Allan W. Wicker
Allan Wicker's professional interests reflect his background in ecological psychology, a field that bridges social, community and organizational psychology. His publications in this area mainly deal with behavior settings, the social-physical environments of everyday life such as offices, educational classes, meetings, academic classes, retail shops, and the like. His most recent papers promote the application of behavior setting theory to address practical problems and the extension of the theory to incorporate subjective experiences of setting occupants. In a current collaboration, he is exploring the applicability of the Japanese concept of kansei (sensitivity, sensibility) to such experiences.
The psychology of work is another major research interest. Wicker explores work and the workplace by engaging two contrasting, and seemingly contradictory, vantage points: the subjective reports of workers themselves, and the open systems, contextual view of the outside observer. He has conducted research on work during Fulbright appointments in Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Malaysia. His "Working in Ghana" Project provides full text, online work narratives from 50 Ghanaian men and women and from a smaller number of expatriates who live and work in Ghana. In the stories, workers describe their jobs and tell how their work affects them and their families. The website address is:
http://web.cgu.edu/faculty/wickera/working.htm
Primary Interests:
- Culture and Ethnicity
- Interpersonal Processes
- Organizational Behavior
- Research Methods, Assessment
- Sociology, Social Networks
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Books:
Journal Articles:
- Wicker, A. W. (2012). Perspectives on behavior settings: With illustrations from Allison’s ethnography of a Japanese hostess club. Environment and Behavior, 44, 474-492.
- Wicker, A. W. (1989). Substantive theorizing. American Journal of Community Psychology, 17, 531-547.
- Wicker, A. W. (1985). Getting out of our conceptual ruts: Strategies for expanding conceptual frameworks. American Psychologist, 40, 1094-1103.
Other Publications:
- Wicker, A. W. (2002). Ecological psychology: Historical contexts, current conception, prospective directions. In R. B. Bechtel & A. Churchman, Handbook of environmental psychology (pp. 114-126). New York: Wiley.
- Wicker, A. W. (1992). Making sense of environments. In W. B. Walsh, K. H. Craik, & R. H. Price (Eds.), Person environment psychology: Models and perspectives (pp. 157-192). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Wicker, A. W., & August, R. A. (2000). Working lives in context: Engaging the views of participants and analysts. In W. B. Walsh, K. H. Craik, & R. H. Price (Eds.), Person-environment psychology: New directions and perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 197-232). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Courses Taught:
- Applied Conceptual Framing and Analysis
- Ecological Psychology
- Naturalistic Inquiry
- Qualitative Research Methods for Education
- Research Conception and Design
- Social Psychology of Work
- Theories of Social Behavior
- Work and Culture
- Phone: (909) 445-0082
Allan W. Wicker
1430 Sitka Court
Claremont, California 91711
United States of America