Top psychology professor to speak at UA

E. Tory Higgins, the Stanley Schachter professor of psychology at Columbia University, will speak tonight at 6:30, as part of this year's Harold Basowitz Memorial Lecture. The event is free and open to anyone wishing to attend.

Higgins has won awards such as the Colombia's Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching and the Lifetime Contribution Award from the International Society for Self and Identity, among others.

"For the Basowitz lecture, we want to bring in world-class scholars whose work is of broad appeal and importance, beyond psychology. Professor Higgins is a world-renowned scholar whose work has important implications for our understanding of culture and personality and how the two are related," said Thomas Ward, a UA psychology professor.

Higgins' research concentrates on personality, with attention to motivation and cognition, judgment, decision-making, self and effect and social development and social communication.

Higgins' lecture will be covering the link between culture, personality and the resulting values of a person. The lecture is titled, "Where does value come from?"

The focus for the Basowitz Memorial Lecture always has been personality, Ward said, since the lecture is open to the public and the subject of the lecture should be relevant to everyone attending, including students.

"Aside from the opportunity to hear a top scholar, the biggest issue is that we live in an increasingly interdependent world. It will be important for our students to understand other cultures and the individuals that live in them. So, I think students can benefit from exposure to some of these issues," Ward said.

The Basowitz Memorial itself is a monument of the relationship between two of the University's top scholars, said Kenneth Lichstein professor and chair of the psychology department.

Irving Alexander, a friend of the lecture's namesake, Harold Basowitz, gave a donation to the University. The two attended the University together, Lichstein said.

"The history behind the Basowitz Memorial Lecture is really a beautiful story about the friendship of two men tied together by the University of Alabama," Lichstein said.