TEAM MEMBERS

Associate Professor at UNED and co-author of various texts on social psychology, one of Elena’s main areas of interest focuses on the evolutionary origins of human social behavior and the interaction between biological bases and the influence of the social and cultural environment. The result of this interest was her doctoral thesis on dominance relations and social exchange in preschool children, from an ethological perspective, as well as several collaborations in monographs addressing the evolution of different psychosocial processes. Elena has worked in various lines of research focused on the "dark side" of social relationships, such as bullying or social stigma, and also on issues related to the development of social behavior, such as conflicts and solution strategies in children's groups or the development of identity fusion. Currently, Elena’s research activity is oriented towards the field of self-conscious emotions, both in children and adults, with special attention to envy and humiliation.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7321-3400

Teaching and Research Staff member in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the UNED.

She holds a Master’s Degree in Research in Social and Legal Sciences, specializing in Psychology, from the University of Extremadura (2019), where she received the Award for the Best Academic Record in the Master’s Degree and recognition for the best academic record in the Psychology specialization. She graduated in Psychology from the UNED (2018) and, during the 2017–2018 academic year, was awarded a Collaboration Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the UNED. She also holds a Diploma in Performing Arts, specializing in Acting (1999), from what is now TAI University School of Arts, affiliated with Rey Juan Carlos University.

Her research focuses on “Humiliation in Gender Relations: Key Factors for Empowering Victims.” Its main objectives are to examine risk and protective factors, as well as women’s perceptions of their situation when they experience humiliation. This research is conducted in the contexts of psychological violence in heterosexual intimate relationships and sexual harassment in the workplace.

In 2025, she received the Science Communication Award from the Spanish Scientific Society of Social Psychology (SCEPS) for a science communication article based on this line of research.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0187-6819 

José is a PhD student in Psychology at UNED (2019 to date), a researcher with a pre-doctoral contract (FPU, 2020) in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at UNED, a psychology graduate (UNED, 2019) and a telecommunications engineer (UPM, 1995).

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6951-3758

Cristian Catena Fernández holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the National University of Distance Education (UNED), where he graduated with highest honors (Summa Cum Laude) and received the International Doctorate Mention. He is currently a hired researcher at the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at UNED, where he also serves as a professor for the courses Group Psychology and Applied Social Psychology. He also teaches at Universidad Villanueva. He is a member of the Spanish Scientific Society of Social Psychology (SCEPS). His research focuses on the psychological and social processes underlying political polarization and intergroup dynamics. In particular, he examines the relationships between political ideology (left–right orientation), moral stereotypes, and threats to the moral self, exploring how these factors may contribute to social division. He also conducts research on morality and stigma, investigating how moral foundations shape social attitudes and perceptions of marginalized groups.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4472-5391

Irene is a researcher with a FPI predoctoral contract in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at UNED since 2021. She has a degree in Psychology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2019) and a Master’s Degree in Cultural Studies from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2021). She’s currently developing her thesis on the emotional experience of social rejection, focusing on self-conscious emotions, the appraisals that may be behind them and how these emotions may act as predictors of the rejected person’s subsequent behavioral response.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0796-9140

Alejandro is a researcher with a FPI predoctoral contract in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the National University of Distance Education (UNED). His PhD thesis focuses on the study of bullying victimization from the theoretical prism of humiliation. One of the main objectives of his line of work is to identify the response patterns of victims based on their emotional experience, and especially in a context of school bullying. 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4699-3031