K-State Department of Psychology Research: Social/Personality

Social-Personality faculty and their research interests

Mark Barnett (phone: 785-532-0603, e-mail: barn@ksu.edu)

Dr. Mark Barnett’s recent research interests include: (a) the development and expression of prosocial emotions (e.g., empathy) and behaviors (e.g., helping), (b) children’s and adults’ perceptions of particular individuals (e.g., the homeless) and behaviors (e.g., helping, lying, minor moral and legal violations, teasing), and (c) sex differences and sex-role stereotyping.

Laura Brannon (phone: 785-532-0604, e-mail: lbrannon@ksu.edu)

Dr. Laura Brannon’s recent research interests include: (a) applied persuasion research in domains such as health and consumer behavior, (b) compliance with medical recommendations, and (c) cognitive factors mediating the effectiveness of persuasion techniques.

Don Saucier (phone: 785-532-6881, e-mail: saucier@ksu.edu)

Dr. Don Saucier’s research interests include: (a) the measurement and reduction of prejudice, (b) the examination of attitudes toward social and political policy issues potentially related to prejudice (e.g., hate crime legislation, affirmative action, same-sex marriage), and (c) the individual differences related to resistance to persuasion and attitude challenges (e.g., social vigilantism).

Brenda McDaniel (785-532-0807, e-mail: bmcdani@ksu.edu)

Dr. Brenda McDaniel’s research interests include: (a) the relationship between individual personality factors and health outcomes, (b) the interaction of moral development, emotions (e.g., empathy, guilt, and shame), and family dynamics upon antisocial behavior, anger rumination, forgiveness, and other outcomes, and (c) physiological health recordings and observational data such as cortisol (i.e., stress levels) and facial-emotion coding.