Dr. Lara Kammrath

Assistant Professor, Psychology

Contact Information

Email: lkammrath@wlu.ca
Phone: 519-884-0710 ext.3876

Office Location: Science Building, N2011
Office Hours: Wed, 2:00-4:00pm

Academic Background

BA, Psychology, University of Chicago
PhD, Social-Personality Psychology, Columbia University
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Social-Organizational Psychology, Columbia Business School

Biography

My research explores how social cognitions about self and other arise in the context of interpersonal relationships (including work, friend, and romantic relationships) and the role these cognitions play in guiding people’s characteristic responses to important interpersonal events, such as conflicts.

In one line of research, I examine how people’s beliefs and expectations during interpersonal conflicts play a role in their conflict strategies and outcomes. Traditionally, individual differences in conflict strategies have been explained at the level of broad personality types: e.g. obliging types, avoidant types, contentious types. My research suggests that a person’s ability to enact functional conflict resolution behaviors is importantly influenced by how the person construes self, other, and the interpersonal situation. I predict and find, for example, that inferences about the other person’s current thoughts and feelings (e.g. “Is she really offended or just trying to control me?”), expectations about the other person’s future reactions (e.g. “If I make demands, will she reject me?”), and beliefs about the fundamental qualities of self and other (e.g. “Can people really change or are we stuck being who we are?”) play an important role in guiding people’s responses to others in conflict situations.

In another line of research, I investigate the progression of impressions over time – how people's views of one another grow, fluctuate, deepen, and change course as they spend more time together in many different situations. While first impressions do count, important – and fascinating – changes take place in how people understand one another as they spend more time together in different contexts . For example, my work has shown that as relationships mature, some kinds of impression-shifts are more common than are others (e.g. downward shifts in impressions of conscientiousness are especially frequent). Impressions also frequently become reorganized over time, as perceivers are able to piece together behaviors observed in different situations into an if-then pattern (e.g. “I thought he was unfriendly, but now I suspect he is just shy. It seems he is typically distant with strangers but warm with friends”). My work draws on the experimental methods of social cognition, but also on the diary and structured interview methods of the relationship literature, to examine the development and course of impressions in their natural settings – professional and personal relationships.