Joseph D. Wellman

Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of Experimental Training

• Faculty
• Instructor

• Email:

  Wellman@olemiss.edu

• Office Location:

  Peabody 102C

• Phone:

  662-915-7383

• Office Hours:

  8-9am MW

• Website:

  Google Scholar

• Research Lab:

  SHADE Lab

Dr. Wellman is an experimental social psychologist whose work examines stigma, health, discrimination and intergroup relations.

Research Interests

His work focuses on how being the target of stigma affects behaviors, well-being, and performance among both low status and high status groups. Much of this work explores factors that may influence an individual’s response to discrimination, bias, and intergroup interactions (e.g., system-legitimizing beliefs, group identification, zero-sum beliefs, perceived sigma, etc.). His research has been published in social psychology journals such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, the Psychology of Men and Masculinities, the Journal of Social Issues as well as interdisciplinary health journals such as Appetite and Stigma & Health.

Biography

Dr. Wellman joined the University of Mississippi’s Psychology Department in the Fall of 2019 and was promoted and tenured as an Associate Professor of Social Psychology in 2023. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maine and completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in Culture, Emotion, and Race at Wesleyan University. Prior to joining the faculty at UM, he was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at California State University, San Bernardino where he received an NSF ADVANCE grant to address issues of diversity in promotion, tenure, and hiring. He recently received another NSF ADVANCE grant to address similar issues at the University of Mississippi.

Publications

Richmond, B. S., Toosi, N. R., Wellman, J. D., & Wilkins, C. L. (2024). Ignorance of critical race theory predicts White Americans’ opposition to it. Journal of Social Issues, 80, 240-271. DOI: 10.1111/josi.12601

Wellman, J. D., Araiza, A. M., Nguyen, T. C., Beam, A. J., & Pal, S. (2022). Identifying as fat: Examining weight discrimination and the rejection identification model. Body Image, 41, 46-51.

Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J. D., Toosi, N. R., Miller, C. A., Lisnek, J. A., & Martin, L. A. (2022). Is LGBT progress seen as an attack on Christians?: Examining Christian/sexual orientation zero-sum beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(1), 73–101. 

Wellman, J. D., Beam, A. J., Wilkins, C. L., Newell, E. E., & Mendez, C. A. (2021). Masculinity threat impacts bias and negative emotions towards feminine gay men but not masculine gay men. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 22(4), 787-799. DOI: 10.1037/men0000349

Araiza, A. M. & Wellman, J. D. (2017). Weight stigma predicts inhibitory control and food selection in response to the salience of weight discrimination. Appetite, 114, 382-390. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2017.04.009

Courses Taught

• PSY 321 Social Psychology
• PSY 456 Integrative Special Topics: Stigma & Health
• PSY 704 Quantitative Methods in Psychology II
• PSY 712 Advanced Social Psychology
• PSY 713 Advanced Social Cognition

• Office, Department or Center

  Department of Psychology

• School

  College of Liberal Arts

• Associated Program/s

  Psychology, B.A.

  Psychology, B.S.

  Psychology, Ph.D.

• Campuses

  Oxford

Recognitions

• Fellow, Society of Experimental Social Psychology, 2022
• Dr. Mike L. Edmonds New Scholar Award, University of Mississippi, College of Liberal Arts, 2023