Intended Audience
The psychology department welcomes Dr. David Chester as the first speaker in its 2022-2023 lecture series: The Psychology of Close Relationships.
Close relationships entail attraction and sadly, rejection. In this talk, we will first look across psychological and neural evidence to examine how people might combat the pain of rejection with the pleasure of revenge and how this tendency might feed into broader patterns of sadistic aggression. Then, we will look to the future and have a discussion about where science should go next to best understand and reduce aggression in close relationships.
David Chester, PhD is a social psychologist who studies the reasons why people hurt each other. He is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he directs the Social Psychology and Neuroscience Laboratory, which studies the neural and psychological mechanisms that cause and constrain human aggression. The rest of his time is claimed by the woods and rivers around Virginia and by his family, which includes a rowdy toddler and a lazy hound dog.
Free and open to the public.
This event may be used to satisfy the Lecture Reflection Requirement in PSYC204/206 and PSYC493/494.
Campus visitors must be up to date on vaccinations for COVID-19 and be able to present proof upon request by College officials when attending indoor events or large gatherings outside when social distancing cannot be ensured. If campus visitors are not up to date on vaccinations or cannot show proof, they must present proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival to campus.