Shelley Elizabeth Taylor
Personal Information
Born: 1946
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Connecticut College BA Psychology; Yale University PhD Social Psychology 1972
Professional Life
Field of Study: Social Psychology; Author
Institution/Corporation: Harvard University; UCLA; Yale UNiversity
Degrees & Memberships: Member: US National Academy of Sciences (2009) American Philosophical Society (2018) New Haven Women's Liberation Movement American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2003) Institute of Medicine Western Psychological Association Society of Personality & Social Psychology
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 2010 APA Award for Lifetime Contributions to Psychology; 1996 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award APA; 2001 William James Fellow Award Association for Psychological Science (APS); 2019 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award; Donald Campbell Award in Social Psychology
Achievements: known for cognitive miser social cognition social neuroscience health psychology; received an NIH grant in 1981 to receive training in disease processes that ultimately led her to study health & stress and creating Health Psychology field
A leading figure in social cognition & health psychology
Discovered false feedback of one's behavior is accepted as a basis for one's attitudes if it is consistent with pre-existing attitudes
Her 1983 theory of cognitive adaptation states that when someone faces a threatening event, their readjustment centers around finding meaning in their experience, gaining control over the situation, & boosting one's self-esteem; this theory led to her next big topic, positive illusions
She described positive illusions as "rather than perceiving themselves, the world, & the future accurately, most people regard themselves, their circumstances, & the future as considerably more positive than is objectively likely....These illusions are not merely characteristic of human thought, they appear to be adaptive, promoting rather than undermining good mental health"