April
26, 2002
Social
Psychologist Phoebe Ellsworth to Lecture April 29
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The
Barbara Reck Hastorf '43 Lecture Fund
Ellsworth's
talk is the inaugural lecture of the Barbara Reck Hastorf
'43 Lecture Fund, which was established in 2001 by Albert
H. Hastorf III to honor his wife on her eightieth birthday.
The fund supports an annual lecture by nationally known
scholars in the social sciences, especially in the fields
of economics and psychology. "I wanted to do something
in honor of my wife at a place she feels strong attachment
to," said Albert Hastorf of Barbara, who studied economics
and sociology at Mount Holyoke. "I also hoped to help
expand student contact with people and ideas at the forefront
of scholarship."
A generous supporter
of the College, Barbara Reck Hastorf '43 is former president
of MHC's California Peninsula Club and is cochair of the
Peninsula Major Gifts Committee. She recently made a campaign
gift to the art building project in memory of her mother,
who was an artist. She also leads fundraising efforts for
the arts and music at Stanford, where her husband was provost
and professor of psychology. The Hastorfs and their daughters,
Elizabeth and Christine, will attend the lecture by Ellsworth,
a former student of Professor Hastorf's at Stanford.
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A fish swims away
from its school. Is it feeling angry, eager to break away from
its group? Or is it sad and lonely, having been rejected by its
companions? What you say about the fish's feelings depends on
your thoughts about individualism and collectivism, which are
valued very differently from culture to culture, says Phoebe C.
Ellsworth, Robert B. Zajonc Collegiate Professor of Psychology
and Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law at the University of Michigan.
Likewise, human emotions will be related to our understanding,
or interpretation, of the situations we encounter, says Ellsworth,
who will present "Emotion and Interpreta-tion" Monday,
April 29, at 4 pm in Mary Woolley Hall's New York Room. The lecture
is sponsored by the Barbara Reck Hastorf '43 Lecture Fund in conjunction
with the Department of Psychology and Education and the Office
of the Dean of Faculty.
Traditionally, many
psychologists have considered emotion as a disruptive force, at
war with "reason," says Ellsworth, who researches and
writes on a variety of topics in social psychology. Modern theorists,
on the other hand, believe that thinking and feeling are interrelated
most of the time. Ellsworth will review current theories of emotion,
focusing on appraisal theory, which proposes that people's emotions
reflect their interpretation of situations and that different
emotional responses within and between cultures can be explained
by differences in interpretation of situations. "How you
feel depends on what you think is happening," Ellsworth explains.
"If people from different cultures or roles appraise a situation
in the same way, they will feel the same emotion. If they feel
different emotions, it is because they have interpreted the situation
differently in one way or another."
Ellsworth received
her bachelor's degree from Radcliffe in 1966 and her doctorate
in social psychology from Stanford University in 1970. Currently
holding a joint appointment at the University of Michigan, she
previously held appointments at Yale University and Stanford.
The recipient of several honors, including membership in the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has served on numerous editorial
boards, review panels, and advisory committees, as well as the
Board of Trustees of the Law and Society Association, the Executive
Board of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the
Board of Trustees of the Russell Sage Foundation.
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