Gail Sahar
Associate Professor of Psychology
Office: Knapton 215
Phone: (508) 286-3686
Fax: (508) 286-3640
Email: gsahar@wheatoncollege.edu
Degrees
Ph.D.,University of California, Los Angeles
B.A., University of Southern California
Main Interests
Social and Political Psychology
Research Interests
Attribution Theory, Ideology, Attitudes
Teaching Interests
Social Psychology, Political Psychology, Research Methods
Other Interests
Cooking, reading, X-country skiing
Student Projects
One honors thesis I supervised examined attributions of responsibility and punishment of a domestic violence perpetrator. We manipulated intoxication of the perpetrator and whether he was an alcoholic or not. We also investigated the effects of gender of the participants and whether they had experience with alcoholism.
Another thesis examined how college students' beliefs about their parents' responsibility for the cause of their divorce related to the students' own views of relationships and marriage.
I also recently worked with a student on the effects of "gendered news frames" on perceptions of male and female politicians.
Selected Publications, Creative Work or Performances
Sahar, G. & Karasawa, K. (2005). Is the personal always political? A cross-cultural analysis of abortion attitudes. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27(4), 285-296.
Zucker, G.S. (1999). Attributional and symbolic predictors of abortion attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 1218-1245..
Graham,S., Weiner, B. & Zucker, G.S. (1997). An attributional analysis of punishment goals and public reactions to O.J. Simpson. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 331-346.
Zucker, G.S. & Weiner, B. (1993). Conservatism and perceptions of poverty: An attributional analysis. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 925-943.