Dr Ken Mavor

Lecturer

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 462056

Email

ken.mavor@st-andrews.ac.uk

Research areas

The nature of our selves and identities 

My research interests revolve around the fluid and complex nature of our personal and social self-categories and identities.  This interest covers a range of levels of analysis including the fundamental cognitive processes of categorisation in social perception, phenomena such as attribution, homogeneity, entitativity, self-complexity, the social categorisation of faces and the multi-faceted nature of social identities.  These core ideas have been explored in several specific contexts including: collective action and social change; religious and political identities and contested social attitudes; self-structure effects on resilience and well-being; and discipline-based social identities and learning approaches in education.  

See more detail about the lab, our projects and activities, here: https://mavorlab.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk

PhD supervision

• Ewan Bottomley
• Heidi Davis
• Brenda Marin
• Aisha Al Sulaiti

Selected publications and performances

• Not just who you are, but who you were before: social identification, identity incompatibility and performance-undermining learning behaviour in higher education

  Smyth, L., Mavor, K. I. & Gray, L., 30 May 2019, In : Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology. Early View

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• A social identity approach to religion: religiosity at the nexus of personal and collective self

  Mavor, K. I. & Ysseldyk, R., 10 Apr 2020, The science of religion, spirituality, and existentialism. Vail III, K. E. & Routlledge, C. (eds.). Academic Press, p. 187-205

  Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding ? Chapter

• Self and social identity in educational contexts

  Mavor, K. I. (ed.), Platow, M. J. (ed.) & Bizumic, B. (ed.), 1 Feb 2017, London; New York: Routledge. 366 p.

  Research output: Book/Report ? Book

• Group interaction as the crucible of social identity formation: a glimpse at the foundations of social identities for collective action

  Thomas, E., McGarty, C. & Mavor, K., 1 Mar 2016, In : Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. 19, 2, p. 137-151

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Beyond prevalence to process: the role of self and identity in medical student well-being

  Mavor, K., McNeill, K. G., Anderson, K., Kerr, A., O'Reilly, E. & Platow, M. J., Apr 2014, In : Medical Education. 48, 4, p. 351-360 10 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Cognitive load privileges memory-based over data-driven processing, not group-level over person-level processing.

  Skorich, D. P. & Mavor, K., Sep 2013, In : British Journal of Social Psychology. 52, 3, p. 469-488 20 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Religion, prejudice, and authoritarianism: Is RWA a boon or bane to the psychology of religion?

  Mavor, K. I., Louis, W. R. & Laythe, B., Mar 2011, In : Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 50, 1, p. 22-43 22 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

See more publications