Prof James Liu PhD

Contact details

• Ph: +64 9 414 0800 ext 43279
  Location: 3.52, Albany Village, School of Psychology Private Bag 102904, North Shore Auckland 0745
  Campus: Albany

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy - University of California (1992)

Certifications and Registrations

• Licence, Mentor Supervisor, Massey University

Prizes and Awards

• Research Grant Reconfiguring the nation: Contesting history and identity in a globalizing world. Principal Investigator with Nora Fisher Onar and Mark Woordward. Asian Office of Aerospace Development (AOARD): Dec 2012-May 2014. $75,000 US. Description: A case study of a second wave of nation-building in a globalizing, post-colonial world in Turkey, Indonesia, and New Zealand. Through collaboration with a international relations specialist in political science, and an anthropologist specializing in religion, we examined historical trajectories for 3 states, examining when, why, and how did the transition to modernity and prosperity lend itself to political revisionism rather than preservation of the status quo? This resulted in a 2014 Special Issue of the International Journal of Intercultural Relations with 11 papers from authors around the world elaborating on the theory we developed from the grant called Critical Junctures Theory. - Asian Office of Aerospace Development (AOARD) (2012)
• Research Grant Benevolent Authority Systems of Societal Organization. Principal investigator. Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (CCK): July 2011-June 2014. $60,000 US Description: Empirical and theoretical investigations of top-down systems of authority typical in Chinese societies using cross-cultural comparisons to Western liberal institutions and belief systems, experimental studies in management, and longitudinal studies in China, Taiwan, New Zealand, the United States, and other countries. This resulted in 5 publications involving 20 co-authors (5 from Taiwan) in journals such as PLOS-ONE and Group and Organizational Management. - Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (CCK) (2011)
• Research Grant Implicit and Explicit Attitudes towards America in Socio-Digital Influence: Trust and Social Identity in Cyberspace (BAA-AFOSR-2013-0001) Asian Office of Aerospace Development (AOARD): (2015-2018). $750,000 US. Principle Investigator, supported by Colleen Ward and Homero Gil de Zuniga Description: A massive cross-cultural study on digital influence (the impact of mass media/internet usage on political attitudes, trust, and ideology) using representative samples of adults in 20 countries and 2 cities (N=22,000). More than 50 researchers (from every continent except Antarctica) are involved in a longitudinal, 4 Wave study involving 2 surveys, a social dilemma experiment (Trust Game) and a study of Implicit/Explicit attitudes towards America and Americans. The project aims to capture critical sources of variability in mass media/internet usage and its impact across and within cultures on a) implicit versus explicit attitudes towards America and Americans (compared to other powerful states), b) behavioral trust across cultures in on-line social exchange experiments involving money and power, and c) ideology and activity with respect to political ideology and selected social movements ranging from ecological to political. Personality, values, trust, mass media usage patterns, and political ideology are the critical variables measured. - Asian Office of Aerospace Developmetn (AOARD) (2015)

Research Interests

Social Representations Theory, especially Social Representations of History

Cross-cultural Psychology

Indigenous Psychology, particularly Chinese indigenous psychology and its interconnectness to other high-power distance, collectivist socieities

Digital Influence (how mass media consumption influences attitudes, values, political ideology, and behaviour, and vice versa)

Globalization

Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

Research Opportunities

• Digital Influence  (06/06/2015) Consumption of different forms of mass media, especially new digital forms, are influencing not only culture, but people's attitudes, values, and behavior

Thematics

21st Century Citizenship, Design – for Commerce, Community and Culture

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Psychology (170100): Psychology And Cognitive Sciences (170000): Social and Community Psychology (170113):
Studies In Human Society (160000)

Keywords

Social psychology, political pychology, cross-cultural psychology, collective memory, intergroup relations, trust, global consciousness

Languages

• Chinese
  Last used: today
  Spoken ability: Excellent
  Written ability: Excellent

Graduate Supervision Statement

I supervise in the areas of social, political, and cross-cultural psychology. I hold weekly lab meetings with all my students together, and am also part of a larger research collective known as EPIC (Ending Poverty and inequality). Specifically, my students have done research projects in intergroup relations, new (social) media, collective memory, trust, and global consciousness.

Current Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

• Evan Valdes - Doctor of Philosophy
  Investigating the Cross-Cultural Differences of Categorical Thinking on System Justification: Implications for Socioeconomic Status, Political Identity, and Life Satisfaction
• Sarah Choi - Doctor of Philosophy
  A mixed method investigation of historical narratives and representations within and across cultural contexts: Implications for political culture and identity

Co-supervisor of:

• Luyu Qiu - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Chinese in NZ and Their Attitudes Towards and Experiences of Psychotherapy/Mental Health in NZ

Completed Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

• 2020 - Jiqi Zhang - Doctor of Philosophy
  Dimensionality, interconnectedness, and cross-national comparability: Studies of the global trust in multi-national representative samples
• 2020 - Roosevelt Vilar Lobo De Souza - Doctor of Philosophy
  A cross-cultural investigation of the Functional Theory of Human Values: Examining its structure and prediction of external outcomes
• 2019 - Moh Hakim - Doctor of Philosophy
  The socio-psychological aspects of the personalization of politics: Examining the process, conditional factors, and implications of parasocial relationships with political figures

Co-supervisor of:

• 2022 - Jony Yulianto - Doctor of Philosophy
  The everyday conduct of inter-ethnic marriages in Indonesia: Participants navigating points of tension and cultivating harmony through adaptive socio-cultural practices
• 2021 - Xiaoyun Jia - Doctor of Philosophy
  Online users' behaviours and behavioural intentions with reference to live streaming
• 2020 - Nicole Gifford - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Instagram vs. Reality: Risk Factors that Make an Adolescent more Vulnerable to Engage in an Upwards Social Comparison on Instagram, Resulting in Poorer Mental Health.

Other Links

• Asian Association of Social Psychology - Started in 1995, AASP holds biennial conferences and publishes the Asian Journal of Social Psychology as its flagship journal
• Centre for Applied Cross Cultural Research - CACR responds to the challenges of globalisation, migration and cultural diversity through developing theory and research to foster greater understanding of cultural diversity & intergroup relations