Social Psychology Network

Maintained by Scott Plous, Wesleyan University

Mark Seery

Mark Seery

On the broadest level, I study stress and coping. Potentially stressful situations — for example, test taking, interviewing for a job, competing against others, approaching potential romantic partners, and public speaking — can represent some of the most important moments that people face in life. Situations that may appear to be similar, however, can be experienced quite differently by different individuals. A central question that guides my work is: What factors contribute to resilience versus vulnerability to potential stressors?

In my current research, I focus on three core topics: (1) examining when and how high self-esteem serves as a resource versus a vulnerability, and the associated consequences for potentially destructive behavior; (2) investigating how past experience of adverse life events can contribute to developing a propensity for future resilience; and (3) exploring the role of individuals’ relationships with other people and entities (e.g., romantic partners, things that inspire awe) in resilience versus vulnerability. The research conducted in my laboratory incorporates a range of methodological approaches, including theoretically based psychophysiological measures. Funding from the National Science Foundation has supported this work.

Primary Interests:

  • Health Psychology
  • Interpersonal Processes
  • Motivation, Goal Setting
  • Neuroscience, Psychophysiology
  • Personality, Individual Differences
  • Self and Identity

Journal Articles:

  • Kondrak, C. L., Seery, M. D., Gabriel, S., & Lupien, S. P. (2017). What’s good for me depends on what I see in you: Intimacy avoidance and resources derived from close others. Self and Identity, 16, 557-579.
  • Lamarche, V. M., & Seery, M. D. (2019). Come on, give it to me baby: Self-esteem, narcissism, and endorsing sexual coercion following social rejection. Personality and Individual Differences, 149, 315-325.
  • Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., Kondrak, C. L., Saltsman, T. L., & Streamer, L. (in press). Clever girl: Benevolent sexism and cardiovascular threat. Biological Psychology.
  • Le, P. Q., Saltsman, T. L., Seery, M. D., Ward, D. E., Kondrak, C. L., & Lamarche, V. M. (2019). When a small self means manageable obstacles: Spontaneous self-distancing predicts divergent effects of awe during a subsequent performance stressor. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 80, 59-66.
  • Lupien, S. P., Seery, M. D., & Almonte, J. L. (2012). Unstable high self-esteem and the eliciting conditions of self-doubt. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 762-765.
  • Murray, S. L., Lamarche, V., Gomillion, S., Seery, M. D., & Kondrak, C. L. (2017). In defense of commitment: The curative power of violated expectations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 697-729.
  • Murray, S. L., Lamarche, V., & Seery, M. D. (2018). Romantic relationships as shared reality defense. Current Opinion in Psychology, 23, 34-37.
  • Murray, S. L., Lupien, S. P., & Seery, M. D. (2012). Resilience in the face of romantic rejection: The automatic impulse to trust. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 845-854.
  • Murray, S. L., Seery, M. D., Lamarche, V. M., Kondrak, C., & Gomillion, S. (2019). Implicitly imprinting the past on the present: Automatic partner attitudes and the transition to parenthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116, 69-100.
  • Saltsman, T. L., Seery, M. D., Kondrak, C. L., Lamarche, V. M., & Streamer, L. (2019). Too many fish in the sea: A motivational examination of the choice overload experience. Biological Psychology, 145, 17-30.
  • Seery, M. D. (2013). The biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat: Using the heart to measure the mind. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7, 637-653.
  • Seery, M. D. (2011). Challenge or threat? Cardiovascular indexes of resilience and vulnerability to potential stress in humans. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 1603-1610.
  • Seery, M. D. (2011). Resilience: A silver lining to experiencing adverse life events? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 390-394.
  • Seery, M. D., Blascovich, J., Weisbuch, M., & Vick, S. B. (2004). The relationship between self-esteem level, self-esteem stability, and cardiovascular reactions to performance feedback. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 133-145.
  • Seery, M. D., Gabriel, S., Lupien, S. P., & Shimizu, M. (2016). Alone against the group: A unanimously disagreeing group leads to conformity, but cardiovascular threat depends on one's goals. Psychophysiology, 53, 1263-1271.
  • Seery, M. D., Holman, E. A., & Silver, R. C. (2010). Whatever does not kill us: Cumulative lifetime adversity, vulnerability, and resilience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 1025-1041.
  • Seery, M. D., Kondrak, C. L., Streamer, L., Saltsman, T., & Lamarche, V. M. (2016). Preejection period can be calculated using R peak instead of Q. Psychophysiology, 53, 1232-1240.
  • Seery, M. D., Leo, R. J., Holman, E. A., & Silver, R. C. (2010). Lifetime exposure to adversity predicts functional impairment and healthcare utilization among individuals with chronic back pain. Pain, 150, 507-515.
  • Seery, M. D., Leo, R. J., Lupien, S. P., Kondrak, C. L., & Almonte, J. L. (2013). An upside to adversity? Moderate cumulative lifetime adversity is associated with resilient responses in the face of controlled stressors. Psychological Science, 24, 1181-1189.
  • Seery, M. D., & Quinton, W. J. (2015). Targeting prejudice: Personal self-esteem as a resource for Asians’ attributions to racial discrimination. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6, 677-684.
  • Smallets, S. A. M., Streamer, L., Kondrak, C. L., & Seery, M. D. (2016). Bringing you down versus bringing me up: Discrepant versus congruent high explicit self-esteem differentially predict malicious and benign envy. Personality and Individual Differences, 94, 173-179.
  • Streamer, L., & Seery, M. D. (2015). Who am I? The interactive effect of early family experiences and self-esteem in predicting self-clarity. Personality and Individual Differences, 77, 18-21.
  • Streamer, L., Seery, M. D., Kondrak, C. L., Lamarche, V. M., & Saltsman, T. (2017). Not I, but she: The beneficial effects of self-distancing on challenge/threat cardiovascular responses. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 235-241.

Other Publications:

  • Seery, M. D., & Quinton, W. J. (2016). Understanding resilience: From negative life events to everyday stressors. In J. M. Olson & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 54, pp. 181-245). Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

Courses Taught:

  • Mind-Body Connection in a Social World
  • Social Psychology
  • Social Psychophysiology

Mark Seery
Department of Psychology
University at Buffalo
Park Hall
Buffalo, New York 14260-4110
United States of America

  • Phone: (716) 645-0239
  • Fax: (716) 645-3801

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