Overview

Chris is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Social and Organizational Psychology at the University of Exeter. He is also a Specialist Member on the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Gender Pay Gap Implementation Panel, the Academic Lead for the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery, and a Research Affiliate at the Global Institute for Women's Leadership, Australian National University.

Chris examines several topics related to diversity, group dynamics, and social justice. He regularly works in partnership with non-academic organizations, both as a research collaborator and as a consultant.

Broad Research Specialisms

• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
• Fair Treatment and Respect
• Bias and Discrimination
• Stereotypes and Stigma
• Collective Action
• Marginalized Group Dynamics (by race, ethnicity, gender, etc.)
• Status and Social Hierarchies
• Intragroup Relations
• Social Identity Processes
• Stress and Mental Health

Key Research Topics​

• How individuals perceive and react to growing diversity in their own profession
• How women’s everyday experiences at work shape their self-concept and career ambitions
• What it means to be treated fairly in groups, and why fair treatment is important but insufficient
• The importance of not only having role models, but the opportunity to be one
• Collective approaches to combating the impostor "syndrome”
• How being respected in groups affects individuals’ mental health and physiological stress
• How positive interactions with members of one's own gender, racial, ethnic or sexual minority group can shape mental health, vigilance to discrimination, and motivation for collective action

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
  (Primary area: Social; Secondary area: Quantitative)
• M.A. in Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
• B.A. in Psychology, Kalamazoo College

Google Scholar Profile  

Back to top

Research

Research interests

Chris is currently involved in a number of projects, including those that examine:

(a) how individuals working in fields with growing diversity are perceiving and reacting to this changing demographic landscape around them – and how signs of progress in (compositional) diversity can create new and insidious paths for bias to creep in (with Michelle Ryan and Corinne Moss-Racusin)

(b) how individuals can benefit from not only having role models at work, but also the opportunity to be a role model for others (with Thekla Morgenroth and Michelle Ryan)

(c) how and why organizations need to foster more than diversity and inclusion – with a keen eye toward fostering individuals' sense of distinct value and worth to the group, enabling them to not only "fit in" but also "stand out" (a call to go beyond beyond "D&I;" with Michelle Ryan and Floor Rink)

(d) how women’s experiences in the workplace – including both denigrating and value-affirming treatment coming from colleagues – shape their self-concept, behavior, sense of work-life balance and career ambitions (multiple projects; with Michelle Ryan, Thekla Morgenroth, Renata Bongiorno, Loes Meeussen, Kim Peters and Floor Rink)

(e) how positive experiences and interactions with members of one's own racial, ethnic, gender or sexual minority group can shape mental health, group identification, vigilance to discrimination, and motivation for collective action (multiple projects; with Yuen Huo, Alexandra Suppes, Jojanneke van der Toorn, Jolien van Breen, Colin Wayne Leach, Martijn van Zomeren and Aarti Iyer)

(f) how individuals come to feel like 'impostors' (multiple projects; with Sanne Feenstra, Michelle Ryan, Floor Rink, Jennfier Jordan and Janka Stoker)

(g) how individuals come to discern their status in different types of social groups (e.g., workgroups, student groups, racial/ethnic minority groups; multiple projects; with Yuen Huo, Heather Smith and Michelle Ryan)

(h) how individuals’ experiences of feeling respected in groups affect their physiological stress response (with Yuen Huo and Heather Smith)

Back to top

Publications

Back to top

Teaching

2022/23

PSY 3412 - The Psychology of Gender

LAW 3169 - Equality and Diversity at Work

Modules

2023/24

• PSY3412 - The Psychology of Gender

Back to top

Supervision / Group

Research Fellows

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni

Back to top

Office Hours:

Meetings by Appointment

Back to top