Scott Liening
Social Psychology Research
Research Interests:
My research focuses on how individual differences
interact with status differences to affect small groups’ ability to
cooperate effectively. I am also
interested in how biological factors, specifically hormones such as
testosterone and cortisol, influence behaviors in
these cooperative situations and how these factors to status differences among
group members. My research
incorporates social psychology, personality psychology, and social
endocrinology in order to gain a fuller understanding of these common and
complex interactions.
Current
Projects:
I currently have three general lines of ongoing
research with my advisor, Dr. Robert Josephs.
The first is straight-forward social psychological
research, focusing on how individual differences in personality traits
(dominance, narcissism), hormone levels (testosterone, cortisol),
and situation forces (status) influence whether someone will exploit a
situation for personal benefit at the cost of their own group.
The second project is a combination of social
psychology and health psychology.
We are investigating how anxiety, testosterone, and cortisol
influence how an individual responds to threatening medical information, and
are primarily concerned with how these factors predict problematic reactions
among men.
The third project is also a combination of social and
health psychology, but also incorporates elements of neuroscience, cognitive
psychology, and biology. We are
examining individuals’ reaction (both psychological and physical) to
cancer treatments, with an eye towards quality of life issues and possible
interventions.
If you are interested in any of these projects, please
contact me at sliening@mail.utexas.edu
You can find more information about Dr. Josephs’
research here
and more information about my fellow graduate student Jacqueline Rivers’
research on stress and affiliation here.
Education:
I received my B.A. in Psychology from the
Publications:
Liening, S.H.,
Mehta, P.H., & Josephs, R.A. (submitted). Competition. To appear in Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, 2nd
edition, edited by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran.
Academic Press:
Schultheiss, O.C., Patalakh,
M., Rawolle, M., Liening, S., & MacInnes, J.J. (submitted). Referential competence is associated with
congruence between implicit and explicit motivation.
Liening, S.H.,
Schultheiss, O. C., Liening, S., & Schad, D. (2008). The
reliability of a Picture Story Exercise measure of implicit motives: Estimates
of internal consistency, retest reliability, and ipsative
stability. Journal of Research in
Personality, 42, 1560-1571.
[pdf]
Manuscripts In
Preparation:
Liening, S.H.,
Liening, S.H. & Josephs, R.A. (in prep).
It’s not all about testosterone: Physiological moderators of the
testosterone-behavior link.
Conference
Presentations
Liening, S.H.
& Josephs, R.A. (2010) The Influence
of Dominance, Narcissism, and Testosterone on High Status Behavior. Poster presented at the annual meeting
of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Las, Vegas, NV. [pdf]
Liening, S.H.
& Josephs, R.A. (2009) Abusing Power:
Dominance and Narcissism in Positions of High Status. Poster presented at the annual meeting
of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology,
Talks/Presentations/Guest
Lectures:
Liening, S.H. (2009, 2007) Implicit Motive Scoring: Winter Integrated Coding System. Talk
presented to Dr. Samuel Gosling’s graduate seminar “Fundamentals of
Personality,” Psychology,
Liening, S.H. (2009) Stress
and Aggression. Guest lecture presented to Lisa Dawn Hamilton’s
undergraduate course “Biopsychology,”
Liening, S.H. (2008) Testosterone, Dominance, and
Aggression. Talk presented to
Dr. Yvon Delville’s
graduate course “Behavioral Neuroendocrinology,”
Liening, S.H. (2007) The Missing Link: The Relationship
between Dominance, Implicit Power Motivation, and Testosterone. Talk
presented to Dr. Samuel Gosling’s graduate seminar “Fundamentals of
Personality,”
Liening, S.H. (2006) The
Role of Dominance in Status Seeking Behavior. Talk presented to Social and Personality
Area Meeting,
Contact information:
Scott
Liening
University
of
Department
of Psychology, Social Area
1
University Station A8000
(512)
471-0691
(website last updated
3/2/2010)