UB's Sandra Murray Receives National Award for Contributions to Field of Social Psychology

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The American Psychological Association (APA) has presented Sandra L. Murray, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo, with a 2003 Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of social psychology.

She will share the award -- a plaque and $1,000 -- with Steven J. Heine, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia.

The award, which will be presented at the annual APA national conference in Toronto in August, is an "outstanding accolade for scientific achievement," says Harry Reis, head of scientific affairs for the APA.

Murray's research and publications focus on "motivated cognition" in the context of close relationships; specifically, how individuals in romantic relationships interpret and construct reality in ways that protect them from potential threats to commitment, such as the perception of a partner's faults, the risks inherent in depending on another person and the potential of rejection.

Murray, who received the 1999 New Contribution Award from the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships, has been on the faculty of the Department of Psychology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences since 1996.

She is a member of the department's Close Relationship Consortium, a group of psychology faculty members and graduate students who study a broad range of normal and pathological relationships at different developmental stages. She also heads the department's Social-Personality area and is the principal investigator in the university's Interpersonal Processes Laboratory.

A resident of Amherst, Murray is a member of the editorial board of the journal Personal Relationships and publishes frequently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.