Brenda Major

Biosketch

Brenda Major is a pioneer in the psychology of stigma and resilience, renowned for her work on the psychological and physical consequences of social stigma and discrimination. Major was born in Pittsburgh, PA and received her bachelor’s degree from The College of Wooster. She earned her Masters from Miami University of Ohio and her Ph.D. from Purdue University under the guidance of Kay Deaux. She was Professor of Psychology at the State University New York from 1978 to 1995 and the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1995 to 2022. She is currently Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Major is past President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. Awards she has earned include: the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Mentorship Award from the Association for Psychological Science, the 2020 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the 2020 Distinguished Lifetime Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity, the 2015 Donald T. Campbell Prize from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, the 2014 Scientific Impact Prize from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the 2013 Kurt Lewin Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in 1986, 1988, and 2014. Major is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science.

Research Interests

Major’s research on the psychology of how people cope with stigma illuminates people’s resilience. Her research identifies general psychological principles that can both protect and undermine well-being. For example, her work on attributional ambiguity (with J. Crocker) demonstrates that for the stigmatized person, negative feedback is ambiguous ﴾possibly due either to group derogation or to own performance﴿, so attributing it to prejudice can shield self-esteem but avoid constructive advice. Positive feedback is also ambiguous. It could seen as due to one’s self, thereby enhancing self-esteem, or to one’s stigmatized identity, such as the feedback providers’ pity for one's group or desire to appear unprejudiced, thereby removing its’ benefits. Major’s work also demonstrates the costs and benefits for low-status people of adherence to cultural ideologies such as meritocracy, including fostering persistence and hope, lessening perceived discrimination, but undermining self-esteem and physical health when discrimination is encountered. Major’s influential theory of gender as contextual ﴾with K. Deaux﴿ highlighted the degree to which gender-related behavior is variable, proximally caused, and context dependent. Major is unique in studying the psychological and health consequences of gendered decisions ﴾e.g., abortion﴿ and stigma ﴾weight﴿, as well as the unintended consequences of good intentions, such as diversity initiatives, and weight-loss campaigns. She is known for bringing a rational, empirical voice to charged and difficult issues.