Context and self perception

The nature of self and person perception is a core fascination for everyone, not only for social psychologists.  We all know that we are constantly having to make judgements about others and we are constantly reflecting on the nature of ourselves.  In this part of the lab’s work we are particularly interested in how different contexts change the nature of these perceptions.  We are also exploring these contextual factors using a wide range of techniques and measures to find the common themes of person perception that apply across a range of settings and purposes.

This work has important theoretical value, but it also has significant practical implications because these self-perceptions have been shown to impact upon our health and wellbeing, our ability to adapt and learn, our ability to manage different roles, and our relationships with our families, friends, and the groups of which we are members.

This part of the project is led by Ken Mavor, and involves several past PhD Students at the ANU  (Kathy McNeill, Daniel Skorich) as well as several honours student researchers in St Andrews.