Monica Harris, PhDAssociate Professor
Department of Psychology
220-A Kastle Hall
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0044
Office Phone: 859.257.6842
E-mail: harris@email.uky.edu
I received my B.A. from the
University of California, Riverside, in 1983 and my Ph.D. from Harvard University
in 1987. After obtaining my Ph.D. I came here to the University of Kentucky,
where I obtained tenure in 1993. My research interests fall into four overlapping
categories: interpersonal expectancy effects; interpersonal power; meta-analysis
and other methodological issues; and teasing and peer victimization.Interpersonal Expectancy Effects
My work on interpersonal expectancy
effects, or self-fulfilling prophecies, has spanned a number of specific
topics. My early work focused on the verbal and nonverbal mediators of expectancy
effects: e.g., when teachers hold positive expectancies for certain students,
how do they treat those students differently so as to elicit the expected
behavior? More recently I have turned my attention to moderators of expectancy
effects, in other words, identifying personality and situational variables
that influence whether an expectancy effect is likely to occur. I have also
looked at the self-fulfilling effects of stigmatizing information, particularly
in children, including research in collaboration with Rich Milich on the
effects of the ADHD label on children's peer interactions. My most recent
work on expectancy effects has focused on the moderating roles of interpersonal
power, where I have conducted a series of studies in collaboration with
my graduate students John Georgesen and Robin Lightner that seeks to understand
why it is that perceivers possessing higher power are more likely to obtain
expectancy effects.Interpersonal Power
My work with John Georgesen
looking at how high-power perceivers structure interactions so as to be
more likely to elicit self-fulfilling prophecies led me gradually into a
more general exploration of the nature and consequences of interpersonal
power. My students and I have conducted several studies trying to identify
the locus of power effects: When high power people act differently than
low power people, is it because power changes the attitudes and behaviors
or high power individuals? Or is it because low power people defer to the
high power person and change their behavior? We have developed an experimental
paradigm where we systematically manipulate participants' beliefs about
whether they or their partner holds high vs. low power positions that enable
us to untangle the contributions of each person to power-related interactions.
More recently, I have combined my interest in peer victimization and power
by looking at how people with a dispositional history of peer victimization
react to being placed in situations of high vs. low power.Meta-Analysis and Research Methodology
While at Harvard I had the incredible
good fortune to have as my advisor Robert Rosenthal, who in addition to
being the nicest man on this planet is also one of the leading authorities
on meta-analysis, the set of statistical techniques that allows the quantitative
combination of the results from multiple studies. I have collaborated on
12 published meta-analyses in addition to writing about meta-analysis. In
addition, I have developed a graduate course in meta-analysis that is offered
regularly. In a broader sense, I am a devout adherent to the "Rosenthal
School" of data analysis, which consists of (a) an emphasis on effect size
estimation; (b) a profound dislike of the current over-reliance on significance
testing (as Rosenthal says, "God loves the p of .06 nearly as much as the
.04"); (c) using contrasts to test focused hypotheses about your data; and
(d) a preference for simple designs with adequate power (it's hard to improve
on the elegance and interpretableness of a 2 x 2). I have a general interest in
research methods in addition to my expertise in meta-analysis. Along with
Richard Smith, I have written a chapter on multimethod approaches in social
psychology that recently appeared in an edited volume published by the APA.
I am also co-author (with Rick Hoyle and others) on the 7th and 8th editions
of the SPSSI-produced "Research Methods in Social Relations" textbook.Teasing and Peer Victimization
My work on the stigmatizing
consequences of childhood expectations led rather naturally to a more recent
interest in childhood teasing. I started this work with my colleague Rich
Milich when we were talking about how interesting teasing is but could find
almost nothing on it when we did a PsycLit search on it. Our early research
looked at how the teasing victim's response to being teased affects subjects'
impressions of the teasing interaction. We have also conducted more naturalistic
studies in college students where we look at the relationship between personality
and people's narratives about specific teasing incidents from their past.
