The small made-in-China American flag on Robert Schatz's door provides a glimpse into his research, which seeks to illuminate how people perceive national identity.

Schatz, an associate professor of psychology who has taught at Metro since 1998, is approaching this issue from two major fronts. The first, conducted with Nancy Sullivan, a colleague and linguist from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, examines the relationship between language attitudes and national identity. For example, how does English-only legislation affect national and ethnic identity? Or in the case of Hong Kong, a longtime British colony and since 1997 a special administrative region of China, how do the three languages spoken there—English, Cantonese and putonghua (Mandarin)—relate to people's identities as Hong Kongers or Chinese?

A second thread of inquiry, done in conjunction with Howard Lavine from SUNY-Stony Brook, looks at Americans' affinity for symbols and patriotic rituals, such as the flag and singing the "Star-Spangled Banner," vis-à-vis American identity. In a paper currently under review for the journal Political Psychology, Schatz and Lavine explored "symbolic involvement"—that is, how people identify with American symbols—and how this relates to people's concern for how well government functions.

Schatz says one might predict that people who venerate symbols would also demonstrate a high degree of concern for how the country meets citizens' needs. But that doesn't turn out to be the case. "Loving the flag isn't loving the country as a concrete, functional entity. Loving the flag is loving the psychological in-group."

What this means is that powerful attachment to national symbols is more about group belonging and self esteem than it is about civic action and advocating government efficacy.

Schatz, whose doctorate is in personality and social psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, balances his scholarship with teaching classes in social psychology, the psychology of group prejudice, personality theories and history and systems of psychology. He is a self-confessed stickler for quality writing and spends hours editing student papers. He is also in the process of developing a new course, "Writing in Psychology."

This spring his interest in symbol attachment is leading him to the study of sports fans and the degree to which people identify with their teams.

"I like to study phenomena that people take for granted," Schatz says, "like patriotism and fan support of sports teams," areas that are prevalent but where the data may be thin and there's a lot more to learn about the underlying psychology.