Research
You
can download my
CV here.
(Updated: 2/6/2012)
Research
Interests:
My research
focuses on how individual differences in physiology manifest themselves
in human social behavior. Specifically, I am interested in how steroid
hormones, such as testosterone and cortisol, influence behavior in
cooperative contexts and in response to threat (either social or
physical). My research incorporates elements of traditional social
psychology, personality psychology, social endocrinology, and
behavioral neuroscience with an applied interest in health
psychology.
Education:
I began attending the University of Michigan in the fall of
2001, and received my B.A. in Psychology in the spring of
2005. After
graduation I worked as the lab manager of the Human
Motivation and Affective Neuroscience Lab
at the University of
Michigan, under Dr. Oliver Schultheiss. In the Fall of
2006 I entered the Ph.D. program in Social and Personality Psychology
at
the University of Texas at Austin, where I work with Dr. Robert
Josephs. I am
currently in my fifth year and am expecting to complete my degree in
the spring of 2012.
Current
Projects:
I currently
have three general lines of research.
The first line
of research examines how physiological
and neurobiological mechanisms influence behavioral responses to health
threats.
Specifically, how individual differences in anxiety,
testosterone
levels, and genetic variations contribute to some men’s
tendency to ignore important and distressing medical information, with
an interest in identifying the mechanisms underlying these problematic
under-reactions. This work utilizes social endocrinology and behavioral
genetics to address issues of personality and health psychology.
The second
line of research focuses on how individual
differences in personality traits interact with situational forces to
influence the effectiveness of intragroup cooperation.
Specifically, how dispositional dominance, as
measured by basal testosterone levels, interacts with social status and
group goals to influence whether an individual works toward individual
benefit or the benefit of the group. This work combines traditional
social and personality psychology with social endocrinology methods.
The third
line
of research addresses individuals’
reactions, both psychological and physical, to certain cancer treatments.
Particularly, how treatments alter physiology,
which in turn alters psychological functioning, with an eye towards
quality of life issues and potential interventions. This work
incorporates personality psychology, health psychology, cognitive
neuroscience, and social endocrinology.
If
you are
interested in any of these lines of research, please contact me at liening@utexas.edu
You can find
out more information about Dr. Josephs’s research here and
more information about my fellow graduate student Jacqueline
Evans’s research on stress and affiliation here.
Publications:
Liening,
S.H., Swann,
W.,
& Josephs, R.A. (submitted for publication). Dual
processes regulate dominance-related activities: Explicit dominance
predicts self-reported desire for status, implicit dominance predicts
prosocial dominance.
Ristvedt, S.,
Josephs,
R.A., & Liening,
S.H. (in press). Hormonal
and genetic influences on
assessments
of unfavorable health information. Psychology
and Health.
Liening,
S.H.,
Mehta, P.H., & Josephs, R.A. (in
press). Competition. To
appear
in Encyclopedia
of Human Behavior, 2nd
edition, edited Vilayanur S. Ramachandran. Academic Press: San Diego,
CA. [please email me for a pdf]
Schultheiss,
O.C., Patalakh,
M., Rawolle,
M., Liening,
S.H., & MacInnes,
J.J. (2011). Referential
competence is associated with motivational congruence. Journal
of Research in Personality, 45, 59-70. [pdf]
Stanton, S.J., Liening,
S.H., & Schultheis,
O.C. (2011). Testosterone is positively associated with risk-taking in
the Iowa Gambling Task. Hormones
and Behavior, 59, 252-256. [pdf]
Liening, S.H. &
Josephs, R.A. (2010). It
is not all about testosterone: Physiological moderators of the
testosterone-behavior link. Social
and Personality Psychology Compass, 4,
982-994. [pdf]
Liening, S.H.,
Stanton,
S.J., Saini,
E.K., & Schultheiss, O.C. (2010). Salivary
testosterone, cortisol, and progesterone: Two-week stability, interhormonecorrelations,
and effects of time of day, menstrual cycle, and oral contraceptive use
on steroid hormone levels. Physiology
and Behavior, 99, 8-16.
[pdf]
Schultheiss, O.C., Liening,
S.H., & Schad,
D. (2008). The
reliability of a Picture Story Exercise measure of implicit motives:
Estimates of internal consistency, sum score, and ipsative retest
stability. Journal
of Research in Personality, 42, 1560-1571.
[pdf]
Manuscripts
in Preparation:
Liening, S.H., Swann, W.,
& Josephs, R.A. (in preparation). The importance of social
interaction on the predictive utility of self-report measures and
testosterone.
Liening,
S.H., Ristvedt,
S., & Josephs, R.A. (in preparation). Testosterone
and threat perception: Testosterone, anxiety, and reactions to positive
diagnoses among men.
Liening, S.H., Davis, T.,
Evans, J., Beevers,
C., Loving, T.J., Thompson, I., Pollock, B., Wassersug,
R., van Honk, E.J., & Josephs, R.A. (in preparation).The effects of
androgens on cognition: A review of cognitive changes while undergoing
androgen deprivation therapy.
Conference
Presentations:
Liening, S.H.
&
Josephs, R.A. (2012). Explicit
versus implicit
measures of dominance: Predictive utility of self-reported dominance
versus testosterone depends on social context. Poster
presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and
Social Psychology, San Deigo, CA. [pdf]
Liening, S.H., Ristvedt,
S., & Josephs, R.A. (2011). Early
detection behaviors among men: Testosterone, anxiety, and the dismissal
of threatening medical information.
Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality
and Social Psychology, San Antonio, TX.[pdf]
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, Tampa, FL. [pdf]
Talks
and Guest Lectures:
Note:
Some talks contain results that are not yet published, and thus
their slides are not available online. If you would like a copy of the
slides, please contact me via email at liening@utexas.edu
The
Charles Bronson effect: The role of testosterone, anxiety, and genetic
variation in early detection behaviors. (2010)
Social
endocrinology. (2010)
Dominance
and prosocial behavior. (2010)
Implicit
motive scoring: Winter integrated coding system.
(2009, 2007)
Stress
and aggression. (2009)
Testosterone,
dominance, and aggression.
(2008)
The
missing link: The relationship between dominance, implicit power
motivation, and testosterone.
(2007)
The
role of dominance in status seeking behavior. (2006)
Contact Information:
Scott
Liening
University
of Texas at Austin
Department
of Psychology
1
University Station A8000
Austin,
TX 78712-0187
liening@utexas.edu
http://www.scottliening.com/
512.471.0691
Office: Seay Building
(SEA) 3.426H
Elsewhere
on
ScottLiening.com:
To
learn a little bit
about me personally, click here: Personal.
To learn about my consulting availability, click here: Consulting.
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Site
last updated on 2.6.2012