Les Downing
I HAVE RECENTLY FINISHED A COMPLETE VERSION OF MY BOOK: "FRAGILE REALITIES; CONVERSION AND COMMITMENT IN CULTS AND OTHER POWERFUL GROUPS." (click on FILES above for a link to the book). Any feedback will be appreciated. Les Downing
I have been retired since 2006 and am no longer doing research. I am still occasionally working on a book entitled Fragile Realities. I live in Sarasota Fl. and am active in local humanist groups. I am particularly interested in the science/religion controversies and am a fan of Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens, Sanger, and others currently writing on this topic.
I have conducted research in the areas of decision-making, game theory, conflict and conflict resolution, group dynamics, legal issues, environmental influences on interpersonal behavior, attitudes and attributional processes, ingroup/outgroup bias, belief systems and religious conversion, and assorted other topics in the general area of social psychology. My current work is on commitment and conversion processes (I am writing a book called "Fragile Realities: Conversion and Commitment in Cults and Other Powerful Groups").
I am eager to communicate with other social psychologists who have an interest in cults, conversion, and commitment. Please get in touch with me by email at downinll@yahoo.com
Another interest has been in the area of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and has resulted in a major theoretical article published in the International Journal of Selection and Assessment on criterion shaped behavior. This concerns the unforeseen and largely undesirable effects of performance appraisal which is used as a basis for merit pay, promotions, grades, or other important outcomes. In such situations, it is argued, measuring performance badly, which is usually the case, is worse than not measuring it at all.
Read it at this link: http://employees.oneonta.edu/downinll/csbok.htm
Primary Interests:
- Aggression, Conflict, Peace
- Applied Social Psychology
- Causal Attribution
- Group Processes
- Intergroup Relations
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Organizational Behavior
- Research Methods, Assessment
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Other Files
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Fragile Realities: Conversion and Commitment in Cults and Other Powerful Groups
- Linked course: Belief and Commitment in Groups
- Linked course: Cults/Individuals in Groups
- Linked course: Group Dynamics
- Linked course: Social Psychology: Attitudes and Behavior
- Linked course: Social Psychology: Belief and Commitment in Groups
Journal Articles:
- Clary, G., Tesser, A., & Downing, L. L. (1978). Influence of a salient schema on thought induced cognitive change. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1, 39-43.
- Downing, L. L. (1994). Criterion shaped behaviour: Pitfalls of performance appraisal. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 2, 1-21.
- Downing, L. L. (1992). Comment on Gilbert's, "How mental systems believe." American Psychologist, 47, 269-270.
- Downing, L. L. (1975). The prisoner's dilemma game as a problem solving phenomenon: An outcome maximization interpretation. Simulation and Games, 6, 366-391.
- Downing, L. L., & Bothwell, K. H. (1979). Open space schools: Anticipation of peer interaction and development of cooperative interdependence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 478-484.
- Downing, L. L., & Monaco, N. R. (1986). In-group/out-group bias as a function of differential contact and authoritarian personality. Journal of Social Psychology, 126, 445-452.
- Johnson, R. D., & Downing, L. L. (1979). Deindividuation and valence of cues: Effects on prosocial and anti-social behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1532-1538.
- Johnson, R. E., & Downing, L. L. (1976). Attribution of ability as a function of consistency of information across times, entities, and persons: A positivity bias. Psychological Reports, 38, 99-105.
- Pitz, G. F. & Downing, L. L. (1967). Optimal behavior in a decision making task as a function of instructions and payoffs. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73, 549-555.
- Pitz, G. F., Downing, L. L., & Reinhold, H. (1967). Sequential effects in the revision of subjective probabilities. Canadian Journal of Psychology/ Review of Canadian Psychology, 21, 381-393.
- Valenti, A., & Downing, L. L. (1975). Differential effects of jury size on verdicts following deliberation as a function of the apparent guilt of a defendant. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 655-665.
Courses Taught:
- Advanced Topics in Social Psychology
- Belief and Commitment in Groups
- Cults/Individuals in Groups
- Group Dynamics
- Industrial/Organizational Psychology
- Introduction to Social Psychology
- Introductory Psychology
- Learning and Memory
- Social Psychology: Attitudes and Behavior
- Social Psychology: Belief and Commitment in Groups
- Social Psychology: Interpersonal Processes
Les Downing
Department of Psychology
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820
United States of America
- Mobile: (941) 735-2002
- Fax: (607) 436-3753