Department of Psychology

Kristine Kelly

Kristine M. Kelly, Ph.D.

Professor

Education

Dr. Kelly studied at California State University—Sacramento, majoring in psychology. She received her Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Tennessee. Her dissertation was titled, “Measurement and Manifestation of the Need to Belong.”

Teaching Areas

Dr. Kelly regularly teaches Human Social Behavior (PSY250), Advanced Social Psychology (PSY452), Research in Psychology II: Research Methods (PSY323), and various graduate courses.

Research Interests

Dr. Kelly’s research interests center around the formation, maintenance, and termination of interpersonal relationships. In her Interpersonal Relationships Lab, she enjoys working with both graduate and undergraduate students. Much of the lab’s research involves the need to belong and social rejection. She also has specific research interests in mate selection, children of divorce, and father-child relationships.

Select Publications

Reeve, S. D., Kelly, K. M., & Welling, L. M. (2017). The effect of mate value feedback on women's mating aspirations and mate preference. Personality and Individual Differences, 115, 77-82.

Reeve, S. D., Kelly, K. M., & Welling, L. M. (2016). Transitory environmental threat alters sexually dimorphic mate preferences and sexual strategy. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 2, 101-113.

Hitlan, R. T., Zarate, M. A., Kelly, K. M., & DeSoto, M. C. (2015). Linguistic ostracism causes prejudice: Support for a serial mediation effect. Journal of Social Psychology, 156, 422-436.

Strom, D., Sears, K. L., & Kelly, K. M. (2014). Work engagement: The roles of organizational justice and leadership style in predicting engagement among employees. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 21, 71-82.

Leary, M. R., Kelly, K. M., Cottrell, C. A., & Schreindorfer, L. S. (2013). Construct validity of the Need to Belong Scale: Mapping the nomological network. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95, 610-624.

Select Conference Papers

Bardmass, M. & Kelly, K. M. (2022, April). Are COVID-19 and death equivalent from a Terror Management perspective? Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Richmond, B. S. & Kelly, K. M. (2022, February). The White Fragility Scale: A measure of White stereotype threat. Poster presented the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Francisco, CA.

Richmond, B. S. & Kelly, K. M. (2021, October). A personality model of White fragility. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists.

Glad, J., Bardmass, M., & Kelly, K. M. (2021, April). Mortality salience, ego depletion, and frivolous spending. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Richmond, B., Sotola, L., Kelly, K., Glad, J., & Gaston, M. (2020, May). Predicting racial system justification in Whites and minorities. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago.

Sotola, L., Glad, J., Richmond, B., & Kelly, K. (2020, April). The disillusioned youth: Middle-aged people do not show a worldview of disillusion. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Watson, L. & Kelly, K. M. (2019, August). Girl power: The influence of women’s judgments on other women’s perceptions of attractiveness. Poster presented at the FOSSIL Conference, Stillwater, OK.

Sotola, L. & Kelly, K. M. (2019, April). A worldview of disillusion: Mortality salience decreases intention to vote. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Sotola, L. & Kelly, K. M. (2019, April). Thinking of comfort food reduces system justification in conservatives. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Waters, M., Kelly, K. M., & Steele, A. (2019, April ). Resistance to peer influence after social ostracism. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Watson, L., Bradshaw, H., Kelly, K. M., & Jackson, T. (2019, April).; Friend or foe? Women’s life history strategies and same-sex friendships. Oral paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Sotola, L., Fullerton, E., Watson, L., & Kelly, K. M. (2018, April). Rejection leads to defense of the status quo Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Lebed, O. & Kelly, K. M. (2018, March). Gender differences in the effect of social exclusion on prejudice. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston.

Reeve, S. D., Kelly, K. M., & Welling, L. M. (2017) The effect of mate value feedback on women's mating aspirations and mate preference. Personality and Individual Differences, 115, 77-82.

Reeve, S. D., Kelly, K. M., & Welling, L. M. (2016). Transitory environmental threat alters sexually dimorphic mate preferences and sexual strategy. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 2, 101-113.