I grew up in Ottawa and went to Carleton University in Ottawa from 1970 to 1975, completing an Honours B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in social psychology. While at Carleton, I worked with John Barefoot, John Partington, and Lloyd Strickland. I then went to the University of Waterloo for doctoral studies, where I stayed from 1975 to 1978. I worked with Mark Zanna and Michael Ross, two people who have served as role models for me (and many others). I continue to work with Mark Zanna as a co-organizer of the Ontario Symposium on Personality and Social Psychology – an ongoing series of conferences on various topics in personality and social psychology. I also had some good graduate student colleagues and friends at Waterloo, including Robert Ellis, Linda Whitehead, Robert Ley, Peter Grant, and Shelagh Towson.

In 1978, I was hired at the University of Western Ontario. I began as an Assistant Professor, was promoted in 1984 to Associate Professor, and then became a Full Professor in 1991. I spent a sabbatical year at the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1986-87 (a beautiful place with great social psychology faculty) and have visited other universities for shorter periods of time, but have remained anchored here at Western. I’ve had great colleagues in social psychology (currently Lorne Campbell, Victoria Esses, William Fisher, Bertram Gawronski, Clive Seligman, and Richard Sorrentino). Though they are no longer here at Western, Neil Vidmar and Tory Higgins are previous colleagues who’ve been supportive of my career.

In terms of my scholarly career, one highlight for me has been my editorial service. From 1988 to 1991, I was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality, under the editorship of (the brilliant) Stephen West. I then served as an Associate Editor of the Attitudes and Social Cognition Section of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology from 1994 to 1998, under the direction of (the equally-brilliant) Arie Kruglanski. It was a privilege to serve under these editors and also to read the most recent work of the top researchers in the field.

Another scholarly highlight has been watching my graduate students establish themselves as productive researchers at universities in Canada and elsewhere. Former students of mine who currently are university professors include Carolyn Hafer (Brock University), Douglas Hazlewood (Western Ontario), Leslie Janes (Brescia University College), Gregory Maio (University of Wales at Cardiff), Kimberly Quinn (University of Birmingham), Neal Roese (University of Illinois), and Graeme Haynes (University of Prince Edward Island). To say that these students contributed importantly to any success I have achieved is putting it mildly. I am certain that my current graduate students (Irene Cheung and Paul Conway) will be similarly successful.

I have enjoyed teaching both graduate and undergraduate students. At the graduate level, I have taught Attitudes and Persuasion, Theories in Social Psychology, and the Social Psychology of Justice. At the undergraduate level, I have taught Social Psychology, The Psychology of Persuasion, Social Cognition, Interpersonal Attraction, and Special Topics courses on The Social Psychology of Justice and The Psychology of Humour. I have also co-authored two introductory textbooks on social psychology, a type of writing that I really enjoy. Finally, I have worked with many Honours Psychology students as supervisor of their fourth-year thesis. These experiences have been almost uniformly rewarding, and several of the theses have been included in publications in scientific journals. In addition, numerous of my honours students have gone on to graduate work in social psychology at other universities.