Social Psychology Network

Maintained by Scott Plous, Wesleyan University

Armand Chatard

Armand Chatard

  • Media Contact
  • SPN Mentor

I am trained as an experimental social psychologist at Geneva University where I received my PhD in 2005 and worked as a Lecturer for a few years. Since 2011 I have been a Full Professor in Social Psychology at Poitiers University. My research focuses on several aspects of social cognition including the self, comparison processes, and the regulation of negative thoughts and emotions. One of my primary lines of research centers on understanding how negative beliefs and expectations (group stereotypes) bias self-evaluation and autobiographical memories. In a related line of work, my colleagues and I examine how the various forms of comparison that individuals explicitly or implicitly engage in shape their cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. This includes comparisons with other individuals (social comparisons), but also mental comparisons between the self and internalized standards (that is, between the actual and the ideal self). Finally, from the perspective of terror management theory, I study how individuals deal with negative thoughts and emotions.

One recent discovery in my research program concerns the direct causal link between failure (negative comparison between the self and the standards) and suicide thought accessibility (Chatard & Selimbegovic, 2011). In several studies, we found that when (normal) individuals realize that they fall short of an important standard, they often show increased accessibility of suicide-related thoughts. Our work suggests that this occurs because failure triggers the goal to escape from self.

Primary Interests:

  • Prejudice and Stereotyping
  • Research Methods, Assessment
  • Self and Identity
  • Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Note from the Network: The holder of this profile has certified having all necessary rights, licenses, and authorization to post the files listed below. Visitors are welcome to copy or use any files for noncommercial or journalistic purposes provided they credit the profile holder and cite this page as the source.

Image Gallery

Journal Articles:

Courses Taught:

  • Emotion Regulation
  • Experimental Existential Psychology
  • Experimental Method
  • Introduction to Social Psychology and Social Cognition
  • Self-Affirmation Theory

Armand Chatard
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage
UMR CNRS 7295 Université de Poitiers
Bâtiment A5, 5 rue Théodore Lefebvre
86000 Poitiers
France

Send a message to Armand Chatard

Note: You will be emailed a copy of your message.

Psychology Headlines

From Around the World

News Feed (35,797 subscribers)