School of Psychology

I teach on the following modules (* indicates that I am also the coordinator for the module):

Social Psychology and Individual Differences (PSY2060)*

Self and Identity (PSY3094)

Qualitative Data Analysis (PSY7066)*

Understanding Political Behaviours (PSY7055)

Applying Political Psychology to Current Social Issues (PSY7056)

Member of the Identities, Groups, and Social Change Research Cluster

My overarching interest is in how social categories are used in everyday life as people seek to understand, challenge, debate or deny unjust social relations and practices. I see social categories as central to the relationship between representation and power (and hence to the way ideology works) because of the processes of social influence and collective behaviour that stem from them. I use a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to explore these issues.

My recent and on-going work can be grouped into the following areas:

• Racism and the politics of immigration and multiculturalism
• Social comparisons in ideology and talk
• Police authority and legitimacy

Pehrson, S. & Leach, C. W. (in press). Beyond ‘old’ and ‘new’: For a social psychology of racism. In J. Dixon & M. Levine (Eds.) Beyond Prejudice: Extending the Social Psychology of Conflict, Inequality and Social Change. Cambridge University Press.

Pehrson, S., Gheorghiu, M. & Ireland, T. (in press). Cultural threat and anti-immigrant prejudice: The case of Protestants in Northern Ireland. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology.

Pehrson, S., Gonzalez, R. & Brown, R. (2011). Indigenous rights in Chile: National identity and majority group support for multicultural policies. Political Psychology, 34, 667-690.

Pehrson, S. & Green, E. G. T. (2010). Who we are and who can join us: National identity content and entry criteria for new immigrants. Journal of Social Issues, 66, 695-716.

Zagefka, H., Pehrson, S., Mole, R. C. M., & Chan, E. (2010). The effect of essentialism in settings of historic intergroup atrocities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 718-732.

Pehrson, S. & Leach, C. W. (2010). Eugenics. In J. Levine & M. Hogg (Eds). Encyclopedia of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. Sage.

Pehrson, S., Brown, R., & Zagefka, H. (2009). When does national identification lead to the rejection of immigrants? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence for the role of essentialist in-group definitions. British Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 61-76.

Pehrson, S., Vignoles, V., & Brown, R. (2009). National identification and anti-immigrant prejudice: Individual and contextual effects of national definitions. Social Psychology Quarterly, 72, 24-38.