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Vaida D. Thompson is a population psychologist who was instrumental in establishing the American Psychological Association's Division 34, Population and Environmental Psychology (now known as the Society of Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology). She served as the first president of APA Division 34 from 1973 to 1975.

Thompson was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Population and Environment (1977–1984). In 2013, she received the Newman-Proshansky Career Achievement Award in recognition of her significant contributions to the field of population psychology.

Prior to her retirement, Thompson was Professor of Psychology at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of their Social Psychology Program.

Biography

Thompson attended Florida State University where she received a B.S.N Ed. in Nursing Education in 1958 and a M.A. in psychology in 1959. She worked as a research assistant at Duke University Medical Center and at the Institute for Research in Social Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she completed her PhD in psychology in 1968. Thompson joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1968 and remained there until her retirement in 2006.

Thompson served on the UNC-CH AIDS task-force educating healthcare providers and training domestic/international HIV/AIDS units. Thompson was a member of the editorial board of Advances in Population: Psychosocial Perspectives.

Research

Thompson and her colleagues conducted research on sexual behavior and self-esteem, examining how physical attractiveness, similarity of attitude, and sex may affect platonic and romantic relationships. Her research group also studied family size and birth order in relation to parent-teen relationships and power dynamics, and associations between family size and the self-esteem and psychological wellbeing of teenagers in the family.

Thompson's research addressed social-psychological factors that contribute to protection from HIV infection. She and her colleagues conducted research with Black college students to find out what precautions they took against HIV/AIDS. Thompson and her collaborators investigated Black–White differences in self-esteem across young adulthood, specifically how individuals of different races view themselves and conceptions of controlling their own lives in early adulthood.

In collaboration with A. Tashakkori, Thompson investigated Iranian adolescents’ attitudes towards modernity, including changes in attitudes related to education, career, marriage, fertility, and female labor-force participation. Other collaborative research examined influences of out-group rejection processes in relation to overt signs of homophobia.

Books

• Newman, S. H., & Thompson, V. D. (Eds.). (1976). Population psychology: Research and educational issues. US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Center for Population Research.

Representative publications

• Thompson, V. D. (1974). Family size: Implicit policies and assumed psychological outcomes. Journal of Social Issues, 30(4), 93–124.
• Thompson, V. D., & David, H. P. (1977). Population psychology in perspective. International Journal of Psychology, 12(2), 135–146.
• Thompson, V. D., Lakin, M., & Johnson, B. S. (1965). Sensitivity training and nursing education: A process study. Nursing Research, 14(2), 132–137.
• Thompson, V. D., Stroebe, W., & Schopler, J. (1971). Some situational determinants of the motives attributed to the person who performs a helping act. Journal of Personality, 39(3), 460–472.
• Thompson, V. D., & Tashakkori, A. (1988). Effects of family configuration variables on reported indices of parental power among Iranian adolescents. Social Biology, 35(1–2), 82–90.

References

1. Richards, James M. (2000), "A history of Division 34 (Population and Environmental Psychology).", Unification through division: Histories of the divisions of the American Psychological Association, Vol. V., Washington: American Psychological Association, pp. 113–135, doi:10.1037/10356-005, ISBN 1-55798-683-5, retrieved December 16, 2022
2. "APA Historical Database: Selected Entries".
3. "Vaida Thompson". vaida-thompson.socialpsychology.org. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
4. "Newman-Proshansky Career Achievement Award". www.apadivisions.org. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
5. ^ "Vaida D. Thompson". Carolina Population Center. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
6. Thompson, Vaida D. (2009). "Vaida D. Thompson, Ph.D CV" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 22, 2022.
7. "About Our Group | Global HIV Prevention and Treatment Clinical Trials Unit". www.med.unc.edu. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
8. Tashakkori, Abbas; Thompson, Vaida D.; Wade, Joel; Valente, Ernest (January 1, 1990). "Structure and stability of self-esteem in late teens". Personality and Individual Differences. 11 (9): 885–893. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(90)90268-V. ISSN 0191-8869.
9. Stroebe, Wolfgang; Insko, Chester A.; Thompson, Vaida D.; Layton, Bruce D. (1971). "Effects of physical attractiveness, attitude similarity, and sex on various aspects of interpersonal attraction". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 18 (1): 79–91. doi:10.1037/h0030710. ISSN 1939-1315. PMID 5550436.
10. Tashakkori, Abbas; Thompson, Vaida D.; Yousefi, Farideh (1990). "Adolescent Perceptions of Parental Power: Do Family Size and Ordinal Position of the Child Make a Difference?". International Journal of Psychology. 25 (2): 397–416. doi:10.1080/00207599008247874. ISSN 0020-7594.
11. Thompson, Vaida D. (1974). "Family Size: Implicit Policies and Assumed Psychological Outcomes". Journal of Social Issues. 30 (4): 93–124. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1974.tb01757.x.
12. Tashakkori, Abbas; Thompson, Vaida D. (1992). "Predictors of Intention to Take Precautions Against AIDS Among Black College Students1". Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 22 (9): 736–753. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1992.tb01000.x. ISSN 0021-9029.
13. Tashakkori, Abbas; Thompson, Vaida D. (1990). "Race Differences in Self-Perception and Locus of Control during Adolescence and Early Adulthood". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
14. Tashakkori, Abbas; Thompson, Vaida D. (January 1, 1988). "Cultural change and attitude change: An assessment of postrevolutionary marriage and family attitudes in Iran". Population Research and Policy Review. 7 (1): 3–27. doi:10.1007/BF00241760. ISSN 1573-7829. S2CID 143665207.
15. Agnew, Christopher R.; Thompson, Vaida D.; Smith, Valerie A.; Gramzow, Richard H.; Currey, David P. (1993). "Proximal and Distal Predictors of Homophobia: Framing the Multivariate Roots of Outgroup Rejection1". Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 23 (24): 2013–2042. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1993.tb01077.x. ISSN 0021-9029.

External links

• Faculty Profile at UNC Carolina Population Center
• Profile on Social Psychology Network

• American women psychologists
• American social psychologists
• 20th-century American psychologists
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty
• Florida State University alumni
• Duke University faculty
• 21st-century American psychologists
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni