Heather Smith

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• General

Biography

Heather J. Smith is a psychology professor with research interests in organizational justice, social comparisons and intergroup relations. Over the past 20 years, she and her colleagues (including SSU undergraduates) have employed experiments, surveys, “daily experience diaries” and meta-analyses to explore people’s definitions of fairness and their reactions to disadvantage or conflict. She has co-authored 39 peer reviewed journal articles, 14 chapters and one book. She also co-edited a 2002 book and a 2015 Social Justice Research special issue on relative deprivation theory and research (where she is now an associate editor).

Education

PhD (in Social Psychology), University of California, Santa Cruz

MSc, University of St. Andrews

BA, Wellesley College

Selected Publications & Presentations

Smith, H.J. & McKee, S.E. (2025). Relative Deprivation: Building upon Walker and Mann’s (1987) Interviews with Unemployed Australians (Chapter 10). In Selvanthan, H. & Jetten, J.  (Eds.,) Political Psychology: Revisiting the Classic Studies.  Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Smith, H. J., & Grant, D. R. (2025). How to improve group affirmation manipulations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 28(1), 208–232. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302241276070

Smith, H. J., Ryan, D. A., Jaurique, A., & Duffau, E. (2020). Personal relative deprivation and mental health among university students: Cross‐sectional and longitudinal evidence. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy (ASAP).

Jolly, M., Smith, H.J. & Nygen, A. (2019). “No one wants to repeat their freshman year:” The Sophomore Year Experience at Sonoma State University. In Skipper, T.L. (Editor), Aligning institutional support for student success: case studies of sophomore year initiatives. University of South Carolina, National Resource Center, First Year Students and Students in Transition.

Smith, H. J., Ryan, D. A., Jaurique, A., Pettigrew, T. F., Jetten, J., Ariyanto, A., Autin, F., Ayub, N., Badea, C., Besta, T., Butera, F., Costa-Lopes, R., Cui, L., Fantini, C., Finchilescu, G., Gaertner, L., Gollwitzer, M., Gómez, Á., González, R., … Wohl, M. (2018). Cultural values moderate the impact of relative deprivation. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(8), 1183–1218.

Jaurique, A., Ryan, D. A., Smith, H. J., & Paolucci, C. M. (2019). Observing Discrimination: Implications for Group-Based Respect and Organizational Morality. Social Issues & Policy Review, 13(1), 125–153.

Smith, H. J., Jaurique, A., & Ryan, D. (2016). The mistreatment of others: Discrimination can undermine university identification, student health, and engagement. Social Justice Research, 29(4), 355-374.

Smith, H. J., Pettigrew, T. F., Pippin, G. M., & Bialosiewicz, S. (2012). Relative deprivation: A theoretical and meta-analytic review. Personality And Social Psychology Review, 16(3), 203-232.