Jim Blascovich's main research interests include challenge and threat motivation, and social influence within digital immersive virtual environments.

He takes a biopsychosocial approach to understanding the influence of intrapersonal and interpersonal factors on motivation and performance as measured subjectively, behaviorally, and physiologically. His biopsychosocial model specifies differential patterns of cardiovascular responses associated with challenge and threat in motivated performance situations. His research focuses on the application of this model to various social psychological processes including attitudes, social comparison, social facilitation, self-esteem, and stigma.

His work using digital immersive virtual environment technology has demonstrated the effectiveness of this technology for doing social psychological research and has generated a general model of social influence within virtual environments. He has applied and tested his theory within several areas including for example collaborative virtual groups, eyewitness identification, violent game playing, proxemics, and implicit racial attitudes.

Primary Interests:

Communication, Language
Emotion, Mood, Affect
Internet and Virtual Psychology
Interpersonal Processes
Motivation, Goal Setting
Neuroscience, Psychophysiology
Nonverbal Behavior
Organizational Behavior
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Sociology, Social Networks

Communication, Language
Emotion, Mood, Affect
Internet and Virtual Psychology
Interpersonal Processes
Motivation, Goal Setting
Neuroscience, Psychophysiology

Nonverbal Behavior
Organizational Behavior
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Sociology, Social Networks

Research Group or Laboratory:

Research Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior
Interactive Map

Books:

Blascovich, J. & Bailenson, J. (April, 2011). Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Words and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution. New York: Morrow.
Blascovich J., & Katkin, E. S. (Eds.). (1993). Cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress and disease. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Blascovich, J., Mendes, W. B., Vanman, E., & Dickerson, S. (2011). Social psychophysiology for social and personality psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Journal Articles:

Allen, K. M., Blascovich, J., & Mendes, W.B. (2002) Cardiovascular Reactivity and the Presence of Pets, Friends, and Spouses: The Truth about Cats and Dogs. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 727-739.
Bailenson, J., Beall, A.C., Loomis, J., Blascovich, J., & Turk, M.C. (2004). Transformed social interaction: Decoupling representation from behavior and form in collaborative virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 13, 428-441
Blascovich, J., Loomis, J., Beall, A., Swinth, K., Hoyt, C., & Bailenson, J. (2002). Immersive virtual environment technology as a research tool for social psychology. Psychological Inquiry, 13, 103-125.
Blascovich, J. Mendes, W. B., Hunter, S.B. & Lickel, B. , & Kowai-Bell, N. (2001). Perceiver threat in social interactions with stigmatized others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 253-267.
Blascovich, J., Seery, M., Mugridge, C., Weisbuch, M., & Norris, K. (2004). Predicting athletic performance from cardiovascular indicators of challenge and threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 683-688.
Blascovich, J., Spencer, S., Quinn, D., & Steele, C. (2001). African-Americans and high blood pressure: The role of stereotype threat. Psychological Science, 12, 225-229.
Mendes, W.B., Blascovich, J., Lickel, B., & Hunter, S. (2002). Challenge and threat during interactions with White and Black men. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 939-952.
Mendes, W. B., Reis, H.T., Seery, M., & Blascovich, J. (2003). Cardiovascular correlates of emotional disclosure and suppression: Do content and gender context matter. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 771-792.

Other Publications:

Blascovich, J. (2002). Social influence within immersive virtual environments (pp 127-145). In R. Schroeder (Ed.) The social life of avatars. Springer-Verlag.
Blascovich, J. (2000). Psychophysiological methods. In H.T. Reis, H., & C.M. Judd (Eds.). Handbook of research methods in social psychology (pp. 117-137). Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
Blascovich, J., & Mendes, W.B. (2010.). Social Psychophysiology and Embodiment. Handbook of Social Psychology, 5th Edition. New York: Wiley.
Blascovich, J., & Mendes, W. B. (2000). Challenge and threat appraisals: The role of affective cues. In J. Forgas (Ed.) Feeling and Thinking: The Role of Affect in Social Cognition. (pp. 59-82). Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
Blascovich, J., & Tomaka, J. (1996). The biopsychosocial model of arousal regulation. In M. Zanna (Ed.). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 28,(pp. 1-51). New York: Academic Press.

Courses Taught:

Neurobiology of Stress
Social Psychophysiology and Embodiment
Virtual Reality and Behavior

Neurobiology of Stress
Social Psychophysiology and Embodiment

Virtual Reality and Behavior

Jim Blascovich
Department of Psychology
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660
United States

Mobile: (805) 570-4136
Fax: (805) 893-4303