Peter R Harris
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 1661362 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Peter R Harris |
| NOMBRES | Peter R |
| APELLIDO | Harris |
| FIRMA | HARRIS P R |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Sussex |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4599-4929 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 46 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 154 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 46 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1974 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 6 |
Context matters
We trialed a novel method aimed at reducing educational inequalities in any given school by tailoring an intervention to address the specific local social, cultural, and psychological barriers that contribute to those inequalities. In Study 1 (N = 2070), we validated measures in a student survey of barriers experienced by students ages 11-16 years in two schools in England. We used a pilot version of these measures to identify two barriers that a…
An Empathy Intervention Reduces the Gender Gap in School Discipline and Facilitates Belonging
School disciplinary sanctions increase sharply during adolescence, with students from certain backgrounds disproportionately affected. Strong teacher–student relationships that cultivate trust, respect and empathy may be essential to buffer against these changes. This quasi‐experimental longitudinal field study trialled a brief empathic mindset intervention with teachers in English secondary schools and examined its effect on their students’ ( N …
Quality and quantity
A growing body of research has demonstrated that teachers’ judgements may be biased by the demographics and characteristics of the students they teach. However, less work has investigated the contexts in which teachers may be most vulnerable to bias. In two pre-registered experimental studies we explored whether the quality of students’ work, and the cognitive load placed on the grader, would influence the emergence of biases relating to socioeco…
Groups or values? Testing the effectiveness of online social cure, group‐affirmation, and self‐affirmation manipulations on wellbeing outcomes
We tested the effectiveness of three brief, online manipulations theorised to have beneficial effects on wellbeing: a social cure manipulation priming important group memberships, a self‐affirmation manipulation priming important values, and a group‐affirmation manipulation priming values important to one's group. A control condition required respondents to reflect on films. Study 1 ( N = 201) had no explicit stressor, whereas study 2 ( N = 379) …
Expected and unexpected long‐term effects of values affirmation in school
BACKGROUND: An earlier study in a school in England found that a series of brief values affirmation writing exercises, performed over the course of a school year by students aged 11-14, increased the mathematics attainment of students of low socioeconomic status (SES). AIMS: This pre-registered follow-up of the original study aims to investigate the long-term effects of values affirmation on low-SES students' attainment. SAMPLE: The sample consis…
Strategic clarity or calamity? Competing logics of deterrence in the Taiwan Strait
What is the best way to restore or uphold deterrence when an existing deterrent is perceived to have decayed? One common answer is that deterrers should simply add more of the ingredients that generally make for strong deterrents: more certainty that threats will be carried out, more capabilities to inflict severe punishments upon an adversary, and greater capacity to carry out threats with celerity (speed). This answer draws upon an intuitive qu…
It’s a problem, but not mine
Teachers’ judgements and interactions may be influenced by the backgrounds of their students, yet research shows that they may be reluctant to accept evidence relating to such biases. UK-based teachers ( N = 288) completed either a values affirmation or control task before reading a mildly threatening research-based article about unconscious bias in education. Overall, teachers exhibited a bias blind spot , whereby they were more likely to percei…
Roles of socioeconomic status, ethnicity and teacher beliefs in academic grading
BackgroundEducational outcomes in the United Kingdom vary as a function of students' family background, with those of lower socioeconomic status (SES) and certain ethnic minority groups among the worst affected.AimsThis pre-registered study investigates: (i) whether knowledge about students' socioeconomic and ethnic background influences teachers' judgements about the quality of their work and potential for the future, and (ii) the role of teache…
Individual differences in spontaneous self-affirmation and mental health
In two online studies, we test whether spontaneous self-affirmation (measured by the Spontaneous Self-Affirmation Measure, SSAM) predicts better mental health and coping and the role that self-esteem and dispositional optimism play in these relationships. Study 1 (N = 110) was cross-sectional. In study 2 (N = 192) we collected the mental health measures one month post-baseline. Consistent with pre-registered hypotheses, the SSAM predicted less an…
Individual differences in spontaneous self-affirmation predict well-being
The present research examines the relationship between individual differences in the extent to which people report self-affirming when faced with a threat (spontaneous self-affirmation) and well-being. Across three studies (total N = 515), spontaneous self-affirmation consistently emerged as a significant linear predictor of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being outcomes, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. A self-affirmation manipulation elim…
People like me don’t do well at school’
