Editor, Journal of Social Issues, 2014-2017

Ann Bettencourt is currently a Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She received a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan, California State University, Fresno, and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Southern California. Her research focuses the positive and negative consequences of social identities. Her work on the positive consequences of social identities examines outcomes such as life satisfaction, community satisfaction, a lack of depression, and physical health. She has studied these associations with students, adult women, breast cancer survivors, and members of ethnic minority groups. Her work on the negative consequences examines the ways in which social identities can lead to prejudice and discrimination. In this research, she has examined such moderators as group size, group threat, and stereotype expectancy violation. Her work has been funded by NCI and NSF. Most recently, she is investigating the potential benefits of meditation and mindfulness for social relationships. She has been a member of SPSSI since graduate school, in the late 1980’s. She is a SPSSI Fellow and, twice, has served on SPSSI Council. In the second of these terms, she served as the Council’s representative to the Executive Committee. She was Program Chair for SPSSI’s first Biennial Conference and, in the subsequent year, for SPSSI’s conference held at APA. She has Chaired or Co-Chaired SPSSI’s Diversity Committee, the long-term conference planning committee, the Lewin Award Committee, EAESP/SPSSI small conferences committee, and the Publications Committee. With Michele Wittig, she co-edited a JSI issue entitled, Social Psychological Perspectives on Grassroots Organizing.