My research interests span social, political, applied, and clinical contexts to address questions about gender, social justice, social change, and health. I am interested in identifying the contextual factors that motivate people to rationalize and accept harmful social practices in both direct and indirect ways, and how these rationalizations work to promote system entrenchment or system change. In particular, I have examined the role of legitimizing ideologies, self-objectification, gender dynamics, epistemic motives, paradoxical responses to threat, and mindfulness interventions in relation to social equality and justice concerns.

Primary Interests:

Applied Social Psychology
Gender Psychology
Intergroup Relations
Motivation, Goal Setting
Political Psychology
Self and Identity
Social Cognition

Applied Social Psychology
Gender Psychology
Intergroup Relations
Motivation, Goal Setting

Political Psychology
Self and Identity
Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Calogero Laboratory
Interactive Map

Books:

Calogero, R. M., Tantleff-Dunn, S., & Thompson, J. K. (2011). Self-objectification in women: Causes, consequences, and counteractions. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Journal Articles:

Bardi, A., Calogero, R. M., & Mullen, B. (2008). A new archival approach to the study of values and value-behavior relations: Validation of the value lexicon. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 483-497.
Calogero, R. M. (2013). Objects don’t object: Evidence that self-objectification disrupts women’s social activism. Psychological Science.
Calogero, R. M. (2009). Objectification processes and disordered eating in British women and men. Journal of Health Psychology, 14, 394-402.
Calogero, R. M. (2004). A test of objectification theory: Effect of the male gaze on appearance concerns in college women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 16-21.
Calogero, R. M., Bardi, A., & Sutton, R. M. (2009). Needing values: Associations between the need for cognitive closure and people’s value priorities. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 154-159.
Calogero, R. M., Herbozo, S., & Thompson, J. K. (2009). Complimentary weightism: The potential costs of appearance-related commentary for women’s self-objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33, 120-132.
Calogero, R. M., & Jost, J. T. (2011). Self-subjugation among women: Sexist ideology, self-objectification, and the buffering function of the need to avoid closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 211-228.
Calogero, R. M. & Mullen, B. (2008). About face: Facial prominence of George W. Bush in political cartoons as a function of war. The Leadership Quarterly, 19, 107-116.
Calogero, R. M., Park. L. E., Rahemtulla, Z. K., & Williams, K. C. D. (2010). Predicting excessive body image concerns among British university students: The unique role of appearance-based rejection sensitivity. Body Image, 7, 78-81.
Calogero, R. M. & Pedrotty, K. N. (2004). The practice and process of healthy exercise: An investigation of the treatment of exercise abuse in women with eating disorders. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 12, 273-291.
Calogero, R. M., & Pina, A. (2011). Body guilt: Preliminary evidence for a further subjective experience of self-objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35, 428-440.
Calogero, R. M. & Thompson, J. K. (2009). Potential implications of the objectification of women’s bodies for women’s sexual satisfaction. Body Image, 6, 145-148.
Calogero, R. M. & Watson, N. (2009). Self-discrepancy and chronic social self-consciousness: Unique and interactive effects of gender and real-ought discrepancy. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 642-647.
Mond, J. M., & Calogero, R. M. (2009). Excessive exercise in eating disorder patients and in healthy women. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43, 227-234.

Other Publications:

Calogero, R. M. (in press). On objects and actions: Situating self-objectification in a system justification context. In S. Gervais (Ed.), Nebraska Motivation Symposium: Vol. 60. Perspectives on motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Calogero, R. M. (2012). Objectification theory, self-objectification, and body image. In T. F. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance (Vol.2, pp. 574-580). San Diego: Academic Press.
Calogero, R. M., Boroughs, M., & Thompson, J. K. (2007). The impact of Western beauty ideals on the lives of women and men: A sociocultural perspective. In V. Swami & A. Furnham (Eds.), Body beautiful: Evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives (pp. 259-298). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Calogero, R. M., & Pedrotty, K. N. (2010). Incorporating exercise into the treatment and recovery of eating disorders: Cultivating a mindful approach. In M.Maine, D. Bunnell, & B. H. McGilley (Eds.), Treatment of eating disorders: Bridging the research-practice gap (pp. 425-441). New York: Elsevier.
Calogero, R. M., & Pedrotty, K. N. (2007). Daily practices for mindful exercise. In L. L'Abate, D. Embry, & M. Baggett (Eds.), Handbook of low-cost preventive interventions for physical and mental health: Theory, research, and practice (pp.141-160). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Rachel M. Calogero
School of Psychology
Keynes College
University of Kent
Canterbury CT2 7NP
United Kingdom

Mobile: +1 757 646 4418