BACKGROUND: School students who are eligible for reduced or free school meals (FSM) - an indicator of economic disadvantage - have lower academic attainment than their peers. AIMS: We investigated whether identity compatibility - the perceived compatibility between one's social identities and the stereotype of a high-achieving student - contributes to this socioeconomic attainment gap, and whether the association between socioeconomic status and …
Greater benefit of self-affirmation for prevention-focused individuals prior to threatening health messages
Objective Individuals are often defensive toward health messages that suggest they are putting their health at risk because such messages threaten their self-competence and integrity. Although self-affirmation can facilitate prevention behaviors in response to health messages, effects are variable. We examined whether disease prevention focus might strengthen self-affirmation’s effects in response to disease prevention messages, given that preven…
How is spontaneous self-affirmation linked to self-esteem? A cross-lagged examination
Self‐affirmation theory in educational contexts
Self‐affirmation, operationalized as value‐affirmation interventions, can have long‐term beneficial effects on the academic performance and trajectories of members of negatively stereotyped groups, thus reducing achievement gaps. Yet, there is significant heterogeneity in the effectiveness of value affirmations, and we do not yet have a clear understanding of why. In this introduction to the special issue, we review the literature on self‐affirma…
The relationship between individual differences in spontaneous self-affirmation and affect associated with self-weighing
Identity changes and well-being gains of spending money on material and experiential consumer products
Individual differences in self-affirmation
Research into self-affirmation has almost exclusively employed experimental manipulations. In this paper we address individual differences in the tendency to respond to threats with self-affirming cognitions and distinguish this from two overlapping constructs: habitual positive self-thought and trait self-esteem. Items we designed to measure self-affirmation were represented by three first-order factors and loaded on a higher-order factor, creat…
Self-affirmation improves self-control over snacking among participants low in eating self-efficacy
Spontaneous self-affirmation is associated with psychological well-being
Emerging evidence suggests that individuals spontaneously self-affirm, by reflecting on values and strengths, in response to daily threats. We examined the prevalence and demographic and well-being correlates of spontaneous self-affirmation in the general population. Participants ( n = 3185) completed the cross-sectional, nationally representative 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 4, Cycle 3), and answered questions about spon…
Interest in and reactions to genetic risk information
Self-affirmation improves performance on tasks related to executive functioning
Objectives: The current study explored the effect of self-affirmation on two aspects of performance that have been related to executive functioning: working memory (assessed by a 2-back task) and inhibition (assessed by a Stroop task). The goal was to establish whether self-affirmation improved performance on these tasks. \n \nMethod: Participants (N = 83) were randomized to either a self-affirmation or a control task and then completed the compu…
The impact of self-affirmation on health-behavior change
OBJECTIVES: Self-affirmation (induced by reflecting upon important values, attributes, or social relations) appears to reduce defensive resistance to health-risk information and increase subsequent readiness for health behavior change. However, these effects of self-affirmation have yet to be subjected to formal, quantitative integration. Consequently, the current article reports a meta-analysis of the impact of self-affirmation on outcomes at 3 …
Development of theory-based health messages
Online health behaviour interventions have great potential but their effectiveness may be hindered by a lack of formative and theoretical work. This paper describes the process of formative research to develop theoretically and empirically based health messages that are culturally relevant and can be used in an online intervention to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours among new university students. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a …
Smoke-free air laws and quit attempts
Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to identify key beliefs underlying chlamydia testing intentions in a sample of young people living in deprived areas
The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to identify the key behavioural, normative and control beliefs underlying intentions to test regularly for chlamydia among young people living in socially and economically deprived areas - a high-risk group for infection. Participants ( N = 278, 53% male; mean age 17 years) were recruited from a vocational college situated in an area in the most deprived national quintile (England). Participants completed m…
How do patients evaluate and make use of online health information
Does heightening risk appraisals change people's intentions and behavior? A meta-analysis of experimental studies
Roles of socioeconomic status, ethnicity and teacher beliefs in academic grading
BackgroundEducational outcomes in the United Kingdom vary as a function of students' family background, with those of lower socioeconomic status (SES) and certain ethnic minority groups among the worst affected.AimsThis pre-registered study investigates: (i) whether knowledge about students' socioeconomic and ethnic background influences teachers' judgements about the quality of their work and potential for the future, and (ii) the role of teache…
Self‐affirmation theory in educational contexts
