Prof John McClure
Professor,
School of Psychology
Phone: 04 463 5233 extn 6047
Email: address
Street Address: Room 621, Easterfield Building, Kelburn Pde, Kelburn Campus
Nearest Fax: 04 463 5402
Qualifications
MA University of Auckland, DPhil Oxford University
Research Interests
I’m especially interested in social judgment; for example, causal attributions (folk psychology); biases such as unrealistic optimism; and risk judgments, and the way these judgments affect helplessness and fatalism. Some current projects are examining:
- How do people weigh up the costs and benefits of different risks and related actions?
- How does a bias like unrealistic optimism affect risk-taking?
- How do we explain other people’s intentional actions (folk psychology)?
- Why people misunderstand the actions of individuals with invisible conditions such as brain injury.
- Factors affecting student motivation.
Professorial Lecture
A simple change in the way we explain things could significantly alter the course of events in our lives, from exam results - to whether or not we survive a disastrous earthquake. Prof. John McClure’s research into decision making and causal attribution has extended psychological theories, contributing to changes in the way NCEA is structured, and assisting our understanding of what increases people’s motivation to prepare for a major earthquake.
"How explanations shape destinies: The psychology of causation"
Air Date: 7/20/2010
Air Time: 4:00 PM NZST
Length: 58 Minutes 9 Seconds