Joanne Wood

Distinguished Professor Emerita
Dr Joanne Wood's Image

BA (Wisconsin), MA, PhD (California, Los Angeles)

Contact information

Listen to my Distinguished Lifetime Career Award talk at ISSI meeting (20 minutes), while viewing the slides (PDF)

Wood et al. Nature Reviews paper on self-esteem and romantic relationships: Watch the animated video or listen to the audio summary

Awards and honours

  • Recipient, 2024, International Society for Self and Identity Distinguished Lifetime Career Award
  • Recipient, 2023, Distinguished Professor Emerita
  • Recipient, 2017, University Professor (a title bestowed by the university to recognize “exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence,” held by 16 faculty members out of 1200)
  • Recipient, 2015 Outstanding Performance Award
  • Recipient, 2015 Excellence in Research Award, Faculty of Arts
  • Recipient, 2007 Outstanding Performance Award

Research interests

My current research focuses on interpersonal interactions and close relationships—in particular, how personality shapes relationship processes. For example, my collaborators and I have examined questions such as these:

  • How do self-esteem, neuroticism, and agreeableness affect relationship happiness?
  • How do people with low vs. high self-esteem differ in their self-disclosures to others?
  • How do kind people show affection to their partners?

Selected publications

  • Wood, J. V. (in press). Personality influences in relationships: How self-esteem, neuroticism, and agreeableness affect hurt feelings. In A. Vangelisti, D. Perlman, & S. Sprecher (Eds). Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships (3rd Ed). Cambridge University Press.
  • Wood, J. V., Forest, A. L., Friesen, J. P., Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., & McNulty, J. K. (2023). Self-esteem and romantic relationship quality. Nature Reviews Psychology, 3(1), 27–41. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00247-z
  • Forest, A. L., Sigler, K. N., Bain, K. S., O’Brien, E. R., & Wood, J. V. (2023). Self-esteem’s impacts on intimacy-building: Pathways through self-disclosure and responsiveness. Current Opinion in Psychology, 52, 101596. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101596
  • Fisher, A.N., Stinson, D.A., Wood, J.V., Holmes, J.G., & Cameron, J.J. (2021). Singlehood and attunement of self-esteem to friendships. Social Psychological and Personality Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620988460
  • Cortes, K. & Wood, J. V. (2019). How was your day? Conveying care, but under the radar, for people lower in trust. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 83, 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.03.003
  • McCarthy, M. H., Wood, J.V., & Holmes, J.G.  (2017). Dispositional pathways to trust: Self-esteem and agreeableness interact to predict trust and negative emotional disclosure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 95-116.
  • Wood, J. V. & Forest, A. L. (2016). Self-protective yet self-defeating: The paradox of low self-esteem people's self-disclosures. In J. M. Olson & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 53, 131-181. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
  • Forest, A.L., Kille, D.R., Wood, J.V., & Holmes, J.G. (2014). Discount and disengage: How chronic negative expressivity undermines partner responsiveness to negative disclosures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 107, 1013-1032.
  • Forest, A.L., & Wood, J. V. (2012). When social networking is not working: Individuals with low self-esteem recognize but do not reap the benefits of self-disclosing on Facebook. Psychological Science, 23, 295–302.

Some oldies but goodies

  • Wood, J. V., Perunovic, W. Q. E., & Lee, J.  (2009). Positive self-statements: Power for some, peril for others. Psychological Science, 20, 860-866.
  • Stinson, D.A., Logel, C., Zanna, M.P., Holmes, J.G., Cameron, J.J., Wood, J.V., & Spencer, S.J. (2008). The cost of lower self-esteem: Testing a self-and-social-bonds model of health.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 412-428.
  • Wood, J. V., Heimpel, S. A., Newby-Clark, I., & Ross, M.  (2005).  Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory:  Self-esteem differences in the experience and anticipation of success. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 764-780.
  • Wood, J. V., Heimpel, S. A., & Michela, J. L.  (2003).  Savoring versus dampening:  Self-esteem differences in regulating positive affect.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,85, 566-580.  
  • Heimpel, S. A., Wood, J. V., Marshall, M., & Brown, J.  (2002).  Do people with low self-esteem really want to feel better?:  Self-esteem differences in motivation to repair negative moods.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 128 - 147. 
  • Wood, J. V.  (1989).  Theory and research concerning social comparisons of personal attributes.  Psychological Bulletin, 106, 231-248.