Self‐affirmation, operationalized as value‐affirmation interventions, can have long‐term beneficial effects on the academic performance and trajectories of members of negatively stereotyped groups, thus reducing achievement gaps. Yet, there is significant heterogeneity in the effectiveness of value affirmations, and we do not yet have a clear understanding of why. In this introduction to the special issue, we review the literature on self‐affirma…
Spontaneous self-affirmation is associated with psychological well-being
Emerging evidence suggests that individuals spontaneously self-affirm, by reflecting on values and strengths, in response to daily threats. We examined the prevalence and demographic and well-being correlates of spontaneous self-affirmation in the general population. Participants ( n = 3185) completed the cross-sectional, nationally representative 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 4, Cycle 3), and answered questions about spon…
Feelings of vulnerability in response to threatening messages
Self-affirmation improves performance on tasks related to executive functioning
Objectives: The current study explored the effect of self-affirmation on two aspects of performance that have been related to executive functioning: working memory (assessed by a 2-back task) and inhibition (assessed by a Stroop task). The goal was to establish whether self-affirmation improved performance on these tasks. \n \nMethod: Participants (N = 83) were randomized to either a self-affirmation or a control task and then completed the compu…
Employees' perceptions of the impact of work on health behaviours
Research examining the impact of work on health behaviours has rarely provided a complete picture of the impact across health behaviours. Twenty-four employees were interviewed about their smoking, drinking, exercise and eating. Themes included the impact of the work environment, including policy, convenience and workplace cultural norms; business events effecting one's routine and again convenience and workplace cultural norms; being busy at wor…
Interest in and reactions to genetic risk information
Testing the limits of optimistic bias
N. D. Weinstein (1980) established that optimistic bias, the tendency to see others as more vulnerable to risks than the self, varies across types of event. Subsequently, researchers have documented that this phenomenon, also known as comparative optimism, also varies across types of people. The authors integrate hypotheses originally advanced by Weinstein concerning event-characteristic moderators with later arguments that such optimism may be r…
Smoke-free air laws and quit attempts
Quality and quantity
A growing body of research has demonstrated that teachers’ judgements may be biased by the demographics and characteristics of the students they teach. However, less work has investigated the contexts in which teachers may be most vulnerable to bias. In two pre-registered experimental studies we explored whether the quality of students’ work, and the cognitive load placed on the grader, would influence the emergence of biases relating to socioeco…
Groups or values? Testing the effectiveness of online social cure, group‐affirmation, and self‐affirmation manipulations on wellbeing outcomes
We tested the effectiveness of three brief, online manipulations theorised to have beneficial effects on wellbeing: a social cure manipulation priming important group memberships, a self‐affirmation manipulation priming important values, and a group‐affirmation manipulation priming values important to one's group. A control condition required respondents to reflect on films. Study 1 ( N = 201) had no explicit stressor, whereas study 2 ( N = 379) …
An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Adaptation to Recurrent Venous Thrombosis and Heritable Thrombophilia
Venous thromboembolic disease (VTE) is a serious, life-threatening condition and a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Heritable thrombophilia increases risk of recurrent VTE. The present study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore adaptation to recurrent VTE and heritable thrombophilia in six female patients. Three main themes were identified focusing on: (1) patients' multi-causal models of VTE and the maintenan…
Cognitive appraisals and psychological distress following venous thromboembolic disease
Shyness and Psychological Imperialism; on the dangers of ignoring the ordinary language roots of the terms we deal with
Shyness is one of a class of psychological terms that have their roots in ordinary, everyday language. Accordingly, researchers are obliged either to base their definitions of shyness on a thoroughgoing analysis of the conditions prescribed socially for the use of the term and its derivatives, or to otherwise maintain a rigorous distinction between their use and the lay person's use of the term. Unfortunately, however, they have failed to do this…
Strategic clarity or calamity? Competing logics of deterrence in the Taiwan Strait
What is the best way to restore or uphold deterrence when an existing deterrent is perceived to have decayed? One common answer is that deterrers should simply add more of the ingredients that generally make for strong deterrents: more certainty that threats will be carried out, more capabilities to inflict severe punishments upon an adversary, and greater capacity to carry out threats with celerity (speed). This answer draws upon an intuitive qu…
It’s a problem, but not mine
Teachers’ judgements and interactions may be influenced by the backgrounds of their students, yet research shows that they may be reluctant to accept evidence relating to such biases. UK-based teachers ( N = 288) completed either a values affirmation or control task before reading a mildly threatening research-based article about unconscious bias in education. Overall, teachers exhibited a bias blind spot , whereby they were more likely to percei…
