the most exciting and expansive ideas in psychology.

From its inception in the early 20th century, the field has examined how the social world shapes psychological processes. I would argue that the idea that the mind is exquisitely tuned to our social contexts is an insight we should be proud of. It is also the one that is relevant not only to those of us who identify as "social-personality psychologists," but to society at large as well.

It is my view that social personality psychology has the potential to advance our understanding of some of the most pernicious challenges that we face.

 

Read the full article "New Editor Spotlight" on the American Psychological Association Website.