School of Psychology

I joined the School of Psychology in 2009 as a lecturer.  Prior to this, I have been employed at University of Nottingham as a post-doctoral research fellow and the University of Bristol as a research assistant.  I have also spent a year out of academia teaching English in JapanI completed my degree in psychology from University of Southampton in 2000 and stayed on to do a PhD which I completed in 2004

My current research interests centre on reputations; in particular, how individuals reconcile the disparate (and possibly conflicting) information they hear from multiple sources into a coherent understanding of a target’s reputation, and how this then influences their behaviour towards that target.  In this work, I examine how various factors such as status, experience, knowledge, or social identity might weight information and skew the reputation of a target and the willingness an individual has to work with them.

I am also interested in group processes, and in the acquisition of new members to groups.  In my PhD work, I have examined how groups react to new members, and the criteria that must be fulfilled before groups will grant potential members entry.  I will expand on this work in future studies by looking at Internet based groups, and the extent to which they welcome or prohibit newcomers from joining.

• Stiff, C. (submitted) The availability of self-control resources influences the assessment of a candidate for interaction’s reputation.  European Journal of Social Psychology. 
• Stiff, C. (submitted).  Careless fingers cost buys: How errors in an online shop’s feedback comments influence assessments of its reputation.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology
• Hagger, M., Stiff, C., & Wood, C. W. (submitted).  Ego-depletion and the strength-energy model of self control: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin.
• Hagger, M., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. (in press).  The strength model of self-regulation failure and health-related behaviour.  Health Psychology Review. 
• Hagger, M., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. (in press). Self-regulation and self-control in exercise: The strength-energy model.  International Review of Sports and Exercise Psychology. 
• McLachlan, S., Keatley, D., Stiff, C., & Hagger, M. (in press).  Shame: A self-determination perspective.  In F. Columbus (Ed.), The Psychology of Shame.  Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
• Stiff, C. (2008).  Are they bothered?  How the opportunity to damage a partner’s reputation influences giving behavior in a trust game.  Journal of Social Psychology, 148, 609-630.
• Stiff, C. & Van Vugt, M. (2008).  The power of reputations: The role of third-party information in the admission of new group members.  Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 12, 155-166.
• Crawford, M. T., Skowronski, J. J., Stiff, C., & Leonards, U. (2008). Seeing but not thinking: Limiting spontaneous trait transference II. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 840-847.
• Crawford, M. T., Skowronski, J. J., & Stiff, C. (2007). Limiting the spread of spontaneous trait transference. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 466-472.
• Crawford, M. T., Skowronski, J. J., Stiff, C., & Scherer, C. R. (2007). Interfering with inferential, but not associative, processes underlying spontaneous trait inference. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 677-690.

Year 1

• 1k15 – Research Methods 1
• 1k18 – Individuals and Society 1

Year 2 

• 2k12 – Developmental and Social Psychology
• 2k13 – Survey and Qualitative Methods

Year 3

• 3k61 – Final Year Project