
Donelson R. ForsythUniversity of Richmond | UR
Donelson R. Forsyth
Ph.D.
About
150
Publications
192,466
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Introduction
A retired social and personality psychologist, Forsyth studied groups, leadership, ethics, and moral judgment. His general analyses of group development, structure, performance, and change were complemented by in-depth analyses of the psychological and interpersonal consequences of success and failure at the group and individual level.
Additional affiliations
January 2007 - December 2011
January 1979 - December 2009
January 1974 - June 1978
Education
August 1974 - July 1978
Publications
Publications (150)
Highlights and Implications
•The concept of cohesion is central to understanding groups and group processes, and recent research has yielded substantial advances in understanding the nature, the sources, and the consequences of this key group-level process.
•Specifically, recent research provides a clearer understanding of when cohesion facilitates...
We revised the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ), which measures variations in sensitivity to harm (idealism) and to moral standards (relativism). Study 1 identified the core components of the measured constructs theoretically and verified those features through confirmatory factor analysis (n = 2,778). Study 2 replicated these findings (n = 10,7...
In a study of US residents’ during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, their moral judgments of noncompliance with health mandates predicted their failure to comply with these health-promoting guidelines (r = +0.87, n = 303). Moreover, and consistent with ethics position theory (Forsyth, 2020), moral relativism predicted both moral judgments of noncompl...
Objective: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) threatened not only people’s physical health but also every aspect of their psychological well-being: from their struggle to avoid contracting the disease, to their coping with the disruption of the normal course of their lives, to the trauma they endured when the virus took the lives of those they love...
Public health interventions, such as mandated vaccinating or quarantining during an epidemic, are necessary to limit the spread of communicable diseases, but in many cases, certain groups resist these initiatives. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, antiquarantine groups protested the mandate to socially distance and remain at home,...
During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 health authorities asked individuals to take precautions to reduce the spread of the disease, but individuals differed in their compliance with these health interventions. To determine if compliance was associated with people’s moral beliefs, we measured US residents’ moral relativism and idealism and their comp...
Selective reporting practices (SRPs)—adding, dropping, or altering study elements when preparing reports for publication—are thought to increase false positives in scientific research. Yet analyses of SRPs have been limited to self-reports or analyses of pre-registered and published studies. To assess SRPs in social psychological research more broa...
Does joining groups trigger a cascade of psychological processes that can result in a loss of individuality and lead to such outcomes as social loafing and poor decision making? Rather that privileging the self comprising primarily individual qualities as the " true self, " a multilevel, multicomponent approach suggests that in most cases personal...
Drawing on prior analyses of (a) students’ perceptions of professors and (b) followers’ intuitive assumptions about leaders, we predicted that students’ implicit professor theories (IPTs) would include such core attributes as intelligence, sensitivity, and dedication, but that these implicit theories would vary over time: Students’ IPTs at the star...
Effective leadership requires many skills, but foremost among them is the capacity to successfully deal with conflict. Any disruption that creates a lack of alignment can trigger the conflict cycle, such as differences of opinion, competition for scarce resources and interpersonal enmity. Leading through Conflict brings together recent theory and r...
Drawing on social, community, and place identity theories, we predicted that individuals whose identities are based, at least in part, on the place where they reside would be more likely to engage in environmentally responsible behaviors, or ERBs. Study 1 tested this hypothesis by assessing residents’ localized community identification and their wi...
Group psychotherapy is the treatment of psychological, behavioral, emotional, and interpersonal problems by a mental health professional who meets regularly with clients in a group rather than a one-on-one context. Group psychotherapy is used to treat a variety of disorders, including addiction, cognitive disturbances, depression, eating disorders,...
We examined the relationships between Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—the three traits of the Dark Triad (DT)—and the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. The review identified 310 independent samples drawn from 215 sources and yielded information pertaining to global trait relationships and facet-level relationships. We used meta-...
In the past decade, interest has flourished in the empirical study of forgiveness in the wake of intergroup conflicts. In the current paper, we sought to empirically integrate the diverse predictors of intergroup forgiveness building on a tripartite model that incorporates affective, cognitive, and constraining features. Using a random effects appr...