People like me don’t do well at school’
BACKGROUND: School students who are eligible for reduced or free school meals (FSM) - an indicator of economic disadvantage - have lower academic attainment than their peers. AIMS: We investigated whether identity compatibility - the perceived compatibility between one's social identities and the stereotype of a high-achieving student - contributes to this socioeconomic attainment gap, and whether the association between socioeconomic status and …
How is spontaneous self-affirmation linked to self-esteem? A cross-lagged examination
Self-affirmation improves self-control over snacking among participants low in eating self-efficacy
Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to identify key beliefs underlying chlamydia testing intentions in a sample of young people living in deprived areas
The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to identify the key behavioural, normative and control beliefs underlying intentions to test regularly for chlamydia among young people living in socially and economically deprived areas - a high-risk group for infection. Participants ( N = 278, 53% male; mean age 17 years) were recruited from a vocational college situated in an area in the most deprived national quintile (England). Participants completed m…
The impact of perceived experience on likelihood judgments for self and others
This study examines the effect of an experimental manipulation of perceived experience on self and others' likelihood ratings for a set of relatively commonplace misfortunes. Participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were asked whether they had ever experienced the events (designed to induce higher perceived experience) or whether they had done so frequently, typically, etc. (designed to induce lower perceived experience). …
The Hidden Face of Shyness
In employing techniques designed to facilitate the representation of responses in purely numerical form, psychologists run the risk of overlooking certain aspects of the phenomenon they are investigating. Letters writtenin response to a recent television program on shyness were examined with this in mind, and it is argued that this correspondence reveals a belief among the correspondents that shyness is not taken seriously by others, an aspect of…
Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles
Shyness and Psychological Imperialism; on the dangers of ignoring the ordinary language roots of the terms we deal with
Shyness is one of a class of psychological terms that have their roots in ordinary, everyday language. Accordingly, researchers are obliged either to base their definitions of shyness on a thoroughgoing analysis of the conditions prescribed socially for the use of the term and its derivatives, or to otherwise maintain a rigorous distinction between their use and the lay person's use of the term. Unfortunately, however, they have failed to do this…
The Hidden Face of Shyness
In employing techniques designed to facilitate the representation of responses in purely numerical form, psychologists run the risk of overlooking certain aspects of the phenomenon they are investigating. Letters writtenin response to a recent television program on shyness were examined with this in mind, and it is argued that this correspondence reveals a belief among the correspondents that shyness is not taken seriously by others, an aspect of…
Estimating the Prevalence of Shyness in the “Global Village”
Only a minority of those who experience shyness consider themselves to be shy people One explanation for this lies in the possibility that those who so label themselves underestimate the extent to which their feelings are shared by others (i.e, perceive the consensus surrounding their experiences as low [Kelley, 1967]), resulting in an internal rather than external attribution This proposition was tested by asking shy and not‐shy followers of two…
Beliefs about stories
The typical student as an in-group member
While demonstrations of optimistic bias are plentiful, successful attempts at eliminating the bias (debiasing) are rare. The current study attempted to debias by reducing the perceived social distance between the self and the typical own university student. Using self-categorisation theory, it was predicted that rating the out-group target (the typical student at another university) before the in-group one would reduce the perceived social distan…
The typical student as an in‐group member
While demonstrations of optimistic bias are plentiful, successful attempts at eliminating the bias (debiasing) are rare. The current study attempted to debias by reducing the perceived social distance between the self and the typical own university student. Using self-categorisation theory, it was predicted that rating the out-group target (the typical student at another university) before the in-group one would reduce the perceived social distan…
Self-Affirmation and the Biased Processing of Threatening Health-Risk Information
Self-affirming before reading about the link between alcohol and breast cancer promoted increased message acceptance among young women at higher risk. Differences were maintained on variables measured up to 1 month later. Relative to their nonaffirmed counterparts, higher risk, self-affirmed participants had higher ratings of risk, imagination, intention to reduce alcohol consumption, and negative affect, such as fear, while reading the leaflet. …
Cognitive appraisals and psychological distress following venous thromboembolic disease
The impact of perceived experience on likelihood judgments for self and others
This study examines the effect of an experimental manipulation of perceived experience on self and others' likelihood ratings for a set of relatively commonplace misfortunes. Participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were asked whether they had ever experienced the events (designed to induce higher perceived experience) or whether they had done so frequently, typically, etc. (designed to induce lower perceived experience). …
