Alexander Haslam

S. Alexander (Alex) Haslam (born 1962) is a professor of social psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Exeter. He was born in Horsforth (Yorkshire), and educated at Felsted School.

His research is in the area of social and organisational psychology, exploring issues of stereotyping and prejudice, tyranny and resistance, leadership and power, stress and well-being. This work is informed by, and has contributed to the development of, theory and ideas in the social identity tradition.

In 2001 Haslam collaborated with Steve Reicher (University of St Andrews on the BBC television programme The Experiment, (which became known as the ""BBC Prison Study"). This examined the behaviour of a group of individuals within a simulated prison environment and re-examined issues raised by the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). Amongst other things, these challenged the role account of tyranny associated with the SPE as well as broader ideas surrounding the "banality of evil".

Haslam has worked with Michelle Ryan on the leadership experiences of women and together they coined the term "glass cliff" to describe some of their key findings. This was short-listed for the Times Higher Education "Research Project of the Year" in 2005. Haslam also works on the Social Identity Approach to health and well-being (including the Integrated Social Identity model of Stress; ISIS).

Haslam holds a Master of Arts (MA) degree from the University of St Andrews and a PhD from Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia). His doctoral work at Macquarie was supervised by John Turner and funded by a Commonwealth Scholarship. This was preceded by a year as a "Robert T. Jones scholar" at Emory University (Atlanta). Prior to his appointment at Exeter, Haslam worked for ten years at the Australian National University (Canberra).

Haslam is a recipient of the European Association of Social Psychology's Kurt Lewin medal and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research working on its Social Interaction, Identity and Well-Being program. In 2009 he won the British Psychology Society's Award for excellence in teaching psychology and the following year received a National Teaching Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy. He was an associate editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology from 1999-2001, editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Social Psychology from 2001-2005, and president of the psychology section of the British Science Association from 2009-2010. He is currently a consultant editor for a range of journals including Scientific American Mind.

Books

 * Oakes, P. J., Haslam, S. A., & Turner, J. C. (1994). Stereotyping and social reality. Oxford: Blackwell.
 * McGarty, C., & Haslam, S. A. (Eds.) (1997). The message of social psychology: Perspectives on mind in society. Oxford: Blackwell.
 * Spears, R., Oakes, P. J., Ellemers, N., & Haslam, S. A. (Eds.) (1997). The social psychology of stereotyping and group life. Oxford: Blackwell.
 * Haslam, S. A., & McGarty, C. (2003). Research methods and statistics in psychology. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
 * Haslam, S. A., van Knippenberg, D., Platow, M., & Ellemers, N. (Eds.) (2003). Social identity at work: Developing theory for organizational practice. New York and Hove: Psychology Press.
 * Haslam, S. A. (2004). Psychology in organizations: The social identity approach (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
 * Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D. & Platow, M. J. (2011). The new psychology of leadership: Identity, influence and power. London: Psychology Press.
 * Jetten, J., Haslam, C., & Haslam, S. A. (Eds.) (2012). The social cure: Identity, health and well-being. New York and Hove: Psychology Press.
 * Smith, J. R., & Haslam, S. A. (Eds.) (2012). Social psychology: Revisiting the classic studies. London: Sage.