Shelly Chaiken is an American

social psychologist Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the re ...

. She first received her BS from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1971 for mathematics. She later earned her MS (in 1975) and her PhD (in 1978) at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

in social psychology. She was a professor of psychology at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, but is now retired. Chaiken is a member of many psychological organizations including the

Society of Experimental Social Psychology The Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) is a scientific organization of social scientists founded in 1965 with the goal of advancing and communicating theories in social psychology. Its first chairperson was Edwin P. Hollander.Hollande ...

, the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

(Fellow, Div. 8), and the

American Psychological Society The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

Research

She completed work involving attitude, persuasion, and

social cognition Social cognition is a sub-topic of various branches of psychology that focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in social interactio ...

and is most well-known for the developing the

heuristic-systematic model of information processing The heuristic-systematic model of information processing (HSM) is a widely recognized model by Shelly Chaiken that attempts to explain how people receive and process persuasive messages. The model states that individuals can process messages in one ...

. Chaiken completed a study researching interracial contact. The study found that participant who were exposed to more white faces in a positive way, had a more negative view or increased prejudice toward black faces. Chaiken edited many psychological books including Attitude Research in the 21st Century: The Current State of Knowledge, and Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology. Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology conglomerates the theories of informational processing in an organized way, along with reviews and research of these theories. Much of her work involving persuasion has been helpful to

conflict resolution Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information abou ...

centers and negotiations with their patients. For her work on dual process theories of attitudes, on October 17, 2009 Chaiken was a co-recipient of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology's Scientific Impact Award, which " nors the author(s) of a specific article or chapter that has proven highly influential over the last 25 years."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaiken, Shelly Social psychologists Scientists from New York City Living people Year of birth missing (living people)