Joanne Wood

Professor of Psychology, University of Waterloo
BA (Wisconsin), MA, PhD (California, Los Angeles)

Contact information

Recipient, 2017, University Professor (a title bestowed by the university to recognize “exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence,” currently held by 16 faculty members)

Recipient, 2015 Outstanding Performance Award

Recipient, 2015 Excellence in Research Award, Faculty of Arts

Recipient, 2007 Outstanding Performance Award

Research interests
My current research focuses on interpersonal interactions and close relationships—in particular, how relationship processes are shaped by personality dimensions and social contexts. For example, my collaborators and I have studied how dispositional self-esteem—-one’s overall feelings about oneself—-affects people’s willingness to reveal themselves to others through self-disclosure, how self-esteem and trait agreeableness interact to influence the negativity of one’s disclosures, and how people in relationships influence each other’s emotions.

Selected publications
Cortes, K. & Wood, J. V. (2019). How was your day? Conveying care, but under the radar, for people lower in trust. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 83, 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.03.003
Cortes, K., & Wood, J. V., & Prince, J. (2019). Repairing one’s mood for the benefit of others: Agreeableness helps motivate low self-esteem people to feel better. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407519840707
Wood J. V. (2018). Wood, Joanne V. In Zeigler-Hill V., Shackelford T. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham [this is an invited autobiographical entry] https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-319-28099-8_1594-1
Cortes, K. & Wood, J. V. (2018). Is it really “all in their heads”? How self-esteem predicts partner responsiveness. Journal of Personality. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12370
Kille, D. R., Eibach, R. P., Wood, J. V., & Holmes, J. G. (2017). Who can't take a compliment? The role of construal level and self-esteem in accepting positive feedback from close others. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 68, 40-49.
McCarthy, M. H., Wood, J.V., & Holmes, J.G. (2017). Dispositional pathways to trust: Self-esteem and agreeableness interact to predict trust and negative emotional disclosure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 95-116.
Wood, J. V. & Forest, A. L. (2016). Self-protective yet self-defeating: The paradox of low self-esteem people's self-disclosures. In J. M. Olson & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 53, 131-181. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
Thagard, P., & Wood, J. V. (2015). Eighty phenomena about the self: Representation, evaluation, regulation, and change. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00334
Forest, A. L., Kille, D. R., Wood, J. V., & Stehouwer, L. R. (2015). Turbulent times, rocky relationships: Relational consequences of experiencing physical instability. Psychological Science, 26(8), 1261–1271. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615586402
Marigold, D., Cavallo, J., Holmes, J.G., & Wood, J.V. (2014). You can't always give what you want: The challenge of providing social support to low self-esteem individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107, 56-80.
Logel, C., Stinson, D.A., Gunn, G., Wood, J.V., Holmes, J.G., & Cameron, J.J. (in press). A little acceptance is good for your health: Interpersonal messages and weight change over time. Personal Relationships.
Forest, A.L., Kille, D.R., Wood, J.V., & Holmes, J.G. (in press). Discount and disengage: How chronic negative expressivity undermines partner responsiveness to negate disclosures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Cameron, J. J., Stinson, D. A., & Wood, J. V. (2013). The bold and the bashful: Self-esteem, gender, and relationship initiation. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4, 685 - 692.
Kille, D. R., Forest, M. L., & Wood, J. V. (2013). Tall, dark, and stable: Embodiment motivates mate selection. Psychological Science, 24, 112 - 114.
Gaucher, D., Wood, J. V., Stinson, D. A., Forest, A. L., Holmes, J. G., & Logel, C. (2012). Perceived regard explains self-esteem differences in expressivity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 1144-1156.
Cavallo, J. V., Holmes, J. G., Fitzsimons, G. M., Murray, S. L., Wood, J. V. (2012). Managing motivational conflict: How self-esteem and executive resources influence self-regulatory responses to risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103, 430-451.
Forest, A. L., & Wood, J. V. (2012). When social networking is not working: Individuals with low self-esteem recognize but do not reap the benefits of self-disclosing on Facebook. Psychological Science. 23, 295–302.
Stinson, D. A., Gaucher, D., Wood, J. V., Reddoch, L., Holmes, J. G, & Little, C. G. (2012). Sex, “lies,” and videotape: Self-esteem and successful presentation of gender roles. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3, 503 - 509.
Forest, A. L. & Wood, J. V. (2011). When partner caring leads to sharing: Expectations of partner responsiveness, self-esteem, and expressing oneself. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 47, 843-848.
Stinson, D. A., Logel, C., Holmes, J. G., Wood, J. V., Forest, A. L., Gaucher, D., Fitzsimons, G., & Kath, J. (2010). The regulatory function of self-esteem: Testing the acceptance and epistemic signaling systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99 (6), 993-1013.
Wood, J. V., Perunovic, W. Q. E., & Lee, J. (2009). Positive thinking: Power for some, peril for others. Psychological Science, 20, 860-866.
Stinson, D. A., Cameron, J. J., Wood, J. V., Gaucher, D., & Holmes, J. G. (2009). Deconstructing the “reign of error:” A risk-regulation account of the self-fulfilling prophecy of acceptance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1165-1178
Wood, J. V., Anthony, D. B., & Foddis, W. F. (2006). Should people with low self-esteem strive for high self-esteem? In M. H. Kernis (Ed.), Self-esteem issues and answers: A source book of current perspectives (pp. 288-296). New York: Psychology Press.
Wood, J. V., Heimpel, S. A., Newby-Clark, I., & Ross, M. (2005). Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory: Self-esteem differences in the experience and anticipation of success. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 764-780.
Wood, J. V., Heimpel, S. A., & Michela, J. L. (2003). Savoring versus dampening: Self-esteem differences in regulating positive affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 566-580.
Heimpel, S. A., Wood, J. V., Marshall, M., & Brown, J. (2002). Do people with low self-esteem really want to feel better?: Self-esteem differences in motivation to repair negative moods. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 128 - 147.
Wood, J. V., Michela, J. L., & Giordano, C. (2000). Downward comparison in everyday life: Reconciling self-enhancement models with the mood-cognition priming model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 563-579.