Elizabeth J. Parks-Stamm

New York University
Social Psychology Program
6 Washington Place, Rm 760
New York, NY 10003
212.998.7899
email

Education

Ph.D. Candidate 2003- present, New York University (Social, Personality, and Organizational Psychology)
M.A. 2006, New York University (Psychology)
B.A. 2001, Dartmouth College (with High Honors in Psychology)

Honors and Awards

APA Dissertation Research Award, 2008
Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, 2008-2009
Douglas H. and Katharine Fryer Thesis Fellowship Award, 2008
National Science Foundation Predoctoral Research Fellowship, 2004-2009
Campbell Travel Award, 2008
Friends of Katzell Summer Research Fellowship, 2007
Society for Personality and Social Psychology Travel Award, 2007
McCracken Award for Graduate Study, New York University, 2003-2008
Honors Thesis awarded High Honors, Dartmouth College, 2001

Research

When do strategies help or hamper goal pursuit? How do conscious and nonconscious goal pursuit differ? How do we interpret nonconsciously-activated goal striving? How can subtyping be used to protect the self? My research examines these issues with a focus on the unintended consequences of successful self-regulation.

My research with Peter Gollwitzer and Gabriele Oettingen explores both conscious self-regulatory strategies and the nonconscious aspects of goal pursuit. One focus of my research has been examining how the benefits of implementation intentions (e.g., for identifying anticipated situational cues) can be associated with costs in the identification of alternative, unplanned means to the goal. We are also exploring how people explain goal-directed behavior when they are not aware of its cause. Is nonconsciously-activated goal-striving interpreted to form a coherent story? Lastly, we have been examining the differences between conscious and nonconscious goals in terms of how multiple goals are integrated in goal pursuit, how alternative means are used to achieve an activated goal, and how susceptible individuals are to choking under pressure.

With Madeline Heilman, I am exploring the collective consequences of self-esteem maintenance, another unintended cost of successful self-regulation. Our research suggests that the interpersonal derogation of successful women by other women functions as a self-protective strategy against threatening upward social comparisons. Recently, we have been focusing on how to reduce the self-threat women feel in response to successful women while not diminishing perceptions of competence. In my dissertation, I am examining how subtyping may be used to protect self-evaluations. The ironic consequences of subtyping ingroup members to protect the self is the exclusion of the very individuals who could raise the status of one’s group as a whole.

Publications

Parks-Stamm, E. J., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (in press). Goal implementation: The benefits and costs of if-then planning. In G. B. Moskowitz & H. Grant (Eds.),The psychology of goals. New York: Guilford.

Parks-Stamm, E. J., Heilman, M. E., & Hearns, K. A. (2008). Motivated to penalize: Women's strategic rejection of successful women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 237-247.

Gollwitzer, P. M., Parks-Stamm, E. J., & Oettingen, G. (2008). Living on the edge: Shifting between nonconscious and conscious goal pursuit. In E. Morsella, J. A. Bargh, & P. M. Gollwitzer (Eds.), The Psychology of Action: Mechanisms of Human Action. (Vol. 2, pp. 603-624). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Parks-Stamm, E. J., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Oettingen, G. (2007). Action control by implementation intentions: Effective cue detection and efficient response initiation. Social Cognition, 25, 247-264.

Gollwitzer, P. M., Parks-Stamm, E. J., Jaudas, A., & Sheeran, P. (2007). Flexible tenacity in goal pursuit. In J. Shah & W. Gardner (Eds.), Handbook of Motivation Science (pp. 325-341). New York: Guilford.

Heilman, M. E., & Parks-Stamm, E. J. (2007). Gender stereotypes in the workplace: Obstacles to women’s career progress. In S. J. Correll (Ed), Social Psychology of Gender: Advances in Group Processes (Vol 24, pp. 47-77). Elsevier Ltd., JAI Press.

Parks-Stamm, E. J., Achtziger, A., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2007). Implementation intentions. In R. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Verfaellie, M., Martin, E., Page, K., Parks, E., & Keane, M. M. (2006). Implicit memory for novel conceptual associations in amnesia. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 6, 91-101.