Michele J. Gelfand is an American cultural psychologist. She is both a professor of organizational behavior and the John H. Scully professor of cross-cultural management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and – by courtesy – a professor of psychology at the School of Humanities and Sciences of Stanford University. She has published research on tightness–looseness theory.

Education and career

Gelfand graduated from Colgate University with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in psychology in 1989. In 1996 she completed a PhD in

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the ...

and

organizational psychology Industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology), an applied discipline within psychology, is the science of human behavior in the workplace. Depending on the country or region of the world, I-O psychology is also known as occupational ...

at the

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the Flagship#Colleges and universities in ...

, where she studied under Harry Triandis. She was on the faculty of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

from 1995 to 1996, and worked at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

from 1996 to 2021. Thereafter, she began her current positions at Stanford University. She is an editor of ''Advances in Culture and Psychology'', which she co-founded; ''Psychology of Conflict and Conflict Management in Organizations''; and ''The Handbook of Negotiation and Culture''. She was the president of the International Association for Conflict Management from 2009 to 2010.

Research

Gelfand has published work on the influences of culture on conflict and resolution and on revenge and forgiveness. She has worked on theoretical frameworks such as

individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...

–

collectivism Collectivism may refer to: * Bureaucratic collectivism, a theory of class society whichto describe the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin * Collectivist anarchism, a socialist doctrine in which the workers own and manage the production * Collectivis ...

and tightness–looseness theory; her book on this topic, ''Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World'', was published in 2018. In 2023 she had an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...

of 85, according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes ...

Awards and honors

* Distinguished Early Career Contribution Award, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2002) * Cummings Scholarly Achievement Award,

Academy of Management The Academy of Management is a professional association for scholars of management and organizations that was established in 1936. It publishes several academic journals, organizes conferences, and provides others forums for management professors ...

Organizational Behavior Division (2002) * Outstanding Article of the Year Award, International Association for Conflict Management (2009, 2004, and 2001) * Distinguished University Scholar-Teacher,

(2009) * Best Paper Award for New Directions,

Conflict Management Division (2009) * Anneliese Maier Research Award,

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Rese ...

(2011) * Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize,

Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Founded in 1936, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) is a group of 3,000 scientists from psychology and related fields who share a common interest in research on the psychological aspects of important social and policy i ...

(2012) * William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2014) * Carol and Ed Diener Award in Social Psychology,

Society for Personality and Social Psychology The Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) is an academic society for personality and social psychologists focused on promoting scientific research that explores how people think, behave and interact. It is the largest organization o ...

(2015) * Outstanding International Psychologist Award,

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

(2017) * Fellow,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

(2019) * Member, U. S. National Academy of Sciences (2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelfand, Michele J. American women psychologists 21st-century American psychologists American women writers Living people Stanford University faculty University of Maryland, College Park faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Cultural psychologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 21st-century American women