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Dr. Timothy D. Ritchie
Lecturer
Postal Address:
Department of Psychology
CS2-023
University of Limerick
Castletroy, Co. Limerick
Ireland |
Telephone: 00353 (0)61 202 624
Email: tim.ritchie@ul.ie |
Biographical Details
I joined the University of Limerick in September 2009 after working for two and a half years as a post doctoral research and teaching fellow at the Centre for Research on Self and Identity (University of Southampton, UK). I received a doctorate in Social and Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Northern Illinois University in 2006 (DeKalb, IL, USA); a MA in Clinical Psychology from Roosevelt University Chicago in1999; and, a BSc in Psychology with an academic minor in Philosophy from Loyola University Chicago in 1997. From 1998 to 2001, I worked at SPSS, Inc. (now, IBM SPSS) in Chicago as a quality assurance software analyst.
Research
Broadly, I study mental health and well-being through the lens of social cognition. I am interested in self- and emotion-regulatory processes, and research the interactions between the self, emotions, and autobiographical memory. A primary area of research focuses on the emotions that are prompted by thinking about one's past. An example is research on the fading affect bias: the tendency for unpleasant feelings associated with past negative events to fade faster over time than the pleasant feelings associated with past positive events. Another theme is research on nostalgia: bittersweet but predominantly pleasant feelings that are sometimes prompted by thinking about the past. A related interest is research on mnemic neglect: the tendency for people to ignore self-threatening information about the self (neglect negative information) and fail to neglect such information about other individuals.
Current Postgraduate Students
Elaine Kinsella (PhD, primary supervisor at UL)
Kristin Himmler (PhD, external committee member at Drexel University, USA)
Candice Condon (MSc, primary supervisor at UL)
Self-Regulation Research Lab
For more information about collaborators and projects, click here
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Kingston, J. L., Clarke, S., Ritchie, T. D., & Remington, R. E. (in press).
Developing and validating the 'Composite Measure of Problem Behaviors'.
Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Ritchie, T. D., Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Arndt, J., & Gidron, Y. (2010).
Self-concept clarity mediates the relation between stress and subjective well-being.
Self and Identity. doi: 10.1080/15298868.2010.493066 (pdf)
Ritchie, T. D., Skowronski, J. J., Hartnett, J. L., Wells, B. M., & Walker, W. R. (2009).
The fading affect bias in the context of emotion activation level, mood, and personal
theories of emotion change. Memory, 17, 428-444. (pdf)
Walker, W. R., Skowronski, J. J., Gibbons, J. A., Vogl, R. J., & Ritchie, T. D. (2009).
Why people rehearse their memories: Frequency of use and effects on the intensity
of emotions associated with autobiographical memories. Memory, 17, 428-444. (pdf)
Ritchie, T. D., & Skowronski, J. J. (2008). Perceived change in the affect associated
with dreams: The fading affect bias and its moderators. Dreaming, 18, 27-43. (pdf)
Skowronski, J. J., Ritchie, T. D., Walker, W. R., Betz, A. L., Sedikides, C., Bethencourt, L. A.,
& Martin, A. L. (2007). Ordering our world: The quest for traces of temporal
organization in autobiographical memory. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
43, 850-856. (pdf)
Pomplun, M., Custer, M., & Ritchie, T. D. (2006). Factors in paper-and-pencil and computer
reading score differences at the primary grades. Educational Assessment, 11, 127-143.
(pdf)
Ritchie, T. D., Skowronski, J. J., Walker, W. R., & Wood, S. E. (2006). Comparing two
perceived characteristics of autobiographical memory: Perceptions of memory detail and
perceptions of accessibility. Memory, 14, 471-485. (pdf)
Ritchie, T. D., Skowronski, J. J., Wood, S. E., Walker, W. R., Vogl, R. J., & Gibbons, J. A.
(2006). Event self-importance, event rehearsal, and the fading affect bias
in autobiographical memory. Self and Identity, 5, 172-195. (pdf)
Pomplun, M. & Ritchie, T. D. (2004). An investigation of context effects for item randomization
within testlets. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 30, 243-254.
Kipper, D. A. & Ritchie, T. D. (2003). The effectiveness of psychodramatic techniques:
A meta-analysis. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 7, 13-25. (pdf)
Additional Publications are listed on my UL web site:
http://www.staff.ul.ie/tim-ritchie/tim-ritchie-cv.htm
Recent Conference Presentations
Ritchie, T. D. (2010). Event cue type (image versus text) moderates the fading affect bias
in autobiographical memory. In E. Berry, D. Byrne, A. R. Doherty, C. Gurrin, & A. F.
Smeaton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd Annual SenseCam Symposium. Dublin, Ireland.
ISBN: 1872-327-915.
Ritchie, T. D. (2010). Autobiographical memory phenomena that promote self-security and
subjective well-being: Mnemic neglect and the fading affect bias. Invited speaker at the
symposium on "Personal Uncertainty, Security, and Well-being In the New Millennium",
Stress and Anxiety Research Society. Galway, Ireland. Chairs: Kathryn Oleson, Robert
Arkin, and Patrick Carroll.
Ritchie, T. D., & Roopun, K-M. (2010). Age differences in autobiographical event-provoked
existential meaning. Psychology, Health, and Medicine. Royal College of Surgeons
in Ireland and Irish Psychological Society. Dublin, Ireland.
Ritchie, T.D., Sedikides, C., & Skowronski, J. J. (2010). Autobiographical event-related self-
evaluations mediate the fading affect bias. Poster presented at Society for Personality and
Social Psychology. Las Vegas, NV.
Hepper, E. G., Ritchie, T. D., Sedikides, C., & Wildschut, R. T. (2010, January). A prototype
analysis of nostalgia. Poster presented at Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
Las Vegas, NV.
Kinsella, E. L., Ritchie, T. D., & Igou, E. R. (2010). Essential features and psychological
functions of heroes. Poster presented at the Northern Ireland British Psychological
Society. Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.
Ritchie, T. D. (2009). On the relation between nostalgia and affective ambivalence. Presentation
at the symposium, "Current directions in nostalgia research", British Psychological
Society. Sheffield, UK. Chairs: Constantine Sedikides and Tim Wildschut.
Hepper, E. G., Ritchie, T. D., Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T. (2009). What is nostalgia?
A prototype analysis. Presentation at the symposium, "Current directions in nostalgia
research", British Psychological Society. Sheffield, UK. Chairs: Constantine Sedikides
and Tim Wildschut.
Hepper, E. G., Ritchie, T. D., Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T. (2009). What is nostalgia?
A prototype analysis. European Social Cognition Network, St. Mary's College,
University College London, UK.
Olsen, N., Ritchie, T. D., Hart, C. M., & Sedikides, C. (2009). When doubting yourself, approach
the best: Social comparison and self-improvement. Association for Psychological
Science. San Francisco, CA.
Ritchie, T. D., Skowronski, J. J., Hartnett, J. L., Wells, B. M., & Walker, W. R. (2009).
The fading affect bias in the context of emotion activation level, mood, and personal theories of emotion change. Association for Psychological Science. San Francisco, CA.
Ritchie, T. D. (2008). Ambivalence among pleasant, unpleasant, and nostalgia inducing
autobiographical events. British Psychological Society. Dublin, Ireland.
Additional Conference Presentations are listed on my UL web site:
http://www.staff.ul.ie/tim-ritchie/tim-ritchie-cv.htm
