Together, the students, faculty, and staff of the Department of Psychology at the University of Manitoba have developed an outstanding learning and research environment. The Department of Psychology at The University of Manitoba intends to maintain and enhance its status as a premier department in the behavioural and social sciences by continuing its excellence in research, teaching, and service. In particular, we will expand on our significant intellectual and practical contributions to the faculty, university, and general community.

Jacquie Vorauer

Dr. Vorauer obtained her PhD in social psychology from the University of Waterloo in 1993. After doing post-doctoral work at Princeton University, Dr. Vorauer came to the University of Manitoba in 1994, where she is now a professor in the Department of Psychology.

The research in Dr. Vorauer’s lab focuses on how concerns about evaluation can disrupt intergroup interaction and pose problems for intergroup relations. Dr. Vorauer typically works together with a number of graduate and undergraduate honours students. Their studies involve staging real or ostensible interactions between members of different groups, and examining the factors that affect the quality of these interactions.  Although their studies focus primarily on relations between members of different ethnic groups, on a theoretical level their analysis applies to any kind of group membership (e.g., involving sexual orientation, gender, age). The basic idea guiding their work is that individuals’ worries about how they might be viewed by outgroup members can lead them to be disinclined to fully engage in intergroup interaction (which then contributes to subtle discrimination in the form of exclusion from important employment and social settings), or to behave in an inhibited and difficult-to-read manner when they do (which then contributes to miscommunications across group boundaries). Most recently, Dr. Vorauer and her students have been trying to identify ways of reducing  individuals’ concerns about evaluation in intergroup exchanges. Their research suggests that approaches such as increasing empathy may often backfire when applied in actual interaction situations, by virtue of increasing evaluative concerns (when individuals adopt an outgroup member’s perspective they b ecome preoccupied with how they themselves appear). In contrast, rendering intergroup ideologies such as multiculturalism salient may be helpful, by virtue of diverting individuals away from focusing on themselves toward learning about outgroup members.

Maria Medved

Broadly, Dr. Medved’s research emphasizes the human right to health. Dr. Medved’s research focuses on individuals whose voices and perspectives are often ignored or neglected in healthcare – ranging from First Nations people, people with cognitive impairments, people with developmental disabilities, and, in general, all patients who have to cope with institutions of health.

Dr. Medved is particularly interested in

• how disabled/ill people’s experiences can facilitate social justice and change
• the right of patients to participate in medical decision-making as an equal partner
• the right of full personhood, especially, of persons with brain injury and suffering  from conditions of illness and disability.

Dr. Medved is engaged in interdisciplinary university research collaborations that are committed to these human rights issues in relation to health, such as collaborations with colleagues in Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, Nursing, and Human Ecology. Her community partners include First Nation Communities, Manitoba Brain Injury Association, and the Burn Survivor Group

Ed Johnson

Dr. Johnson’s research (and clinical supervision) is relevant to human rights insofar as the basic capacity of an individual to pursue her or his interests, and to freely express his or her beliefs and desires is dependent in part on having the psychological security to do so. Dr. Johnson’s current research on means of alleviating feelings of shame can be seen in this light as helping to establish the psychological conditions needed for people to exercise or assert their rights when they have been blocked by feelings of shame. Insofar as the roots of shame often have their basis in cultural beliefs and practices that are discriminatory, there is a social as well as a personal/clinical dimension to this work.

Janine Montgomery

Dr. Montgomery’s main research and clinical focus is autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).  She conducts research, does clinical work with, and advocates for individuals with ASDs and other exceptionalities (disabilities). An underlying theme in her research, advocacy (service), and clinical work is directly related to basic human rights. Individuals with 'exceptionalities' (or individuals with disabilities) may be marginalized by societies and systems, particularly when their diverse needs and characteristics are misunderstood by the general public.  The  stigma of diagnostic labels may be an aspect that impacts an individual's perception of their own abilities and how others perceive the person and their needs.  Individuals who are on the 'autism spectrum' often encounter discrimination reflecting  misunderstandings about their capabilities that impact their: access to education, basic living conditions, safety, and opportunities to contribute to communities in meaningful ways. Moreover, many individuals (particularly adults) with more subtle impairments may not be able to access appropriate health care, such as assessment and diagnostic services and/or direct therapy, which directly impacts their overall quality of life and well-being. While some individuals are able to advocate for themselves, not all are and so it is critical to ensure these individuals have access to appropriate resources, regardless of their own abilities to self advocate. Dr. Montgomery's service and research work focuses on increasing public awareness of issues encountered by those with ASDs to facilitate acceptance and inclusion, remove barriers, and increase opportunities for individuals to meaningfully contribute to society.

Gerry Sande

Gerry Sande and Kathleen Fortune, along with some undergrad students, are conducting research into attitudes towards gay people (beliefs about the causes of sexual orientation, support for gay rights, etc.).  Jason Leboe is collaborating on one of the studies.