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Psychology News Newsletter October 2005 Quiet Ego Conference A Update on Masters’ Andy Walters Brings Integrating On-Line Research: Papers & Guess Who? Success Program Graduates Something New to NAU Techniques in the Face- Presentations It isn’t just Halloween Recent conference held Graduate coordinator Psychology to-Face Classroom Psychology faculty’s that brings out the best at NAU helps to Laurie Dickson New faculty member Innovative ideas to recent research in this person! A redirect research efforts tabulates the success of brings new expertise to integrate technology publications, a student tigger-ific support for in psychology. recent graduates of our our department in into classroom teaching award, and upcoming our department and Pages 1-3 talks. masters’ program. sexuality research. are a success! college! Page 4 Page 3 Page 4 Page 3 Page 4 gan on Thursday evening, October 27, data showing how threats to the social Quiet Ego with Navajo medicine man James self trigger psychobiological responses. Peshlakai (also a NAU resident elder) The second session was entitled “The Conference Helps who talked about the Navajo way of life Quiet Ego I: Moving Beyond Egoistic Chart New Direction and the “Beauty Prayer.” Self-Interest.” This symposium featured Holley Hodgins (Skidmore College) who in Psychology On Friday, October 28, the conference was described how autonomous individuals held at Flagstaff’s historic Colton House. (as defined by Social Determination The- by Heidi Wayment & Jack Bauer, Conference In this novel and peaceful setting, confer- ory) are more open to experience without Co-Coordinators ence speakers, visiting We are de- graduate students, nu- lighted to report merous NAU faculty and that the “Quiet graduate students from Ego” conference Psychology and Educa- that was re- tional Psychology, as well cently held here as interested psycholo- at NAU was a gists from the community great success! listened to four symposia This conference sessions. The first session brought to- was entitled, “When the gether 20 scholars representing a variety Ego Gets in the Way: The of sub-disciplines within psychology (so- Negative Personal, Social, cial, personality, developmental, clinical, and Physiological Conse- health, I/O) as well as sociology and edu- quences of Self-Interest cational psychology. In addition, the which featured W. Keith types of research presented also repre- Campbell (University of sented a variety of settings (laboratory, Georgia) who spoke field), samples (college students, older about narcissism as a “so- Conference participants (left to right) Lowell Gaertner, Mark Leary, adults, lesbians, middle-aged adults), de- cial trap” in that narcis- and Virginia Kwan listen to a presentation at the Colton House signs (longitudinal, experimental, correla- sists may experience short tional, qualitative) and data collection term gains in social and methods (questionnaire, ethnographic personal outcomes but may distortion, defense, and avoidance. Mark interview, web-based). What all of these suffer long-term negative consequences. Leary (Wake Forest University) described researchers had in common was an inter- Next, Virginia Kwan (Princeton Univer- a new measure of transindividual iden- est to exchange ideas on the limitations of sity) outlined how different ways of as- tity, which measures the extent to which egoistic self-interest, the varieties of ways sessing self-enhancement sheds light on people feel connected to close others, people transcend egocentrism, and the its relation to adjustment. Finally, Marga- people in general, animals and nature. benefits of doing so. The conference be- ret Kemeny (UC San Francisco) presented This tendency is associated with not only Psychology Newsletter, October 2005" 1 psychological well-being but also greater happy to learn of native traditions. For Rich Ryan (cf. Deci & Ryan) concluded benevolence and kindness. Kirk Warren many, this was their first exposure to the morning with an overview of several Brown (Virginia Commonwealth Univer- Flagstaff and NAU. decades of research involving his well- sity) presented the case for mindfulness, known theory of Self-Determination in and how the capacity to be “present” is The first session (The Individualistic and the context of understanding self- associated with a lower concern for ego- Collective Self II: A Balancing Act) on systems. protection and -repair, less rumination Saturday, October 29 featured Heidi about the past and future, and less egois- Wayment and Derrick Wirtz, both of Later in the afternoon two keynote ad- tic behaviors. Finally, Kristin Neff (Uni- NAU, who presented their research. dresses were held at Cline Library. Mark versity of Texas, Austin) presented her Heidi presented