John Skowronski, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Phone: (815)753-7073
Fax: (815)753-8088
jskowron@niu.edu
Office: PM 418
Personal Web page
EDUCATION
Ph.D: University of Iowa, 1984
RESEARCH INTERESTS
The bulk of my research has explored two broad areas. The first area revolves around social thought. I am interested in how we evaluate others, the trait and motives that we ascribe to them, and the kinds of things that we can remember about them. This research is often driven by theories that postulate various mental processes and mental structures, and is expressly designed to test these theories. For example, I have explored whether negativity biases in the judgments that are made about others can be better explained by: (1) the affect associated with events or (2) the diagnosticity of those events. In recent years, I have extensively explored the issue of whether people make spontaneous trait inferences about others and the ways in which such inferences can be detected.
The second main area in which I do research is self-thought. I am interested in how we evaluate ourselves, the traits and motives that we ascribe to ourselves, and the kinds of things that we remember about ourselves. This research is also driven by theories that postulate various mental processes and mental structures, and is expressly designed to test these theories. For example, in recent years I have explored whether self-judgments can be affected by temporary variations in construct accessibility and the extent to which the emotions that are prompted by recall of autobiographical events is moderated by social discourse.
RECENTLY TAUGHT CLASSES
- PSYC 485 - Individual Study in Psychology
- PSYC 498H - Honors Individual Study
- PSYC 499H - Undergraduate Honors Thesis
- PSYC 681 - College Teaching Practicum
- PSYC 625 - Social Cognition
- PSYC 685 - Independent Study
- PSYC 699 - M.A. Research
- PSYC 799 - Ph.D. Research
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
- Hartnett, J., & Skowronski, J.J. (In press). Cash, Money, Woes: The Match Between a Person’s Level of Materialism and the Materialistic (or non-Materialistic) Character of Events Alters Affective Forecasts. North American Journal of Psychology.
- Sagarin, B.S.,& Skowronski, J.J. (In press). The Implications of Imperfect Measurement for Free-choice Carry-over Effects: Reply to M. Keith Chen's (2008) "Rationalization and Cognitive Dissonance: Do Choices Affect or Reflect Preferences?" Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
- Sagarin, B.S., & Skowronski, J.J. (In press). In Pursuit of the Proper Null: Reply to Chen and Risen (200?). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
- Ambady, N. & Skowronski, J.J. (Eds.) (2008). First impressions. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
- Skowronski, J.J., Carlston, D.E., & Hartnett, J.L. (2008). Spontaneous Impressions Derived From Observations of Behavior: What a Long, Strange Trip Its Been (and It’s Not Over Yet). In N. Ambady & J.J. Skowronski (Eds.), First impressions (pp. 313-333). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
- Skowronski, J.J., & Ambady, N. First Impressions: Rationales and Roadmap. In N. Ambady & J.J. Skowronski (Eds.), First impressions (pp. 1-14). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
- Crouch, J.L., Skowronski, J.J. Milner, J.S., & Harris, B. (2008). Parental responses to infant crying: The influence of child physical abuse risk and hostile priming. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 702-710.
- Farc, M.M., Crouch, J.L., Skowronski, J.J., & Milner, J.S. (2008). Hostility ratings by parents at risk for child abuse: Impact of chronic and temporary schema activation. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 177-193.
- Crawford, M.T., Skowronski, J.J., Stiff, C., & Leonards, U. (2008). Seeing, but not thinking: Limiting the spread of spontaneous trait transference II. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 840-847.
- Edlund, J.E. & Skowronski, J.J. (2008). Eyewitness racial attitudes and perpetrator identification: The lineup method matters. North American Journal of Psychology, 10, 15-36.
- Ritchie, T.D. & Skowronski, J.J. (2008). Perceived change in the affect associated with dreams: The fading affect bias and its moderators. Dreaming, 18, 27-43.
- Magliano, J.P. Skowronski, J.J., Britt, M. A., Guss, C. D.,& Forsythe, C. (2008). What do you want? How perceivers use cues to make goal inferences about others. Cognition, 106, 594-632.
REPRESENTATIVE GRANTS
- NIMH grant: Time and Autobiographical Memory.
- Sandia National Laboratories grant: Testing a model of situation recognition. Joe Magliano (co-PI), Anne Britt (co-PI), John Skowronski (co-PI).
- NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) grant: Person Cognition. Gun Semin (P.I.); E. Smith, J. Skowronski, & H. Stegge (Collaborators).
- NIMH grant: Implications of Associated Systems Theory. Don Carlston (P.I.), John Skowronski (subcontractor).
