Professional Background

Mark R. Leary is Professor of Psychology at Duke University. He obtained his B.A. from West Virginia Wesleyan College (1976) and his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Florida (1980). Dr. Leary has taught at Denison University (1980-83), the University of Texas at Austin (1983-85), and Wake Forest University (1985-2006), where he also served as department chair. His research interests focus on social motivation and emotion, particularly processes involving the self. He has written or edited nine books and over 180 scholarly articles and chapters.

Dr. Leary is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Association for Psychological Science, as well as a member of the International Association of Relationship Researchers, the International Society for Self and Identity, and the Society for Southeastern Social Psychologists.

Dr. Leary was the founding editor of Self and Identity, a new scholarly journal, and served for nine years as Associate Editor of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. He has also served on the editorial revirew boards of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Personality, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Personality and Social Psychology Review, Emotion, and Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology