Shelley E. Taylor
Shelley E. Taylor | |
---|---|
Born | 1946 (age 77–78) |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Connecticut College (BA) Yale University (PhD) |
Occupations |
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Known for | cognitive miser, social cognition, social neuroscience, health psychology |
Awards | APA Award for Lifetime Contributions to Psychology (2010) |
Shelley Elizabeth Taylor (born 1946) is an American psychologist. She serves as a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University, and was formerly on the faculty at Harvard University.[1] A prolific author of books and scholarly journal articles, Taylor has long been a leading figure in two subfields related to her primary discipline of social psychology: social cognition and health psychology. Her books include The Tending Instinct[2] and Social Cognition,[3] the latter by Susan Fiske and Shelley Taylor.
Taylor's professional honours include the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the
Early life and education
Taylor was born in 1946 in the small village of
Connecticut College
Taylor began classes at
Graduate School at Yale
At Yale, she briefly worked with Mettee, but their interests and personal styles did not match. She wanted to work with Richard Nisbett, but his laboratory was full. She eventually did her dissertation research on
While at Yale, she encountered several other people who would be leaders in psychology in the future, such as
Taylor was also influenced by the women's movement of the 1960s. She joined the New Haven Women's Liberation Movement and helped organize demonstrations, sit-ins, protests, and conferences. She was arrested once for storming
Harvard
After Yale, Taylor and her husband moved to Cambridge and she worked in Harvard's Psychology and Social Relations Department. She became very interested in social cognition and drew heavily on attribution theory. Taylor was among the first to apply the breakthrough work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky on heuristics and biases to the field of social psychology (Taylor, 1982).
Social cognition
With an undergraduate named Susan Fiske at Harvard, Taylor began a research program on salience and the effects that salience has on people's inferences. In a famous paper, Taylor and Fiske found that "point of view influences perceptions of causality, such that a person who engulfs your visual field is seen as more impactful in a situation...imagining actions from the perspective of a particular character leads to empathetic inference and recall of information best learned from that person's perspectives."[18] Taylor also did other work on salience about stereotyping and cognitive biases. For example, she found that if a person in your field is a token or solitary member of a group, they are more likely to be viewed in stereotyped role than if the person was a member of the majority group and their identity is much more salient. For example, when people observed a group of men and women having a discussion, the viewers organized their recall around gender, such that when people were likely to attribute a comment from one person to another incorrectly, it was usually mixing up a woman's comment with another woman or mixing up a man's comment with another man (Taylor, 1981).
Taylor has also contributed to social cognition with her "top of the head phenomena" (Taylor & Fiske, 1978). The top of the head phenomena states, "the more salient an actor is, the more an observer will ascribe a causality to him or her rather than to other less salient actors." For example, in a situation with a clear leader, other actors are focused on the leader and the leader is seen as the cause of an event instead of external events or other actors, even when it is not true. It is hypothesized that people focus mostly on the salience of a person to make snap judgments instead of truly understanding a given situation (Goethals et al., 2004: pg. 59).
In 1984, Taylor co-authored a book entitled Social Cognition with her former student
Health psychology
Around 1976, Taylor was contacted by Judy Rodin to present a social psychological perspective on breast cancer. At the time, however, no research was looking at the links between social psychology and health. So Taylor and a friend with breast cancer at the time, Smadar Levin, decided to explore the connection between social psychology and what is now known as health psychology. Taylor along with other social psychologists such as Howard Friedman and Christine Dunkel-Schetter were instrumental in the development of health psychology as a specialty. At Harvard, however, it was difficult to pursue health psychology because the medical school was so far from the main campus. Taylor asked the university president at the time, Derek Bok, for some start-up funds to help develop a health psychology program at Harvard. He provided her with a $10,000 dollar check to develop a health psychology interest at Harvard. However, she was passed up for tenure at Harvard and went to the University of California, Los Angeles.[19]
UCLA
In 1979, she joined the faculty at UCLA, where they were very interested in growing health psychology. In 1981, Taylor applied for and received the National Institutes of Health Research Scientist Development Award to receive additional training in disease processes. It was a 10-year award that allowed her to learn biological assessments and methods. With biological psychologist John Libeskind, Taylor was able to look at stress and its effects on stress regulatory systems.
