MSU Psychology Department

Dan Sachau, Professor, Director of the Graduate Program in I/O Psychology

Degree, institution, year awarded

Ph.D., Psychology, University of Utah, 1989

Area(s) of specialization (e.g., areas of interest)

Social Psychology,

Research Interests

• Attitude
• Motivation
• Self-presentationa strategies
• I/O psychology

Current research

I am working on three research topics at the moment.   First, I am studying the planning fallacy in the workplace.  The planning fallacy is the tendency to underestimate one's own task completion times.    My second area of interest is  escalating consumer expectations.  I am testing the exptent to which escalating expectations reduce satisfaction.  My third area of interest is self-presentaion strategies.  I am collaborating with Bryan Gibson at Central Michigan University and we are studying the benefits and costs of self-effacing strategies including sandbagging (claiming to be less capable that you really are) and self -handicapping. 

Courses taught

Organization Development, Multivariate Statistics, Social Psychology, Marketing Psychology, Motivation