Julie K. Norem

Julie K. Norem is a professor of psychology at Wellesley College. She started at Wellesley in 1992 and teaches courses in personality psychology, research methods, and gender, as well as a seminar on optimism and pessimism. Her research focuses on the strategies people use to pursue their goals, with an emphasis on the strategy of defensive pessimism; and on the ways self-knowledge influences adaptation, performance, and social relationships, particularly among those who feel like impostors.

Dr. Norem received her A.B. in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Chicago in 1982, and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1987. She was a professor at Northeastern University before coming to Wellesley.

Dr. Norem has written numerous book chapters and articles for scholarly journals, including empirical papers based on her own research and theoretical review and commentary, and has presented dozens of papers at scientific conferences across the country and abroad. She has also been Associate Editor of both the Journal of Research in Personality and the Personality and Social Psychology Review. She sits on the editorial board of several scholarly journals and has held a variety of appointed and elected positions in the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. She was a founding member and is currently president of the Association for Research in Personality.

With Blythe M. Clinchy, she edited a book of readings entitled The Gender and Psychology Reader (New York University Press) that appeared in 1998. Her book on defensive pessimism research, entitled The Positive Power of Negative Thinking was published in August 2001 by Basic Books.

Profile last updated: February 1, 2007

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Last Modified: February 1, 2007