Faculty

Victoria Plaut, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Social Psychology Program Ph.D., Stanford University, 2003 Office: Psychology Room 414 Office Ph: (706) 542-4058 Fax: (706) 542-3275 Email: vplaut@uga.edu Visit Dr. Plaut's Laboratory website.

Academic Information

I am a social and cultural psychologist with basic and applied interests. My research interests, broadly defined, focus on the relationship between individuals’ sociocultural contexts and their psychological functioning. I approach this issue from three directions:

• In my primary line of research, I study the nature and prevalence of various conceptions of and approaches to racial and ethnic diversity—what I term “models of diversity” (e.g., color blindness and multiculturalism)—and the implications of these different approaches for intergroup relations. The general aim is to dismantle ideological barriers to effective and inclusive diverse environments. My findings suggest that the dominant color-blind model may actually create more friction and misunderstanding between groups, and may inadvertently help perpetuate racial disparities; and, developing successful diverse workplaces and schools may depend on understanding and possibly disseminating and instituting different models of diversity. I am therefore testing how the framing of difference can be manipulated in order to minimize threat and how priming models of diversity can mitigate intergroup conflict. I am also exploring the antecedents and correlates of models of diversity as well as the interaction of race and status in determining endorsement of these models.

• In my second line of research, I study stereotype threat and social identity threat and seek to identify ways to restructure the sociocultural environment in order to improve the representation and performance of women and minorities in certain academic and work domains. My current research investigates the effects on the participation of women of the representation of computer science as one that requires “masculine” abilities and as one that is dominated by “geeks.”

• In my third line of research, I study how cultural context shapes people’s well-being, self, and identity, in particular how regional and national patterns of well-being are linked to culturally prevalent meanings and practices.

Selected Publications

Plaut, V. C., & Markus, H. R. (2005). The “inside” story: A cultural-historical analysis of how to be smart and motivated, American style. To appear in C. Dweck & A. Elliott, Handbook of competence and motivation. New York: Guilford.

Adams, G., & Plaut, V. C. (2003). The cultural grounding of relationship: Friendship in North American and West African worlds. Personal Relationships, 10, 335-349.

Plaut, V. C. (2002). Cultural models of diversity: The psychology of difference and inclusion. In R. Shweder, M. Minow, & H. R. Markus (Eds.), Engaging cultural differences: The multicultural challenge in liberal democracies (pp. 365-395). New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.

Plaut, V. C., Markus, H. R., & Lachman, M.E. (2002). Place matters: Consensual features and regional variation in American well-being and self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology83, 160-184.

Classes Taught

Social Psychology

Graduate: Culture and Diversity