Department of Psychology Hosts Annual Psychology Day

On April 16, the Department of Psychology will host its annual “Psychology Day.” There will be a special keynote speaker, Dr. Kerri Johnson from the Communications and Psychology Departments of UCLA, who will be speaking at 3 p.m. at the Beach Auditorium.

Dr. Kerri Johnson will speak on the subject of “Social Categorization as Decisions Made Under Uncertainty.” In this talk, Dr. Johnson will characterize social categorizations as heuristic decisions that are made under varying degrees of uncertainty. As such, social categorizations constitute decisions that are corrected for perceived utility. Importantly, some utility concerns have self-relevant implications, but others have considerably more other-relevant implications, each which is likely to bias social categorizations in a predictable manner. I therefore argue that a decision making framework informs how motivated utility concerns bias social categorizations, guide social reasoning, and influence downstream evaluations.

For more information about this event, please contact the Psychology Student Association & Psi Chi Honor Society at psa.psichi@gmail.com.