Department of Psychology

Biography:

Keywords: social psychology; political psychology; prejudice and discrimination; socio-political ideologies

Dr. Becky Choma completed her SSHRC-funded PhD in social psychology from Brock University in 2008. From 2008 to 2010 she completed a SSHRC-funded postdoctoral fellowship at York University and Wilfrid Laurier University. Before joining Ryerson in 2013, she was an assistant professor in the School of Psychology at Plymouth University in the UK from 2010 to 2013.

Her research spans social, political, justice, and personality psychology. Generally, she is interested in the psychology of tolerance and intolerance. Dr. Choma explores sociopolitical beliefs that are linked with tolerance/intolerance including prejudicial attitudes and ideologies like right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and right- (vs. left) wing ideology. For example, she has studied the psychological underpinnings of political liberalism, and well-being correlates of political ideology. Her current research in this area is investigating the relation between sociopolitical orientations and threat and risk. Dr. Choma is also interested in prejudice and discrimination more narrowly. For example, she studies consequences of perceiving prejudice and discrimination for well-being and collective action; her work in this area has focused primarily on how women respond to sexism, including self-objectification. Dr. Choma is also interested in prejudice reduction. Recently, she has been exploring ‘intergroup disgust sensitivity’ as a key factor in understanding intergroup prejudices like Islamophobia.

Dr. Becky Choma’s teaching interests include the History and Theory of Psychology, Social Psychology, and Research Methods and Statistics.

Selected Publications:

Weissflog, M. J., Choma, B. L., van Noordt, S. J. R., & Dywan, J., & Segalowitz, S. (accepted). The Political (and Physiological) Divide: Political Orientation, Performance Monitoring, and the Anterior Cingulate Responses. Social Neuroscience.

MacInnis, C. C., Busseri, M. B., Choma, B. L., & Hodson, G. (in press). The happy cyclist: Examining the association between generalized authoritarianism and subjective well-being. Journal of Research in Personality.

Choma, B. L., Hanoch, Y., Gummerum, M., & Hodson, G. (2013). Relations between Risk Perceptions and Socio-Political Ideology are Domain- and Ideology- Dependent. Personality and Individual Differences, 54, 29-34.

Busseri, M. B., Malinowski, A., & Choma, B. L. (2013). Are dispositional optimists uniquely oriented toward the future? Investigating dispositional optimism from a temporally-expanded perspective. Journal of Research in Personality, 47, 533-538.

Hodson, G., Choma, B, L., Boisvert, J., Hafer, C. L., MacInnis, C., & Costello, K. (2013). The role of intergroup disgust in predicting outgroup prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 195-205.

Choma, B. L., Busseri, M. B., & Sadava, S. W. (2012). Deciphering Subjective Trajectories for Life Satisfaction Using Self-versus-Normative Other Discrepancies, Self-esteem, and Hope. European Journal of Personality.

Choma, B. L., Hafer, C. L., Dywan, J., Segalowitz, S. J., & Busseri, M. A. (2012). Political liberalism and political conservatism: Functionally independent? Personality and Individual Differences, 53, 431-436.

Choma, B. L., Hafer, C. L., Crosby, F., & Foster, M. D. (2012). Perceptions of personal sex discrimination: The role of belief in a just world and discrimination against one’s group. Journal of Social Psychology, 152, 568-585.

Choma, B. L., Hodson, G., & Costello, K. (2012). Intergroup Disgust Sensitivity as a predictor of Islamophobia: The modulating effect of fear. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 499-506.

Busseri, M. A., Choma, B. L., & Sadava, S. W. (2012). Subjective temporal trajectories for subjective well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7, 1-15.

Choma, B. L., Visser, B. A., Pozzebon, J. A., Bogaert, A. F., Busseri, M. A., & Sadava, S. W. (2010). Self-objectification, self-esteem, and gender: Testing a moderated mediation model. Sex Roles, 63, 645-656. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9829-8.

Choma, B. L., Ashton, M. C., & Hafer, C. L. (2010). Conceptualizing political orientation among Canadian political candidates: A tale of two (correlated) dimensions. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 42, 24-33. doi:10.1037/a0015650.

Choma, B. L., & Hafer, C. L. (2009). Understanding the relation between explicitly and implicitly measured political orientation: The moderating role of political sophistication. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 964-967. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.07.024.

Choma, B. L., Shove, C., Busseri, M. A., Sadava, S. W., & Hosker, A. (2009). Assessing the role of body image coping strategies as mediators or moderators of the links between self-objectification, body shame, and well-being. Sex Roles, 61, 699-713. doi:10.1007/s11 199-009-9666-9.

Hodson, G., Choma, B. L., & Costello, K. (2009). Experiencing alien-nation: Effects of a simulation intervention on attitudes toward homosexuals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 974-978.

Choma, B. L., Busseri, M. A., & Sadava, S. W. (2009). Liberal and conservative political ideologies: Different routes to happiness? Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 502-505.

Busseri, M. A., Choma, B. L., & Sadava, S. W. (2009). “As good as it gets” or “The best is yet to come?” How optimists and pessimists view their past, present, and anticipated future life satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 352-356.

Busseri, M. A., Choma, B. L., & Sadava, S. W. (2009). Functional or fantasy? Examining the implications of subjective temporal perspective “trajectories” for life satisfaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 295-308.

Dywan, J., Mathewson, K., Choma, B. L., Rosenfeld, B., & Segalowitz, S. (2008). Autonomic and electrophysiological correlates of emotional intensity in older and younger adults. Psychophysiology, 45, 389-397.

Choma, B. L., Foster, M. D., & Radford, E. (2007). Use of objectification theory to examine the effects of a media literacy intervention on women. Sex Roles, 581-591.