Faculty

Research Interests

Dr. Kulik has long been interested in studying social psychological principles as they bear on health-related issues, including health promotion, coping, emotion, emotional contagion, and medical care delivery. Of particular interest are issues relevant to social comparison processes, social support, stress and affiliation relationships, body image, and sun protection intervention.

Selected Publications

Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). Flashbulb memories. Cognition, 5, 73-99. Reprinted in U. Neisser (Ed.), Memory in its natural context. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1980.

Kulik, J. A. & Mahler, H. I. M. (1989). Social support and recovery from surgery. Health Psychology, 8, 221-238.

Kulik, J. A., Mahler, H.I.M., & Moore, P.J. (1996). Social comparison and affiliation under threat: Effects on recovery from major surgery. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 967-979.

Kulik, J. A., & Gump, B. B. (1997). Affective reactions to social comparison: The effects of relative performance and related attributes information about another person. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 452-468.

Gump, B. & Kulik, J. A. (1997). Stress, affiliation, and emotional contagion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 305-319.

Kulik, J. A., & Mahler, H. I. M. (2000). Social comparison, affiliation, and emotional contagion under threat. In J. Suls and L. Wheeler, (Eds.), Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 295-320). Plenum: New York.

Lin, L. W., & Kulik, J. A. (2002). Social comparison and women’s body satisfaction. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 24, 115-123.

Mahler, H. I. M., & Kulik, J.A. (2002). Effects of a videotape information intervention for spouses on spouse distress and patient recovery from surgery. Health Psychology, 21, 427-437.

Mahler, H.I.M., Kulik, J.A., Gibbons, F.X., Gerrard, M., & Harrell, J. (2003). Effects of appearance-based interventions on sun protection intentions and self-reported behaviors. Health Psychology, 22, 199-209.

Herbst, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 224-229.

Hilmert, C. J., Kulik, J. A., & Christenfeld, N. J. S. (2006). Positive and negative opinion modeling: The influence of another's similarity and dissimilarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 90, 440-452.

Kulik, J. A., & Mahler, H. I. M. (2006). Marital quality predicts hospital stay following coronary artery bypass surgery for women but not men. Social Science & Medicine, 63, 2031-2040.