Michael Hogg

Michael Hogg is a Professor of Social Psychology in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences (SBOS) at Claremont Graduate University.

Biography

Hogg was born in Calcutta, India, where his parents were employed at the time of his birth. When he was a child, his family moved to Sri Lanka where he lived until leaving for college in England. Hogg received a PhD in social psychology from Bristol University and subsequently taught for 20 years in Australia, most recently at the University of Queensland. He currently teaches at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California.

Work

In August 2010 the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ranked Hogg the 9th most influential social psychologist. Researchers ranked 611 faculty members at 97 universities across the United States and Canada using complex formulas that measured the frequency with which the faculty member published work and how often that work is cited. These formulas included adjustments to account for a researcher's experience in terms of how many years it has been since an individual earned a PhD.

Hogg's research focus is on social identity theory, a concept first published by Henri Tajfel and John Turner in 1979. Social identity theory was created to explain how and why individuals identify with particular social groups, and the various ways these identities affect behavior and perceptions. It encompasses both the psychological and sociological aspects of group behavior. While at Queensland, Hogg established and directed the Center for Research on Group Processes, and soon after arriving in Claremont set up the Social Identity Lab at the School of Behavioral and Organizational Psychology at Claremont Graduate University.

Hogg's work at the Social Identity Lab is focused on how uncertainty drives people to groups and ideologies that resolve these uncertainties, and help to concretely ground their identity. Currently, the lab is doing research on how political leadership utilizes uncertainty as a method for creating allegiance. Other research at the lab is exploring the regional, national, and religious identities at play in Israel between Jewish citizens and Palestinian settlers, and the extent to which these identities, compounded with uncertainty, can lead to support for political action and violence.

The lab has been describes as transdisciplinary, in that students and researchers focus their identity research not only on political issues, but on issues of environmentalism, religion, and race.

Bibliography

Recent Hogg publications include:

• Cooper, J.; Hogg, M. A. (2007). "Feeling the anguish of others: A theory of vicarious dissonance". Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 39: 359–403. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(06)39007-7. ISBN 9780120152391. 

• Hogg, M. A. (2007). "Uncertainty-identity theory". Advances in experimental social psychology 39: 69–126. 

• Hogg, M. A.; Sherman, D. K.; Dierselhuis, J.; Maitner, A. T.; Moffitt, G. (2007). "Uncertainty, entitativity, and group identification". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43: 135–142. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2005.12.008. 

• Hogg, M. A. (2007). "Social psychology of leadership." In A. W. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles (2nd ed., pp. 716–733). New York: Guilford.

• Hogg, M. A.; Fielding, K. S.; Johnson, D.; Masser, B.; Russell, E.; Svensson, A. (2006). "Demographic category membership and leadership in small groups: A social identity analysis". The Leadership Quarterly 17 (4): 335–350. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.04.007. 

• Hogg, M. A. (2006). "Social identity theory." In P. J. Burke (Ed.), Contemporary Social Psychological Theories (pp. 111–136). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-5347-4

External links

• Faculty page at Claremont Graduate University