Amber Gaffney
Associate Professor & Academic Research Graduate Program Coordinator
Dr. Gaffney is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Cal Poly Humboldt and Research Faculty at Claremont Graduate University. She is an experimental social psychologist and earned her PhD in social psychology from the Claremont Graduate University and her undergraduate degree in psychology from Cal Poly Humboldt. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Michael Hogg at Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Gaffney serves serves as an Associate for the Sage journal Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, has served as a special issue editor for the 25th Anniversary of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, and has served as a special issue guest editor for the Leadership Quarterly on Identity Leadership. She is an affiliate member of Social Identity Lab at Claremont Graduate University and of the Group Processes and Leadership Lab at the University of Alberta Alberta Leadership Lab.
Dr. Gaffney's work focuses on the theoretical advancement of the social identity perspective and a social identity model of social influence. She examines how the role of conceptual self-uncertainty in motivating self-categorization and group identification. Her work on influence focuses on how deviant group members, unexpected group members, and minority groups can forge social and societal change. As a result of her interest, her work often focuses on politicized identities.
https://www.humboldtsilab.org/ Dr. Gaffney is a social psychologist whose research focuses on social identity, group processes and social influence. Her current work focuses on how prototypical and non-prototypical group members can create and manage uncertainty to enact social change. She has researched minority influence, group polarization, leadership, and attitude change from a social identity and self-categorization perspective. In addition, her work has examined gender stereotypes and leadership and prejudice toward both outgroup and ingroup members. Because Dr. Gaffney is particularly interested in political identities and changing political ideology, her work often focuses on social and political issues.
Dr. Gaffney teaches by sharing her passion for the study of social issues. She currently teaches social psychology and focuses on teaching both theory and theory development through research and hypothesis generation. As an experimentalist, she teaches experimental and research design in all of her classes to give students a deeper understanding of theory. Her areas of expertise as a social psychologist are in social influence and persuasion, group processes, and self and identity. She is dedicated to providing her students with the tools that they need to be successful in their future careers and to be good members of society. By understanding group processes and social psychology, students can develop an understanding for how people operate in their worlds as well as an appreciation for diversity of thoughts and perspectives.