From 1933 to 1944, US president Franklin D. Roosevelt used a series of radio broadcasts—his famous “fireside chats”—to persuade Americans to remain calm through a continuing series of financial, domestic, and military crises. In the early 1980s IBM hired Bill Gates to write an operating system for that company’s computers, but Gates convinced IBM t...
We conducted a meta-analytic review of the relations between general mental ability (GMA) and the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—to determine if individuals who display socially exploitative social qualities tend to be more intelligent or less intelligent. Across 48 independent samples, GMA showed n...
Four dimensions underlying individuals’ perceptions of various types of lies were identified through multidimensional scaling: (1) intentions of liar (benign vs. malign), (2) purposes of lie (instrumental vs. protective), (3) responsibility of liar for lie (freely done vs. constrained by situation), and (4) consequences of lie (severely negative vs...
To examine the effects of the social context of a harm-producing action and the magnitude of harm on evaluations of a harm-doer and victim, 80 female subjects read scenarios that described either a cooperative or competitive interaction in which either mild or severe harm occurred. Ratings of the “aggressor” and “victim” revealed that the harm-doer...
Individuals who cheated or did not cheat on a test and observers who watched a test taker cheat or not cheat evaluated the causal importance of internal factors, external factors, and factors associated with each of the six stages of Kohlberg’s model of moral development as determinants of the moral or immoral action. The results indicated that che...
Ninety-six subjects were induced to taste unpleasant liquids under conditions of either high or low external justification. In the context of a subsequent interview, subjects rated the task, themselves, and the experimenter for an interviewer who purportedly made positive, negative, or no comments about the task. Subjects rated the liquids as tasti...
An attribution-based theory of moral evaluations was investigated by systematically varying the distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus of actions that conflicted with or conformed to one of four moral norms (telling the truth, doing one’s duty, not stealing, and keeping promises). Analyses of subjects’ moral judgments indicated that (1) moral...
Individuals’ moral judgments of certain business practices and their decisions to engage in those practices are influenced by their personal moral philosophies: (a) situationists advocate striving for the best consequences possible irrespective of moral maxims; (b) subjectivists reject moral guidelines and base judgments on personal values and prac...
This chapter examines the source of a group's power over its members, and assumes that this influence of a group is subtle rather than intrusive, for it is rooted in the principle of comparison. Individuals evaluate the accuracy of their beliefs and gauge the quality of their personal attributes by comparing themselves to other individuals. This ch...
The concept of social influence is the cornerstone of social psychology; people would not be social beings if they were not influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. If humans were guided only by their personal interests and idiosyncratic goals, even the most simple of collaborative undertakings would end in failure. People...
Groupthink, as traditionally conceived, is a failure in group decision making that occurs in highly cohesive groups. In the current case study, we propose an alternative potential form of groupthink in which the group's cohesiveness results from the shared pursuit of a collective goal rather than from strong interpersonal bonds between members. Our...
We reviewed studies of the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits--Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy-and meta-analytically examined their implications for job performance and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Relations among the DT traits and behaviors were extracted from original reports published between 1951 and 2011 of 245 independ...
This research examines the relationship between the code of ethics adopted by businesses in a country and the ethics positions of the inhabitants of that country. Ethics Position Theory (EPT) maintains that individuals' personal moral philosophies influence their ethical judgments, actions, and emotions. The theory, when describing individual diffe...
Research on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) has largely focused on the individual traits and perceptions that enhance or decrease CWB. Although useful, we propose that a multilevel perspective offers greater insight into CWB antecedents and outcomes by acknowledging the nested nature of the individual within the work group. We review the CWB...
An understanding of group counseling requires an understanding of groups themselves, their basic nature and processes. Given that human beings are a social species and spend their lives in groups rather than alone, an individual-level analysis of adjustment, well-being, and treatment, with its focus on internal, psychological processes, should be s...
How do students' conceptualize the causes of their own academic successes and failures? Taking a phenomenological approach, students identified the causes of their performance immediately following return of a graded examination. We then used factor and item analyses to organize causes that were identified by a substantial number of students into m...
When will a community's residents take action against urban sprawl that threatens the watershed where they live? Drawing on theoretical and empirical studies of helping behavior, we predicted that individuals will be most likely to respond to environmental challenges when they are aware of the environmental threat, believe the danger posed by the t...
