Geoff MacDonald

Who they are

Geoff MacDonald is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto and a member of its Collaborative Program in Neuroscience. His university profile describes his research as covering romantic relationships, self-esteem and social exclusion, three topics that meet in the question of how people respond to acceptance and rejection, which is also the ground the 2010 review surveys.

Key papers

Gere, J., & MacDonald, G. (2010), An update of the empirical case for the need to belong, The Journal of Individual Psychology, 66(1). Library record: https://library.gunadarma.ac.id/ecollection/jurnal/an-update-of-the-empirical-case-for-the-need-to-belong The review updates the research on the need to belong that followed Baumeister and Leary's 1995 paper.

Key ideas

The review covered immediate cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses to acceptance and rejection, the processes behind reactions to threats to belonging, possible biological foundations, individual differences and the long-term effects of an unmet need to belong.

The review concluded that the picture had grown more complex and that future work should look at underlying processes and individual differences.

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