Overview

Joanne Smith is the Head of Psychology and a Professor in the School of Psychology

Qualifications

PhD (University of Queensland)

Career

Joanne completed her undergraduate and postgraduate work at the University of Queensland. Her PhD examined when and why group members will conform to group norms and was supervised by Professors Debbie Terry and Mike Hogg. After graduation, Joanne worked at the University of Queensland as a postdoctoral research fellow, first on a funded project looking at the effects of subjective uncertainty (with Professors Hogg, Terry, and Robin Martin), then as a research fellow working for Professor Terry, and finally as an independent researcher.

Joanne joined the University of Exeter in October 2007 as a Lecturer, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2009, Associate Professor in 2015, and Professor in 2022. She served as Director of Education from 2012-2014 and Director of Research from 2017-2021. She has been Head of Department since September 2021.

Research group links

• Social, Environmental and Organisational

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Research

Research interests

In the broadest sense, my research focuses on the ways in which social identity and group membership influences the way that we think, feel, and act, in relation to ourselves and in relation to other people.

My research interests can be divided into the following themes:

1. The impact of social identity factors and norms on the attitude-behaviour relationship. This research attempts to understand why people do not always ""practice what they preach"" and focuses on the role of norms in this process. In particular, my research focuses on the distinction between descriptive norms (what people do) and injunctive norms (what people approve of) and how these norms interact to influence behaviour. I have studied this topic in relation to political behaviour, environmental behaviour, health behaviour.

2. Using norms to improve behaviour change campaigns. Following on from my work on norms, I am also involved in research that looks at evaluating current behaviour change campaigns (mostly in the health domain) and investigates whether existing campaigns can be made more effective by the addition of either descriptive or injunctive norms.

My work also has an interdisciplinary flavour, and I have conducted research looking at the social and behavioural science aspects of water conservation and how to engage consumers with smart meters. With colleagues in the Medical School, we are currently undertaking an evaluation of a pilot intervention designed to address aggression in the night-time economy.

Research grants

• 2022 Leverhulme Trust
  SIMBA: A social identity model of behavioural associations
• 2020 NERC
  Reducing the impacts of plastic waste in the Eastern Pacific Ocean
• 2019 EPSRC
  EXeMPlaR: Exeter Multidisciplinary Plastics Research Hub
• 2015 Drinkaware
  Mixed methods assessment of a new intervention for encouraging responsible alcohol behaviour in the night time economy: the "Club Hosts" intervention
• 2012 EU STREP/NEST
  Improved water efficiency through ICT technologies for integrated supply-demand side management (iWIDGET). For further details see: iwidget.eu
• 2009 Australian Research Council
  Draining the will for peace or war: Understanding how social influence and self-regulation processes interact in conflict.
• 2008 The British Academy
  Group power and accountability
• 2007 Australian Research Council
  Newcomer socialisation: The role of organisational identification in the prediction of employee turnover.
• 2007 Australian Research Council
  The many faces of threat: An investigation of animal, interpersonal and intergroup threat
• 2007 Australian Research Council
  Through the eyes of Chinese: Attitudes of Australia and their influence on Sino-Australian business exchange
• 2007 Australian Research Council
  What makes unwritten rules work: A framework for understanding normative influence

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Publications

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External Engagement and Impact

Administrative responsibilities

Other

Honorary Research Fellow, School of Psychology, University of Queensland

Editor-in-Chief, European Journal of Social Psychology (2018-2020)

Series editor, "Psychology: Revisiting the classic studies" (for Sage)

Consulting editor, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations

External examiner, Brunel University, 2013-2017

External examiner, University of Kent, 2017-

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Teaching

• PSY1126 Classic Studies in Psychology
• PSY2210 Social Practical 1
• PSY2213 Social Practical 2
• PSY2218 Social Practical 3
• PSY3403 Contemporary Issues in Psychology
• PSY3424 Applied Social Psychology: Health, Environment, and Society
• PSYM204 Advances in Social and Organisational Psychology

Research supervision:

• PSY3401 Research Project
• PSYM210 Research Apprenticeship

I am a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy.

Modules

2023/24

Information not currently available

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Supervision / Group

Postdoctoral researchers

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni

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