Group members often take more responsibility for the group's outcomes than others give to them. Extending evidence that egocentrism can be muted when group members are individuated (the "unpacking effect"), the authors predicted that members of open groups would be less egocentric than members of closed groups. In open groups, the possibility of me...
Ethics position theory (EPT) maintains that individuals’ personal moral philosophies influence their judgments, actions, and
emotions in ethically intense situations. The theory, when describing these moral viewpoints, stresses two dimensions: idealism
(concern for benign outcomes) and relativism (skepticism with regards to inviolate moral principl...
Types of Therapeutic GroupsGroup DevelopmentLeadership in Therapeutic GroupsMotives and Goals in Therapeutic GroupsTherapeutic Factors in GroupsThe Effectiveness of GroupsTherapeutic Groups as Groups
Integrating theories of attachment and forgiveness, we predicted that secure attachment reduces angry rumination and promotes forgiveness. To examine this prediction, in Study 1 (n = 213), participants completed the Experience in Close Relationships Scale (ECR; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998) and the Trait Forgiveness Scale (TFS; Berry, Worthington...
Theory and prior research suggest that (a) a positive sense of self–worth and (b) per-ceived control over one's outcomes facilitate constructive responses to negative outcomes. We therefore predicted that encouraging students to maintain their sense of self–worth and/or construe their academic outcomes as controllable would promote achievement. In...
Three prescriptions offered by theories of motivation—reshape students' overall achievement orientation, create an expectation for success, and increase the specificity and value of academic outcomes—offer practical suggestions for enhancing learning.
The present study was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Organizational Effectiveness Research Programs, Code 452, Contract #N00014-75-C-0901, NR #170–797. Thanks are extended to Patricia Schlenker, Marvin E. Shaw, William Saunders, and Marc Riess for their helpful contributions.
A two-factor awareness-appraisal model suggests that individuals' reactions to threatening circumstances are shaped by their awareness of the threat and their appraisal of the degree of threat the circumstances pose to them. This approach, applied to watershed conservation, predicts that individuals will be willing to clean up the rivers and stream...
Prior studies of the correspondence bias reveal a tendency for people to base inferences on behaviors they observe, even when
these behaviors are highly constrained by the social context in which they occur. Three processes may combine to sustain this
effect: (a) an insufficient adjustment of initial estimates caused by the fundamental attribution...
A two-factor awareness-appraisal model suggests that individuals' reactions to threatening circumstances are shaped by their awareness of the threat and their appraisal of the degree of threat the circumstances pose to them. This approach, applied to watershed conservation, predicts that individuals will be willing to clean up the rivers and stream...
Intergroup relations are more competitive and discordant than relations between interacting individuals. Social identity theory suggests that this discontinuity should be greatest among individuals who identify strongly with their in-group. To test this prediction, students from countries with collectivistic and individualistic cultures completed a...
The authors examined questions about diffusion of responsibility in groups by asking group members to apportion responsibility for an outcome to each group member: Does responsibility diffuse more as groups increase in size but eventually level off in larger groups? Does responsibility diffuse equally, with each member getting an equal portion, or...
Will fields that study groups in general, such as social psychology, and fields that use groups to achieve therapeutic goals, such as group psychotherapy, move toward unification in the future or will they drift apart? One possible future assumes that these two approaches to groups will become better integrated as (a) societal changes increase indi...
This special issue looks back at a century of progress in understanding groups and their dynamics. The articles in the issue, by selectively reviewing topics that dominated researchers' efforts over the past century, offer answers to 7 key questions about groups: What forces bind members to their groups? Who will lead and who will follow? When do g...
Groups are the setting for most social activities. All but an occasional recluse or exile belong to groups, and those who insist on living their lives apart from others, refusing to join any groups, are considered curiosities, eccentrics, or even mentally unsettled (Storr, 1988). Nearly all human societies are organized around small groups, such as...
How can researchers "stretch nature out on the rack"? How can they test "the truth of the relationships they posit"? The authors of the articles in this special issue on research methods offer new answers to these questions. All recognize the unique difficulties researchers face when they study not only people, but people embedded in small groups....
Computer-based teaching methods can improve the transfer of information, increase instructional fonts on conceptual and methodological skills, enhance motivation, and stimulate the development of expressive skills. After reviewing a number of studies of computer-based applications, we report a correlational study of psychology students' attitudes a...
