BIO
Mark Ferguson is a social and environmental psychologist. After completing a visiting assistant professorship at Syracuse University (New York) and a post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral economics with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (Calgary, Alberta), he joined the UW-Stevens Point Department of Psychology in 2011. His research focuses on how our social identities emerge, are maintained, or change over time, as well as the consequences for how we think, feel, and act toward others and the natural environment. In his research lab, he has trained over 80 undergraduates to conduct psychological studies, which led to a University Leadership Mentor Award in 2019.
Ferguson has served on the organizing committee for, and as chair of, the annual Sustainability Psychology Pre-Conference at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference. He was also a co-editor (with Michael Schmitt, Simon Fraser University) for a special issue of Current Opinion in Psychology on the Psychology of Climate Change. He currently serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Social identities
- Group-based emotions
- Temporal psychology
- Power and influence
- Intergroup relations
- Collective action
- Climate change
PUBLICATIONS
Goto, N. & Ferguson, M. A. (2023). Guilt. Identity management in response to illegitimate social behavior. In M.H. Jacobson (Ed.), Exploring emotions in everyday life. Routledge.
Ferguson, M. A., & Schmitt, M. T. (2021). Editorial overview: Six messages of climate psychology. Current Directions in Psychology, 42, iv-viii. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.12.001
Ford, T. E., Buie, H. L., Mason, S. D., Olah, A., Breeden, C., & Ferguson, M. A. (2020). Diminished self-concept and social exclusion: Disparagement humor from the target’s perspective. Self and Identity, 19(6), 698-718. https://croft.lab.arizona.edu/sites/croft.lab.arizona.edu/files/Link%2017.pdf
Ferguson, M. A., Branscombe, N. R., & Reynolds, K. J. (2019). Social psychological research on prejudice as collective action supporting emergent ingroup members. British Journal of Social Psychology, 58(1), 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12294
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
- Society for Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology
- Society for Personality and Social Psychology