At this time, she became very interested in understanding the coping processes of women with breast cancer so she began interviewing them and their partners about their experiences. Through intensive interviews, Taylor found that some of the women's beliefs were to a degree, illusions. Many women held unrealistic beliefs about their recovery from cancer and their abilities to rid themselves of the cancer. Her research on these women led to the development of Taylor's theory of cognitive adaptation (Taylor, 1983). Cognitive adaptation states that when someone faces a threatening event, their readjustment centers around finding meaning in their experience, gaining control over the situation, and boosting one's self-esteem.[20] This work clearly informed one of her next big topics, positive illusions.
Positive illusions
In 1988, Taylor and a colleague Jonathon Brown published "Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health", one of the most cited social psychology papers ever (Taylor & Brown, 1988). Taylor's research on positive illusions is some of her most influential and well-known work. Taylor has described positive illusions as follows: "Rather than perceiving themselves, the world, and the future accurately, most people regard themselves, their circumstances, and the future as considerably more positive than is objectively likely.... These illusions are not merely characteristic of human thought; they appear to be adaptive, promoting rather than undermining good mental health."[21]
Taylor's positive illusion work did elicit a lot of criticism from other social psychologists. For example, Shedler, Mayman, and Manis (1993
Her research on positive illusions was also influential in her personal life. She says "interviewing those women about the insights that came from their disease, so many said that it makes you realize that relationships are the most important thing you have and that children were the most important thing they did with their lives...I went home and talked with my husband, and we thought about having a child."[24] They later had two children, one daughter and one son.
Social neuroscience
In the mid-1990s, Taylor participated in the MacArthur Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health and developed an interest in mechanisms linking psychosocial conditions to health outcomes. In another very popular paper with some UCLA colleagues, Rena Repetti and Teresa Seeman, titled "Health psychology: What is an unhealthy environment and how does it get under the skin?,"
Taylor has become a leading figure in the newly emerging field of
Tend and befriend model
In 2000, Taylor and colleagues developed the tend and befriend model of responses to stress. This model contrasts with the "fight-or-flight response" which states that in the face of a harmful stressor, we either face it or run from it. Instead, tend and befriend evolves from an evolutionary perspective and asserts that "people, especially women, evolved social means for dealing with stress that involved caring for offspring and protecting them from harm and turning to the social group for protection for the self and offspring."[28] Taylor hypothesized that fight or flight would not be as evolutionarily adaptive for women as for men because women typically have young children. Regan Gurung, a colleague of Taylor's and a developer of the theory, once stated:
"The 'fight or flight' model is based on the very simple assumption that our bodies prepare us for action to either fight with a foe or to run away from it. However, from an evolutionary standpoint, women evolved as caregivers; applying the same 'fight or flight' model, if women fight and lose, they leave an infant behind. By the same token, if they flee, it's a lot harder to flee if you are carrying an infant, and you won't leave the infant behind."[29]
So, females may form tight social bonds to seek out friends in times of stress. Research by Taylor and Repetti has found that during times of stress, women typically spend more time tending to vulnerable offspring while men were more likely to withdraw from family life.[30] Oxytocin, a female reproductive hormone typically involved in pair bonding and endorphins, proteins that alleviate pain, are hypothesized to be the biological mechanisms by which we tend and befriend. From this area of research, Taylor wrote "The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Relationships".
Publications
Note: List is selective and includes only highly cited and important works and works cited above.
Books
- ISBN 9780073405520.
- ISBN 9780824302627.
- ISBN 9780824302634.
Chapters in books
- Taylor, S. E. (1981). A categorization approach to stereotyping. In D. L. Hamilton (Ed.) Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior (pp. 83–114). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
- Taylor, S. E. (1982). The availability bias in social perception and interaction. In D. Kahneman, P. Slovic & A. Tversky (Eds.) Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases (pp. 190–200). New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Taylor, S. E. (2008). From social psychology to neuroscience and back. In R. Levine, A. Rodrigues & L. Zelezny (Eds.) Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future (pp. 39–54). New York: Psychology Press.
