Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ® publishes original papers in all areas of personality and social psychology and emphasizes empirical reports, but may include specialized theoretical, methodological, and review papers.
The journal is divided into three independently edited sections.
Attitudes and Social Cognition addresses all aspects of psychology (e.g., attitudes, cognition, emotion, motivation) that take place in significant micro- and macrolevel social contexts.
Topics include, but are not limited to, attitudes, persuasion, attributions, stereotypes, prejudice, person memory, motivation and self-regulation, communication, social development, cultural processes, and the interplay of moods and emotions with cognition.
We accept papers using traditional social-personality psychology methods. However, we also strongly welcome innovative, theory-driven papers that utilize novel methods (e.g., biological methods, neuroscience, large-scale interventions, social network analyses, or "big data" approaches).
Papers that are driven by such methods may be processed under a new category of "Innovations in Social Psychology" and potentially handled in an expedited fashion (see Editorial published on-line).
All papers will be evaluated with criteria that are consistent with those of the best empirical outlets in social, behavioral, and biological sciences.
Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes focuses on psychological and structural features of interaction in dyads and groups.
Appropriate to this section are papers on the nature and dynamics of interactions and social relationships, including interpersonal attraction, communication, emotion, and relationship development, and on group and organizational processes such as social influence, group decision making and task performance, intergroup relations and aggression, prosocial behavior and other types of social behavior.
Personality Processes and Individual Differences publishes research on all aspects of p