| Research Group /Researcher | Social Change Research Lab | |
| Subject Area(s) | Social and Environmental Psychology | |
| Supervisor | Prof Kitty Dumont | |
| Co-Supervisor(s) | Ms Nonhlanhla Khumalo Ms Nonhlanhla Masinga Ms Anja Vorster | |
| Master’s and PhD Research Areas/Projects |
Social Psychology (Master’s and PhD Projects) |
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| Master’s level: Projects | Research Goals | |
| Social inequality and its cognitive, emotional and behavioural implications | This research project aims at exploring the various cognitive, emotional and behavioural implications of social class membership and whether these implications are determined by the degree of inequality between social classes. | |
| Intergenerational transmission of class-related social cognitive orientations | This research project aims at systematically studying class differences in children’s’ self-expressions and how these self-expressions depend on parents’ conceptions of their children. | |
| When (political/organisational) leader’s visions and followers’ experiences do not match? Psychological resignation and collective action as responses to psychological discrepancies | The research project aims at exploring and demonstrating factors that determine people’s responses to experienced discrepancies in the leader and followers’ relationships. | |
| Leadership and collective action: what makes people following their leaders’ calls for collective action? | This research project aims at identifying the conditions under which followers act collectively because of the leader’s request. More specifically, this project will systematically study influencing factors and their interactions with situational conditions. | |
| The “Us” versus the “I” in leadership: organisational leadership from the identity leadership perspective | This project aims at systematically studying the linguistic expressions of leaders and its impact on leaders’ perceptions about themselves and followers’ perceptions of the leader. | |
| PhD level: Projects | Research Goals | |
| Leadership as legitimate authority: why do most leaders get it wrong? | Autocratic and authoritarian leadership styles increasingly dominant organisations and politics (locally and internationally). This research project will analyse systematically the shift from legitimate to illegitimate authority from the identity leadership perspective; its implications for the organisations and responses of followers. | |
| Where is the middle class in the “emerging psychology of social class”? | Social class shapes basic psychological processes related to cognitions, emotions and behaviours. However, most research focusses on lower-class and upper-class individuals. This research project aims at exploring the social cognitive tendencies of middle-class individuals and the implications. | |
Environmental Psychology (Master’s and PhD Projects) |
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Master’s/PhD levels: Projects |
Research Goals |
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| Social inequality and environmental concerns | Continents, nations, communities and individuals differ in their contributions, vulnerability and abilities to mitigate the consequences of climate change. The present research aims at systematically studying the impact of these inequalities on people’s environmental concerns. The project will be based on the Social Identity Model of Pro-Environmental Action. | |
| What does it mean to be “green” in the context of social inequality? | More and more people classify themselves as and identify with “green consumers” and/or “environmentalists”. These social categories share particular social norms that determine people’s behaviour. However, in the context of social inequality, people do not have the same behavioural control which influences how they construe the social category of “being green” as well as its social norms. | |
| Requirements | Honours or master’s degree in Psychology. Interest in the proposed topics and in learning more about correlative and experimental research designs in psychology. | |
| Expectations | Highly motivated; curious about research; and willing to go the “extra mile”. In case you are interested to work with the social change research lab, please contact Kitty Dumont before application. | |
| Contact | Prof Kitty Dumont E-mail: dumonkb@unisa.ac.za |
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Last modified: Mon Aug 07 18:02:03 SAST 2023