Chris Sibley

Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 88353
Email: c.sibley@auckland.ac.nz
Room: HSB 526

I am a senior lecturer in social psychology. I teach in courses relating to social psychology and research methods. I completed my PhD in 2005 at Victoria University of Wellington. I’ve published over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, primarily on intergroup relations, prejudice and personality. In 2010 I was awarded an Early Career Research Excellence Award by The University of Auckland for my research on the causes and outcomes of prejudice and discrimination. I am the lead researcher for the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study. This is a representative longitudinal study that assesses change and stability in the personality, social attitudes, and values of roughly 6500 New Zealanders each year, and running the study keeps me fairly busy.

Interested in a PhD working with me? Please feel free to contact me if you are interesting in pursuing a PhD with me, and would like to discuss possible areas of supervision in social psychology, personality, health and wellbeing, or environmental psychology. PhD students working with me will also have the opportunity to be involved with the New Zealand Attitudes and Values study, and to analyse nationally representative and longitudinal data from this study as part of their thesis.

Read more about the New Zealand Attitudes and Values study

Read more about my general research interests and areas of supervision

Read more about the Social Psychology Postgraduate Programme

Read more about the NZAVS Graduate Lab Group

Supplementary materials and worked examples of various analyses in Mplus

My research focuses on modelling longitudinal change using data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study. The topics I study include research on the causes and expression of sexist and racist beliefs, the effects of experiences of different types of discrimination on subjective wellbeing and psychological adjustment, and the personality and situational factors that predict prejudice and discrimination more generally. I am particularly interested in modeling change in ideology and intergroup attitudes over time. I also have a strong interest in research methods, and have expertise in techniques such as multilevel random coefficient modeling, structural equation modeling, latent growth modeling, latent class analysis, item response theory and meta-analysis. From time to time I run workshops teaching these methods.

Another of my long-term goals is the development of theories that will help us to better understand the psychology of intergroup relations in New Zealand’s unique socio-political context. I have conducted a number of studies relating to this goal, including research on attitudes toward the symbolic and resource-specific aspects of biculturalism, research on how beliefs about history shape support for certain types of social policy over time, research on the content of NZ identity and how we emphasize certain aspects of national character depending upon context, research examining the core values that are (or are not) automatically associated with the NZ flag and other national symbols, research on how different ethnic groups residing in NZ are stereotyped depending upon their social position, and research assessing automatic and non-conscious beliefs about who ‘we’ think belongs in NZ (and why). Although I am happy to supervise thesis topics relating to any of my research interests, I am particularly enthusiastic about supervising research that focuses on topical issues relevant to intergroup relations in New Zealand.

Additional information about some of my current research interests

The following excel files contain utilities that I have written for conducting a variety of statistical analyses typically used in social science research. The first spreadsheet contains tabs for calculating simple slopes and associated parameters for two-way and three-way moderated linear regression interactions between continuous and categorical predictors, two-way curvilinear interactions, and lower level random indirect effects in multilevel random coefficient models. The second spreadsheet contains tabs for calculating fixed and random effects meta-analytic averages of mean differences and correlation coefficients, as well as a number of useful ancillary analyses.

• Sibley, C. G., & Liu, J. H. (in press). Relocating attitudes as components of representational profiles: mapping the epidemiology of intergroup policy attitudes using Latent Class Analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology.
• Sibley, C. G., & Bulbulia, J. (2012). Faith after an earthquake: a longitudinal study of religion and perceived health before and after the 2011 Christchurch New Zealand earthquake. PLoS ONE, 7, e49648. Read the abstract.
• Sibley, C. G., Osborne, D., & Duckitt, J. (2012). Personality and political orientation: meta-analysis and test of a threat-constraint model. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 664-677.  Read the abstract.
• Sibley, C. G., & Becker, J. C. (2012). On the nature of sexist ambivalence: profiling ambivalent and univalent sexists. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 589-601. Read the abstract.
• Sibley, C. G., & Overall, N. C. (2011). A dual-process motivational model of ambivalent sexism and gender differences in romantic partner preferences. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35, 303-317. Read the abstract.
• Sibley, C. G., & Duckitt, J. (2008). Personality and prejudice: A meta-analysis and theoretical review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12, 248-279. Read the abstract.