Counseling psychology and social psychology have commingled theoretically and empirically for many years, but both fields have much to gain from a more complete integration across seven domains: educational (learning, teaching, and training), professional (relationships between researchers and practitioners), practical (integrated attempts to solve...
In a variety of group settings, members favor men over women when selecting and evaluating leaders, even when actual leadership behaviors are held constant. Leadership categorization theory (R. B. Lord & K. J. Maher, 1991) and social role theory (A. H. Eagly, 1987) suggest that these biases result from discrepancies between individuals' stereotypes...
Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice seeks to revitalize the link between the scientific study of group dynamics and the application of that scientific understanding in applied settings—particularly those settings involving deliberate attempts to help individuals achieve desired personal and interpersonal change. To accomplish this goal,...
A functional approach to groups that assumes membership in a satisfying group influences self-esteem was tested by asking college students to recall and appraise their prior experiences in such groups. The results corroborated the positive impact of groups: People who were members of a satisfying group in high school (a) had higher levels of self-e...
Educational benefits of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) were investigated. A quasi-experimental design contrasted learning outcomes of students in an introductory Psychology class that incorporated CAI exercises to students in a lecture-only introductory psychology class. A number of potential mediating variables, such as instructor, size of cl...
In a test of predictions derived from an identity-analytic model of self-presentational behavior, individuals who privately
endorsed positive or negative attitudes about sexual behavior were asked to deliver a prosexuality speech while alone, while
watched by observers, or while being watched by observers who questioned the morality of the subject’...
Group members'estimations oftheircontributions to a collective endeavorwere investigated by assessing perceptions of responsibility following completion of an additive group task. As an information-processing approach to attributions in groups suggests, only those who performed well at the individual level internalized success and externalized fail...
A centuries-old philosophical issue—Do honorable intentions make an action praiseworthy or is the best action one that generates
the greatest good for the greatest number?—was examined by telling subjects who were working to earn money for themselves
or a charity that they succeeded or failed at the task. Confirming predictions derived from persona...
The self-reference effect, which occurs when individuals show superior memory for information that pertains to their self-schemas, was demonstrated in a classroom setting. Subjects first evaluated whether or not each adjective in an orally presented list was self-descriptive. After a 1-min delay, they attempted to recall all the adjectives from the...
Individuals'' moral judgments of certain business practices and their decisions to engage in those practices are influenced by their personal moral philosophies: (a) situationists advocate striving for the best consequences possible irrespective of moral maxims; (b) subjectivists reject moral guidelines and base judgments on personal values and pra...
Leadership categorization theory suggests that leaders who display characteristics and abilities that match observers' schematic conception of an effective leader will be more favorably evaluated than leaders who violate observers' leadership prototypes. In a test of this model, 92 male and 84 female subjects endorsing a number of different leaders...
Theories of motivation suggest that appropriate attention to students' needs and expectations for success will enhance their involvement and learning.
explores the utility and dynamics of the therapeutic group / [reviews] extant types of therapeutic groups and their typical characteristics / raise the question of effectiveness, and rely heavily on previously published reviews as well as on more recent empirical outcome studies to develop an answer / catalog the interpersonal processes that are co...
Rick Snyder and Don Forsyth, working with experts in the field of social and clinical psychology, edited a handbook that--at that time--summarized ongoing efforts in what was known as the social-clinical interface. This interface recognized the growing interdependency of these two fields. For many years, as social psychologists were preoccupied wit...
The moral choices and post-transgression reactions of individuals who adopted varying personal moral philosophies were examined in an experimental setting that permitted the manipulation of the salience of moral norms and the nature of the consequences of one's actions. As predicted, the two situational variables had a strong impact on moral action...
The Handbook of Social and Clinical Psychology (HSCP) served as a comprehensive resource book for theorists, researchers, and scholars working at the interface of social and clinical psychology. Chapters from that book, now out of print, can be downloaded at http://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/157/
Tested a model of individual differences in moral thought, which assumes that attitudes concerning prescribed and proscribed social actions are part of an integrated conceptual system of personal ethics. When 283 college students with varying personal moral philosophies were compared, those who emphasized the validity of fundamental moral principle...