More recently, my work on teasing falls into one of two categories: (a)
Research on how teasing is used in adulthood, which focuses on the positive
effects of teasing for relationships and intimacy; and (b) research on peer
victimization and bullying in childhood, which naturally focuses on the
negative outcomes of teasing. With respect to the former, examples of recent
research projects looking at teasing in adulthood include studies on how
factors such as the relative status of the individuals and the presence
or absence of redressive cues (e.g., smiling or saying, "just kidding")
affects the interpretation of a tease, and studies looking at how romantic
partners use teasing in their relationships. My research on peer victimization
in childhood has focused on physiological and implicit social cognition
mediators of bullying and victimization.Mentoring Philosophy
I believe that my most important
job as an advisor is to impart a knowledge of and philosophy toward research
design and methods so that no matter where a student's interests may lead,
he or she is equipped to conduct valid and meaningful research. Thus, my
students leave our program with a very strong appreciation for the Rosenthal
approach to data analysis. My personal advising style is nondirective in
nature; I prefer to let students take the lead on research ideas, with my
role being to help refine the hypotheses and methods to produce a publishable
manuscript. I am an "open door" kind of advisor; my students tend to drop
in my office whenever they have questions or ideas to talk about rather
than saving it up for an official meeting. More generally, I share our program's
philosophy that the best graduate training in social psychology is one that
immerses students fully in the research enterprise from their first day
in the program.Selected Publications:
*denotes graduate or undergraduate student author
Harris, M. J., & Garris,
C. P. (in press). You never goet a second chance to make a first impression:
The role of first impressions in subsequent information processing and behavior.
To appear in J. Skowronski and N. Ambady (Eds.), First Impressions. New York: Guilford Press.Hoyle, R. H., Ouellette, S.,
& Harris, M. J. (in press). Research methods in social relations (8th
ediction). New York: Thomsen Press.Cardi, M.*, Milich, R., Harris,
M. J., & Kearns, E.* (2007). Self-esteem moderates the response to forgiveness
instructions in women with a history of victimization. Journal of Research
in Personality, 41, 804-819.Rosen, P. J.*, Milich, R., &
Harris, M. J. (2007). Victims of their own cognitions: Implicit social cognitions,
chronic peer victimization, and the victim schema model. Journal of
Applied Developmental Psychology, 28, 211-226.Bollmer, J. M.*, Harris, M.
J., & Milich, R. (2006). Reactions to bullying and peer victimization: Narratives,
physiological arousal, and personality. Journal of Research in Personality,
40, 803-828.Georgesen, J. C.*, & Harris,
M. J. (2006). Holding onto power: Effects of powerholders' positional instability
and expectancies on subordinate derogation. Journal of European Social
Psychology, 36, 451-468. [Special issue on social power]Smith, R. H., & Harris,
M. J. (2006). Multimethod research strategies in social psychology. In M.
Eid and E. Diener (Eds.), Handbook of Psychological Measurement: A Multimethod
Perspective (pp. 385-400). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Bollmer, J. M.*, Milich, R.,
Harris, M. J., & Maras, M.* (2005). A friend in need: Friendship quality,
internalizing/externalizing behvaior, and peer victimization. Journal
of Interpersonal Violence, 20, 701-712.Bollmer, J. M.*, Harris, M.
J., & Milich, R., & Georgesen, J. C.* (2003). Taking offense: Effects of
personality and teasing history on behavioral and emotional reactions to
teasing. Journal of Personality, 71, 557-603.Georgesen, J. C., & Harris, M. J. (2000). The
balance of power: Interpersonal consequences of differential power and expectancies.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1239-1257.Georgesen, J. C., Harris, M. J., Milich, R., &
Young, J. (1999). Just teasing...: Personality effects on perceptions and life narratives of
childhood teasing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1254-
1267.Who I am When I am Not a Professor
When I am not at work, my attention
is devoted primarily to family. My husband, Jonathan Kern, is a coin dealer,
and I have developed a strong interest and some expertise in numismatics
as well. My husband travels frequently to coin shows across the nation,
and I occasionally join him on these trips, where I put my social psychological
knowledge of persuasion techniques to good use selling coins. My husband and I have two children,
Athena Phoebe Kern, born on December 19th, 1995, and Isaac Newton Kern,
born on May 6th, 1999. Admittedly, I am not an objective source, but Athena
and Isaac are the smartest, cutest, most perfect children on the planet.
They are the source of greatest joy in my life, and I now realize that parenting
is the most important thing I will ever do.My other passion in life these
days is the piano. For most of my life I have said "I want to learn to play
the piano some day," and in 2004 I realized "some day" wasn't going to happen
unless I made it happen. I became piano-obsessed in a big way and indulged
a mid-life crisis in 2005 by buying a Mason & Hamlin grand piano. I play
primarily new age music including the works of such composers as George
Winston, Ludovico Einaudi, David Lanz, and David Nevue.Last updated: September 20, 2007