Social Psychology Research Group

The Social Psychology Research Group in the School of Psychology is a team of social and personality psychologists whose work spans three main themes: social emotions and judgements; promoting equality and social change; and the self and interpersonal relationships.

Within the area of social emotions and judgements, the group examines how emotions (e.g., nostalgia, happiness, awe, empathy, disgust, anger, shame, guilt) relate to psychological wellbeing and tolerance, as well as how people make social judgements. In the domain of promoting equality and social change, they seek to highlight the existence and causes of inequalities by, for example, investigating how language and communication (including parent-child talk, voice-based discrimination, social media, and teaching practices) contribute to prejudice (e.g., sexism, classism, and racism), stereotyping, body image issues, and unequal outcomes. Their work also explores how to combat such inequalities and create better societies through processes such as collective action and intergroup contact. Finally, the group’s research on the self and interpersonal relationships explores how individual differences in personality and identity (e.g., narcissism, moral identity, self-stereotyping) influence social behaviour and relationships, as well as how interpersonal dynamics, such as conversations between parents and children, peers, or romantic partners, affect psychological wellbeing and contribute to greater equality.

The Social Psychology Research Group meets regularly, invites guest speakers, discusses work in progress, and provides PhD training workshops. We also host visits from international scholars and students. We deliver an MSc degree programme in Social Psychology. The University of Surrey has hosted the 2020 European Association for Social Psychology Summer School.