Susan Fiske: biography of this social psychologist

Not many women psychologists have received due attention, and it could be said that Susan Fiske is one of the few who has managed to receive the prominence that she deserves.

A great student of social phenomena from a perspective of cognitive psychology, this social psychologist has contributed to behavioral science several theories on social cognition, studying aspects such as the formation of sexism and the prejudices. She has written multiple books and articles, all of them highly recommended reading.

But despite her work, she remains relatively little known outside of this field of science. Let's see the interesting life of her through this Susan Fiske biography in summary format.

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Brief biography of Susan Fiske

Next we talk about the main vital events that are remarkable in the life of Susan Fiske, social psychologist who to this day is still alive and working for the dissemination of this branch of the science of behavior.

Early years of his life

Susan Tufts Fiske was born on August 19, 1952 in the United States. Fiske's family environment has been made up of both psychologists and human rights defenders, which marked him since childhood in the interest of social psychology.

Her father, Donald W. Fiske, was a highly influential psychologist at the University of Chicago, while her mother, Barbara Page Fiske, was an activist leader. She is the sister of Alan Page Fiske, an anthropologist at UCLA, and her grandmother was a suffragette.

The year 1973, at the age of 21, Susan Fiske she began her studies at Radcliffe College to obtain a degree in Social Relations. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1978 with the thesis Attention and the Weighting of Behavior in Person Perception.

She currently resides in Princeton, New Jersey with her husband, sociologist Douglas Massey.

Career

Susan Fiske had the opportunity to work with Harvard professor Shelley Taylor, which allowed her to study social cognition, with a particular focus on the effect attention has on social interactions. After graduation, Fiske continued to study and work in the field of social cognition.

It should be said that, since the beginning of psychology as a science, the cognitive and social branches they have never fully agreed, and it could even be said that they hold true to this day conflict.

Even so, Fiske managed, through her work, to unite the best of both branches, especially when she tried to delve deeper into the study of social cognition. As a result of this, Fiske she co-authored with Taylor the book Social cognition.

One of the great highlights of her professional career is giving professional opinion in the Prince Waterhouse vs. Hopkins from 1989.

In the case, Fiske gave testimony of her being she the first social psychologist who testified in a case of gender discrimination. This event aroused interest in the application of psychology in legal contexts.

Later, she was able to work with Peter Glick, at which time she set out to study dependency in the male-female relationships, which allowed him to develop what would later be the theory of sexism ambivalent.

One of the most interesting investigations carried out by Fiske was that of analyze gender differences in social psychology publications, especially from one of the most influential journals in the field, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The conclusion of this investigation was that male social psychologists had a higher percentage of acceptance of her articles to be published compared to women, although the difference was not much greater (18% vs. 14%). In fact, she could see that the impact factor for female authors was the same compared to male if the number of citations in textbooks was looked at, in addition to being the most cited women per article published.

Susan Fiske has been implicated in the formation and constitution of social cognitive neuroscience, a field in which she investigates the neural bases behind social events.

Her contributions to psychology

Susan Fiske's scientific work is demonstrable based on the many books, articles and conferences that she has carried out throughout her professional career. In all of them, she addresses aspects of both the social and cognitive branches of psychology, explaining various theories related, above all, to the study of social cognition. There are four the most relevant theories of all her work.

1. Ambivalent sexism theory

Working with Peter Glick, Fiske developed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI)., a tool developed to record and understand prejudices towards the female collective.

This inventory has two components related to stereotypes towards women: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism.

Hostile sexism is expressed towards especially towards women, who do not meet the characteristics of the more traditional female figure or who fight for their rights.

On the other hand, with benevolent sexism reference is made to overprotective and paternalistic behaviors aimed at women that they do comply with the traditional image of how a woman should be. The theory holds that, in the interaction between men and women, the latter are forced to have to get closer to the traditional image of femininity if they want men to pay attention to them or help them advance in the workplace.

Despite the fact that the privilege-contempt relationship usually goes in the direction of a man, the theory holds that both men and women can carry out both versions of sexism. However, it is usually men who exercise, above all, hostile sexism.

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2. stereotype content model

The content model of stereotypes, in English 'Stereotype content model', is a psychological theory that maintains that people tend to perceive social groups based on two fundamental dimensions: warmth and competence.

Warmth refers to how friendly and confident the group is perceived to be, while with competence refers to how competent the group is in achieving its objectives social.

This theory has been able to find that people who belong to the same social group, for example, the American middle class, perceive members of the same socioeconomic group as friendlier and more competent compared to others groups.

In addition, it allows us to understand how people see other groups that do not have as many privileges or economic resources, such as refugees, people at risk of exclusion... seeing them neither warm nor competent.

So that, there are both negative stereotypes towards other groups and positive ones towards people of the same group, exaggerating the threats and benefits of both groups.

3. Theory of power as control

The theory of power as control tries to explain how the classes that have power over society do that people behave by ignoring or ignoring others, based on how the wealthiest elites have established it.

4. Continuous model of impression formation

This model tries to explain how people form impressions of other people. It is theorized that these first impressions are formed based on two factors, one being the information available and the other the motivations of the person who perceives them.

Based on these two factors, they help explain the tendency of people to follow criteria more related to the stereotypes accepted by the majority of the population or beliefs individual.

Acknowledgments

Susan Fiske has obtained several honorary degrees from various universities worldwide., including the University of Basel (2013), Leiden (2009) and the Catholic University of Louvain (1995).

In 2010 she was awarded by the APA with the award for distinguished scientific contribution. In 2013, Susan Fiske became an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

She has served as president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, APA Division 8, the federation of science associations. of Behavior and the Brain, the American Psychological Society, and the Foundation for the Advancement of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Brain.

In 2014, a quantitative analysis was carried out in which it was concluded that Susan Fiske was one of the most eminent researchers in modern psychologyshe, positioned the twenty-second place.

In that same analysis, she was also ranked 14th in terms of most important living researchers and was considered the second most important female psychologist.