Autobiographical Sketch
I am a social psychologist. I majored in psychology as an undergraduate, and in graduate school in sociology, I gravitated toward the “micro” side of the discipline. My master's thesis, based on a 1968 survey, examined selective exposure to and selective perception of the earliest television programs with black stars. My dissertation research was an experimental study of the group polarization of attitudes. Throughout my undergraduate and graduate education, I took several courses in probability and statistics. I had the opportunity to teach a course in race relations as a graduate student at Indiana University. Then in my initial full-time position at the University of California, Riverside, I taught social psychology, small group processes, research methods, and statistics.
These early research and teaching experiences shaped my academic interests throughout my career. I taught at Holy Cross for 32 years, retiring in 2009. My two principal courses were social psychology and methods of social research. I taught social statistics regularly until the mid-1980s, when the Department eliminated statistics as an optional major requirement. In addition, I offered an advanced-level course in small group processes about every other year; until the mid-1990s occasionally taught race and ethnic relations; and in fall 1998 introduced a course in the sociology of sport that I taught regularly until my retirement.
During my last decade at the College, students enrolled in my methods class conducted a survey of the Holy Cross student body as a class project. A website summarizes the findings from each of 11 different surveys, on topics ranging from voluntarism to politics to religious beliefs and practices. I encourage students, faculty, and anyone else interested in learning about Holy Cross students in the first decade of this century to visit the website (http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/rsinglet/survey.htm). You also can learn more about this project from an article that appeared in Teaching Sociology (Volume 35, January 2007, pp. 48-61). The Selected Publications below lists several other articles that drew upon data from these surveys.
I have co-authored four books, a monograph on racial oppression, a reader on social research, and two textbooks on research methods. My published articles deal mostly with issues in social psychology and methodology and are based on both experimental and survey research. I was a longstanding member of the Section on Undergraduate Education of the American Sociological Association, and I contributed several articles to, reviewed manuscripts and books for, and served from 1989 to 1992 as associate editor of the journal Teaching Sociology.
I frequently advised students and colleagues on research projects. I also participated in the evaluation of various college programs. In the mid-1990s, for example, I conducted an extensive evaluation of the Holy Cross First-Year Program (see the article in Change). In 1999-2000, I chaired the College's Steering Committee on Reaccreditation, which was responsible for an extensive institutional self-study.
For several years following my retirement, I remained active professionally. I served on the editorial board of Sociological Perspectives, official journal of the Pacific Sociological Association (2009-2011), and on the Institutional Review Board at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2009-2015). I reviewed manuscripts for several journals. From 2010 to 2016, I was a consultant for a Boston-based architectural firm, EYP Architecture and Engineering, helping them develop methods for assessing the educational impact of their STEM buildings. I also co-edited a reader on social research and co-authored the fifth and sixth editions of one research methods textbook and the first, second, and third editions of another. I began to shift my writing to non-academic publications in 2020, when I wrote three op-eds on misinformation. Then, beginning in late 2021, after completing the last co-authored textbook, I wrote a trade book about my parents’ experience during World War II, when my father was a Navy fighter pilot aboard an escort carrier.
Selected Publications
Jonathan H. Turner, Royce A. Singleton, Jr., and David M. Musick, Oppression: A Sociohistory of Black-White Relations in America, Nelson-Hall, 1984.
Royce A. Singleton, Jr. and Bruce C. Straits, Approaches to Social Research, 6th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2018.
Jeffrey C. Dixon and Royce A. Singleton, Jr., editors, Reading Social Research: Studies in Inequalities and Deviance, Sage, 2013.
Jeffrey C. Dixon, Royce A. Singleton, Jr., and Bruce C. Straits, The Process of Social Research, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2023.
Royce A. Singleton, Jr., At Home and At Sea: American Navy Couple during World War II. Self-published, Catapult Press, 2023.
James R. Kluegel, Royce A. Singleton, Jr., and Charles E. Starnes, “Subjective Class Identification: A Multiple Indicator Approach,” American Sociological Review, 42, August, 1977:599-611.
Jonathan H. Turner and Royce A. Singleton, Jr., “A Theory of Ethnic Oppression: Toward a Re- integration of Cultural and Structural Concepts in Ethnic Relations Theory,” Social Forces, 56, June, 1978:1001-18.
Victoria L. Swigert, Royce A. Singleton, Jr., and Stephen C. Ainlay, “The Social Science Research Center at an Undergraduate College: Lessons from the Worcester Area Project on Aging,” Teaching Sociology, 21, July, 1993:298-305.
Royce A. Singleton, Jr., Robert H. Garvey, and Gary A. Phillips, “Connecting the Academic and Social Lives of Students: The Holy Cross First-Year Program,” Change, 30, May/June, 1998:18-25.
John A. Schmalzbauer and Royce A. Singleton, Jr., “Keeping Faith: A Religious Profile of Holy Cross Students,” Holy Cross Magazine, 37, Winter, 2003:22-7.
“The Campus Survey: Integrating Pedagogy, Scholarship, and Evaluation,” Teaching Sociology, 35, January, 2007:48-61.
“Collegiate Alcohol Consumption and Academic Performance,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 68, July, 2007:548-55.
with Jessica Vacca, “Interpersonal Competition in Friendships,” Sex Roles, 57, November, 2007:617-27.
Susan Crawford Sullivan and Royce A. Singleton, Jr., “Voluntarism at Holy Cross,” Holy Cross Magazine, 42, Spring, 2008:26-7.
Royce A. Singleton, Jr. and Amy R. Wolfson, “Alcohol Consumption, Sleep, and Academic Performance among College Students,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 70, May, 2009:355-363.
Royce A. Singleton, Jr. and Bruce C. Straits, “Survey Interviewing,” pp. 77-98 in Jaber F. Gubrium, James A. Holstein, Amir B. Marvasti, and Karyn D. McKinney Marvasti, eds., The Sage Handbook of Interview Research: The Complexity of the Craft, Sage, 2012.
Susan Crawford Sullivan, Alison Bryant Ludden, and Royce A. Singleton, Jr., “The Impact of Institutional Mission on Student Volunteering,” Journal of College Student Development, 54, Sept.-Oct., 2013:511-26.
Contact Information
Royce A. Singleton, Jr.
6 Slipper Hill Lane
Jefferson, MA 01522
508 829-6546
rsinglet@holycross.edu