Jim Blascovich
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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
Research Group or Laboratory:
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Video Gallery
Digital Freedom: Virtual Reality, Avatars, and Multiple Identities
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15:57 Digital Freedom: Virtual Reality, Avatars, and Multiple Identities
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1:51 "Infinite Reality" Trailer
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48:44 Mind, Brain, and Virtual Reality
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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
Jim Blascovich
Department of Psychology
University of California
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9660
United States of America
- Mobile: (805) 570-4136
- Fax: (805) 893-4303