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Randall Larsen

Randall Larsen

William R. Stuckenberg Professor of Human Values and Moral Development
Chair, Department of Psychology
Degrees: 
PHD, University of Illinois
MA, Duquesne University
BA, Loras College
CV: 
larsencv.pdf
E-mail: 
rlarsen@wustl.edu
Phone: 
(314) 935-8560
Office: 
Psychology Building 206
Mailbox: 

Campus Box 1125

Website: 
Faculty Bio

Service to Washington University

Research Interests

Professor Larsen’s research focuses on personality and emotion, with an emphasis on understanding why people differ from each other in terms of emotions, including daily moods, reactions to pleasant and unpleasant events, and emotional variability, and other specific emotions like happiness, life satisfaction, and attraction.  He also studies how people manage their emotions both in laboratory studies and in studies of daily life.  His more recent research explores how emotions influence cognition, for example, perceptual thresholds for identifying emotional stimuli, attentional capture by emotional stimuli, and how emotions influence memory.

Selected Publications

  • Larsen, R. J., & Buss, D. M. (2010). Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature (4th Edition).  New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Newman, L. C. & Larsen, R. J. (2010).  Taking Sides: Clashing views in Personality Psychology .  New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Eid, M., & Larsen, R. J. (2007).  The science of subjective well-being.  New York: Guilford.
  • Augustine, A. A., Mehl, M. R., & Larsen, R. J. (in press) A positivity bias in written and spoken English, and its moderation by personality and gender. Social Psychological and Personality Science,
  • Augustine, A. A, & Larsen, R. (in press).  Studies of emotion in daily life. In M. R. Mehl & T. S. Conner (eds.)  Handbook of research methods for studying daily life.  New York: Guilford Press.
  • Larsen, R. J., Augustine, A. A., & Prizmic, Z. (2009). A process approach to emotion and personality: Using time as a facet of data.  Cognition and Emotion, 23, 1407-1426.
  • Augustine, A. A., Larsen, R. J., Walker, M. S., & Fisher, E. B. (2008). Personality predictors of the time course for lung cancer onset.  Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1448-1455.
  • Larsen, R. J., Mercer, K. A.,  Balota, D. A. & Strube, M. J.  (2008).  Not all negative words slow down lexical decision and naming speed: Importance of word arousal.  Emotion, 8, 445-452.
  • Larsen, R. J., & Prizmic, Z. (2007).  The regulation of emotional well-being: Overcoming the hedonic treadmill.  In M. Eid and R. J. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being (pp. 258-289).  New York: Guilford.
  • Duchek, J. M., Balota, D. A., Storandt, M., & Larsen, R. J.  (2007). The power of personality in discriminating between healthy aging and early stage Alzheimer’s Disease.  Journal of Gereontology, 62B, 353-361. 
  • Larsen, R. J. (2004). Emotion and cognition: The case of automatic vigilance, Psychological Science Agenda, 18(11). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2004/11/larsen.aspx

Courses

Undergraduate

  • Psy 105: Psychology of Young Adulthood
  • Psy 353: Psychology of Personality
  • Psy 367: Seminar on Positive Psychchology

Graduate

  • Psy 413: Seminar on Emotion
  • Psy 535: Personality Theory
  • Psy 5405: Research Ethics
Faculty
Social & Personality Core Faculty