How do patients evaluate and make use of online health information
Developing and Testing a Self-affirmation Manipulation
We developed a new manipulation of self-affirmation that is simple to use, can be employed when circumstances prevent pre-screening or using essay-based methods, and has a highly equivalent control task. In the process, we addressed theoretical and empirical questions highlighted in a recent review as requiring attention. In comparison to five controls, the manipulation promoted positive changes on measures designed to test whether people are sel…
Testing the limits of optimistic bias
N. D. Weinstein (1980) established that optimistic bias, the tendency to see others as more vulnerable to risks than the self, varies across types of event. Subsequently, researchers have documented that this phenomenon, also known as comparative optimism, also varies across types of people. The authors integrate hypotheses originally advanced by Weinstein concerning event-characteristic moderators with later arguments that such optimism may be r…
An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Adaptation to Recurrent Venous Thrombosis and Heritable Thrombophilia
Venous thromboembolic disease (VTE) is a serious, life-threatening condition and a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Heritable thrombophilia increases risk of recurrent VTE. The present study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore adaptation to recurrent VTE and heritable thrombophilia in six female patients. Three main themes were identified focusing on: (1) patients' multi-causal models of VTE and the maintenan…
Self-affirmation and the self-regulation of health behavior change
This paper considers the potential impact of self-affirmation—the process of reflecting upon important personal values or strengths—on the self-regulation of health behavior change. Self-affirmation appears to promote several key processes relevant to health behavior change, including more open-minded appraisal of otherwise threatening information, higher levels of mental construal, and reductions in the likelihood of self-control failure. It als…
Feelings of vulnerability in response to threatening messages
Effects of Self-Affirmation on Implementation Intentions and the Moderating Role of Affect
Self-affirmation may offset defensiveness to threatening messages, increase intentions to engage in protective behaviors, and facilitate actual change. Relatively little is known about the conditions under which self-affirmation is most beneficial. The authors examined whether self-affirmation facilitates the forming of implementation intentions–plans to engage in specific steps that facilitate behavior change—and whether effects differ by affect…
A theory-based online health behavior intervention for new university students
Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN67684181
Employees' perceptions of the impact of work on health behaviours
Research examining the impact of work on health behaviours has rarely provided a complete picture of the impact across health behaviours. Twenty-four employees were interviewed about their smoking, drinking, exercise and eating. Themes included the impact of the work environment, including policy, convenience and workplace cultural norms; business events effecting one's routine and again convenience and workplace cultural norms; being busy at wor…
A theory-based online health behaviour intervention for new university students (U@Uni)
Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN67684181
Does heightening risk appraisals change people's intentions and behavior? A meta-analysis of experimental studies
The impact of self-affirmation on health-behavior change
OBJECTIVES: Self-affirmation (induced by reflecting upon important values, attributes, or social relations) appears to reduce defensive resistance to health-risk information and increase subsequent readiness for health behavior change. However, these effects of self-affirmation have yet to be subjected to formal, quantitative integration. Consequently, the current article reports a meta-analysis of the impact of self-affirmation on outcomes at 3 …
Development of theory-based health messages
Online health behaviour interventions have great potential but their effectiveness may be hindered by a lack of formative and theoretical work. This paper describes the process of formative research to develop theoretically and empirically based health messages that are culturally relevant and can be used in an online intervention to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours among new university students. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, a …
Smoke-free air laws and quit attempts
Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to identify key beliefs underlying chlamydia testing intentions in a sample of young people living in deprived areas
The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to identify the key behavioural, normative and control beliefs underlying intentions to test regularly for chlamydia among young people living in socially and economically deprived areas - a high-risk group for infection. Participants ( N = 278, 53% male; mean age 17 years) were recruited from a vocational college situated in an area in the most deprived national quintile (England). Participants completed m…
Psychology (40 obras) · Social Psychology (33 obras) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (22 obras) · Developmental psychology (20 obras) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (20 obras) · Social Psychology (19 obras) · Medicine (15 obras) · Self-affirmation (13 obras) · Clinical Psychology (9 obras) · Clinical Psychology (7 obras)