Three professors in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University have been named 2023 Fellows of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
Dr. Joshua Hicks, Dr. Rebecca Schlegel and Dr. Matthew Vess are among the 22 SPSP members honored this year by their peers for their extraordinary and distinctive research, teaching and service contributions to the science of personality and social psychology.
Founded in 1974, the SPSP is the world’s largest organization of social and personality psychologists focused on understanding how individual differences and social contexts impact human behavior. Fellow status is awarded to members who have earned their Ph.D. degrees more than 10 years ago and made longstanding extraordinary and distinctive contribution to the science of personality and social psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service and/or application.
The appropriateness of all three earning this coveted recognition in the same year isn’t lost on Texas A&M Psychological and Brain Sciences professor and head Dr. Mindy Bergman, considering the many ties that bind them. Each of the three is a Ph.D. graduate of the University of Missouri (Hicks and Schlegel in 2009, Vess in 2010), with Hicks and Schlegel joining the Texas A&M faculty the same year they both graduated and Vess arriving in 2017. All three specialize in social and personality psychology as well as personality processes. In addition, they are principal investigators in the Existential Psychology Collaboratory, which seeks to understand how people answer the “big” questions in life and how their answers to those questions influence their attitudes and behavior. All three also were co-principal investigators for a recent three-year John Templeton Foundation grant as part of The Self, Virtue and Public Life Initiative, and they frequently are co-authors on a variety of scholarly publications.
"Earning Fellow status in a large and robust organization like SPSP is a sign of the incredible contributions that each of these scholars has made to the fields of social and personality psychology," Bergman said. "We are delighted to have Drs. Hicks, Schlegel and Vess in our department and look forward to the important discoveries they will make about human experiences in the future. Not only are all three faculty outstanding scholars, they are also great citizens of the department and excellent teachers. In fact, each of these faculty has recently served as an associate head in the department. Additionally, they are regularly listed on department surveys of students as faculty who are great teachers."
Earning Fellow status in a large and robust organization like SPSP is a sign of the incredible contributions that each of these scholars has made to the fields of social and personality psychology. We are delighted to have Drs. Hicks, Schlegel and Vess in our department and look forward to the important discoveries they will make about human experiences in the future.
In addition to being a professor in Psychological and Brain Sciences, Hicks is a fellow of the Center for Health Systems and Design and has been recognized with the Student Government Association Open Educator Award. He has authored more than 100 publications in a variety of leading academic journals along with dozens of book chapters. He is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and an editorial board member for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: PPID, Self and Identity and the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Schlegel has served since 2020 as associate head of undergraduate studies and programs in Psychological and Brain Sciences, where she is a past Ray A. Rothrock Fellow (2015-18). To date, she has authored nearly 90 peer-reviewed publications while also co-authoring a 2010 book, "Guide for Elementary Statistics for Psychology." She is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology as well as the board of directors for both the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology.
Vess currently serves as associate head of graduate studies in Psychological and Brain Sciences, where he has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles detailing his research on the psychological processes and consequences associated with people’s efforts to manage existential concerns, including concerns about personal identity, meaning and mortality. He is a member of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the Association for Psychological Science and the international honor society in psychology PSI CHI as well as an ad hoc reviewer for dozens of journals and multiple grant-making organizations.
Learn more about the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and its Fellows Program, including a complete list of all-time fellows.