NIU Psychology Department - Faculty Homepage: John Skowronski

John Skowronski

John Skowronski, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology

Department of Psychology
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois 60115
(815)753-7073
jskowron@niu.edu

Office: 418 Psychology | FAX: (815)753-8088 | Personal Webpage

EDUCATION

B.A. Augustana College 1977
M.A. University of Iowa 1980
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. In this area, 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, in recent years 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. I have also 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..

FREQUENTLY TAUGHT CLASSES

Psych 372 Introduction to Social Psychology
Psych 485 Individual Study in Psychology
Psych 520 Experimental Social Psychology
Psych 525 Social Cognition
Psych 571J The Self and Social Psychology
Psych 585 Independent Study

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Carlston, D.E., & Skowronski, J.J. (Under Review). Linking versus thinking: Evidence for the Different Associative and Attributional Bases of Spontaneous Trait Transference and Spontaneous Trait Inference.

Skowronski, J.J., & Walker, R.W. (In Press). How describing autobiographical events can affect autobiographical memory. Social Cognition.

Monroe, M. R., Skowronski, J.J., MacDonald, W., and Wood, S.R. (In Press). The mildly depressed experience more regret than the non-depressed. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

Skowronski, J.J., Gibbons, J.A., Vogl, R.J, & Walker, W.R. (2004). The effect of social disclosure on the affective intensity provoked by autobiographical memories. Self and Identity, 3, 285-309.

Skowronski, J.J., Walker, W.R., & Betz, A.L. (2004). Who was I when that happened? The timekeeping self in autobiographical memory (pp. 183-206). In D.R. Beike, J.M. Lampinen and D.A. Behrend, The self and memory. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Sedikides, C., & Skowronski, J.J. (2003). Evolution of the Symbolic Self: Issues and Prospects. In M.R. Leary & J.P. Tangney (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 594-609). New York: Guilford Press.

Walker, W.R., Skworonski, J.J.,Gibbons, J.A., Vogl, R.J., & Thompson, C.P. (2003). On the emotions accompanying autobiographical memory: Dysphoria disrupts the fading affect bias. Cognition & Emotion, 17, 703-724.

Skowronski, J.J., Walker, W.R., & Betz, A.L. (2003). Ordering our world: An examination of time in autobiographical memory. Memory, 11, 247-260

Walker, W.R., Skowronski, J.J., & Thompson, C.P. (2003). Life is good - and memory helps to keep it that way. Review of General Psychology, 7, 203-210.

Skowronski, J.J. (2002). Honesty and intelligence judgments of individuals and groups: The effects of entitity-related behavior diagnosticity and implicit theories. Social Cognition, 20, 136-169.

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).

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