data from two studies Leary presented ideas from his recent work related to her measure of self- (one conducted with former graduate book, “The Curse of the Self” which ar- compassion. Self-compassion recognizes student Erin O’Mara) that suggest there gues that the human capacity for self- the flawed and vulnerable nature of the are also positive and collective conse- human condition, so that one can extend quences to identifying with unfortunate the same kindness and understanding others, even at the risk of feeling person- toward the self that we often extend to ally vulnerable to a similar, negative out- others, without judgment. come. Derrick demonstrated that subjec- tive well-being ratings were influenced In the third session, entitled “The Quiet by the kinds of information individuals Ego II: Interpersonal Consequences of a consider (negative or positive) and these Less Egoic Self” Julie Juola Exline (Case differences were reliably different in Western Reserve University) suggested people from individualistic and collectiv- that two elements are required for a istic cultures. humble, quiet ego: a sense of personal worth or safety; and an awareness of The final symposia session (Transcend- Jen Shott, Desiree Sharpe, and Lindsay Richerson one’s limitations. Michael Wohl (Carleton ing the Ego: Developmental Perspec- greet conference participants University, Canada) discussed the notion tives) was started by sociologist Monika of the collective ego, and presented re- Ardelt (University of Florida) who de- thought is responsible for many of the search suggesting how reframing inter- scribed the paradoxical nature of self- personal and social difficulties that hu- group conflict in terms of human conflict development whereby the self becomes mans face as a species. Jennifer Crocker can foster intergroup forgiveness. Au- less important over time and the role that described 20 years of research on self- drey Korsgaard (University of South wisdom plays in this process. Ed de St. esteem with her talk “The Costly Pursuit Carolina, School of Business) reported Aubin (Marquette University) described of Self-Esteem” and argued that when findings suggesting that “other orienta- how important aspects of development, self-esteem is contingent on academic tion” affects self-interested calculations namely one’s ability to give back to others outcomes (for students), actual learning and has consequences for a wide range of (i.e., generativity) may be thwarted in and psychological well-being may be un- attitudes and behavior in work settings. individuals who internalize societal dermined. In contrast, having a learning In the fourth and last session of the day, stigma about their worth or value (e.g., orientation may reduce threats to self- “Balancing the Individualistic and Collec- homonegativity in lesbian women). esteem. tive Self I: Motivational Systems,” Lowell NAU’s Jack Bauer concluded the session Gaertner (University of Tennessee) ar- with his data from three studies that Looking back, we couldn’t have been gued that egoistic concerns are more eas- more pleased by the outcome of the con- ily transcended when connecting with ference. Our goals, providing an oppor- another individual than with a group. tunity for researchers to share their work Jennifer Crocker (University of Michigan) and engage in discussion about new ideas presented the idea that there are two un- and collaborative efforts, were clearly derlying motivational systems that influ- met. Conference participants praised the ence whether we are driven to maintain, conference as intellectually inspiring, protect, or inflate self-worth (ego-system with a few noting that they were ener- goals) or are motivated by creating or gized by the conference and it reminded contributing to something larger than the them of why they chose to pursue psy- self (eco-system goals). Dinner was ac- chology in the first place. Our next steps companied by the beautiful photography include synthesizing the themes that of prize-winning photographer Peter arose during the presentations and dis- show how two forms of self- Schwepker (NAU Department of Pho- cussions and working on producing an transcendence (social-emotional and tography, SBS), as well as presentations edited volume for publication. Confer- by Michael Kabotie and LouVina Maho social-cognitive) involved identification with something larger than the self and ence participants also clearly expressed a on Hopi spiritual traditions and a picto- desire for Quiet Ego II! KNAU’s Mitch that they reliably correlated with two rial essay entitled “Journey of the Human Teich was also at most of Friday’s presen- measures of personality development. Spirit.” Conference attendees were tations and will be working on a story Psychology Newsletter, October 2005" 2 that