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Research Interests
My intellectual interests lie at the intersection between cultural and psychological. In one direction, I consider the social, cultural and historical grounding of psyche. In the other direction, I consider psychological processes involved in the construction of reality. In terms of empirical research, I have been working on two, broad projects.

1. Cultural grounding of personal relationship:
What does the prominence of "enemyship" in many West African worlds-and a contrasting sense of freedom from personal enemies in mainstream North American worlds-reveal about the Psychology of relationship? This research project addresses this question and applies the theoretical framework that arises from initial research about enemies to investigate other hypotheses about the cultural grounding of personal relationship.

Representative publications associated with this research include these:

Adams, G. (2005). The cultural grounding of personal relationship: Enemyship in North American and West African worlds. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 948-968.

Adams, G., Anderson, S. L., & Adonu, J. K. (2004). The cultural grounding of closeness and intimacy. In D. Mashek & A. Aron (Eds.), The handbook of closeness and intimacy (pp. 321-339). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Adams, G. & Plaut, V. C. (2003). The cultural grounding of personal relationship: Friendship in North American and West African worlds. Personal Relationships, 10, 333-348.

2. Sociocultural approaches to the racism, oppression, and liberation
The basic idea of this research project is to consider how the structure of oppression ultimately lies not in the structure of prejudiced or stereotype-prone brains, but instead in the cultural patterns and collective representations of socially constructed worlds. Among the cultural patterns and collective representations that my research investigates are definitions/perceptions of racism (as individual or systemic phenomenon), constructions of history, and experience of White American identity.

Representative publications associated with this research include these:

Adams, G., O'Brien, L. & Nelson, J. C.. (in press). Perceptions of racism in Hurricane Katrina: A Liberation Psychology analysis. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy.

Adams, G., Fryberg, S., Garcia, D. M., & Delgado-Torres, E. U. (2006). The psychology of engagement with Indigenous identities: A cultural perspective. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 12, 493-508.

Adams, G., Garcia, D., M., Purdie-Vaughns, V., & Steele, C. M. (2006). The detrimental effects of a suggestion of sexism in an instruction situation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 602-615.

Adams, G., Tormala, T. T., & O'Brien, L. T. (2006). The effect of self-affirmation on perceptions of racism. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 616-626.


*indicates co-author who is current or former KU student