Lynn Smith-Lovin, Robert L. Wilson Professor of Sociology and Psychology and Neuroscience

Lynn Smith-Lovin

Robert L. Wilson Professor of Sociology and Psychology and Neuroscience
PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1978
mailing address: 348A SOC/PSYCH Bldg Box 90088 Duke University Durham NC 27708-0088
office: 348A Soc/Psych
email:
phone: (919) 660-5786

research interests | publications | courses | lab web site | curriculum vita

Research Summary:
 I study identity, action and emotional response. I’m interested in the basic question of how identities affect social interaction. I use experimental, observational, survey and simulation methods to describe how identities, actions and emotions are interrelated. The experiments I do usually involve creating social situations where unusual things happen to people, then seeing how they respond behaviorally or emotionally. I observe small task group interactions to see how identities influence conversational behavior. My survey work often focuses on gender and other social positions that influence the groups and networks in which people are imbedded. My simulations studies involve affect control theory, a mathematical model of how identities, actions and emotions affect one another. Now, I’m putting affect control theory together with McPherson’s ecological theory of affiliation to show how social systems, identities, and emotional experience are connected.

Representative Publications:   (More Publications)

  1. with Miller McPherson and Matthew Brashears ""Models and Marginals: Using Survey Data to Study Social Networks."."  August 2009: 670-81.
  2. with Noah Mark and Cecilia Ridgeway ""Why Do Nominal Characteristics Acquire Status Value? A Minimal Explanation for Status Construction"."  November 2009
  3. with Miller McPherson and Matthew Brashears ""Social Isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades"." Social Pathology: An Introduction. ICFAI Research Center, 2008
  4. with Noah Mark and Cecilia Ridgeway ""The Origins of Consensual Status Beliefs"."  2008
  5. with Miller McPherson and Matthew Brashears ""Loosening the ties that bind"."  2008

Courses (Fall 2009):

  • Sociol 190as.01, Sociology honors seminar Synopsis
    Soc/psych 329, WF 04:25 PM-05:40 PM