- Goethals, G. R., Sorenson, G. J., & Burns, J. M. (Eds.). (2004). Encyclopedia of leadership: AE (Vol. 1). Sage.
Journal articles
- Taylor, S. E.; Fiske, Susan (1978). Salience, attention, and attribution: Top of the head phenomena. Vol. 11. pp. 249–288. )
- Eisenberger, N. I.; Taylor, S. E.; Gable, S. L.; Hilmert, C. J.; Lieberman, M. D. (2007). "Neural pathways link social support to attenuated neuroendocrine stress responses". PMID 17395493.
- Taylor, S. E. (1983). "Adjustment to threatening events: A theory of cognitive adaptation". .
- Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D (1988). "Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health" (PDF). S2CID 762759. Retrieved 25 June 2010.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Taylor, S. E.; Burklund, L. J.; Eisenberger, N. I.; Lehman, B. J.; Hilmert, C. J.; Lieberman, M. D. (2008). "Neural bases of moderation of cortisol stress responses by psychosocial resources". PMID 18605860.
- Taylor, S. E.; Eisenberger, N. I.; Saxbe, D.; Lehman, B. J.; Lieberman, M. D. (2006). "Neural responses to emotional stimuli are associated with childhood family stress". S2CID 14988867.
- Taylor, S. E.; Gonzaga, G. C.; Klein, L. C.; Hu, P.; Greendale, G. A.; Seeman, T. E. (2006). "Relation of oxytocin to psychological stress responses and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity in older women". S2CID 6697304.
- Taylor, S. E.; Klein, L. C.; Lewis, B. P.; Gruenewald, T. L.; Gurung, R. A. R.; Updegraff, J. A. (2000). "Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight". PMID 10941275.
- Taylor, S. E.; Saphire-Bernstein, S.; Seeman, T. E. (2010). "Are plasma oxytocin in women and plasma vasopressin in men biomarkers of distressed pair-bond relationships?". S2CID 6006729.
- Taylor, S. E.; Way, B. M.; Welch, W. T.; Hilmert, C. J.; Lehman, B. J.; Eisenberger, N. I. (2006). "Early family environment, current adversity, the serotonin transporter polymorphism, and depressive symptomatology". Biological Psychiatry. 60 (7): 671–676. S2CID 14433360.
References
- ^ Taylor, Shelley E. (2008). She received her B.A. from Connecticut College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. From social psychology to neuroscience and back. In R. Levine, A. Rodrigues & L. Zelezny (Eds.) Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future (pp. 39-54). New York: Psychology Press.
- ^ "The Tending Instinct, by Shelley e. Taylor". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-06-23.
- ISBN 9781473969292.
- ^ "APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions". apa.org.
- ^ "Association for Psychological Science: William James Fellow Award - Shelley E. Taylor".
- ^ "Shelley Taylor receives award!". Archived from the original on November 9, 2013.
- ^ "72 New Members Chosen By Academy". April 28, 2009. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013.
- ^ "Election of New Members at the 2018 Spring Meeting | American Philosophical Society".
- ^ BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2019
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. pp. 39–40.
- ^ PMID 21078991.
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 40.
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 40.
- doi:10.1037/h0076246.
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 40.
- ^ "Shelley E. Taylor".
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 41.
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 42.
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 43.
- .
- ^ Weiten, Wayne. (2004). Psychology: Themes and Variations. Sixth Edition. page 533.
- PMID 8259825.
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 46.
- PMID 21078991.
- PMID 9046565.
- PMID 15509286.
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 47.
- ^ Journeys in Social Psychology: Looking Back to Inspire the Future. New York: Psychology Press. 2008. p. 48.
- ^ Razdan, Anjula (November 2007). "Tend and Befriend". experiencelife.com.
- ^ Dess, Nancy (September 1, 2000). "Tend and Befriend". Psychology Today. Archived from the original on April 19, 2013.